Rugger;
I'm a DMU alumni and had to make a similar decision btwn UHS, DMU (UOHMS at the time) and Chicago Med. I used tuition, location, 'percieved' education quality as deciding factors much like you're struggling with. I'll address each in turn.
First, tuition was expensive at each school but significantly more at Chicago Med. UHS and DMU were similar, I got a break as an Iowa resident at DMU, however.
Location: again being an Iowa resident made Des Moines appealing. It's a nice town, safe, cheap cost of living. I like Chicago and KC, perhaps more exciting, but figured I'd be studying most of the time anyway...
Education: Honestly most med schools have similar didactic training. DMU uses a systems approach in the 2nd year which I found appealing. Seems to be better focus for preparing for boards (of course, I don't have any way of comparing other schools). Pass rate for Step I and II is good at DMU(but most med students pass these exams), there is good training in Osteopathic Principles (arguably one of the best COMs for this training), and what I found most appealing about DMU was that there were other Health degree programs offered on campus. I felt that this would draw better faculty, offer different perspectives and offer other opportunities. And in fact, after your 1st semester, you can apply for the dual-degree program to get your MHA or MPH with your medical degree. I did this and it wasn't a significant time burden (glad I did, it helped w/ residency and fellowship placement).
Rotations: this is controversial territory. Personally my rotations on the whole were excellent. I'm married and had a house in Des Moines (DSM) so I didn't want to do away rotations and was able to do them in DSM. There were ~40 students in my class who wanted to stay in DSM and all were able to... My rotations were at Broadlawns, the VA, Mercy, SE clinic, Blank Childrens and Methodist. All were excellent. The hospital that recently closed was relatively small, offered poor rotation experience and accounted for only a few rotation spots. Unltimately, it's prob'ly a good thing that this site closed. It should be easy to pick up the lost positions elsewhere. Others students will argue that the rotation experience at DMU is poor. I think if you put some effort in deciding where to do rotations and put some effort into those experiences, they'll be good. Keep in mind that few private COMs have there own training hospitals, so you'll likely be in a similar situation (a rotation orphan) at CCOM as well. An advantage to setting up your own rotations is an opportunity to rotate at programs that you're interested in for residency.
Good luck with your decision.
null
