I did a summer research fellowship at OUCOM a couple of years ago, which ended with the opportunity for me to interview at OUCOM. I had, however, already confirmed my acceptance at then-UOMHS (now Des Moines University). I am currently a second-year student at DMU. Both are great schools. OUCOM does have smaller classes and certainly, as part of a larger university setting, has a nicer physical plant than DMU. Athens is an OK college town, but there isn't much to do besides standard college-town stuff (a lot of bars, restaurants, etc.) The nearest large city is about 1.5 hrs away. Des Moines, on the other hand, is a good-sized city, nearly half a million (including the suburbs) with large-city benefits, and the people are also pretty friendly. Regarding rotations, DMU students can elect to do their rotations--all of them if they wish--in the Ohio CORE, which is an excellent system of hospitals. Alternatively, DMU students can elect to rotate in the Michigan OPTI, under the auspices of Michigan State U. COM. As well, we have core clinic and hospital sites in various cities throughout IA, some in TX, OR, MO, WI, PA, NJ, and MN. DMU students match to a clinic and hospital in one of these core sites for a total of 8 months in the third year. The remaining 4 months of the third year are spent in core elective rotations, which you must arrange. The benefit to this is that you can go wherever, geographically, you wish, so long as you can find a sponsoring doc/hospital (typically not a problem). Fourth year is all up to you, regarding the scheduling of rotations (when and where). There are certain guidelines by which you must abide (i.e.-you can't do 12 mos of peds only), but there is a great deal of latitude with respect to when and where you can schedule various rotations. Most find this a benefit since many students, those from out-of-state (the majority of DMU students), can return to their home states for rotations. Regarding our students' performance on rotations, I heard excellent reports regarding DMU students rotating in OUCOM sites from a variety of OUCOM faculty and clinicians--this was one of the primary reasons I chose DMU (i.e.-chose not to interview w/OUCOM). Most saliently, DMU students were commended for having a superior knowledge of OMM skills and for having a great general clinical working knowledge. I have heard these sentiments echoed by MSUCOM clinicians also. As well, DMU students are often commended for having good practical skills, most especially for having good history-taking skills and for having basic surgery skills (knot-tying, suturing, IV placement, NG placement, Foley cath placement,lesion excision,etc) PRIOR to rotations. DMU is a College of Osteopathic Medicine and SURGERY, so we do have some exposure to surgical techniques before rotations (i.e.- labs in basic aseptic technique--scrub lab--and basic surgical skills--dry-lab and animal lab). Our surgical education is further enhanced by our contact with the surgical residents from Des Moines General/Mercy hospitals. Because U. of Iowa (MD) students often rotate is Des Moines hospitals as well, DMU students are often compared to them. Regarding this comparison, many clinicians remark on DMU students' history-taking skills as superior. My friend's father, who is a D.O. from DMU, and her uncle, an M.D. from U. of Iowa, and aunt,an M.D., have both DMU and U. of IA students rotate with them in their mutual practice. Hands down, they say DMU students possess a friendlier demeanor with patients, are better equipped in terms of H and P skills, and have a better working clinical knowledge, plus we have manipulative skills(scoren's right, we do have a kick-ass OMM department and the board scores to prove it). I have heard other local clinicians, both M.D. and D.O., echo these sentiments as well. Anyway, I hope some of this information helps. Obviously, I think DMU is a good school (or I wouldn't be here). But OUCOM is a good school, as well. At the end of the day, you need to decide what factors are most important to you in choosing a school (i.e.- nicer facilities--choose OUCOM; more autonomy in choosing rotation sites--DMU; etc).
