KYCOM vs WCUCOM

[frustratedstudent]

2022-2023 CYCLE

Got accepted to both programs. Already gave my deposit to KYCOM since it was the first school that accepted me back in October. William Carey (WCUCOM)'s deadline to submit a seat deposit is coming up. Need further enlightenment from the community. I listed down Pros and Cons that I gathered based on just a surface-level understanding of both schools. FEEL FREE TO ADD


KYCOM:

Pros:
- Seems like a very supportive community. Current students that were on campus during the tour was very welcoming and seems like they are willing to help.
- Tuition of $51,000 already includes (Ipad pro, OMT table, Fees for step 1 and step 2, Books, and review sessions(materials) for boards.
- No accreditation issues so far.
- Cheap housing
- very good match placement rates. (Really bothers me if match rate is low; imagine having such great student debt and unemployed at 30yrs of age)

Cons:
- VERY RURAL (2.5 hours to the closest airport), (3.5 hours from Louisville airport that has a direct flight from my home state)
- From my understanding, Letter grade system with grades basing it off the class ranking?
- "Averagely" low pass rates in all (Steps: 1, 2 PE & CE, 3). Below national average. But there are years they are above so idk



WCUCOM:

Pros:
- Cheaper tuition $46,000 per year. No freebies.
- Located in a city but still small (better location vs KYCOM). Near New Orleans (1.5hrs away) where there is a straight flight to my home state.
- Also relatively cheap housing.
- Pass / fail grading

Cons:
- Accreditation issues (Heightened monitoring).
- High Attrition rate. Based off what I heard, they accept a lot of students but the student that make it till GME is significantly reduced. (eg: accepts 100+, only 86 make it to seek GME and 83/86 match. That is a 97% match rate. It shows a high match rate because they weave out the 14+ students that did not make it to GME. What happened to them? in Debt and unemployed? (Im not sure with this issue, anyone that has an idea please clarify me or enlighten me )
- COMLEX step levels (1,2, and 3) are also up and down but mostly below the national average


Additional questions:


1. Does KYCOM or WCUCOM help in the clinical rotation sites for 3rd year? Do they help pair you to a site or you're pretty much on your own in navigating?

2. Does KYCOM or WCUCOM help with the last year (4th year) rotation site as well? Are students guaranteed a site regardless of their choice? (Assuming my top sites for rotation were not accepted, will KYCOM or WCUCOM guarantee me a rotation site even if I don't like the site? I don't want to be left alone in hunting for whoever hospital would take me so ill still be happy regardless if I don't want the site or not as long as I have a site. What if no one takes me?)


ANY ADDITIONAL HELP WOULD BE REALLY GREAT.

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[math-wizo]

@Ellesandra319

 

[soontobedoc98]

@Goro

alleviated my concerns with WCUCOM... Lets see what he thinks

 

[Goro]

Cheaper tuition wins;

 

[Ellesandra319]

2022-2023 CYCLE

Got accepted to both programs. Already gave my deposit to KYCOM since it was the first school that accepted me back in October. William Carey (WCUCOM)'s deadline to submit a seat deposit is coming up. Need further enlightenment from the community. I listed down Pros and Cons that I gathered based on just a surface-level understanding of both schools. FEEL FREE TO ADD


KYCOM:

Pros:
- Seems like a very supportive community. Current students that were on campus during the tour was very welcoming and seems like they are willing to help.
- Tuition of $51,000 already includes (Ipad pro, OMT table, Fees for step 1 and step 2, Books, and review sessions(materials) for boards.
- No accreditation issues so far.
- Cheap housing
- very good match placement rates. (Really bothers me if match rate is low; imagine having such great student debt and unemployed at 30yrs of age)

Cons:
- VERY RURAL (2.5 hours to the closest airport), (3.5 hours from Louisville airport that has a direct flight from my home state)
- From my understanding, Letter grade system with grades basing it off the class ranking?
- "Averagely" low pass rates in all (Steps: 1, 2 PE & CE, 3). Below national average. But there are years they are above so idk



WCUCOM:

Pros:
- Cheaper tuition $46,000 per year. No freebies.
- Located in a city but still small (better location vs KYCOM). Near New Orleans (1.5hrs away) where there is a straight flight to my home state.
- Also relatively cheap housing.
- Pass / fail grading

Cons:
- Accreditation issues (Heightened monitoring).
- High Attrition rate. Based off what I heard, they accept a lot of students but the student that make it till GME is significantly reduced. (eg: accepts 100+, only 86 make it to seek GME and 83/86 match. That is a 97% match rate. It shows a high match rate because they weave out the 14+ students that did not make it to GME. What happened to them? in Debt and unemployed? (Im not sure with this issue, anyone that has an idea please clarify me or enlighten me )
- COMLEX step levels (1,2, and 3) are also up and down but mostly below the national average


Additional questions:


1. Does KYCOM or WCUCOM help in the clinical rotation sites for 3rd year? Do they help pair you to a site or you're pretty much on your own in navigating?

2. Does KYCOM or WCUCOM help with the last year (4th year) rotation site as well? Are students guaranteed a site regardless of their choice? (Assuming my top sites for rotation were not accepted, will KYCOM or WCUCOM guarantee me a rotation site even if I don't like the site? I don't want to be left alone in hunting for whoever hospital would take me so ill still be happy regardless if I don't want the site or not as long as I have a site. What if no one takes me?)


ANY ADDITIONAL HELP WOULD BE REALLY GREAT.

hey! congrats on your acceptances!!! current OMS-1 @ wcucom and can provide some direction for a few of your questions at least with respect to WCUCOM!

1) Accreditation issues were with respect to research opportunities. They hired 3 new faculty solely for research, and I can personally attest as an OMS1 its been pretty seamless to get involved in research here even though I'm not from Mississippi and have no other connections to research. From what we've heard we're all expecting this heightened monitoring to be removed when it's reviewed next.

2) your calculating attrition rate of class of 2022, which is first, a sample size of n=1. there were a lot of classes that matched before that and will match before your class matches, and i think it'd be helpful to ask Dr. Weir about the details of match for those match classes so you have a more representative picture! Those 14 students absolutely did NOT all end up in debt or unemployed. a member of CO 2022 posted about this in the wcucom thread (you should check it out!) and said 6-7 of those students dropped to CO 2023, for either academic struggles OR personal reasons (family emergencies, mental health, physical health etc.). if you fail 2+ classes and would other wise "fail out," they give you the option to drop to the next class and sort of get a second chance restart, instead of kicking you out on your backside. so those folks will be physicians, graduating and matching this year. the remainder either dropped out for personal reasons or didn't accept the offer to drop to the next class. i believe there were also 1-2 that chose to take a research/scholarly year between 2nd and 3rd year which pushed them to CO2023. obviously each year at every school that's gonna happen. some years more than others. they've also added a lot of faculty/replaced some faculty/changed course structures drastically since then. I think we'd also be remiss to ignore the fact that CO 2022 spent half of their 2nd year and all of 3rd and 4th year during the advent and height of the pandemic. i cannot imagine the challenge that had to have been on the back half of pre-clinical and the unimaginable and heroic burden they carried during the early pandemic, physically and mentally. I wouldn't look down on any of those folks for dropping out if it just got to be too much. that said, anecdotally, i can tell you in my class of 2026, which has 200 students, 2-3 have dropped to the next class. so significantly less.

3) board scores are hopefully going to be trending up this year, as the school contracted with an alumni/current attending who runs a full board prep course to resource those taking Comlex/Step!

I think over all, my advice as someone who had a couple DO schools to choose from last cycle is really narrow down what matters to YOU. know YOURSELF. at least between the 2 reasonably good options that you have, if your priority is tuition, go where its cheaper. if your priority is ease of ability to get home, pick wcucom. just be HONEST with yourself about what matters to you and in the absence of glaring red flags, go with that.

i told someone the other day, you may pick the school with a 2% higher board pass rate, but if its in a location/environment that worsens your mental/emotional health and you fail out/fail boards because you struggled, that board pass rate won't matter.

so good luck in your decision! hopefully that helps! happy to send you PM if you have more questions! just let me know!

 

[Ellesandra319]

also, KYCOM gives each student an OMT table???? that's legit!

 

[frustratedstudent]

also, KYCOM gives each student an OMT table???? that's legit!

I am unable to Private message you. It says "not allowed to start a conversation with this recipient"

I wanted to ask more q's

 

[chilly_md]

Moved to School X vs Y forums.

 

[frustratedstudent]

also, KYCOM gives each student an OMT table???? that's legit!

Yep, its called "KYCOM advantage" where all students get the same materials such as omt table, ipads, books, review materials etc. to level the field.

 

[Formedschoolapps]

Yep, its called "KYCOM advantage" where all students get the same materials such as omt table, ipads, books, review materials etc. to level the field.

They also have a scholarship for students from disadvantaged backgrounds at KYCOM. They support the student body and genuinely want to see you succeed. A lot of people say they are very primary care focused. Still, I know a few students personally who graduated and mentioned that they were never pressured into a primary care specialty. However, they were very prepared if they did choose that option. I highly considered KYCOM for a very long time and was blessed to receive an A from them as well this cycle, if you have any questions about the school you can PM me.

 

[Ellesandra319]

They also have a scholarship for students from disadvantaged backgrounds at KYCOM. They support the student body and genuinely want to see you succeed. A lot of people say they are very primary care focused. Still, I know a few students personally who graduated and mentioned that they were never pressured into a primary care specialty. However, they were very prepared if they did choose that option. I highly considered KYCOM for a very long time and was blessed to receive an A from them as well this cycle, if you have any questions about the school you can PM me.

that's awesome! I'll add too i've felt the same way about WCUCOM... they say their primary care focused and they are, but they are very understanding and supportive that a lot if not the majority of students who attend won't choose primary care.