Some recently asked me the following. I thought others might benefit from hearing my reply. I'm a first year TUCOM student.
manfood.com said:
I am going to be interviewing at Touro soon. I wanted to get some information from a student who is there right now. How do you like it? And what are some of the highs/lows in your opinion. Is the area conducive to studying? thanks!!
hey dude,
sorry for the slow response. as you can imagine, I'm sort of busy.
i really like touro. I'm coming from Columbia, so i was excepting to be disappointed. so far I'm impressed.
you HAVE to understand, everyone's perspective is going to be different. a lot of people have a lot of gripes - about any school. so there's no reason you should listen to me necessarily. although, i think my maturity level is probably a bit higher considering I'm an older (29) med student. so my perspective is different.
you've probably read this elsewhere, and i agree with this general opinion.
TUCOM students - rock, eclectic mix of backgrounds, fun people, want to live in bay area cause they know its better than elsewhere.
TUCOM profs - very good, care about students, lie to teach, don't have a lot of other responsibilities besides teaching since TUCOM isn't a big institution.
TUCOM admin - problems. people don't like the computer admin people cause we don't have wireless in the lecture hall "they're working on it." for some reason this infuriates everyone. i don't really give a ****.
TUCOM location - it ain't the most beautiful place in the world. you're going to be in a lecture hall all day everyday, so it won't really matter.
i couldn't stomach living in Vallejo so I live in Berkley. it takes me 25min to get to school each day. i could carpool, but I'm lazy and i skip a lot of classes so i don't. it adds about $250 to my monthly budget versus living in Vallejo/Bencia/Glen Cove, but my rent is only $400 so I can handle it. I have a lot of friends in East Bay / SF so I live to be able to drive into SF in 15min or take BART. Vallejo is a good 50 min from SF. THERE IS NO TRAFFIC coming from east bay to Vallejo in AM - it's the reverse of all the other commuters.
The
TUCOM library people are great. You have access to every journal is existence. TUCOM profs and course rely heavily on electronic resources - power point slides are posted, lecture notes are posted, students have an active yahoo group where we all post **** and b*tch about stuff. The library is open till midnight.
I go the the Berkeley Bio library to study a lot. I like being able to walk around and get food, which you can't do at TUCOM. Though a 5 min drive puts you within reach of whatever you want (Starbucks, Taco Bell, cheap Mexican, etc.)
Anatomy lab is great. Anatomy profs are great. Good class. Osteopathic medicine emphasizes musculoskeletal knowledge 5X more than allopathic schools, so you're going to know your anatomy. I have friends at MD schools so we compare notes.
OMM - hard class. hard to understand. hard to study for. everyone in my class seems confused. the profs are nice and want to help but there's not enough time. often it feels like this "additional" thing you are trying to learn on top of the already ridiculous workload. but it is pretty cool to be able to really diagnosis and treat with your hands. its impressive and sort of inspiring to see the docs at a school do it well.
Dorms- not as bad as website makes them luck.
website - the saddest thing about TUCOM. its makes the school look SUB-Caribbean. everyone in my class agrees it is a travesty. i think a lot of people don't apply to TUCOM simply b/c the website is so ghetto.
rotations - i'm just a first year, so i don't really know jack about this. but it seems that TUCOM sets you up. you're not left to fend for yourself. you will have to travel though - Michigan, NV, SoCAL, NY. Not all these places, but one. It is possible to stay in bay area if you really try. but then you will be moving around a lot - Marin to SF to Solano county, etc.
bottom line - tucom is what it is. personally, i think we are the best osteopathic out there. simply b/c we're in the bay area we attract decent students and prof, amny of whom are funky and interesting and smart. Examples - public health prof is a Harvard Med School MD and PhD. Some of anatomy profs also work in UCSF anatomy lab.
Also, you CAN do
research at Touro if you want. definitely possibly. not that you'll have the time. you won't.
so that's some info. hope it helps.
do your own homework.
good luck!!
