LECOM-E or AZCOM

[HalpMe]

So I just got offered a position off LECOM-E waitlist this morning.


I have been accepted to AZCOM since Sept and already have a place in the on-campus housing etc, so I am all ready to go.



However, if I go to LECOM-E I will save over 100k by the end of my 4 years. I am sure there are other pro's and cons but if anyone has any advice/information to contribute I would be EXTREMELY grateful.


Halp!

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[SoulinNeed]

100K? Do it. That's huge savings.

 

[Dr Yiot]

We kinda need more info. The 100 grand is a huge factor in making your devision. Probably the most important. But honestly the schools are so so different man. Different parts of the us, different climates, different curriculumns I mean the differences are so vast. If u have lived on the west coast your whole life, have a family, hate the ccold etc then I could see you possibly CONSIDERING azcom. But we don't know any of the variables. State some of your pros and cons. But a hundred grand is nutz. Give us some more details man.

 

[pianoman511]

As important as the cost savings may be, there are other considerations.

Do you want to do a residency in the Western US ? Which campus did you like better on interview day/campus tours ? Are you okay with dress codes & no food in classrooms ? Which is closer to home, AZCOM or LECOM ? Is that a factor for you ?

Bottom line, it's not as simple as "which is cheaper".

 

[Sloo0]

Tough choice

 

[HalpMe]

I am very laid back, so a lot of those other factors that influence most people dont really apply to me.


I am from LA and went to college at Davis, so been in CA my whole life. I dont mind cold weather and in fact have a sick attraction to it due to its absence for most of my life.


However from all the research I have done it looks like AZCOM is very well known for its academics and board scores, which is really all I am interested in.


As of now, I am not very interested in Family Medicine or Internal Medicine or Pediatrics, which are some of the lower paid specialties, so going to AZCOM seems to be a better bet at trying to match in to ER/Surgery which is what I am more interested in.



I already have reserved a space in the on-campus housing at AZCOM and I just called around at Erie and most of the closer spots to the campus have no vacancies.


LECOM also does not pay hospitals to allow their students to rotate there, so the quality might be a little less.


LECOM does have a hospital associated with it at Millcreek but from what I have read online it is a horrible place to rotate at so that isnt even a Pro.



The Cost of Attending at LECOM is 56k and at AZCOM 77k.

If AZCOM helps me achieve my goal of landing an ER/Surgery residency which pay around 200-300 then having the extra 100k debt wont be that bad. But if I fall in to FM/IM/Ped which I could have just as easily landed at LECOM then I would have screwed up.



I was more of looking for insight from anyone who has gone to either schools or knows more about them.



Feel free to chime in on my predicament since I have only until tomorrow to decide




PS. Family is incredibly important to me, especially since my parents are older than most peoples parents my age. However I dont think I would have much time to visit anyways, so being in AZ which is closer to CA than PA isnt really relevant.

 

[Vishna]

It sounds like you're already leaning towards AZCOM and simply want reassurance. Go with AZCOM and you'll be less likely to be thinking "but what if" the whole time. That said, once you make a decision stick with it and don't look back.

 

[DuxburyPembroke]

Stay away from LECOM. (I pretty much always tell people the same thing, so my advice might not be very helpful!)

 

[DocEspana]

You seem AZ inclined anyway. I'd definitely point out that the cost of medical school is prohibitive no matter what. It is not like the $100 is the difference between paying it off eaisly (aka first year or two of practice) and paying it off 4 or 5 years into practice. It will take 3-5 years of solid income to pay off your debt no matter where you go. The $1000 may be a pretty decent amount more, but it is also just another year of earnings then.

Go where you are naturally inclined to be (which appears to be AZCOM), and accept that both are prohibitively expensive. Being "more expensive" is not such a big deal in that viewpoint.

 

[TheRealAngeleno]

Stay away from LECOM. (I pretty much always tell people the same thing, so my advice might not be very helpful!)

Please do elaborate. I'm very interested in what you have to say about LECOM.

 

[DocEspana]

Please do elaborate. I'm very interested in what you have to say about LECOM.

I think (and I admit I'm just guessing here) that DP is referring to how LECOM really does have the best and the worst reviews. This is all generalizations, so want to make that clear first. People from Seton Hill loathe it. People from LECOM-B seem to love it. The other LECOM-ites fall into the spectrum at either extreme (honeslty more loving it than not).

It just seems to inspire very strong feelings. Very strong feelings is not necessarily the best thing in a school because there is a chance you could fall on the very strong negative feelings end of the spectrum.

 

[vandyam]

Please do elaborate. I'm very interested in what you have to say about LECOM.

Since LECOM-B is by and far my first choice for med school, I decided to dig around and see what DP was referring to a few months ago when I came across a similar comment in a different thread. After much searching, I feel I need to make you aware that DP attends LECOM-Setton Hill. Overall, I have heard a lot of negative experiences from students at this campus. From my understanding, these are problems exclusive to this campus, however. Not to talk poorly about a fellow SDN'er, but DP seems to do little else but discourage applicants from going to LECOM...and I feel unfairly so (though, DP's credit, he/she does so politely). I'm sure he/she is only intending to give out a friendly "warning" so others can escape what he/she has come to see as a terrible medical school experience, but it comes across as a jaded student telling everyone that LECOM is a crap school, which I do not feel is the case at all. On the whole, LECOM-E and LECOM-B get rave reviews from students and their students do very well. Do your own research and figure out what you like/dislike. Do a search of DP's posts if you want further explanation as to their particular bad experiences. Good luck!

EDIT: I did a little searching for you, since I think it is very impt you understand the pros/cons of each medical school before deciding...all opinions are helpful to some degree. This thread speaks about it pretty well. http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?p=10973453#post10973453 Go down to DP's comments.

 

[Slack3r]

LECOM-E.

$100k is a lot of money. At 8% interest over 10 years, you're saving yourself ~$1200 per month and about $45k in interest over the life of the loan. So in actuality, LECOM will save you nearly $150k over AZCOM.

Either school will get you the residency you want if you work for it.

 

[christine121]

Where do you see that the cost of AZCOM is 77k?

 

[HalpMe]

Christine. 77k is the amount of loans I am taking out in my Award Letter.



I have decided on AZCOM. I just have not heard anything bad about it and from what I can tell historically they have more people who match in to competitive specialties as compared to LECOM.



Furthermore, most of the people who are on the positive side of LECOM seem to be PBL/ mostly ISP students, and I was offered a spot in LDP.



Thanks everyone, GL.

 

[Asianjock903]

well, you probably already made your choice by now, but as a current AZCOM student AND I went to a special masters program at Drexel. So I know about weather/type of people and whatnot.

If you've lived in Cali your whole life (as I have), AZCOM is probably a better fit for you overall. especially if you're used to suburban life.

In the end, in my opinion, the ONLY thing you should consider for med school is how HAPPY you will be there. Your happiness about your school and surroundings is almost always correlated with how successful you are. If you want to do a specialty like surgery, board scores are probably key. AZCOM's 2nd year spring schedule is arranged so that you don't have class after 12pm everyday, so you can technically study a lot more than other schools.

Also, I took a look at LECOM's award letter breakdown, it seems in some aspects, AZCOMs is slightly more generous. Even if that doesn't matter. Let me just say that I took out the full amount...but at the end of the year..I had about 10-12k in leftover money.

 

[wasvsdal]

Even within residencies, you can match into an incredible hospital that prepares you to be a good doctor, and a ****ty ass hospital. I feel this isnt discussed enough. I've been searching around for this discussion but unable to find anything. Anyone else come across anything for that. I think in the end my pick would be the school that has better affiliations with better teaching hospitals.

Between LECOM, and AZCOM -- I would look at that. I think matching into the particular residency is about hard work, and networking so I wouldnt worry about where youre going for school. If you want surgery, Im sure youll find a surgery residency. I think its more important to know which school will land you a surgery residency where you can learn, and thrive the most.

Thoughts?

 

[Isoprop]

Six figures is a lot of money. I'd go to LECOM hands down. They're both good schools.