NYIT-Arkansas vs ARCOM

[Dr_hello_world]

I’ve been accepted into both schools, and I know there is a thread on this, but it’s back in 2017: ARCOM vs NYIT-Jonesboro

These are very new schools so I’m sure a lot has changed since 2017 in terms of info on how strong these programs are.

I’m mostly interested in hearing people’s opinions on these programs.

ARCOM pros:

• Cheaper ($42,000/year)
• I've heard that ARCOM is more welcomed by local state hospitals for clerkship opportunities, and there are already EM residency spots being built at the local fort smith hospital. Considering this is the specialty I'm interested in, this is a big deal for me.
• Well-funded, with a large endowment and many future projects
• Fort smith is a better part of Arkansas with more outdoors activities
• At the interview, the campus community felt more like a family

NYIT pros:

• Relationship with ASU Jonesboro campus and their facilities (nice gym, racquetball courts, ect.)
• I got a scholarship reducing the tuition from $55,000 to $48,000 (but still more expensive than ARCOM)
• Better relationship with Tennessee Hospitals
• Connection the the well-established NYITCOM (NY) program.
• non-mandatory attendance
• less strict dress code
• Closer to home
• Has been around for a year longer

I have a decent lean towards ARCOM, but other people's opinions would be greatly appreciated in making this decision!

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[psychemdoc]

I'm not sure where all the nyitcom students are, but this is a small sample size to use as the deciding factor. Also, drstephenstrange is advocating for his school. Which is a good thing but there's obvious bias which he admits and that's not bad. I wish there was also an apologist for NYIT in here as well to push their side of the story. I personally am stuck between these two as well and I see good merits to both. NYIT is a bit more of an established school with fairly good match rates in the acgme (in NY which obviously has different opportunities and different incoming students than AR so shouldn't necessarily assume the same for AR) for many years well before the merger which was an important thing for me to make sure that a DO school can still perform well in that metric.

I'll throw a few more pros off the top of my head for nyit ar in comparison to arcom:
1. the additional certificates in various areas. could be worthless but could also be a tie breaker between you and another applicant when it comes to applying to residency.
2. the available masters which adds a year of schooling, but is mostly free and gives you 2 years of tuition free med school and gives you very valuable research and teaching opportunities which is useful in the more competitive residencies to stand out. In my opinion considering the political situation who knows how the pay structure may change and therefore it might behoove some students to consider limiting their debt while in med school in the first place instead of hoping that the current attitudes towards healthcare change by the time you finish residency 7+ years from now.
3. the school is working probably just as hard as arcom at securing sites for rotations and there are students who spend years 3 and 4 in little rock, memphis, and jonesboro which I think is sometimes overlooked in these conversations.
4. smaller class size which i personally like.
5. a lot of high tech available and some cutting edge practices and technologies available. an example the telemedicine curriculum which was later adopted by much bigger and more prestigious schools after its implementation at NYIT.


Good luck to everyone in their decisions as I can't personally seem to be able to clearly tell which school is hands down better since both are so new and there's likely far less differences than some would like it to seem. While I listed some of the pros of nyit over arcom I'm not saying that's the end of the story and nyit is clearly better, i just wanted to balance things out a bit with at least some of the things that I understand.

@DrStephenStrange could you give me some tangible evidence of this support that everyone keeps saying about arcom? Because I read that a lot in these forums and I heard that a lot in the interview. I understand there's more rotations available, but the school also has a larger class size 170 vs 120 if i'm not mistaken. Also, I heard similar things when I had my NYIT interview that the local govts support and are helping the school there as well. How can one compare that "support" that everyone keeps bringing up aside from anecdotal hearsay?

 

[Benjamin87]

I’ve been accepted into both schools, and I know there is a thread on this, but it’s back in 2017: ARCOM vs NYIT-Jonesboro

These are very new schools so I’m sure a lot has changed since 2017 in terms of info on how strong these programs are.

I’m mostly interested in hearing people’s opinions on these programs.

ARCOM pros:

• Cheaper ($42,000/year)
• I've heard that ARCOM is more welcomed by local state hospitals for clerkship opportunities, and there are already EM residency spots being built at the local fort smith hospital. Considering this is the specialty I'm interested in, this is a big deal for me.
• Well-funded, with a large endowment and many future projects
• Fort smith is a better part of Arkansas with more outdoors activities
• At the interview, the campus community felt more like a family

NYIT pros:

• Relationship with ASU Jonesboro campus and their facilities (nice gym, racquetball courts, ect.)
• I got a scholarship reducing the tuition from $55,000 to $48,000 (but still more expensive than ARCOM)
• Better relationship with Tennessee Hospitals
• Connection the the well-established NYITCOM (NY) program.
• non-mandatory attendance
• less strict dress code
• Closer to home
• Has been around for a year longer

I have a decent lean towards ARCOM, but other people's opinions would be greatly appreciated in making this decision!

I'm sure ARCOM is a perfectly good med school assuming they get accredited (I don't know of any reason why they wouldn't). I'm not sure why the other posters are dunking on NYITCOM-JB like they are. I'm a first year at NYITCOM-JB and I like it so far. I haven't heard of any news that our students are having trouble getting rotational spots. We send students to a few hospitals in Jonesboro, but also to places in other parts of AR and other states too. They get a rotational "region" where they move to for their 3rd year and do their core rotations at hospitals in that region (seems fine to me). Many stay in Jonesboro for their third and 4th year many go elsewhere.
I choose it over LSU-Shreveport (from NOLA) for a few reasons, some personal, but some to do with NYITCOM-JB's facility, faculty, etc. I also liked that it was on an undergraduate campus (A-state's campus, literally right in the middle), so that comes with a lot of perks, one is being among a lot of other students (both undergrad and grad alike). We did an inter-professional workshop a few weeks ago with the nursing, PT, dietician, and social worker students on A-State's campus which was pretty interesting (it was a case study presentation/discussion in small groups type of thing). I'm in the Navy's HPSP program, so I don't have to worry about what affect my school has on me getting a residency, but I don't think any of my classmates or upperclassmen are too concerned. If they are concerned, it's probably more to do with the effects the merger will have on their chances.

Feel free to PM me with questions. Good luck on choosing a school and with your future studies.

 

[DrStephenStrange]

ARCOM

 

[NoDocWithoutDO]

ARCOM

Can you provide more input other than that you're a current student at ARCOM? I'm also considering ARCOM so this would be useful information.

 

[DrStephenStrange]

Can you provide more input other than that you're a current student at ARCOM? I'm also considering ARCOM so this would be useful information.

Alright here are some input
- ARCOM is more supported in the state than NYIT, and as a result they have better rotation sites, more affiliated residency programs, and hospitals coming along for new residency programs.
- Cheaper tuition
- Fort Smith is located in a better part of AR
- On site research opportunities
- Better environment with a better building
- Opportunity for hands on experience with the mercy clinic on campus

 

[Dr_hello_world]

Alright here are some input
- ARCOM is more supported in the state than NYIT, and as a result they have better rotation sites, more affiliated residency program, and hospitals coming along for new residency programs.
- Cheaper tuition
- Fort Smith is located in a better part of AR
- On site research opportunities
- Better environment with a better building
- Opportunity for hands on experience with the mercy clinic on campus

I’m sold.

 

[NoDocWithoutDO]

Alright here are some input
- ARCOM is more supported in the state than NYIT, and as a result they have better rotation sites, more affiliated residency program, and hospitals coming along for new residency programs.
- Cheaper tuition
- Fort Smith is located in a better part of AR
- On site research opportunities
- Better environment with a better building
- Opportunity for hands on experience with the mercy clinic on campus

Can you elaborate on GME? I’ve found ARCOM’s info on it to be very lacking. I would really like to hear more specifics if you have them

 

[DrStephenStrange]

Can you elaborate on GME? I’ve found ARCOM’s info on it to be very lacking. I would really like to hear more specifics if you have them

This is all I know for now:

- The school got accredited to develop residency and fellowship programs by the ACGME back in January

ARCOM gains accreditation for residency, fellowship programs - Talk Business & Politics

The Arkansas College of Osteopathic Medicine (ARCOM) received accreditation that will allow it to provide residency and fellowship education to students who graduate from the medical school. The school received...

talkbusiness.net

- Before that we were already working with CHI St Vincent (level 2 trauma center) to open IM and FM residency programs.

CHI St. Vincent Hot Springs Announces Residency Program

Use our media center page to locate key media relations contacts, see our past news releases, and learn about innovations, awards, and leadership changes.

www.chistvincent.com

- Then the school introduced Unity health as our academic partner with agreement on their already established residency programs in IM, FM, EM, Psychiatry.

ARCOM partners with Unity Health for graduate education program

The Arkansas Colleges of Health Education (ACHE) announced Friday a partnership with Unity Health and the Arkansas College of Osteopathic Medicine (ARCOM)

www.swtimes.com

- They've told us that other hospitals are also in the works to start residency programs like Mercy Fort Smith, Poplar Bluff regional medical center, Baptist health, and others. I've also lately heard of a Neurosurgery residency plan with CHI St Vincent Neuroscience Institute. All that still need to come out officially though.

- Mercy Fort Smith has been a big partner of ours actually. We donated the land that now have the Mercy Clinic right across the street from the school, and we just recently donated another piece of land for them to build a rehabilitation hospital on campus as well, so I'm sure they will have residency programs running at some point.

Arkansas Colleges of Health Education donates land for planned Mercy rehab hospital - Talk Business & Politics

Arkansas Colleges of Health Education (ACHE) donated land for Mercy Rehabilitation Hospital Fort Smith, allowing the new hospital to help patients in the Fort Smith area and students at the...

talkbusiness.net

Sent from my SM-G973U using SDN mobile

 

[NoDocWithoutDO]

This is all I know for now:

- The school got accredited to develop residency and fellowship programs by the ACGME back in January

ARCOM gains accreditation for residency, fellowship programs - Talk Business & Politics

The Arkansas College of Osteopathic Medicine (ARCOM) received accreditation that will allow it to provide residency and fellowship education to students who graduate from the medical school. The school received...

talkbusiness.net

- Before that we were already working with CHI St Vincent (level 2 trauma center) to open IM and FM residency programs.

CHI St. Vincent Hot Springs Announces Residency Program

Use our media center page to locate key media relations contacts, see our past news releases, and learn about innovations, awards, and leadership changes.

www.chistvincent.com

- Then the school introduced Unity health as our academic partner with agreement on their already established residency programs in IM, FM, EM, Psychiatry.

ARCOM partners with Unity Health for graduate education program

The Arkansas Colleges of Health Education (ACHE) announced Friday a partnership with Unity Health and the Arkansas College of Osteopathic Medicine (ARCOM)

www.swtimes.com

- They've told us that other hospitals are also in the works to start residency programs like Mercy Fort Smith, Poplar Bluff regional medical center, Baptist health, and others. I've also lately heard of a Neurosurgery residency plan with CHI St Vincent Neuroscience Institute. All that still need to come out officially though.

- Mercy Fort Smith has been a big partner of ours actually. We donated the land that now have the Mercy Clinic right across the street from the school, and we just recently donated another piece of land for them to build a rehabilitation hospital on campus as well, so I'm sure they will have residency programs running at some point.

Arkansas Colleges of Health Education donates land for planned Mercy rehab hospital - Talk Business & Politics

Arkansas Colleges of Health Education (ACHE) donated land for Mercy Rehabilitation Hospital Fort Smith, allowing the new hospital to help patients in the Fort Smith area and students at the...

talkbusiness.net

Sent from my SM-G973U using SDN mobile

That's actually all pretty cool. I was pretty iffy about ARCOM at first because of the lack of info on GME. If all of what you just shared is true, I might just go to ARCOM instead...

 

[DrStephenStrange]

That's actually all pretty cool. I was pretty iffy about ARCOM at first because of the lack of info on GME. If all of what you just shared is true, I might just go to ARCOM instead...

Unless you have better options meaning more established schools with great GME and/or cheaper tuition, ARCOM is definitely not a bad school to attend IMO.

Sent from my SM-G973U using SDN mobile

 

[ccp005]

Does ARCOM have mandatory attendance?

 

[DrStephenStrange]

Does ARCOM have mandatory attendance?

Yes and No,

We have mandatory attendance for the stuff that would be mandatory at any other schools like Labs, TBLs, Clinical Ed classes (OPP, FOPC), SP encounters, Guest lectures.
The only class that have true mandatory attendance is Anatomy (only 12 weeks of first semester).
For our basic science classes (BECOM, FHC) which makes majority of our schedule, you're allowed to skip the lectures as long you have 80% or above in the class.

Also, they do treat you as an adult. Mandatory attendance when you fall below 80% is more like a suggestion really because I know many people with below 80 average grades that still miss classes without any repercussion. You'll only get in trouble if you actually miss mandatory lectures AND fail your class(es). Then they will have good reason to dismiss you, although they would probably let you repeat anyway.

 

[psychemdoc]

Not trying to argue, I'm trying to understand the points and counterpoints well as myself and I'm sure other lurkers will be in similar positions. But could you elaborate without just dismissing it as not valuable on at least a few of those points if not all of them?

For example, how would an additional masters which a student gets to teach and publish some additional research not going to help those who are applying for competitive residencies? Don't residencies want students with good usmle/comlex and publications and ideally some teaching experience especially formalized ones? And doesn't this degree lower the students debt by quite a bit? Sure, it can be argued (and correctly assuming the debt to future earnings ratio stays the same) that the opportunity cost is greater to stay in school for one year longer.

Also, another thing that I am struggling to understand (partially because I can't see any hard numbers on this) is the whole rotations thing. Your response is "NIYT gets the scraps that are left over", but can you demonstrate that or is that just hearsay that you've heard and you're repeating as well? I'm not questioning you, I'm just questioning that comment that I have heard repeated in various forms, but I'm just not sure if its true or if it can be even measured to be proven one way or the other.

The more info for us uninformed ones the better, please.

Not applicable to AR in the slightest.


No. 100% worthless.


Also 100% worthless. No it won't help you for competitive specialties.


NYIT gets the scraps that are left over.


100% worthless.

Don't fall for the gimmicks.

 

[Domewrecker]

@AW0320 Are you saying that you have family at the NYIT hospitals?

 

[SomaticDysFUNction2020]

Alright here are some input
- ARCOM is more supported in the state than NYIT, and as a result they have better rotation sites, more affiliated residency programs, and hospitals coming along for new residency programs.
- Cheaper tuition
- Fort Smith is located in a better part of AR
- On site research opportunities
- Better environment with a better building
- Opportunity for hands on experience with the mercy clinic on campus

Since we have people quoting this forum, I believe correcting some of the assumptions made in this post is necessary.

1. ARCOM is more supported in the state than NYIT, and as a result, they have better rotation sites, more affiliated residency programs, and hospitals coming along for new residency programs.
   1. This is incorrect. Governor Hutchinson works with us every year and meets with us to discuss policies. We have advocates through our health policy program that advocate and lobby for well-needed laws and policy. Also, we have had the support of many hospital systems and are in the same consortium for providing screenings and vaccines to the delta region with UAMS and St. Bernards. We have little to no problem providing care and a good education in any of the areas we are currently in.
2. Cheaper tuition
   1. True, there is no fighting this fact.
   2. NYITCOM at A-State has a delta leaders scholarship that is given to all medical students at this campus. However, it does not make up the difference between the two campuses.
3. Fort Smith is located in a better part of AR.
   1. I do like fort smith! Though Fayetteville is still about an hour's drive away. Memphis is about 1 hour away from Jonesboro. It really depends on what you are looking for. You are closer to TN, which depends on your lifestyle and wants.
4. On-site research opportunities
   1. This statement assumes that NYITCOM does not have that. We have onsite research and have many students who have published. We have plenty of students involved in all sorts of research, and we even have NIH granted research here.
   2. We have plenty of students who go to present at conferences often and have been well awarded across the board.
5. A better environment with a better building
   1. This can be arguable. A med school needs the basics of an anatomy dissection room, OMM room, Lecture hall, and study spaces. A-State spent 12.5 million dollars renovating and improving Wilson hall just for NYIT. We have all of that also in one building that has been renovated and revamped with Apple Tv/Computer attached TVs in every study room along with plenty of study spaces and a new library. We also have full access to the A-State undergraduate campus, including their library, full gym, chick-fil-a, Starbucks, dining halls, etc.
6. Opportunity for hands-on experience with the mercy clinic on campus
   1. We have the NYITCOM clinic on campus. Students have all the opportunity to go with any of our physicians and or physicians of their choice. We have faculty that still work at the hospitals and clinics and always have students with them.

 

[FlaringRaynauds]

1. True
2. True
3. Arguable
4. True
5. True
6. True
7. NYIT-JB has a chic-fil-a ( home of the original chicken sandwich) in walking distance of Wilson Hall on Astate campus. Why is Chic-fil-a such a selling point?
8. If you have a choice.... choose ARCOM

 

[SomaticDysFUNction2020]

7. NYIT-JB has a chic-fil-a ( home of the original chicken sandwich) in walking distance of Wilson Hall on Astate campus. Why is Chic-fil-a such a selling point?

I was just meaning to highlight the facilities. Chic-fil-a isn't what I was trying to sell here.

 

[AW0320]

I'd definitely pick ARCOM. I have a close family member that works at one of the hospitals where med students are rotating, and she's gotten a lot of feedback on how disorganized everything is. Many students don't feel like like they're getting enough guidance/support. I'm sure things will settle down in the next few years, but personally, I wouldn't want to be the guinea pig that helps them work out the kinks.

 

[AnatomyGrey12]

NYIT is a bit more of an established school with fairly good match rates in the acgme (in NY which obviously has different opportunities and different incoming students than AR so shouldn't necessarily assume the same for AR) for many years well before the merger which was an important thing for me to make sure that a DO school can still perform well in that metric.

Not applicable to AR in the slightest.

1. the additional certificates in various areas. could be worthless but could also be a tie breaker between you and another applicant when it comes to applying to residency.

No. 100% worthless.

2. the available masters which adds a year of schooling, but is mostly free and gives you 2 years of tuition free med school and gives you very valuable research and teaching opportunities which is useful in the more competitive residencies to stand out. In my opinion considering the political situation who knows how the pay structure may change and therefore it might behoove some students to consider limiting their debt while in med school in the first place instead of hoping that the current attitudes towards healthcare change by the time you finish residency 7+ years from now.

Also 100% worthless. No it won't help you for competitive specialties.

3. the school is working probably just as hard as arcom at securing sites for rotations and there are students who spend years 3 and 4 in little rock, memphis, and jonesboro which I think is sometimes overlooked in these conversations.

NYIT gets the scraps that are left over.

5. a lot of high tech available and some cutting edge practices and technologies available. an example the telemedicine curriculum which was later adopted by much bigger and more prestigious schools after its implementation at NYIT.

100% worthless.

Don't fall for the gimmicks.