KCU-Joplin VS NSU

[shur711]

Hey all! I've been accepted at KCU-Joplin, and have an upcoming interview at NSU. For reference, I live in Florida, and staying close to home is a big deal for me, as I'm married and plan on starting a family while in med school (the family support will help with this). Based on that, it would seem that NSU is the place to go, but I don't want to stay in Florida just for that and risk missing out on better opportunities at KCU-Joplin. I know KCU allows students to return to Florida for rotations, but I'm not sure if that translates over to the new Joplin campus.

**KCU-Joplin**

Pros:
- KCU curriculum is legit
- Block schedule which I like (one class at a time instead of a bunch of topics at the same time)
- High board scores
- Good match list
- Heard they don't focus too much time on OMM, which is nice

Cons:
- New campus, there are not graduates yet
- There's a possibility that it might not be at the same level as KCU-KC, which is concerning.
- I don't know anyone in that area, and I'll have to completely start over (socially)
- Cold
- Not as many research opportunities

**NSU**

Pros:
- Close to home
- Has actual research
- Has a proven track record, not a new campus
- Have many friends that currently go there
- Decent match list

Cons:
- Curriculum is not like KCU's, not one class at a time
- Board score averages are kinda low for 2017, compared to KCU's averages
- Focus on OMM more than KCU


Mainly, I'm just concerned that I'll have more opportunities at KCU-Joplin than NSU, otherwise I would like to stay close to home.

Thoughts?

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[shur711]

Bump

@Goro any insight?

@fldoctorgirl I know you also made a similar decision, you mentioned it in a thread. I'm wondering what your thought process was when choosing between these two schools.

 

[fldoctorgirl]

Bump

@Goro any insight?

@fldoctorgirl I know you also made a similar decision, you mentioned it in a thread. I'm wondering what your thought process was when choosing between these two schools.

I will post about all of my reasons later today when I have more free time, but for now I will add that Nova's recent stats show that their first time pass rate for COMLEX has been going down every year for the last 4 years and they have around ~50-70 students who fail courses regularly. To me, that in and of itself is very troubling. KCU-Joplin would be my pick.

 

[Goro]

I will post about all of my reasons later today when I have more free time, but for now I will add that Nova's recent stats show that their first time pass rate for COMLEX has been going down every year for the last 4 years and they have around ~50-70 students who fail courses regularly. To me, that in and of itself is very troubling. KCU-Joplin would be my pick.

This. The last pass rate was int he mid to high 80s, which is something you expect for a brand new school, not a veteran one. Something is definitely wrong at Nova, and as such, I can't recommend them.

 

[fldoctorgirl]

@shur711 I have a longer response now, but feel free to PM me if you have any more questions. I will preface this by saying that I am not arrogant enough to say that anyone should listen to my opinion-- I'm just an incoming first year student. That being said, I think the fact that @Goro (an experienced DO faculty member) no longer recommends Nova if one has other options is pretty concerning. Anyways, here goes...

So, I actually live about 10 minutes from Nova and was accepted to there, KCU-KC, and several other schools. I will be going to KCU. There are a lot of reasons to be concerned with Nova...for one, over the last 4 years, their board passage rate has dropped every single year. I know numerous people who have failed out and had to repeat years. They have way more work than is necessary (lots of required community service and stuff thrown in). Required rural rotations in the 4th year that can happen when you want to be doing your auditions. Seemed pretty OMM heavy. Their building also hosts 7+ other grad programs. Not enough study space. I'm not a fan of their plans for expanding their DO program while building a new MD program. Their tuition is insanely high.

I will say, I don't think NSU really has an edge on research. They'll tell you all about the new research building they built and stuff, but I honestly doubt the DO students get to do much there. I would say the opportunities between KCU and NSU for research are probably comparable.

As far as rotations, I'm iffy about this one. NSU does have a lot of relationships with hospitals here, but it's also a lottery system and you don't know what you'll get. People like to say "oh but NSU's rotations are all in Florida", but people don't realize that Florida is a really big state. Some of NSU's rotation sites are hours away from the school and you would definitely have to move from a lot of them. So, to me, once you have to move...you have to move.

The biggest thing for me that I love about KCU is the curriculum. Obviously, it works...every school that has implemented it has seen a huge increase in board scores. I've honestly only heard negative things about Nova's curriculum.

There's a link on here where some current Nova students post their opinion on the school. I'll link it to you and you can check it out if you want...just scroll up through it and read the stuff. It'll be more accurate than anything I have to say: Schools first time pass rate for comlex ?

For me, I have a lot of close friends who are Nova students and most of them are pretty unhappy with the way their school is being run. Yes, everyone complains about their school (whether it be undergrad, med school, dental school, whatever) because school sucks and people get a catharsis from complaining. But, I saw a significant difference in the complaints I heard form Nova students and those I heard from students at other schools. People at KCU seem genuinely happy about their school. That is important to me.

Good luck making your decision! This response got pretty lengthy so hopefully I didn't hijack the thread, but please let me know if you have any further questions.

 

[RinShanKaiHo]

I was accepted to nsu and kcu kc and made a decision last year when I had to put down deposit. Please pm me if you have specific questions! Some useful info I probably can't just post here.

I selected either campuses for kcu, as I didn't know much about it and wouldn't want to simply decrease my chance. I went to interview at Joplin and absolutely loved the facilities and their special relationship with the local community. When I was on uber from the airport, the guy just asked if I were a med student, whereas in fort Lauderdale I asked my uber driver bit no one knew about nsu.

What I did like about nsu is, that the faculty and adcom were really nice. And I really enjoyed the weather there. I interviewed in winter and the northeast this winter was so detrimental lol. Their clinical affiliation seems good for a do school. Probably not as good as Joplin but better than KC. They DO have real research, but mostly only with Dr. Klimas you get MD school level, or better, research experience. And the choices for you is really limited either way. At Joplin you will have limited exposure to bench research if any, but you can try to make connection with residents at Freeman to do research in, maybe ent? Which sounds awesome.

I don't worry too much about the curriculum. Both are do schools, so it's only natural for them to put am emphasis on omm. Either way you will have to work hard by yourself for usmle, which neither schools curriculum specifically will help you for.

Tough call, but follow your heart, do you want sunshine and Cuban food, or you want farms and barbecue?