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I remember how I felt when I was applying to med schools. I wished more students would post their personal accounts of their schools, so that's why I'm taking some time to write this now that I'm med student myself.
First of all I want to say that I'm very happy with my decision of attending COMP. I'm having some of the best times in my life, exactly because of being very very busy and learning very very interesting things from knowledgeable and personable professors, with a group of well-rounded, friendly, and intelligent classmates. Our class this year is supposedly the "best" class in terms of GPA and MCAT averages that COMP has ever had, and coming from a fairly rigorous undergraduate experience myself, I definitely agree that my classmates are some of the most motivated, compassionate, and smart group of people that I've been fortunate to meet. Our class dynamics are great, and the 2nd year students have been treating us very well in terms of giving us the in's and outs, tutor sessions, and throwing parties. I don't know everyone personally, but based on my observation, I would say that 95% of the students appear to be happy here. The remaining 5% do not appear to be unhappy(yet), but it's just that I don't sense any particular enthusiasm or "happiness" on them that I sense in the other 95%. Maybe there will really be more people "unhappy" or "bitter" by the end of this year when we get our grades back and some of us might have to repeat.
I know the certain criteria that people use to decide on which schools to attend, i.e. location, professors, scores....etc and I'll just elaborate on those based on what i know.
LOCATION: LA is one of the major locations on the world map. That alone says a lot. There are endless social, educational, culinary...etc opportunities. For example, "Body Worlds" by Gunther Van Hagen is in LA right now http://www.bodyworlds.com/en/pages/home.asp I'd say most of my classmates have been to that exhibition and it is absolutely amazing. Med students who do not have the chance to see it definitely missed out big time. A world class exhibition like that just won't find itself in anywhere less than a metropolis like LA. In addition, there are numerous academic/professional conferences, talks, activities that a med student in LA could take advantage of along with students at USC/UCLA/UCI/Loma Linda. As a med student myself, I wouldn't want to be anywhere else with any less of a environment for academia.
PROFESSORS: Overall, the professors are very intelligent and friendly. Some are particularly good at teaching in my opinion, such as Biochem, OMM, Histology and Anatomy. I've heard a few classamtes that talked unfavorably of a few certain professors. The complaint is that a couple of professors lecture directly out of the notes that they hand out, therefore they are not very "good." Another professor has been criticized as not being "good" exactly because he does not follow his notes in lecture and likes to tell cases and stories in real life. Go figure. However I believe I could succeed in my classes based on my own effort. I don't expect professors to spoon-feed me, but I could work with it if that happens to be his/her teaching style.
COMPLEX SCORES/PASSRATE: I don't exactly know what the pass rate is but I'm under the impression that it's not high, definitely not 100% that some other schools have. It's strange, because COMP has consistently placed its graduates into very competitive residencies and based on a post I made earlier, there are statistics that show COMP turn out the 2nd highest number of specialists of all DO school(assuming one would need higher scores to specialize) So my guess is that there are people that don't pass, but many that do pass will pass by a very high margin. I've heard from a few 2nd year students that starting this year COMP is modifying its curriculum to directly prepare the students for the COMPLEX because apparently that's what many other schools do. I'm not sure if that's exactly a good thing. Imagine your 4yr of pre-med undergraduate curriculum is basically a MCAT prep course. Sure people would have great scores, but what about a well-rounded education that prepares students to be great doctors? I hope they do find the right balance in that, and if scores is what COMP needs to be a better school, then so be it.
CLASSMATES: I can't say what your future classmates will be like, but mine has been great. It makes sense that people who appreciate being in a diverse, worldly, multi-cultural, entertaining metropolitan area like LA and choose to be in such of a city, end up being with other like-minded people. I have nothing against Erie or Des Moine or Pheonix, and not everyone chooses school based on location, but the ones that do choose Erie over LA based on location would have very different values and ideologies in terms of what's important in life from people that choose LA. In addition, believe me, you want to have our class as your 2nd year companions. We have an awesome class that treat each other very well, and we'll treat you right. We email each other notes/old exams/practice/charts before our exams and so far we've been doing great on exam averages. One professor even told us that he's never seen such high averages. We are a motivated class, but most importantly we help each other out. We tutor each other, share notes, and encourage each other.
CURRICULUM: Like I said, I think we are moving towards a curriculum that will directly prepare us for the Boards. Otherwise it should be about the same as everywhere else. What is different though, is our grading system. Before I came here, I heard about our grading system as a disadvantage because it was all based on percentage points. 89% is 89%, not a B. That shows the difference from someone getting a 80% and someone with a 89%. I heard how that would encourage competiveness, which is bascially bull. I don't see anything but collaboration and our class kicking butt collectively. Besides, think about it this way. If you want a really competitive residency, you can strive for the 98% to prove yourself. If you just want something not competitive, just pass with a 70% and grades won't matter for thsoe residencies anyways. If you went to a school with only pass/fail, you couldn't prove yourself at all even if you wanted to for the tough programs. All you will have is your scores, and that's a lot of eggs in one basket. I think this is also why COMP has been able to place its graduates into many competitive residencies. In addition, COMP 1st and 2nd year students get early hands-on clinical experience by operating a free clinic in Pomona. I heard this is a reason why a few of my classmates decided to come here.
CLINICAL ROTATIONS: I heard this is the strongest asset that COMP has, that its students would be able to rotoate at hospitals that even UCLA/USC students cannot. I have yet to experience it but definitely look forward to it.
That's all I could think of now, pretty much what I wanted to know when I was in your shoes. I guess I could add more into this thread if I think of something else or if questions are raised. Again, this is only my personal experience. I'm sure there are students who will be unhappy and even hate COMP. However, I believe our fates lie in our own hands. I'm happy with my decision to come here, even if I'm not, I'm sure I'll be a very content physician.
First of all I want to say that I'm very happy with my decision of attending COMP. I'm having some of the best times in my life, exactly because of being very very busy and learning very very interesting things from knowledgeable and personable professors, with a group of well-rounded, friendly, and intelligent classmates. Our class this year is supposedly the "best" class in terms of GPA and MCAT averages that COMP has ever had, and coming from a fairly rigorous undergraduate experience myself, I definitely agree that my classmates are some of the most motivated, compassionate, and smart group of people that I've been fortunate to meet. Our class dynamics are great, and the 2nd year students have been treating us very well in terms of giving us the in's and outs, tutor sessions, and throwing parties. I don't know everyone personally, but based on my observation, I would say that 95% of the students appear to be happy here. The remaining 5% do not appear to be unhappy(yet), but it's just that I don't sense any particular enthusiasm or "happiness" on them that I sense in the other 95%. Maybe there will really be more people "unhappy" or "bitter" by the end of this year when we get our grades back and some of us might have to repeat.
I know the certain criteria that people use to decide on which schools to attend, i.e. location, professors, scores....etc and I'll just elaborate on those based on what i know.
LOCATION: LA is one of the major locations on the world map. That alone says a lot. There are endless social, educational, culinary...etc opportunities. For example, "Body Worlds" by Gunther Van Hagen is in LA right now http://www.bodyworlds.com/en/pages/home.asp I'd say most of my classmates have been to that exhibition and it is absolutely amazing. Med students who do not have the chance to see it definitely missed out big time. A world class exhibition like that just won't find itself in anywhere less than a metropolis like LA. In addition, there are numerous academic/professional conferences, talks, activities that a med student in LA could take advantage of along with students at USC/UCLA/UCI/Loma Linda. As a med student myself, I wouldn't want to be anywhere else with any less of a environment for academia.
PROFESSORS: Overall, the professors are very intelligent and friendly. Some are particularly good at teaching in my opinion, such as Biochem, OMM, Histology and Anatomy. I've heard a few classamtes that talked unfavorably of a few certain professors. The complaint is that a couple of professors lecture directly out of the notes that they hand out, therefore they are not very "good." Another professor has been criticized as not being "good" exactly because he does not follow his notes in lecture and likes to tell cases and stories in real life. Go figure. However I believe I could succeed in my classes based on my own effort. I don't expect professors to spoon-feed me, but I could work with it if that happens to be his/her teaching style.
COMPLEX SCORES/PASSRATE: I don't exactly know what the pass rate is but I'm under the impression that it's not high, definitely not 100% that some other schools have. It's strange, because COMP has consistently placed its graduates into very competitive residencies and based on a post I made earlier, there are statistics that show COMP turn out the 2nd highest number of specialists of all DO school(assuming one would need higher scores to specialize) So my guess is that there are people that don't pass, but many that do pass will pass by a very high margin. I've heard from a few 2nd year students that starting this year COMP is modifying its curriculum to directly prepare the students for the COMPLEX because apparently that's what many other schools do. I'm not sure if that's exactly a good thing. Imagine your 4yr of pre-med undergraduate curriculum is basically a MCAT prep course. Sure people would have great scores, but what about a well-rounded education that prepares students to be great doctors? I hope they do find the right balance in that, and if scores is what COMP needs to be a better school, then so be it.
CLASSMATES: I can't say what your future classmates will be like, but mine has been great. It makes sense that people who appreciate being in a diverse, worldly, multi-cultural, entertaining metropolitan area like LA and choose to be in such of a city, end up being with other like-minded people. I have nothing against Erie or Des Moine or Pheonix, and not everyone chooses school based on location, but the ones that do choose Erie over LA based on location would have very different values and ideologies in terms of what's important in life from people that choose LA. In addition, believe me, you want to have our class as your 2nd year companions. We have an awesome class that treat each other very well, and we'll treat you right. We email each other notes/old exams/practice/charts before our exams and so far we've been doing great on exam averages. One professor even told us that he's never seen such high averages. We are a motivated class, but most importantly we help each other out. We tutor each other, share notes, and encourage each other.
CURRICULUM: Like I said, I think we are moving towards a curriculum that will directly prepare us for the Boards. Otherwise it should be about the same as everywhere else. What is different though, is our grading system. Before I came here, I heard about our grading system as a disadvantage because it was all based on percentage points. 89% is 89%, not a B. That shows the difference from someone getting a 80% and someone with a 89%. I heard how that would encourage competiveness, which is bascially bull. I don't see anything but collaboration and our class kicking butt collectively. Besides, think about it this way. If you want a really competitive residency, you can strive for the 98% to prove yourself. If you just want something not competitive, just pass with a 70% and grades won't matter for thsoe residencies anyways. If you went to a school with only pass/fail, you couldn't prove yourself at all even if you wanted to for the tough programs. All you will have is your scores, and that's a lot of eggs in one basket. I think this is also why COMP has been able to place its graduates into many competitive residencies. In addition, COMP 1st and 2nd year students get early hands-on clinical experience by operating a free clinic in Pomona. I heard this is a reason why a few of my classmates decided to come here.
CLINICAL ROTATIONS: I heard this is the strongest asset that COMP has, that its students would be able to rotoate at hospitals that even UCLA/USC students cannot. I have yet to experience it but definitely look forward to it.
That's all I could think of now, pretty much what I wanted to know when I was in your shoes. I guess I could add more into this thread if I think of something else or if questions are raised. Again, this is only my personal experience. I'm sure there are students who will be unhappy and even hate COMP. However, I believe our fates lie in our own hands. I'm happy with my decision to come here, even if I'm not, I'm sure I'll be a very content physician.
). 
