RUGGER!!!
It may be too late but I had a similar dilemma and yes it was a tough choice (real tough.) I had been accepted at CCOM and went to my DMU interview in a "whatever" fasion. I knew the school was good but I also knew I had nothing too lose, or so I thought. By the end of the interview I had changed my mind, or at least had a new perspective. After a lot of diliberation I chose DMU- here's why. first, cost of living is cheaper, not a real big deal in the long run but something to consider, those loans would stetch a bit further here and allow me to get a beer once in a while 🙂 more importantly for me were the classes and the structure. I thought that a systems based approach would be the best for me. this was a huge part of my decision to go to DMU. for me personally, I think I will learn more this way and I think it will be a great advantage going into the boards and rotations. The other reasons I decided DMU were the things I had heard about it. I had always heard that CCOM was a great school and that it produced great physicians, but when other students and Physicians who knew about DMU talked about DMU to me they always had glowing reviews. I'm not talking just about Docs and students who attend or have attended DMU but others as well. I even know 2 docs who went to CCOM and had really great things to say about all the docs they know went to DMU. Maybe I should put it this way, when I put together all the things people had to say about DMU, the impression I was left with was that DMU students enter their rotations and residencies often having a bit of a leg up on other students both MD and DO. I think this is a combination of the faculty and the way they teach at DMU and the fact that many students travel to many different parts of the country to do their rotations. From what I understand the students often get to perform more tasks and see how medicine is practiced in different areas because they aren't as confined to one area i.e Chicago or a big university setting where they may be used more as cheap labor and do more than their share of scutwork. As I said before I gathered this info from physicians and students both related and not related to DMU, so take it as you will, but in the end I felt that I would recieve the best education and would have the most oppurtunity by attending DMU