For Applicants considering COMP...

[studentDO2009]

As a student of COMP, I want to inform pre-med students prior to their decision of their school. I wish I knew a lot more than I knew and want to inform you all for this application cycle. This is IN NO WAY a school bashing thread - just informational.

Recent updates:
Prior to coming to this university, we were told of the help and support given to us by the administration, I am sorry to inform you this is not the case. If any of you are considering attending this university based on the great support they speak of in the interview, the truth is they do not provide us with educational support...what do I mean: a large yearly tuition increase (so now we pay almost $40,000) with a new implementation that we are not provided hard copies of notes, needed booklets and other educational resources previously supplied. We are told we should print everything on our own with our own paper and soon the printers may be on a cost-per-use base. This costs the students a substantial amount of money - but more importantly A LOT of time that is vital to a medical student's success. This is covered up by "the new wave of technology is web-based" while last year telling us they want to save $70,000 spent on paper. The school seems preoccupied with future endeavors and expansions (i.e. a new dental school, podiatry school and more being planned) as opposed to current student needs.

We have had empty promises since starting. Your concerns are not heard and your needs are not met. When talking about how disconcerting recent changes are, we are blatantly ignored and told the decision has been made. In addition, every month we are given 1 hour to talk with the dean about our concerns. This month, after many changes in summer that students didn't approve of, the dean referred to our meeting as a "bitch session" on a private phone call. Such problems that were brought up during this "bitch session" were the fact that we get kicked out of our classroom / study area on weekends prior to exams so they may hold conferences in the MSII classroom while being promised this would not happen this year. Numerous miscellaneous issues have been brought up and never rectified, after previous promised reconcilations. Bottom line the administration does not support the students - this may or may not be important so just keep that in mind.

On the flip side, we have some of the best faculty here. The classmate comaraderie is phenomenal. We have an office of medical education that is superb and very supportive of our educational needs. Medical school is difficult and you need all the support you can get. Look at all of the options, what's important to you and choose wisely.

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[CuttinEmUp]

As a student of COMP, I want to inform pre-med students prior to their decision of their school. I wish I knew a lot more than I knew and want to inform you all for this application cycle. This is IN NO WAY a school bashing thread - just informational.

Recent updates:
Prior to coming to this university, we were told of the help and support given to us by the administration, I am sorry to inform you this is not the case. If any of you are considering attending this university based on the great support they speak of in the interview, the truth is they do not provide us with educational support...what do I mean: a large yearly tuition increase (so now we pay almost $40,000) with a new implementation that we are not provided hard copies of notes, needed booklets and other educational resources previously supplied. We are told we should print everything on our own with our own paper and soon the printers may be on a cost-per-use base. This costs the students a substantial amount of money - but more importantly A LOT of time that is vital to a medical student's success. This is covered up by "the new wave of technology is web-based" while last year telling us they want to save $70,000 spent on paper. The school seems preoccupied with future endeavors and expansions (i.e. a new dental school, podiatry school and more being planned) as opposed to current student needs.

We have had empty promises since starting. Your concerns are not heard and your needs are not met. When talking about how disconcerting recent changes are, we are blatantly ignored and told the decision has been made. In addition, every month we are given 1 hour to talk with the dean about our concerns. This month, after many changes in summer that students didn't approve of, the dean referred to our meeting as a "bitch session" on a private phone call. Such problems that were brought up during this "bitch session" were the fact that we get kicked out of our classroom / study area on weekends prior to exams so they may hold conferences in the MSII classroom while being promised this would not happen this year. Numerous miscellaneous issues have been brought up and never rectified, after previous promised reconcilations. Bottom line the administration does not support the students - this may or may not be important so just keep that in mind.

On the flip side, we have some of the best faculty here. The classmate comaraderie is phenomenal. We have an office of medical education that is superb and very supportive of our educational needs. Medical school is difficult and you need all the support you can get. Look at all of the options, what's important to you and choose wisely.

what an important and appropriate post. thank you I am actually considering WCOMP, but I still have not heard back regarding an interview. My application was complete about a month ago.

I will definetly keep this realistic and measured comment in mind during the "sales pitch" that is the interview.

 

[Testy McAterson]

As a student of COMP, I want to inform pre-med students prior to their decision of their school. I wish I knew a lot more than I knew and want to inform you all for this application cycle. This is IN NO WAY a school bashing thread - just informational.

Recent updates:
Prior to coming to this university, we were told of the help and support given to us by the administration, I am sorry to inform you this is not the case. If any of you are considering attending this university based on the great support they speak of in the interview, the truth is they do not provide us with educational support...what do I mean: a large yearly tuition increase (so now we pay almost $40,000) with a new implementation that we are not provided hard copies of notes, needed booklets and other educational resources previously supplied. We are told we should print everything on our own with our own paper and soon the printers may be on a cost-per-use base. This costs the students a substantial amount of money - but more importantly A LOT of time that is vital to a medical student's success. This is covered up by "the new wave of technology is web-based" while last year telling us they want to save $70,000 spent on paper. The school seems preoccupied with future endeavors and expansions (i.e. a new dental school, podiatry school and more being planned) as opposed to current student needs.

We have had empty promises since starting. Your concerns are not heard and your needs are not met. When talking about how disconcerting recent changes are, we are blatantly ignored and told the decision has been made. In addition, every month we are given 1 hour to talk with the dean about our concerns. This month, after many changes in summer that students didn't approve of, the dean referred to our meeting as a "bitch session" on a private phone call. Such problems that were brought up during this "bitch session" were the fact that we get kicked out of our classroom / study area on weekends prior to exams so they may hold conferences in the MSII classroom while being promised this would not happen this year. Numerous miscellaneous issues have been brought up and never rectified, after previous promised reconcilations. Bottom line the administration does not support the students - this may or may not be important so just keep that in mind.

On the flip side, we have some of the best faculty here. The classmate comaraderie is phenomenal. We have an office of medical education that is superb and very supportive of our educational needs. Medical school is difficult and you need all the support you can get. Look at all of the options, what's important to you and choose wisely.

it's so helpful to hear from current students. thank you. if you were to do it again knowing what you know now, would you still choose COMP?

 

[Junkster]

I'm a COMP 2010 student, and even though it's only been a few weeks on campus, I think the original poster is on the same page as I am.

The school doesn't seem entirely focused upon the student body as much as they say during tours and interviews. They are so focused upon the expansion, it might be overshadowing the concerns and issues of certain student bodies.

From the past four weeks, I've learned that it's all up to ME to get anything done at all. I must print everything out... even though some profs only post things the day before the lecture/lab/whatever. Certain classes seem ill-prepared and organized, so it's upto ME to adjust to it. A small minority of professors/lecturers seem to be indifferent and/or not well trained in terms of personal communication, so it's upto ME to read through the syllabus and material to make sense of it all. I'm sure it's not only COMP with such problems, I've heard dissatisfaction with almost all students in all programs nationwide.

But, it's true, the student body sticks together like I've never seen... 2009 class sent out like a bazillion emails on the materials they had that would help us in our first anatomy exam, they gave us pointers and tips, they gave us every resource that they could. The day of the exam, every 2nd year I walked by wished us luck, told us to relax, and supported us. It was truely inspiring to see a different class in the school totally support another. And within our own class, if anyone found anything remotely helpful, it was sent to everyone. Most of the professors are more then helpful inside and outside of class. I think the fact that we feel like we're a bit on our own makes our student body rely on one another much more.

If I had a choice, I don't think I would have made a different choice in school. I've heard horror stories from number of schools that my friends attend or attended. I don't think a 'perfect' school exists.

 

[NewNick]

Yeah, a perfect school doesn't exist. I have to agree that the bond of our class is great. We support each other to do well. I don't regret to choose this school.

By the way, the class 2009 rocks !!!!!

 

[OnMyWayThere]

It's true that some problems exist at our school. The best thing to do is figure out what issues students share and then choose the school that has problems that won't bother YOU. I've heard a lot of people say they wouldn't choose our school if they could do it again while for me, I'd definately still go here and I did a lot of research on the school on SDN and talking to current students before I applied.

It's great helping you guys out 2010. Congrats on finishing your first exam. Hopefully it wasn't too bad (and if it was, anatomy gets much better from here). I hear the lab practical wasn't too great - make sure that your classmates know to take care of the cadavers the weekend before the test... it's been brought up that the instructors will tag harder structures when cadavers are dried up / poorly taken care of.

See you on campus and keep on truckin...

 

[snowkhat]

Can you guys tell me what areas are decent to live in around Pomona? How are the pass rates on the COMLEX/USMLE? Where do they get their faculty? Is the campus safe?

 

[Doctor Bagel]

Just totally out of curiosity, did COMP start their new curriculum stuff this year or last year? I learned it at my interview but have since forgotten. Anyway, is that helping out or contributing to problems? It sounded like a neat curriculum that gave students lots of time to study and do well on their boards.

 

[OnMyWayThere]

Some ares that are decent to live in are Claremont, Chino Hills, La Verne... The 2008 class just got their COMLEX scores back and they had a 94% pass rate. DO schools dont get USMLE to report back to them about stats so those are unavailable. COMPs new curriculum started for the class of 2009 last year...

 

[MikeyLu2010]

To me, thats not that big of a deal.. Even though our school gives us all the notes i still brought up my 50 lb color laser printer just in case they made us print up our notes (from TX to FL)...The "bitch session" comment was out of line though, and i would've been pissed off even more if i were you guys which im sure was the case.

 

[dtrain5]

This sounds like my undergraduate (and now graduate institution). We have to print all of our notes, we are responsible for knowing the syllabus (they do not spend the first day of class explaining it to us). So that would not be an adjustment. The only concern I have is what you have said about the "rudeness" of the Dean. Isn't his job to listen to the needs of the students (Maybe he interprets the word listen as hearing what they say, and not giving a !@#$). Anyways, I have an interview in the near future at COMP, and that is good to know.

 

[clement]

Is living in South Pasadena doable? Like, say, you want to be closer to downtown LA, Mid-city LA, Hollywood, etc.

 

[OnMyWayThere]

Is living in South Pasadena doable? Like, say, you want to be closer to downtown LA, Mid-city LA, Hollywood, etc.

Some of my classmates live in Pasadena and many live farther than that. The ones I know are the students that only go to classes that are required (twice a week) though. It would probably take you 25 minutes to school from Pasadena so it's not that big of a deal if you decide to attend.

 

[Jinyaoysiu]

They made the decision to switch from all-notes-printed-for-you to print-it-yourself in the middle of my 2nd year, and I think my class took it a lot better.

I have to say that I'm in support of them going "paperless." Their reason is that powerpoints/Word Docs are online and not everyone uses the paper copies they used to provide for us, and if you're a COMP student I'm sure you remember tons of packets lying around everywhere that nobody wants. What a waste of trees. I personally didn't use paper copies even if they were provided and I don't mind some inconvinience for the sake of the enviornment and I hope we all don't mind. Just print it out if you really need it.

However I'd be angry too if they decided to charge for printing, which I don't believe it'll ever happen and I doubt if that idea was even discussed by the admin.

You can also tell that COMP has been trying to do more things paperless and online, with the new Blackboard and exams online. I'm sure they admit saving money on paper and yes the school is expanding but I'm not sure if those 2 things are related.

Hang in there, 2nd year in my opinion was harder than the 1st year. Don't let the little things stress you out even more. Yes, acknowledge the injustice but fairly assess if you can get by without wasting your time on it, because sometimes injustice just doesn't change and it's also everywhere, not just at COMP.

 

[studentDO2009]

They made the decision to switch from all-notes-printed-for-you to print-it-yourself in the middle of my 2nd year, and I think my class took it a lot better.

I have to say that I'm in support of them going "paperless." Their reason is that powerpoints/Word Docs are online and not everyone uses the paper copies they used to provide for us, and if you're a COMP student I'm sure you remember tons of packets lying around everywhere that nobody wants. What a waste of trees. I personally didn't use paper copies even if they were provided and I don't mind some inconvinience for the sake of the enviornment and I hope we all don't mind. Just print it out if you really need it.

However I'd be angry too if they decided to charge for printing, which I don't believe it'll ever happen and I doubt if that idea was even discussed by the admin.

You can also tell that COMP has been trying to do more things paperless and online, with the new Blackboard and exams online. I'm sure they admit saving money on paper and yes the school is expanding but I'm not sure if those 2 things are related.

Hang in there, 2nd year in my opinion was harder than the 1st year. Don't let the little things stress you out even more. Yes, acknowledge the injustice but fairly assess if you can get by without wasting your time on it, because sometimes injustice just doesn't change and it's also everywhere, not just at COMP.

You mentioned you didn't use paper copies anyway, so it's hard to feel the frustration of those who do. Regarding the extra handouts laying around, we proposed to have a sign-up sheet for those who would use handouts. That idea was shot down. Then we proposed supplying our own paper to administration (even though we pay $37,000+ a year) so that there is no extra use of paper - that idea was not welcomed. The response was, "The decision has been made.".

You mention you'd be angry if they would charge for printing and that you doubt the idea was ever discussed by admin. Well guess what one of the topics was in our "bitch session"? There is talk of changing all the printers to ones that take cards and you pay for printing. Go figure.

 

[OnMyWayThere]

You mentioned you didn't use paper copies anyway, so it's hard to feel the frustration of those who do. Regarding the extra handouts laying around, we proposed to have a sign-up sheet for those who would use handouts. That idea was shot down. Then we proposed supplying our own paper to administration (even though we pay $37,000+ a year) so that there is no extra use of paper - that idea was not welcomed. The response was, "The decision has been made.".

You mention you'd be angry if they would charge for printing and that you doubt the idea was ever discussed by admin. Well guess what one of the topics was in our "bitch session"? There is talk of changing all the printers to ones that take cards and you pay for printing. Go figure.

I believe the school is working on a solution... so hang in there and don't let it get to you. We've got other things to worry about Either way, it is what it is and you gotta play the cards you were dealt. We'll be okay.