OUCOM or VCOM

[wkyz]

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I was given early admission for the fall 2011 at these two schools (OOS). I should be receiving the letters in upcomming weeks, hence a decision would have to be made. Any input from current students at any of these schools would be appreciated: reputation? quality of education/academics? faculty? comlex/usmle ? opportunity to specialize ? location ?. Any useful input would be of great value.

Thank you

 

[PeachyPhd]

I was given early admission for the fall 2011 at these two schools (OOS). I should be receiving the letters in upcomming weeks, hence a decision would have to be made. Any input from current students at any of these schools would be appreciated: reputation? quality of education/academics? faculty? comlex/usmle ? opportunity to specialize ? location ?. Any useful input would be of great value.

Thank you

How do you get early admission to TWO schools?

 

[wkyz]

I applied for this fall and then waitlisted; since there was not enough movement in the list I was given guaranteed admission for next fall.

 

[Isoprop]

OUCOM requires a 5-year contract to stay in state. Go to VCOM.

 

[DbDan]

OUCOM requires a 5-year contract to stay in state. Go to VCOM.

Only if you are not an Ohio resident. We don't know about OP

 

[wkyz]

I am OOS for both of the schools. I wouldnt've any problem with the 5yr contract though

 

[Isoprop]

Only if you are not an Ohio resident. We don't know about OP

OP mentioned he was OOS.

I am OOS for both of the schools. I wouldnt've any problem with the 5yr contract though

I would still vote for VCOM. Why limit where you may want to practice unless you are sure you want to be in Ohio.

 

[Blonde Redhead]

I'm currently at OU for undergrad. It's pretty much the quintessential college town. As far as med school specifically I feel like I should know more about it then I do, but everything I've heard from alumni and the current students I know is positive. They seem to have a decent amount of diverse and non-traditional students. The CORE program sounds great but I need to look into it more. As far as the 5 year thing, Ohio has a lot to offer, rural, cities, suburban, and cheaper than other areas, but it should definitely factor into your decision.

 

[DubVille]

***OUCOM or VCOM
I was given early admission for the fall 2011 at these two schools (OOS). I should be receiving the letters in upcomming weeks, hence a decision would have to be made. Any input from current students at any of these schools would be appreciated: reputation? quality of education/academics? faculty? comlex/usmle ? opportunity to specialize ? location ?. Any useful input would be of great value.

Thank you ***

I will be starting my 2nd year at OUCOM in about a month, so take my limited experience for what it is worth.

Reputation: I know the reputation in Ohio is quite good and in 3rd and 4th year you may rotate with med students at Case, OSU, UC, WSU, and Toledo and you can look at the match list for the class of 2010 near the end of the thread in the osteopathic forum. I would assume that the reputation is pretty good elsewhere, but cannot honestly say I know of many stories (we have had some students match at Johns Hopkins in "less competitive" specialties).

Quality of education/academics: Well I can really only comment on the pre-clinical education so.... I would say it is pretty solid, and I love the systems based and clinical correlation that every class has. We certainly have some profs that can be difficult to understand, or get a little too into details, but the overwhelming majority seem to have directed focus and stay pretty well "on track." The 3rd and 4th year rotations are essentially randomly assigned at the beginning of 2nd year, and you will basically stay at this location for all of 3rd and 4th year (although electives and some locations may require you to travel a bit, but it isn't the norm). The selection of the CORE sights has you make a rank list of the locations and a computer runs the lists through to give everyone the highest possible rank, it seems that basically about 95% get a top 4 pick and the small remainder are "disappointed" with the algorithms choice.

Faculty: The faculty as a whole seems to be pretty enthusiastic about teaching med students, and most are very accessible. The OMM faculty are pretty friendly and entertaining, and I personally like that we only have OMM for 2 hours a week!😀

COMLEX/USMLE: I know many of my classmates plan on taking the COMLEX only, but I think many will change their mind as the time draws nearer. Supposedly we were told that OUCOM had the highest average COMLEX Step II score in 2009, but I cannot confirm this, and it seems every school is making some sort of "highest COMLEX" claim of some kind. I will say that the school has many different USMLE/COMLEX board prep companies come through and buy us lunch during spring quarter to push their product, then as a class we vote for one and get a supposed special discount (we are getting Kaplan for 1/2 off the sticker price.)

Opportunity to specialize: Honestly this is really up to you, and probably isn't determined too much by the school. If you work hard and get a good score on the boards, have good letters of rec, and good clinical grades you are going to do pretty well regardless of the school you attend.

Location: Well the first two years will be spent in Athens and the next two will be spent in the area of your CORE sight (most of these are pretty urban like Cleveland, Columbus, Dayton, Akron, Toledo, Cincy is also soon to be a sight, etc... but some of the locals are more rural like Portsmouth, Athens, Massilon, or Sandusky).... Athens is a very interesting place as it is a very liberal school in a very rural midwestern place, so you see all types around here (I could people watch at the local walmart all day!) The scenery is quite pretty with some large hills and alot of hiking and biking around (although I think VCOM is in a similar setting with even larger hills). The town has everything you need and alot of ethnic foods, organic restaurants, etc. My only beef with the location is that the nearest real city is Columbus at about 1 hr 20 min away, in fact the nearest mall is 45 min away in Parkersburg, WV... so it is pretty isolated.

I am an OH resident, so basically I only know a little about the contract from classmates who are OOS:
-If you do your residency in Ohio it will count towards your five years.
-If you do a primary care residency in OH, each year counts as 1 1/2 years credit, and the contract would be forgiven at the end of the 3 years.
-You can "buy out" of the contract, I am not sure what the cost is but I believe it is pretty steep like 40K or more.


In the end the choice is yours and although I don't know any details about VCOM I am sure it would be a great choice as well! I know that so far in my journey I am happy with my choice. Just try to find which one suits you best and good luck!

 

[VeeTeeHokies]

I was given early admission for the fall 2011 at these two schools (OOS). I should be receiving the letters in upcomming weeks, hence a decision would have to be made. Any input from current students at any of these schools would be appreciated: reputation? quality of education/academics? faculty? comlex/usmle ? opportunity to specialize ? location ?. Any useful input would be of great value.

Thank you

I'm not a VCOM student, but I know a lot of students there very well and my cousin will start her first year there within the next few weeks. I also went to VT undergrad and know a lot about the school.

So for starters...

Reputation: I can't speak to this as much as a current student I'm sure, but being a VA resident and from what I've seen, VCOM students seem to be in good shape for residencies in VA as well as any of the surrounding appalachian region (NC, WV, Ohio). You will be doing rotations with VTC students I'm assuming, as many rotations are done throughout the Carilion hospital system.

Quality of Education/Academics: I have sat in on some didactic pre-clinical classes at VCOM and I have to admit that I was pretty impressed. The classes were second year courses during the spring and the professors were pretty good about telling students what they would likely come across on the boards as they went along. I have also shadowed while some third years were doing their rotations. The doctors were AWESOME as far as educational value goes and they definitely let you get shoulder deep in some hands on clinical skills. Another thing that I want to include is that VCOM is based on VT's research campus as I'm sure you know from your interview and they are a very research heavy school as DO schools go, so if you're into that it's a good choice. VCOM also has amazing opportunities for international rotations as they have 4 clinics set up in underserved international communities. You will also get double the Family Practice rotations as you will complete Family Practice and their Appalachian Medicine rotation (which is just extremely underserved family practice in the mountains somewhere). VCOM is also pretty huge on OMM so if that is one of your interests, VCOM should get some brownie points there.

Faculty/Staff: Hands down some of the most enthusiastic, optimistic, helpful, and overall amazing people I have ever met. They are there to facilitate your success and they make it very evident. You will love them.

COMLEX/USMLE: VCOM all but requires their students to take both the COMLEX and USMLE. From what I hear board prep is pretty solid, and the pass rates are pretty high.

Location: As you know from your interview, VCOM is located about 5 minutes from the Virginia Tech campus (or Virginia Polytechnic Institute & State University, if you're not into the whole brevity thing). If you want to prolong your undergrad experience this will be the place for you. I loved Blacksburg, it's definitely one of the most beautiful places I've ever seen and there is so much to do no matter what your interests are. The nature and hiking opportunities are amazing. Blacksburg is also a short drive from Christiansburg which is a nice little city you can get away to for movies, going to the mall, etc... Roanoke is about 30 minutes away and is a VERY cool unique city. It's still a pretty southern city and is pretty historic with a lot of the things you would expect in a city. I love the Taubman art museum there. VT students are awesome and they love VCOM students, and in fact our premed program is very active and you will probably be able to interact a lot with them for both yours and their benefit. You can also eat at VT's #1 ranked dining halls (perhaps the thing I miss the most about VT since I graduated ). The one caveat is that it will be impossible to go to VCOM for 4 years without becoming a Hokie.

I second DubVille about opportunities to specialize. And I also apologize for stealing DubVille's format but I just wanted to make it easier for you to compare and contrast.

I'm sure both schools are amazing for their own reasons, and I don't know much about OUCOM. But hopefully between these two posts you can make an educated decision.

 

[crazynate]

man, now i wish i tried a little harder to get a DO LOR, so i could have applied to VCOM...(although I'll never be a hokie 😉 ) (coming from a fellow ACC rival)

 

[wkyz]

Thank you all for the replies and the reviews of these two schools. It will be really helpful if any OUCOM graduate (OOS) could offer some insight on potential job opportunities after residency in the state of ohio in order to complete the 5yr contract agreement.