How to choose between DO schools that accepted me

I would consider:

1. My gut feeling.
2. Board pass rate.
3. Quality of Clinical rotations
4. City (where would I most like to live)

 

1. Money
2. Location
3. Residency match
4. Classroom experience (PBL vs standard, hours of lecture 8-5 vs 8-12 or less).

NOVA

Anticipated tuition for 2008-2009 (subject to change by the Board of Trustees without notice): $29,030 for Florida residents and $35,545 for out-of-state students. In addition, a microscope/lab fee of $100 for the first year and a student activities fee of $250/per term and an annual Health Professions Division fee of $125 are required of all students.

You'll have ~40k after tuition, fees, books, etc

TOURO

Cost of Attendance 2008-2009

Tuition $31,500
Tuition & Fees $32,625
Total cost of attendance: $65,686

Western-Pacific

Tuition: $38,270.00

Total cost of attendance: $61,609.00




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Do all of these schools require an outrageous, non-refundable deposit? If they don't, wait until you get your financial aid offers and go with it from there. Being ~$260,000 in debt is no joke. Even reducing that by 1/4th would make a big difference.

 

Check out this thread. You'll need to do some reading, but it'll be well worth it. You can go to "Search this thread" and search for the school of choice (Western/Touro/Nova/NSU).

It's not an easy choice, but if you do enough research, you can be confident you made the right choice and won't have any regrets.

 

-cost (tuition and hopefully any offers of financial aid) is something you want to consider. The tuition looks fairly similar at the schools where you are accepted, but if one offers you more financial aid, I would consider that. Also consider the financial status of the school...do things seem OK or do they seem broke and the place looks a bit run down?
-residency match. What specialties do students usually match into? Are they all primary care or a mix of a lot of different things? Do they all match at DO schools, or a mix of MD and DO? The "right" answers to these questions depend on what you the applicant are looking for.
-maybe curriculum (though I'd argue that before medical school it's VERY hard for you, the applicant, to actually know which type of curriculum would help you learn best). No matter where you go there will be times it sucks (like before every block of exams...LOL!). I think the quality of the teachers themselves matters as much or more as the format of presenting the material (lecture vs. PBL vs. some mix).
-where you want to live (geography)

 

my thoughts are similar to several of the previous posters

1. Location
2. Cost
3. Places you can rotate at for 3rd/4th year
4. Student community & Atmosphere

 

I agree with what everyone else has already bought up but here are a few others:

1. Time allotted to study for boards. My school has one of the weakest amount of time given to study and while we have a very high pass rate, it makes students very nervous.
2. Cirriculum
3. Professors - phd heavy or clinical docs working in the field. I didn't realise how much of a difference this makes when teaching the material to students.
4. Resoures available to students -cerainly not something you need to base your decison on but perhaps something to think about. I didn't realise how many of our students needed to seek counseling or at least talk some things out. And we're fortunate that we have such resources set up for students. Also, you may want to find out what academic resources are available to students as well if they fail a block or aren't doing well in during a given semester.

 

Find out the details of their curriculum. Find out the "rules students have to live by". Some schools test you weekly, others in blocks. Some make you show up in suit and tie. Some have required attendance. Anatomy at KCOM lasts a year. Anatomy elsewhere can last < 6 months.

Unlike undergrad, medical schools vary widely in how they deliver information.

Pick the format that is most compatible with your style of learning, in the city most compatible with personal goals.

Find out where their clinical rotations are, and how well the clinical affairs department supports you.

Find out how much of a time sucking ordeal OMT is. Regardless of what they say in the first 2 years, 90+ % of your fellow 1st years will never practice it in the real world. Don't let an inordinate amount of time invested in learning it detract from your real education.

...and good luck (forget about board pass rates, that's more significant when it comes to comparing residency programs and then only in terms of identifying negative outliers...)

 

I based mine on location and my gut feeling. I wanted to be as close as possible to my friends and family, yet somewhere I felt I would enjoy going everyday. Becareful of the new schools popping up with no track record.