Opinions needed from current/former NSUCOM students

[snrub]

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Like most applicants, I want to do my research before settling on a school, and while browsing through the archives, I came across quite a number of flame wars and other negativity associated with NSUCOM, and I wanted to get the facts straight from current and former NSUCOM students. I have been accepted at NSUCOM, and while I enjoyed the entire interview experience, everyone has to obviously put on a good face for the school, so I just wanted to make sure if it was genuine, or smiling thru clenched teeth.

As you can imagine, the complaints covered some usual suspects:

- Attendance policy (which, from what I can gather, won't be a big issue)
- General administration problems (from admissions to financial aid, to inability for the dean to be receptive to student concerns, etc)
- Clinical rotation limitations (both dealing with location and curriculum)
- Board rate uncertainty (pass rate on COMLEX and students taking USMLE)


I'm aware that every school has its pros and cons, but it seemed NSUCOM came up with a certain regularity, so I just wanted to make sure I heard the truth from those. I've read plenty of good reviews from NSUCOM, so I just want to make sure that if I choose going there, I'll know what I'd be getting myself into.

If there are any other usual complaints that you've heard that can be clarified, please feel free to expand on those. Thanks.

 

[DrQuinn]

I graduated from NSUCOM in 2003 (a longgggggggg time ago).

Let me tell it to you from someone who has been there, done that. I am now an attending at the Georgetown University's EM Residency.

Just go to a med school that:

A) Price is good (cheaper is better)
B) Location is good.

The rest is fluff. I enjoyed my time at NSUCOM. Now Im' doing what I want to do.

Now I need to go to bed. Just got off a night shift.

Q

 

[bob swerski]

I'm a former class president there. I'll leave it at that.

As for the issues, I'll put it to you this way:
1)It will always depend on who you ask. There will always be malcontents that hate their school because of their unique predicaments, often of their own doing. And sunny-sider's who will always say good things. Don't forget the power of negativity: you will always get more flames than positive comments becasue the people who are pissed off are the most motivated.

2)There are problems at NSU just like anywhere else. In particular, the attendance policy has been a bone of contention for the past few years, and there is a sentiment, not entirely unfounded, that the administration treats the students like children, and that the dean is wholly resistant to change which stifles much-needed reform. There are also a lot of incompetent people at the lower adminstrative levels that do things like lose your logs/evals from rotations or letters of recommendation, and never get student loan checks out on time, which only componds the problem. Students can feel like the adminstration only wants them to fill seats and pay tuition without expecting much from them in return.

It's a reasonable reaction, but it doesn't make it a bad school. One of the most important things to learn about med school is that you get out of it what you put in to it. The facilities are fairly new and up to date, there are a lot of good clinical sites for rotations (and some not so good, NSU does not have their own hospital as of yet.) and the students are a pretty friendly, helpful bunch for the most part.