Unfortunately, the info in that thread is a bit outdated so here are some amendments I'll offer for those who read it:
A) The faculty is pretty receptive to requests/changes, but officially recording lectures isn't one of them (you can on an individual basis for your use and that of your "study group"). Admin is pretty unresponsive to a lot of things.
B) Tuition has increased from ~$47.5k to $54k since I was a first year. I expect it to be about $57k next year because some of the grass is looking a bit brownish and the CEO/president likely needs a new yacht or something.
C) OMM is definitely a weakness here as we've performed below average in it the past few years. I'm not sure how much of that is because students are generally apathetic/hostile/disinterested in OMM and how much of it is a failure on the school's part. I probably fall in the middle of the pack as far as being interested in it goes and I make fun of it all the time (though I use it somewhat often as a parlor trick and for brownie points when desired), so it's probably more the former than the latter. Regardless, the school feels great shame because of this (as a number of faculty members write for the boards) and will likely start making some changes.
D) Yeah, we still don't have early clinical experiences aside from standardized patients, giving sports physicals in the spring, and volunteer opportunities. The whole rotation spot thing has been addressed extensively previously here, so I'll let it be.
E) Ample study areas, aside from finals week. Dentals don't study but sure can party, so they never steal study spots most of the year. I just studied at home most of the time. Also, if you live on-campus, the club house in housing is a popular study area and is usually pretty decent unless it's one of the random days the families here all get together for whatever reason or if some intense foosball, billiards or ping-pong games get going.
F) There's a board review course taught at the school now. I never went because attending lecture makes a part of my soul die, but some people found it useful. The biggest impact it's had is this is the course in which you have to pass a COMSAE (practice COMLEX) in before you can sit for the real COMLEX.
Otherwise, the review is mostly accurate.
I'd like to add a few things, at least from my perspective being a year ahead of you but good points overall and pretty much spot on.
1. Admin is fairly slow and defensive about changes, for typical reasons. When we first started, there wasn't even wifi in the auditorium. Only near the end of my first year did they finally enable it after literally constant prodding.
2. The tuition increase is inexcusable no matter how you put it. The letter they send out is purely political, but since most of us are committed, both in time and money, we simply have to take this is a hard fact of life and move on.
3. I agree 100%; OMM is a huge weakness and it's not just the boards. The approach is too stark compared to the hard sciences and all it can take is a bad first impression to set the tone for the rest of the year. Throw in the fact that OMM tends to test at terrible times during the year, people often cut their losses and study for the 'real' tests.
I feel essentially the same way about OMM as random. It's fun to do it on friends and family that are not sick, but beyond that, it is hardly anything that sold me and I didn't go in close minded either. After the infernal homeopathy and naturopathy lecture that we got in OMM (which I believe got removed), I could not wait to pass the PE and never look back. Shame I still have to take Step 3 so it's not totally over for me.
4. Early clinical experience is only mandatory as random says. Beyond that, UMOM, HOME and other local clinics can help but are all optional and frequently filled except for the times before exams.
5. Study spots are hit or miss for me. I ended up studying at home since people seem to freely chat or eat loud food at all random times in the day. Cholla lab is a great location on an off day if the library main is packed but there needs to be more, seriously.
6. I never attended the board review course either, but that's mainly due to my own personal disdain for lecture and being burned out on passive learning at that point. Random is pretty much on the ball here.
I have to add that they do plan to add more online lectures and quizzes to purge us of senoritis post match, so I'll let you all know how well we respond to that. We will be the first year they do this, so hopefully if we lash back hard enough, 2014 will be spared the pointlessness of what they're trying to pull. Our class is relatively known for complaining so if we can help the future classes some more, it would be great, even if they can't wait for us to get out the door.
