- Joined
- May 28, 2013
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Any insight on LECOM or UNECOM? I'd appreciate any input!
You are.I'd choose LECOM by a mile. The tuition and PBL curriculum.
And if I'm not mistaken, Lecom-b specifically, also has the best performance on comlex out of all the D.O schools.
Out of curiosity, do you know who is?You are.
Do whatever is best for you. That is a significant difference in tuition but I would NEVER make my decision based 100% on $ (but, that is just me).UNECOM has no mandatory attendance. I absolutely loved the atmosphere at UNECOM and feel that I'd be happier there, but it's hard to say no to a tuition that's 20k cheaper.
Out of curiosity, do you know who is?
Do whatever is best for you. That is a significant difference in tuition but I would NEVER make my decision based 100% on $ (but, that is just me).
EDIT: ^This. I grew up in and around medicine and, let me tell you, the most miserable physicians that I have interacted with were the ones who made their life decisions based solely on $ and not where their happiness truly lied (n = 1).
You are.
Source?edit: you are correct. TCOM was the highest actually with 566.
So, you have no actual school reported source for Lecom-b. Just what some random student *proclaimed* in some thread from 2012 (of which he/ she didn't even support his/ her claim), correct?ugh looked for it again and it looks like lecom-b had 566 on comlex-1, and tcom's is actually 576 on comlex 3. I missed that. Lecom's score is in the thread from 2012-2013, around page 24 or 25.
? It was a question, man. Odd that you got defensive.I'll listen to the med student that is actually part of the school. same procedure that they follow on the Allo school board averages thread.
stay salty bro.
Actually unecom match list has a huge array of specialties, so i dont think that should be a concernAlso UNECOM has a greater emphasis on primary care. I know this gets belabored and that I shouldn't be too concerned about match lists, but I feel like LECOM will provide better opportunities when it comes to rotating.
So, you have no actual school reported source for Lecom-b. Just what some random student *proclaimed* in some thread from 2012 (of which he/ she didn't even support his/ her claim), correct?
Hmm. I think a lot of the LECOM hate is from a few years back, you don't see many current students complaining, at least in my research.
Although if anyone has heard/read anything I would love to hear about it.
Im having a tough time with this as well. I have a friend at unecom and he loves the school and he only has good things to say about it. I like the curriculum and how much of an anatomy focus there is. Lecom does prosected cadavers in anatomy which im not overly fond of.
As many have said, you have the resources to be very successful at almost any accredited school, most of your individual success will be based on the amount of work that you put in.
Someone please give me a great reason to spend 20k less a year!!!
LECOM's match list only looks more impressive because they combine all 3 campuses. They have 3 times more students entering the match (in 2014) so they appear to match better. On a strictly percentage basis, LECOM doesn't really appear to match better than UNECOM in any specialties aside from Ortho surg, general surg (though even this is hard to say, as UNECOM only counts Categorical matches and LECOM could very well be counting prelims), and Rads. UNECOM performs better in EM and Anesthesia, as well as OF&P, derm, and Optho.Also UNECOM has a greater emphasis on primary care. I know this gets belabored and that I shouldn't be too concerned about match lists, but I feel like LECOM will provide better opportunities when it comes to rotating.
Florida...The hate for LECOM-E is partially unwarranted. The hate for LECOM-B is completely unwarranted. LECOM-B is very detached from the malignancy of Erie. So both schools don't allow you to go to school in pajamas...grow up people. LECOM-B does not equal LECOM-E. I honestly don't see why anyone would go to LECOM-E over LECOM-B unless you have an attachment to the great white north or if you demand a more firm clinical schedule. LECOM-B is in one of the most beautiful areas of the country with plenty of beautiful people, affordable, has a great staff, and unparalleled academic curriculum.
I've got the most recent match list at home, I'll try and do a more recent update of 2014 vs 2014. Not that it much matters- matches very a LOT year-to-year, and 2014 was a very good match year for us. It will certainly show that there is a lot of variability and that you can do a lot of things from a given school though- we had matches in derm and OFPS, as well as a vascular match if I remember correctly.As much as I hate comparing match lists because in most ways they are used its useless, but it's been brought up, so here we go. LECOM doesn't combine everything so it looks more competitive, they do it for anonymity of their students. For the last couple years (since SH graduated its first class), the published placement reports have a table at the end that breaks up placement by campus and field. You can easily figure out percentages for each campus in each field, which is what I did below.
A few things to note:
1) LECOM doesn’t distinguish between pre-lim surg and gen surg, but again it's for anonymity. It does, however, list the number of pre-lim surg matches across all campuses. In 2014, there were 3 total out of 552 students. Even assuming they were all from one campus, it would change Gen Surg match rates by <2% at LECOM-B, ~1% at LECOM-E, or <3% at LECOM-SH. It's relatively negligible, even if you assume the worst and all 3 in 2014 came from one campus, which by itself is probably unlikely. In 2013 there were no students that did pre-lim surg only, so that doesn't really come into play.
2) All LECOM campuses are in states that require DOs to take a TRI in order to be licensed (PA and FL). That significantly skews the number of students who choose to do a TRI or go AOA, because many students are from those states or intend to stay in those states.
3) A snapshot of match lists (i.e. 1 yr) is not really useful. The reason is that there is normal variation year to year based on student interest. This is best exemplified by comparing the huge differences in the percent that go primary care vs. specialty year to year (I included 2013 to compare). From 2013 to 2014 the differences are pretty huge (5% in some fields, and up to 9% in some fields at some campuses. When you're dealing in numbers in the 2-20% range that's huge).
4) The majority of people at LECOM who do a TRI and almost all (if not all) of those that do a TY have something lined up for PGY2 or are applying AOA Derm, which you can only apply to in intern year. Some obviously don't, but the majority do. LECOM doesn't always separate them all out because its based on a combination of self-reporting and AOA match data, but this is based on what I've heard from the admins and students in those classes.
5) As I was doing this, I was reminded over and over how useless individual match lists are when you are looking at raw percentages. Bottom line, its kind of useless to look at percentages like these, unless maybe you combine the data from many years. Look at specifically where they are matching. Is that where you want to match? Maybe you can set up a connection with the alum that goes there. Beyond that, its not a good metric.
Match Percentages in 2013, 2014:
LECOM-B:
Anes: 6.6%, 3.6%
EM: 7.9%, 6.6%
FM: 17.9%, 13.3%
IM/EM: 0%, 0.6%
IM: 26.5%, 21.7%
Neuro: 2.6%, 2.4%
OB/GYN: 3.3%, 1.8%
ENT: 0%, 1.2%
Path: 1.3%, 0.6%
Peds: 7.9%, 6.6%
PM&R: 1.3%, 3.6%
Psych: 2.6%, 2.4%
Rads: 1.3%, 6.0%
Gen Surg: 3.3%, 7.2%
Neuro Surg: 0%, 1.2%
Ortho: 1.3%, 3.0%
TRI: 12.6%, 13.3%
TY: 2.0%, 4.8%
LECOM-E:
Anes: 4.1%, 2.8%
EM: 11.4%, 7.5%
EM/FM: 0.4%, 0%
FM: 19.9%, 22.1%
FM/NMM: 0.4%, 0.4%
FM/OMT: 0.4%, 0%
IM: 20.3%, 19.9%
IM/EM: 0.4%, 0%
IM/Peds: 0.4%, 0%
Neuro: 2.8%, 2.5%
OB/GYN: 3.3%, 2.5%
Ophtho: 0%, 0.7%
ENT: 0%, 0.4%
Path: 0.8%, 1.4%
Peds: 4.4%, 8.9%
PM&R: 0.8%, 1.4%
Psych: 2.0%, 4.6%
Rad Onc: 0.4%, 0.4%
Rads: 2.8%, 4.3%
Gen Surg: 3.3%, 3.2%
Uro: 0%, 0.4%
Neuro Surg: 0.8%, 0%
Ortho: 2.8%, 1.4%
TRI: 13.4%, 10.7%
TY: 4.5%, 4.3%
LECOM-SH:
Anes: 2.0%, 4.8%
EM: 12.0%, 7.6%
FM: 11.0%, 20.9%
IM/EM: 0%, 1.0%
IM: 15.0%, 20.9%
OB/GYN: 4.0%, 3.8%
Ophtho: 1.0%, 0%
ENT: 1.0%, 0%
Peds: 3.0%, 3.8%
Path: 3.0%, 0%
PM&R: 1.0%, 1.9%
Psych: 7.0%, 5.7%
Rads: 6.0%, 2.9%
Gen Surg: 8.0%, 5.7%
Neuro Surg: 0%, 1.0%
Ortho: 1.0%, 1.9%
TRI: 19.0%, 11.4%
TY: 6.0%, 5.7%
UNECOM 2013: *2014 isn't on their site and they don't give raw numbers only single digit percents
Anes: 6%
EM: 8%
FM: 20%
IM: 19%
OB/GYN: 2%
Peds: 10%
PM&R: 3%
Psych: 6%
Gen Surg: 5%
Ortho: 3%
"Transitional": 8%
"Other Specialties": 6%
4% - missing, maybe due to rounding
At first glance it looks like LECOM grads place in a bigger variety of places, but this is hard to say, because it could just be a numbers things (more people, more variety) and UNECOM doesn't really publish the smaller percentages and places them all in an "Other specialties" category, so its not like that's certain.
To compare UNECOM to LECOM-E in 2013:
Anes: 6% to 4.1%
EM: 8% to 11.4%
FM: 20% to 19.9%
IM: 19% to 20.3%
OB/GYN: 2% to 3.3%
Peds: 10% to 4.4%
PM&R: 3% to 0.8%
Psych: 6% to 2.0%
Gen Surg: 5% to 3.3%
Ortho: 3% to 2.8%
Looking at the numbers, it feels like they are all pretty close. Is the 8% vs. 11.4% significant in EM when LECOM-E had 7.5% the next year, probably not. Is the Psych 6% vs. 2.0% significant considering LECOM-E had 4.6% in Psych the next year, probably not. You see my point.
As far as internships go, like I mentioned above, you will have more people going to TRIs and more people going to AOA residencies with LECOM, because both FL and PA require the TRI or "AOA equivalent" for licensure. Apparently, some local ACGME programs don't even interview DOs unless they're in a TRI or have completed one (I just stumbled upon that info for some ACGME Gen Surg positions in my area). For some reason, they don't accommodate for Res42.
In the end this (a match list) is not a good metric to compare different schools, unless like I said, you are interested in a specific program. To give you an example, so far UPMC has taken a LECOM grad for Rad Onc in 2013 and 2014. If you were interested in Rad Onc (ridiculously competitive and virtually impossible as a DO), you might think LECOM would be a good choice, because UPMC is comfortable with LECOM grads and you would probably be able to get some sort of connections through the current alums that are there, provided you are crazy competitive.