RVU was recently bought out by Medforth group...the same group that owns St. George's in the Caribbean. They have sent out emails to students rejected from RVU encouraging them to check out St. George's University as well as offering a spot in their "Why Wait" program. Recently, their UT campus had 1/3 of their students SOAP. All of this is happening, and they are still actively trying to open up a third campus in Montana (that has recently gotten pushback in light of some statements that were made by RVU officials). Yes, many private DO schools are essentially businesses, but perhaps RVU to a higher degree as they are one of the more expensive schools and take less risk on the cost of education being for-profit where the risk and debt falls on the students directly. The concepts are similar to the SGU business model, the only difference is that they legally have to meet COCA and LCME standards to maintain accreditation (i.e. avoiding high attrition rates, etc.) They may match well, but this is ultimately individualized on the student performance on STEP/COMLEX at the end of the day, is it not? Now with both of these going P/F, PD's may pay more attention to where a student graduates from in conjunction to Step 2 scores and other factors. No one knows what will happen in the future, the best thing for a prospective student to do is simply become aware of the kind of institution they are getting themselves into, considering the amount of money that is being invested into the student's education. I am by no means saying it is a "bad" school, but you have to weigh the pros and cons of each school when making a decision. It is the reason I haven't made a decision yet, I am trying to talk to current students at both programs to hopefully push me one way or another.
