Midwestern vs. Eastern DO Schools

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Sorry - I misread, tried to edit, and is as such now. Good luck deciding.

(I am a little sad to not attend DMU, I thought it was a great place)

 

You're making a great decision if you go to any three of those schools. I looked at LECOM's matchlist for this past year and was thoroughly impressed. I've gathered from SDN that DMU is a superb school. I had an interview invite, however cancelled it due to getting into PCOM. PCOM has great sites and opportunities, but LECOM is definitely making a name for itself. Overall, you'd get a great education from any of those schools. However, I'd say if $ is a huge issue go LECOM, its dirt cheap. If not, join me in the fall at PCOM.

 

Hey there! I am attending DMU, and just thought I would share a little information: 3rd year, only ~50% of the class stays in Iowa, the rest of the class is predominately in Ohio and Michigan at hospitals that have many residencies affiliated with them. 4th year is actually a positive of DMU, in my mind, and a reason why I chose there. DMU lets you choose WHERE and WHAT rotation you do aside from 8 weeks of Family Medicine/International Medicine. That means your entire 4th year can be set up ANYWHERE across the United States. This is especially important for doing "audition" rotations when applying for residency. You are allowed to do up to 3 months in any area your 4th year. So, if you want Ortho for example, you could set up 3 consecutive months, like July, Aug, Sept. at 3 different hospitals (Lets say you choose to go "back east" and do a rotation in Philadelphia, do another in New York and a third at any other place). This allows you a lot of face time, which has been debated if it helps that much or not. However, I think a strong rotation and doing some impressing can go a long ways to get you in the minds of the PD's of any given residency.
I also was accepted at LECOM, but their rotations are a little more "set" in regards to 4th year, as you have more months of required selectives (meaning choosing a rotation within given group--such as primary care or ER).
Anyway, good luck deciding! I hope you come to DMU...the reputation plus the freedom sold it to me. Hope this helps!!

 

Re: Electives...

PCOM has the most around.

 

You won't have a problem at DMU. The clinical rotations are fine. They aren't missing any particular specialities and even if they didn't have a pediatric neurosurgeon or whatever obscure speciality you can think of, your focus shouldn't be on that anyway. Your focus should be on the general stuff. You will get to see unique stuff at all of the locations. DMU won't close ANY doors for you. A lot of LECOM's rotations are in Ohio and Western PA. It is not like those are diverse hotspots either. You aren't going to run out of patients to see or specialities to do wherever you go. 3rd year is too busy with learning the basics. 4th year is busy with fulfilling basic requirements and audition rotations. No program expects you to have crazy amounts of subspeciality exposure. You have to learn to crawl before you walk. Medical education is an incremental process. The midwest is just abound with opportunities to learn as anywhere else. There are many fine instutions in the midwest that don't seem to have an issue. University of Chicago, IU, Michigan, MSU, Mayo, CCOM, DMU, etc...they all churn out fantastic physicians in every speciality imaginable.