MCO Class of 2009

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I'm going! 😀
 
As a 2nd yr, allow me to be the 1st person to welcome you! If you have any questions, don't hesitate to ask.
 
Ok, I applied early decision, so I didn't get the whole tour that everyone else got. So I may have some dumb questions that were answered then. I was wondering what the technology situation there. I was plannin to get a laptop for graduation. Is it worth the money? Should I get a Mac or something like a Dell, or does it matter?

Thanks for the help! 😀
 
Honestly, you don't need a pc. There are some all over campus. However, it does come in handy to have one at home so you can access the intranet. This is where you will find many lectures, presentations, and resources for pbl. Personally, I would just get a good desktop. As for what kind, it is up to your personal preference.
 
Holding out for a decision from OSU. If an acceptance doesn't come through from them, I think I will probably choose MCO over my other acceptances. I really did like MCO.
 
Mazerati,
Didn't MCO going to virutal slides for histology this year? If not this year then definitely for the 05-06 year. If they do indeed go to virtual slides would it help a great deal to have a laptop or do they have some for the students to use?

Also, do most students at MCO get PDAs their first year or wait till third year to get them?
 
Does anyone know if MCO is having a second look visit?
 
MCO did go to virtual slides for histo this year. But they provide around 50+ laptops to the students during lab. You may share with a person or two, and the first years I have talked to said that they used the ones that the used the ones provided. You could get your own, but IMO it is a waste of money if the sole purpose of getting the laptop is to use it for histo.

Amy, good luck with everything. MCO is a fine choice. And the atmosphere that you experienced on interview day is the real deal. Everyone genuinely cares about one another. There is virtually no competition between my classmates.
 
The threads been pretty quiet for awhile now. Just wanted to see if there's any more people who are going to MCO?

Hope to see you guys there.
 
95 % chance I'll be there
 
can you folks plz add your profile to mdapplicants
thanks
a 2010 mco hopeful
 
Count me in...

August 22nd is quickly approaching!!! 😀
 
I'm in! 😀
uhmm.. so any female incoming M1 looking for a roommate?
Mazerati~
do many students use the roommate survey form to find a roommate?
 
I'm a female soon to be M1 but I'm flying solo apartment-wise for my first year...we will definitely have to meet up at orientation or before classes start though and meet each other! 🙂
 
Hey,
I interviewed there in the middle of April and I'm waiting to hear where I stand. How long did it take for them to get back to you? I would definitely consider going there if I got in - I liked it way more than I expected to.
 
sfbear said:
Hey,
I interviewed there in the middle of April and I'm waiting to hear where I stand. How long did it take for them to get back to you? I would definitely consider going there if I got in - I liked it way more than I expected to.
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When I interviewed I heard back in about 2 months but that was because of winter holidays, which delayed everything. But I remember them saying that they check applications fairly quickly. I think their turnaround time is pretty quick, maybe a month or less.
 
You were right! They just called this morning to offer me admission (a day shy of four weeks). I am really excited! I was wondering, though, does anyone know when classes start and when the white coat ceremony is? I'll admit, I'm a bit aprehensive about Toledo but I liked the school so much when I interviewed. I'm 99% sure I'll go to MCO. I wonder if there'll be any other california people . . .
 
nevermind, i found the calendar online. this thread is pretty quiet . . .
 
well unless i hear great news from somewhere else i will be there. Toledo seemed a nice place to live... kinda like a typical midwest city
 
Yeah the thread is too lively compared to last years MCO thread.

But I'm from California, making the long move to Toledo. Should be an interesting experience. But they do have a decent amount of people from California as apart of their class. The day I interviewed I randomly met some MS1 from a neighboring city so that was pretty cool.

All in all, I am pretty happy about MCO. The only real negative I've heard about the school is that it's located in Toledo, but other then that, nothing really.

I still have to get an apartment set up. Big pain in the ass.
 
but there are many apartments and they will probably be much cheaper than in cali
🙂
 
Definitely cheaper! You can get a mid-range apartment in a safe neighborhood for $450 pretty easily. Do any of you know for sure where you're going to be living? I haven't decided for sure, but I'm leaning towards the Heatherdowns area on the border b/w Toledo and Maumee. I'm going to be travelling up there as soon as I graduate and will pick it out sometime next week.
 
Hey,
I loved the atmosphere at MCO, it was wonderful and everyone was so supportive. But I also liked Wayne State. Did anyone have to choose b/w Wayne state and MCO? BTW, I am not a resident of either state. Which would you choose?
 
I don't know anything about Wayne St.'s tuition rules, but I know you can get in-state tuition from MCO for your second year.
 
Thanks for your response....
Does the grading system at MCO foster a collaborative enviroment, I am looking for an environment that fosters collaboration and not competitiveness. Can any current students elaborate on this. Or can any students who are familiar with the curriculum elaborate.
Also in terms of housing since I can't drive (I know it's pretty sad but in nyc...I take the subway and buses) I would need somewhere that's near campus are their any places within walking distance. What is the price range for a 1 bedroom. Thanks everyone.
 
The cheap apartment thing is definitely a plus. Down here in Irvine, a one bedroom in an average apartment is $1100. I'll be happy when I don't have to pay these insane prices anymore.

You can get instate tuition for MCO after the first year after becoming an Ohio resident, but one thing that I noticed about MCO during the third and fourth years is that they charge extra tuition for the "summer" sessions when you are doing rotations, which is kind of annoying because they are charging a lot of cash. I didn't even realize they did this kind of thing because when I was looking as some other private school, they charged the same tuition rate through all four years.

Does the grading system at MCO foster a collaborative enviroment, I am looking for an environment that fosters collaboration and not competitiveness. Can any current students elaborate on this. Or can any students who are familiar with the curriculum elaborate.
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Since MCO is on one of those Honors/HP/P/ systems I'm guessing it wouldn't be as relaxed as a solely P/NP curriculum. But from the 1st/2nd year students I have talked to, they all thought the grading system was fine. They didn't complain about any undue competitiveness and one guy I talked to actually liked the system because it forced him to study harder, which he believes leads to the people scoring better on their Step 1 exam.
 
sounds like MCO is a good choice. instate tuition after year 2 (save 60,000$ in bills)
 
When is everyone planning on moving out there? I'm heading out from California (san francisco) and I'm trying to figure out the timeline. Are you guys driving or just shipping everything?

I seem to recall that the grading system wasn't curved, but now I'm not sure. Did anyone else here this? I didn't realize that about the tuition 3rd and 4th years - very sneaky.

I recently found out about Ohio's "instant residency" deal - if you've got spouse with a full-time job before the semester starts (and a place to live, cars registered in Ohio, etc.), you can get in-state residency. I'm still figuring out the details, but I thought I'd put it out there in case it helps anyone out.
 
There are several apartment complexes directly adjacent to MCO. It seems like they run ~$350/month. However, that cheap of rent means something I guess. They tend to be much older and a slightly "shadier" crowd tends to liver there, but I don't think it's a dangerous place to live.

I'm moving into my apartment on or around August 1. That will give me a couple weeks to get moved in and settled before classes start. I think orientation starts on the 17th or 18th, and from all accounts it's supposed to be a pretty fun time.
 
I think I'll be moving around early August as well. I'm looking at some of the closer apartments to the school. I don't really want to be driving that much, even if it is a 10 minutes drive. I guess I'm just too lazy.

I was thinking about driving from California to Ohio, but I dunno. That drive seems a little too long and grueling. I had a relative who moved from Texas to Ca and he just had his car shipped and thought it was the best option, so I'm leaning toward that for now.
 
As far as the extra tuition goes for third and fourth years, I'm pretty sure that it is like that at all the Ohio schools. I definitely remember UC's 3rd year being quite a bit steeper than 1 and 2. So, its not a MCO thing.

Yes, you can get instant residency if your spouse moves for employement purposes. Do a google search for "Ohio residency for tuition purposes". This will give you links to that info on several Ohio universities webpages. I remember Ohio State's info being pretty good. All of the info is essentially the same as it comes from the same source.

Housing in Toledo is definitely reasonable. If you don't drive, I would probably recommend that you snag a TARTA map (the Toledo bus system) so you have some idea of what your bus time will be from apartments that you look at. TARTA's website You may find that you eventually want to learn to drive and get a car. Toledo is a lot more spread out than NYC and public transportation not nearly as good. I'm sure you can survive without a car in Toledo, but you will probably be unhappy with the hassle of getting places, especially when you start doing clinicals at different Toledo area hospitals.

As a side note - as of May 6th, MCO officially became MUO - Medical University of Ohio.
 
AmyBEMT said:
Housing in Toledo is definitely reasonable. If you don't drive, I would probably recommend that you snag a TARTA map (the Toledo bus system) so you have some idea of what your bus time will be from apartments that you look at. TARTA's website You may find that you eventually want to learn to drive and get a car. Toledo is a lot more spread out than NYC and public transportation not nearly as good. I'm sure you can survive without a car in Toledo, but you will probably be unhappy with the hassle of getting places, especially when you start doing clinicals at different Toledo area hospitals.

As a side note - as of May 6th, MCO officially became MUO - Medical University of Ohio.
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Thanks so much for your response. My decision gets more difficult by the day. Wow cool name change!!!! I wonder what prompted the change in name?
I'm going to sign up for driving lessons next week. Hopefully it will be enough to get me on track to drive a car by the Fall or Spring. Atleast from what I saw driving in Toledo is not as crazy as NYC, so hopefully it won't be a bad adjustment.
 
Vomitonme said:
I think I'll be moving around early August as well. I'm looking at some of the closer apartments to the school. I don't really want to be driving that much, even if it is a 10 minutes drive. I guess I'm just too lazy.

I was thinking about driving from California to Ohio, but I dunno. That drive seems a little too long and grueling. I had a relative who moved from Texas to Ca and he just had his car shipped and thought it was the best option, so I'm leaning toward that for now.
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Yeah, I was thinking of driving for a while too, but I'm starting to lean towards shipping my car along with everything else. My biggest concern right now is finding my husband a job. We definitely want him to be employed before school starts so we can get in-state tuition. Anyone have any advice on a long-distance job search? We'll go through the standard avenues (online sites, mainly) and I know Owens-Corning is a major employer in Toledo, but if you've got any other ideas, please share!
 
nyc25 said:
Thanks so much for your response. My decision gets more difficult by the day. Wow cool name change!!!! I wonder what prompted the change in name?
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From The Toledo Blade

Article published April 29, 2005

MCO set to change name, boost its image on May 6

By LUKE SHOCKMAN
BLADE STAFF WRITER


Medical University of Ohio at Toledo.


It doesn't roll off the tongue quite yet. But starting May 6, that will become the new name for Medical College of Ohio.

The Medical College of Ohio Hospital, the main hospital on campus, also is being renamed. It will be known as University Medical Center.

New signs have begun appearing on campus as part of the transition, which will end up costing the state-owned institution about $240,000 for new signs and $75,000 in other expenses, including new letterhead and display materials.

Dr. Lloyd Jacobs, MCO president, said the institution intended to replace signs before changing the name, but existing letterhead, business cards, and other material will be used up before it is replaced.

Dr. Jacobs pushed for the name change - which the Ohio General Assembly has approved - to better reflect what the school does as well as to enhance MCO's reputation.

"It's a more accurate description of what we are," Dr. Jacobs said. "We are, in fact, four colleges."

Those four colleges- which are being renamed from schools to "colleges" as part of the transition - are the college of medicine with 586 students; the college of nursing with 136 graduate students; the college of health sciences with 231 students, and the college of graduate studies with 148 students.

The college of nursing also trains about 1,000 undergraduate nursing students through a cooperative agreement with the University of Toledo and Bowling Green State University.

Though the name changes might seem minor to the average person, Dr. Jacobs said the switch to "university" appeals more to potential medical students and faculty.

"I know this will help us recruit," Dr. Jacobs said. "It's prestige."

Still, Dr. Jacobs said he's realistic about how long it will take the community to get used to the new name. "I have no doubt that everyday use will take a year or so to change," he said.

Or maybe longer.

Many longtime Toledo area residents still refer to the University of Toledo as "TU" as in Toledo University - even though it officially became the University of Toledo in 1947.

MCO is the latest in a long line of colleges locally and nationwide that have switched their names to university in an attempt to bolster their images.

Bluffton College became Bluffton University last year, the University of Northwestern Ohio in Lima dropped "college" from its name in 2000, and Siena Heights University in Adrian dropped "college" from its name in 1998.

The trend is less common for medical schools, but that's because the nation's 125 medical schools usually are associated with an existing university, Dr. Jacobs said. MCO is relatively unique because it's a stand-alone medical school.

Elisa Siegel, a spokesman for the Association of American Colleges, said it's quite common for hospitals on medical school campuses to add "university" to their name as MCO will soon do because "having an obvious academic affiliation is seen as positive in the minds of the public."

The name change will actually be the third for the institution.

MCO was founded in 1964 and known as the Toledo State College of Medicine until 1967, when it switched to Medical College of Ohio.

In 1967, MCO board members foresaw a need to eventually rename itself "university." Board minutes from 1967 indicate that board members felt that "the new name should be such that it can be converted to 'university' at a later time."


I'm going to sign up for driving lessons next week. Hopefully it will be enough to get me on track to drive a car by the Fall or Spring. Atleast from what I saw driving in Toledo is not as crazy as NYC, so hopefully it won't be a bad adjustment.
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Driving in Toledo isn't that bad. Compared to other cities, rush hour is not bad at all. Chances are, if you live close to MUO you will rarely have to brave the routes that have the heaviest rush hour traffic.
 
sfbear said:
My biggest concern right now is finding my husband a job. We definitely want him to be employed before school starts so we can get in-state tuition. Anyone have any advice on a long-distance job search? We'll go through the standard avenues (online sites, mainly) and I know Owens-Corning is a major employer in Toledo, but if you've got any other ideas, please share!
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It all depends on what your husband does/is qualified to do. A good place to start might be The Toledo Blade's jobs classifieds online.

Maybe call MUO and ask them for advice? I'm sure they have some resources they can point you to.
 
Thanks for the link - I'll have my husband check it out. I'll probably check in with MUO (it's funny writing that instead of MCO, but good) next week. My husband's currently working in IT but also has a solid background in environmental work, if that helps. AmyBEMT, you seem to have lots of great info about Toledo - are you local?
 
Does anyone know the board pass rate for MCO?
 
I learned how to drive on the mean streets of Toledo. I was 16 back then. 😀

Some of you might want to check out the University of Toledo area, since there are many apartments there, lots of young people, and its pretty close to MCO.
 
sfbear said:
AmyBEMT, you seem to have lots of great info about Toledo - are you local?
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Sort of. I grew up and spent most of my adult life an hour west of Toledo (and yes, that's still in Ohio). Toledo is our closest "big city", so I've spent a lot of time in and around Toledo. Before I moved to central Ohio, I subscribed to The Toledo Blade and still read it online daily.

MCO's paramedic program provided a lot of our EMS inservice and, at one point, I seriously considered enrolling at their paramedic program. MCO was actually the first place I went when I got this crazy idea of going back to school and trying to get into medical school. They had an open house for all of their programs and then broke the group into areas of interest. Dr. Burns and a couple of medical students gave me hope that it was possible and pointed me in the right direction to get started.

Personally, I wouldn't want to live in the UT student area, but I'm a few years beyond wanting to live in a college atmosphere. With all of the students and residents at MUO, there are plenty of 20 and 30 somethings living in the area.
 
nyc25 said:
Does anyone know the board pass rate for MCO?
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I don't remember the exact percentage, but I remember them saying it was really high when I was there. Also, a student at MCO (MUO) told me that last year they had someone get a perfect score on Step 1. I don't know how common that is, but I'm willing to bet there aren't many that achieve that. One of the things I was told at my interview was that they have relatively high pass rates for step 1 because of their curriculum. Evidently they have an integrated pathophysiology course at the end of 2nd year, and they say about 80% of the test is covered in that class. There could be a class like this at most schools, but the students I talked to said they thought it was a great advantage for MCO students. Another huge advantage for MCO students on step 1 is that they have the testing center on campus, so instead of travelling to another city you can just go to school like you normally would. That relieves a lot of stress and uncertainty and would have to increase performance on the test.
 
Hallm_7 said:
I don't remember the exact percentage, but I remember them saying it was really high when I was there. Also, a student at MCO (MUO) told me that last year they had someone get a perfect score on Step 1. I don't know how common that is, but I'm willing to bet there aren't many that achieve that. One of the things I was told at my interview was that they have relatively high pass rates for step 1 because of their curriculum. Evidently they have an integrated pathophysiology course at the end of 2nd year, and they say about 80% of the test is covered in that class. There could be a class like this at most schools, but the students I talked to said they thought it was a great advantage for MCO students. Another huge advantage for MCO students on step 1 is that they have the testing center on campus, so instead of travelling to another city you can just go to school like you normally would. That relieves a lot of stress and uncertainty and would have to increase performance on the test.
Click to expand...


I remember Burns saying something similar in terms of Step 1 scores. That they had a student last year score something insanely high and everyone does fine in terms of scores.

Having the testing center on campus is a big plus for me especially for a test that is going to essentially determine what you can do for residency.
 
Vomitonme said:
I remember Burns saying something similar in terms of Step 1 scores. That they had a student last year score something insanely high and everyone does fine in terms of scores.

Having the testing center on campus is a big plus for me especially for a test that is going to essentially determine what you can do for residency.
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I can't seem to find the residency match list for this year or last year. Does anyone have a link? Thanks.
 
Are there any current MCO students on this thread.
 
nyc25 said:
I can't seem to find the residency match list for this year or last year. Does anyone have a link? Thanks.
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Last year's match list can be found here. I couldn't find this year's info.
 
AmyBEMT said:
Last year's match list can be found here. I couldn't find this year's info.
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These are some awesome matches!!!!
 
Just looking for apartments.
 
if you dont mind can you tell me or pm me your stats i am just curious how you got considered for the program...thanks ... I would really really appreciate this info.

btw i would choose the 4 year route... just because i rather spend 4 years studying someplace i dont enjoy as much and have a whole year to do what i want... rather than 5 years book in the nose...where i just like it a little bit better
 
Freakedout said:
if you dont mind can you tell me or pm me your stats i am just curious how you got considered for the program...thanks ... I would really really appreciate this info.

btw i would choose the 4 year route... just because i rather spend 4 years studying someplace i dont enjoy as much and have a whole year to do what i want... rather than 5 years book in the nose...where i just like it a little bit better
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Hey,
Thanks for your advice. They list the req. for the program at this link http://www.mco.edu/smed/entrance.html#
 
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