Interview Review
I interviewed here on 10/8. Overall I was impressed by VCOM, especially by their dedication to rural/underserved areas and to international work. They love international work! This was apparent not only in their mission statement, but in the class schedule, the pictures on the walls, even on the break room tables. If you know you want to be a primary care doctor and you want to work in an underserved or international field, this is definitely the school for you.
I stayed at the Sunshine Inn. It's just a few blocks from the college and really cheap, but you get what you pay for. The room was okay, but I'm 99% sure the guy staying in the next room was a drug dealer conducting business in the parking lot. If you're like me and not overly concerned about safety, it was a pretty good place to stay. Kind of run down, but as long as there's a bed and an ironing board, I'm happy enough.
There were eight of us interviewing, broken into two groups. My group got the standard introduction to the school and introduction to osteopathic medicine first, followed by interviews. There were two one-on-one interviews. My first was with a professor, the second with an emergency physician. Mostly they wanted to discuss my EC's, since I've got a long history of overseas volunteer work. It was obvious that that was exactly the kind of thing they were looking for in candidates. Interviews were open file, and both the interviewers had already done a thorough review of my file. They didn't care at all about my low cGPA, probably because my MCAT and postbac GPA were both good.
I forget where the tour of the building fit in the schedule, so I'll put it here. Of course everything is new, and they really pride themselves on the level of technology. There's cameras and screens everywhere and I think four patient simulators, including a pregnant patient. One of the simulators was supposed to be the best model available anywhere. It could even vomit on you, so I guess it's pretty realistic.
Lunch was boxes from a local deli. Oddly enough, seven out of the eight of us ordered the same turkey sandwich. During lunch we talked with two MS1s and asked them a few questions. They said the atmosphere was noncompetitive and friendly, and there were lots of clubs and activities.
After lunch we had one-on-one interviews with MS2 students. These were closed file, and I think the main purpose of them was to make sure that candidates were sufficiently friendly and possessed actual personalities. My interviewer had a list of prepared standard questions, but again she mostly wanted to talk about my volunteer experience.
After that we went on a bus tour of Wofford college and Spartanburg. VCOM students can use Wofford's gym, library, and attend sporting events for free. The town is nice, at about 60,000 people it's bigger than I'd like but small for city slickers.
The final event was a presentation by the financial aid director. Nothing new here, take out federal loans or join the army. The good news is that there's plenty of affordable housing options. Most of the apartments are 10-15 minutes away though. From what I saw, there's a huge discrepancy between rent and buying. If you've got the cash or can get your parents to cosign a loan, you can buy a cheap house that needs a little work for 20,000 and rent it out for 500 a month. At that price I can get two houses with what I'll make selling my current house and still have money left over for some of the tuition.
One thing I noticed was that VCOM didn't seem to have the same emphasis on producing excellent quality doctors that was apparent at my last two DO interviews. That's just the impression I got from interview day, so it might not at all be true, but it felt like their mission was to produce doctors who would go to underserved areas, and not necessarily to produce the best possible doctors. That was about the only negative impression I got, though.
Overall I'd say VCOM-CC is a good school. I'd certainly fit in well there, and I'd be happy to attend. I'm on my way to an interview at Tulane now, and I'll let you know how that one goes too.
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