kcom vs. touro ny

[Mattinthehat250]

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Yes, another one of these threads. I'm totally stuck between these two, would love to hear any input anyone has. I'm not sure what field I'm interested in, but thinking of internal medicine and then ID fellowship. Here are the pros and cons I've come up with:

KCOM Pros:
-founding school. Lots of history.
-very well established, good reputation, maybe this will be helpful for residency?
-great people who really seem to care about the students
-awesome campus
-seemed to be lots of research opportunities.
KCOM Cons:
-small town in the middle of nowhere. I'm a city boy so this would be a big change.
-have to move away for rotations, though maybe this is a pro since you get to leave kirksville.

Touro NY Pros:
-NYC
-good mission focused on helping the underserved
-seemed to have good amount of research opportunities
-get to stay in NY for rotations.
-curriculum seems pretty cool.
Touro NY Cons:
-probably the ugliest school (on the outside)
-honestly didn't get too good of a vibe on interview day, but this was just a feeling not based on anything specific.
-have heard bad things about Touro administration, but the dean seemed nice.

 

[Mosonik]

I always enjoy giving my two cents on these threads, so...
I think Touro would give you the best (KCOM would too, just not on the same level) opportunities clinically. Their rotations and connections will give you good experience and networking opportunities in the Northeast where KCOM is less connected than in the Midwest. As a fellow future DO interested in IM and ID fellowship NYC would have some of the best exposure for you, though undoubtedly it will be ACGME affiliated. If you are really set on ID I would not underestimate this as you will need a leg up to get into a very solid IM program in or around this region of the country where fellowships can be very popular.
As someone who grew up in rural SE Iowa, a few hours from Kirksville, if your visit already made you uncomfortable don't underestimate this. I believe anything can be tolerated for a few years but I also believe you don't want to be miserable due to location when there are enough other stressors in med school vying for attention. Then again, maybe youll like it, only knew have an idea on that! The downside as I see it for Touro-NY is likely going to be the school "environment" and vibes. If a sense of community is important for you, KCOM will not let you down on that and more. There is definitely two distinct cultures between that of Missouri and that of New York 🙂

 

[Mattinthehat250]

I always enjoy giving my two cents on these threads, so...
I think Touro would give you the best (KCOM would too, just not on the same level) opportunities clinically. Their rotations and connections will give you good experience and networking opportunities in the Northeast where KCOM is less connected than in the Midwest. As a fellow future DO interested in IM and ID fellowship NYC would have some of the best exposure for you, though undoubtedly it will be ACGME affiliated. If you are really set on ID I would not underestimate this as you will need a leg up to get into a very solid IM program in or around this region of the country where fellowships can be very popular.
As someone who grew up in rural SE Iowa, a few hours from Kirksville, if your visit already made you uncomfortable don't underestimate this. I believe anything can be tolerated for a few years but I also believe you don't want to be miserable due to location when there are enough other stressors in med school vying for attention. Then again, maybe youll like it, only knew have an idea on that! The downside as I see it for Touro-NY is likely going to be the school "environment" and vibes. If a sense of community is important for you, KCOM will not let you down on that and more. There is definitely two distinct cultures between that of Missouri and that of New York 🙂

Thanks for the awesome advice! Unfortunately, I'm not interested in staying in the northeast or midwest after medschool, as I from california and would like to get back. However, I have noticed that Touro NY seems to have some solid ACGME rotation sites where SUNY downstate students also rotate, and this might be a factor to consider.

I honestly didn't feel uncomfortable in kirksville on my interview day, but that's just it, I was only there for a day and barely able to look around. Now that I think about how small it is I'm starting to have reservations however. A sense of community is important to me, and I definitely got that feel at KCOM. At this point I could probably just flip a coin haha. Also nice to hear from someone also interested in ID! I don't think there's many of us.

 

[Mosonik]

Thanks for the awesome advice! Unfortunately, I'm not interested in staying in the northeast or midwest after medschool, as I from california and would like to get back. However, I have noticed that Touro NY seems to have some solid ACGME rotation sites where SUNY downstate students also rotate, and this might be a factor to consider.

I honestly didn't feel uncomfortable in kirksville on my interview day, but that's just it, I was only there for a day and barely able to look around. Now that I think about how small it is I'm starting to have reservations however. A sense of community is important to me, and I definitely got that feel at KCOM. At this point I could probably just flip a coin haha. Also nice to hear from someone also interested in ID! I don't think there's many of us.

In that case, I would go KCOM and hope for a 3rd year core site out west, I know for sure there some good ones in AZ (not sure of California). That would make audition rotations much easier to get to and there is a lot of networking between Arizona and So-Cal. It really is a short 5 hour drive to LA.

 

[WildEMDoc]

However, I have noticed that Touro NY seems to have some solid ACGME rotation sites where SUNY downstate students also rotate, and this might be a factor to consider.

Kirksville has rotations with SIU at some sites and with KU in Wichita. Maybe there are more that I don't know about, but KCOM rotations definitely seem very strong, which is one of the reasons I picked them. Obviously there are sites in Phoenix, that are associated with ACGME programs.

However the furthest west you can get from KCOM AFAIK is Utah/AZ.