GA-PCOM vs LUCOM: help me decide!

[greenteadoc]

Hey guys, help me decide where I should go to. Hear my reasoning out before giving me advice. The pros and cons are specific to me and not just pros and cons overall...

GA-PCOM
Pros: near my home, good reputation, liked the school fairly well
Cons: NO DEDICATED STUDY TIME, rotations kinda suck, way too much emphasis on OMM (not saying I don't want OMM, just don't want too much)

LUCOM
Pros: loved the school, the atmosphere, and the current students - As I am very religious, I fit right in with the community, 6-week dedicated study time, the first-time match went pretty well with only 4 out of 126 students NOT matching.
Cons: 7 hrs away from home, first class graduates this year so not much history, rotations are not too great


As someone who is hoping to go into anesthesiology in the future, I will definitely be taking the USMLE. With GA-PCOM giving barely any dedicated study time, I'm worried I won't be able to score as well. I'm someone who really needs time to study and do well on big exams Current GA-PCOM students were discussing recently how hard it is for them to really study for COMPLEX and USMLE with barely any dedicated study time.

Please help me decide which to pick. Only serious input please

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[700825]

Just a fellow pre-med, so take it with a grain of salt, but I would lean towards GA PCOM. Being close to your home (and I would assume support system) is a big plus. And looking over GA PCOM's match list, they seemed to do a good job of placing students in competitive specialties, which suggests that 1) their students do well on COMLEX/STEP despite their lack of a dedicated time (though this is weird) 2) that the school has the connections/resources to help their students get where they want to go.

 

[DNC127]

No dedicated sucks and that would probably be enough to sway me from GA-PCOM. I start my dedicated period here in a few weeks, however I have been studying for boards since January and putting off class and I can tell you it isn't fun. Thats basically what you would be having to do at Ga-PCOM. However, being close to your support system can't be over emphasized. 7hrs really isn't that far though. You could leave at 5am and be home for lunch lol. Pick your poison I guess. But, I don't think either school will really get you anywhere that the other wouldn't nobody would ever pick someone who went to Ga-PCOM over the other school just because they went to Ga-PCOM.

 

[Knight in shining armor]

This may be biased. I am a rising OMS-2 at LUCOM and I am glad I chose LUCOM. I am 16 hours from home which honestly sucks. But I went to undergrad 10 hours from home so I’m used to being far away. But the atmosphere is why I chose it. Some of the other schools I applied to, the students I talked to told me stories like “I had my laptop stolen by a classmate since they wanted me to fail so they could move up in class rank” or “my roommates tires got slashed because she is ranked number 3 in the class and someone who ranked below her wanted to move up to be in the top 5%”. At LUCOM, we have a Facebook page and a google drive where people post notes, links, and other helpful resources.

 

[btuck]

^troll. These stories do not exist, most medical schools these days are very supportive and collaborative environments. Even the ones that are more cutthroat, things like this simply do not happen in medical school.