KCU vs AZCOM (I know these threads had been asked a billion times but...)

[sky778]

Hello the SDN family,

You guys have been of GREAT support for me throughout the tough journey of this application cycle and I would like to thank you all for everything.

I have multiple acceptances and I am currently narrowing my decision down to AZCOM and KCU given the acceptances so far.

I have no ties to either places. I am aiming for family medicine as of now but I do want to have more options as people do change. Which school will more likely to help me specialize if I do decide to pursue that route (anesthesiology, surgery etc). Since Phoenix area is way bigger than KC...would that make any impacts on clinical exposure? How is the rotations compare between the two schools? I do want to eventually move to west coast (Cali, Washington and maybe Oregon) and I know AZCOM matches a lot of students to the west coast (but again this can just be students' preferences).

Both schools are great and I would see myself really happy attending either school.

Also I really want to continue with my research work even in medical school but I do feel that AZCOM offers more opportunity to do so than KCU. I was told that it would be really hard and not recommended to do research while at KCU because of how tough the curriculum is. On the other hand, KCU students have great board exam scores. How important is the research if I chose to specialize? For me I just want to keep the doors open instead of closing them.

Any feedbacks are welcomed...and thanks again for all the support!

EDIT: IF money/tuition is not a concern

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[Mr. D.O.five]

Seems like you really are in favor of AZCOM. If tuition is not an issue, then I'd say AZCOM is your best bet.

 

[cy123]

You'd be spending like 80k more at AZCOM, but if you can stomach that go there. They're not primary care focused, match people in cali and supposedly have research. Their curriculum isn't going to be significantly easier, they have a lot of exams.

 

[Doggowar7]

go to azcom or go to kcu

either way, the choice is your's

 

[angeloflogic]

IF money isn't a big issue, and that's a big if, I'd say go AZCOM for you. I was accepted to both schools, along with a few others, but I already decided against AZCOM simply due to money.

The reason I say it for you is because AZCOM has a significantly greater connection to the west coast, and being able to rotate and have easier traveling to the west coast can make a great deal during your 3rd and 4th years. I got the vibe during my interviews at these two schools that KCU has much better pre-clinical years, and AZCOM has slightly better clinical years.

Research is only important in certain hyperselective fields like ENT or opth. Again this is only the opinion of someone who interviewed there, I felt it would've been very hard to do research at KCU, especially since their summer break is only 4 weeks.

 

[LutGholein]

I'm typically in favor of KCUMB but for your interest--especially the geographic interest, you should consider AZCOM(even though the price sucks) i'd assume that the rotations around AZ may lead to more open doors to stay in the west coast. PDs might be more familiar with AZCOM grads in the west than say KCUMB.

 

[sky778]

hmm I guess the question remains is to ask if the extra 80K in tuition plus interest will be worth it to have the "higher" chance of going back to the west coast.