LECOM-B vs. RVUCOM-CO

[beegstove]

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Born-and-raised FL resident with family in Orlando and partner in Tampa. I am interested in dermatology. I was very fortunate to be accepted into two programs and could use some help deciding!

LECOM-B
Pros

• Obscenely cheap (~35k in tuition)
• Close to home, social support and partner (~2 hrs from home and ~1 hr from partner)
• Great match list (3 into derm last year, but I’m pretty sure LECOM draws their data from all four campuses)
• PBL (presumably more time to independently study)
• Established connections with other campuses for elective rotations (have to stay in FL for core rotations)

Cons

• Graded curriculum
• Silly rules (mandatory business attire on campus, no water in lecture, etc)
• Mandatory attendance for lectures

RVUCOM-CO
Pros

• HP/P/F (still has internal ranking)
• Excellent match list (5 into derm last year at Colorado campus alone)
• Physician scientist and leadership
• Real anatomy lab
• Lecture-based curriculum
• Excellent boards pass rate
  • Apparently you learn organ systems twice over which explains the high scores.

Cons

• nearly double tuition (~65k) and higher cost of living
• far away from home
• for-profit
• cold!! (don’t know if my skin can tolerate it)
• have heard some students have to setup rotations themselves for third and fourth year

Summary: It’s essentially tuition and support vs. an excellent match list here. I would love to get some input from you all!

 

[bankedsynapse]

I would personally go with LECOM. IMO your ability to match lies more on your performance than it does on the school's match history, and the reduced stress you will feel from better support and lower tuition will help with that a great deal. Graded curriculum isn't ideal for a lot of people though arguably you see the same thing in RVU's HP/P/F grading anyway. Dress code and lecture rules are personal preferences but they are not big enough cons IMO compared to RVU's.