Cons
- Mississippi is very different from my hometown. Unsure how I will thrive here.
- I have heard Hattiesburg is not the safest
- Board rates seem to fluctuate?
- Some rotation sites in very rural and racist areas? I am a POC so this also scares me.
- Accredited with heightened monitoring? Heard this is fixed however.
@adamstheDO as a current, I guess now OMS-2 (just finished first year about a month ago!) I wholeheartedly agree with everything said above and won't rehash, but would love to address some of your concerns!
1) Not sure what you're hometown is, but we have a ton of students in my class from Michigan! As someone from a larger city in Not The South, I completely understand being a little hesitant transitioning to a mid-sized very southern town. The culture is generally very welcoming and kind, and Hattiesburg itself is actually pretty diverse (54% Black, 40% White, 6% other races).
Beyond that the culture of the COM is extremely diverse (20% of my class is Muslim)(I wanna say over 50% of my class is POC but don't quote me on that). They also have a pretty large office of diversity (in comparison to the size of the school) that has done some really wonderful work on creating an environment of cultural humility and respect within the COM. Please feel to reach out to Dr. Veronica Scott (our Director of Diversity and one of our Immunology professors) at her email on the website if you have any questions about this!
2) Unfortunately the misnomer that Hattiesburg is not "safe" follows (this is my personal opinion) the very subtle and often unconscious ideology that places which are predominantly Black or where a portion of people are living in poverty (24% in hattiesburg) are unsafe. Not saying at all that you're saying that, but I think a lot of those notions people tend to spread consciously or unconsciously stem from that place. I highly encourage any student planning to matriculate to read the book "Hattiesburg: An American City in Black and White" by William Sturkey from UNC before matriculating. Hattiesburg has a devastating yet rich history within the era of enslavement, reconstruction, Jim Crow, and the Freedom Movement. The school had an excellent lecture from a local historian on this this past semester and I'll see if I can post those resources later!
Practically, because of Hattiesburg history with jim crow laws, there is as within most southern cities impacted by the generational effects of jim crow laws, a pretty harsh physical and racial dividing line between the "good side" of hattiesburg and the "bad side" of hattiesburg. Admittedly most COM students live on the "good" side of Hattiesburg (West Hattiesburg), which I think almost all COM students would attest to being very similar to any predominantly white, upper middle class suburb of any major city.
3) There is a ton of info from Goro and others on SDN about how ultimately your scores on Boards are in your hands and your hands alone, but I can say Board scores are consistently improving, and the WCUCOM curriculum is taught (specifically with respect to Biochem and Physio) in a very board relevant style and will not hold you back. Whether you plan to take just comlex or complex + STEP (you have to take comlex to graduate) our OPP exams are pretty much 100% comlex board style questions which is super helpful! The school has also partnered with a faculty member who wrote his own board prep curriculum (That website is
Conquering The Boards) to provide students with that additional resource (in addition to providing boards and beyond, COMBank, etc. style resources for free/included in the cost of tuition).
4) Most rotation sites by my understanding are at places within the south that are comparable or larger than Hattiesburg, with the exception of possibly the Delta hub-sites. While I can't speak to (and I doubt anyone other than the POC that live in those communities could) the racial ideologies/experience of POC in those places, I would be cautious to say that they are inherently more racist than a predominantly very white and very conservative place like Provo Utah.
5) I have several other posts on SDN about how WCUCOM has addressed there issues with research which you can probably find by searching my name with research in the search bar!! In short summary,
-the school has hired 3 full time faculty dedicated to pairing students with research opportunities
-no student that I know of in my class who has wanted to do research has been unable to find it.
-because of these changes, the school fully anticipates that heightened monitoring notation to be removed at our next assessment.
Finally, I know nothing about Noorda (other than being pretty familiar with the culture of Provo), but I would say many of your pro's for Noorda you'll find at WCUCOM as well. Again, I can't speak negatively whatsoever about Noorda because I know nothing about it, (though I could speak negatively about the culture of Provo LOLOL) but I will just add a few small notes of consideration:
-I cannot stress more highly that you be intimately aware of the vast financial implications of having private vs. public loans, if you anticipate taking loans. If you ever hope to take advantage of PSLF or any type of federal student loan forgiveness, you will be unable to do so with private loans. Please please speak with a financial advisor acting in your best interest before doing so just so you're fully aware of all the implications.
-I would do a very honest assessment of your learning style before agreeing to a fully PBL curriculum. It may be a perfect fit for you, but make sure you understand what that is and be honest if it will work well for you!
-I can all but promise you no school has true 0% attrition.
There are ways schools get around and away with reporting "0%" attrition, but I'm just telling you that doesn't mean what they want you to think that means.
Anyways hope those thoughts help!!! I'll shoot you a PM so you can ask any more private questions if you have them!!!!
