PCOM Discussion thread 2008-2009

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engineeredout said:
So I finally got the secondary letter mailed to me. Did anyone else think that this was probably the nicest admissions letter out of all the schools?

They addressed it "Dear Future Physician"

"I am enthusiastic about the prospect of you entering our Class of 2013".


Another nice thing, they have one of the cheaper secondary app fees.
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They butter you up in the beginning so they don't feel as guilty charging you $40k for tuition. Don't be fooled :laugh:

Just kidding. Its a great school and anyone who decides to come here can rest assured they will get good training.
 
yea that felt alittle ridiculous as i posted it. He chuckled.
 
This has probably been answered somewhere waaaaay down the thread, but has anyone (or know of anyone) been admitted to PCOM without having the "strongly recommended" MD or DO LOR? If not, I'm not sure if I should waste my time/money applying here, although I'd really like to have a shot at it because it seems like a great school (just based off what I read on SDN, never visited there yet).

Thanks!!
 
I got in with only a committee LOR.

I did have an MD submit a letter to the committee, but they said they were not going to forward it to the schools because they didn't like it. (In not so few words it's a long story).

So long story short. Yes.
 
So for the seconday question:


"Please attach a brief statement indicating why you wish to attend Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine and why you want to become an osteopathic physician"​


Talk about why DO, and in the same essay as why PCOM? I REALLY want to go here and I want to make my secondary as kickass as a premed secondary essay can be.

Uggg I don't like why DO specific questions. I feel like I'll sound like an idiot if I start quoting the general "holistic" and "treat the patient overall" thing.
 
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engineeredout said:
So for the seconday question:


“Please attach a brief statement indicating why you wish to attend Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine and why you want to become an osteopathic physician”​


Talk about why DO, and in the same essay as why PCOM? I REALLY want to go here and I want to make my secondary as kickass as a premed secondary essay can be.

Uggg I don't like why DO specific questions. I feel like I'll sound like an idiot if I start quoting the general "holistic" and "treat the patient overall" thing.
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Why don't you just answer it honestly? Don't try to overthink such a simple question.
 
engineeredout said:
So for the seconday question:


"Please attach a brief statement indicating why you wish to attend Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine and why you want to become an osteopathic physician"​


Talk about why DO, and in the same essay as why PCOM? I REALLY want to go here and I want to make my secondary as kickass as a premed secondary essay can be.

Uggg I don't like why DO specific questions. I feel like I'll sound like an idiot if I start quoting the general "holistic" and "treat the patient overall" thing.
Click to expand...
You could talk about OMM and how you're a very hands on person 😉.
 
I got an invitation for an interview today! I'm really excited. Does anyone know what kind of questions they will ask?
 
engineeredout said:
Oh, that... That was just for me to attempt to claim to be a URM by saying I'm a white male.
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Aaahhhh...good stragetic move.🙄 You have to promise to let me know how that works out. I think I will do the same thing, and when it comes to interview I'll just dress up in drag😀
 
So I'm applying to PCOM-GA and I was wondering how my stats looked compared to those applying here.

I graduated from Samford University in Spring '08, biology/pre-med.
- overall GPA - 3.28
- science GPA - 2.94
- all other GPA - 3.69

I'm currently taking histology, endocrinology, and cellular physiology, post-bac at UAB, which should help out with the lower science GPA.

I've taken the MCAT 3 times now, and my last attempt didn't change the score any.

Jan 2007 - 18M (5v/5p/8b-M)
July 2007 - 23K (6v/8p/9b-K) don't know what happened on the writing portion!
August 2008 - 23O (8v/7p/8b-O)

I have 800+ hours of volunteering in an ER, and have had a lot of "hands on" experience there. I've shadowed several physicians in the ER, as well as orthopedic surgeons and cardiologists. I also have been on several hurricane Katrina relief trips, inner city missions trips, and Hispanic healthcare clinic trips.

How do I stack up? BTW, I live in Alabama, if living in the southeast gives me an advantage (thought I read somewhere that they want to keep phyiscians in the southeast because it's underserved).
 
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I was just offered an interview at PCOM-GA with around a 3.33 cum. and 3.1 science. I had a 27 on mcat and a ton of ecs and shadowing. Thats all I can offer for advice. You aren't too far off from me, so who knows.
 
For those of you at the georgia campus, whats the deal with rotations? The PCOM website is not very helpful. Do you have full access to philly rotations in addition to whatever is in atlanta or they have set up? One of my big things I want is flexibility for audition rotations during 4th year as well.
 
honestly I have no idea.

I know the school was opened in GA because its one of the states estimated to be hit hardest with physician shortage... So it would make sense that they wouldn't want you getting too friendly with philadelphia... I mean, if you do all your rotations in phila. then you might choose res. here, then you wont practice in ga at all...

That is all 100% speculation though...
 
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Everywhere except major cities is short on doctors. A huge chunk of Georgia sucks, they're going to need more than forcing people to do rotations in the state to get them to stay there!
 
MossPoh said:
For those of you at the georgia campus, whats the deal with rotations? The PCOM website is not very helpful. Do you have full access to philly rotations in addition to whatever is in atlanta or they have set up? One of my big things I want is flexibility for audition rotations during 4th year as well.
Click to expand...

Philly and georgia have separate sites. You can rotate at the other schools site if it isn't being used by a member of that school. You would also have to work with the opposite schools clinical education department to find this out. The curriculum is "basically" the same between the two schools.
 
Bummer. Some fluidity would be nice.
 
As far as I know, you don't get free access to the Philly sites. However, I am getting the impression that we've got some pretty nice options for 3rd-year selectives, and we get five weeks of 4th-year electives too.

And we've got some pretty good sites for rotations, including a pretty big hospital about five miles from school.

I do not think anyone will be held back by the rotations they have set up for us. Especially now that we're a little more established.
 
Random question. ..
I got an interiew from PCOM but I'm not quite sure if its from PCOM or PCOM GA. PCOM GA interviews ARE held in GA only right?
 
MJ2008 said:
Random question. ..
I got an interiew from PCOM but I'm not quite sure if its from PCOM or PCOM GA. PCOM GA interviews ARE held in GA only right?
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Correct. There is an address in the email, either in PA or GA. Also, the subject says "Name - PCOM Interview" (PA) or "PCOM Georgia Interview" (GA).
 
JohnnyG, you are my hero because of your signature. After 4 years of going to Uni with a stupid Sheetz, the prospect of staying where a WaWa is in the yunk is so delicious.
 
TexasTriathlete said:
As far as I know, you don't get free access to the Philly sites. However, I am getting the impression that we've got some pretty nice options for 3rd-year selectives, and we get five weeks of 4th-year electives too.

And we've got some pretty good sites for rotations, including a pretty big hospital about five miles from school.

I do not think anyone will be held back by the rotations they have set up for us. Especially now that we're a little more established.
Click to expand...

Cool. You wanna know the real reason I am excited for the interview? A chance to meet the (in)famous TT.
 
Chocolate Bear said:
Correct. There is an address in the email, either in PA or GA. Also, the subject says "Name - PCOM Interview" (PA) or "PCOM Georgia Interview" (GA).
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Thanks CB. I know that was kind of a dumb question. . .but it seems application season makes everything a little hazy.

Hey, not to generalize, I know its hard to compare schools directly. . . but what do you think of PCOM vs KCUMB as far as the quality of the overall education?
 
MJ2008 said:
Thanks CB. I know that was kind of a dumb question. . .but it seems application season makes everything a little hazy.

Hey, not to generalize, I know its hard to compare schools directly. . . but what do you think of PCOM vs KCUMB as far as the quality of the overall education?
Click to expand...

Nah, not a dumb question.

I really don't know about comparing the two. I hear really great things about both. Check out the CIB and find out if either have anything in particular you are looking for. I know PCOM is very well established, etc. Not sure about KCUMB--though I've read some impressive things about it, too. I'd be willing to bet you'd get a solid education at either one.
 
Chocolate Bear said:
Nah, not a dumb question.

I really don't know about comparing the two. I hear really great things about both. Check out the CIB and find out if either have anything in particular you are looking for. I know PCOM is very well established, etc. Not sure about KCUMB--though I've read some impressive things about it, too. I'd be willing to bet you'd get a solid education at either one.
Click to expand...


Exactly the same conclusion I came to about all the schools where I'm interviewing. It seems the more research I do, the more equivalent each begins to look to one another. . . . I guess I'll just have to use my insticts as the final desicion maker. Thanks for the help as always!
 
An interesting note on the GA-PCOM rotation sites that was told to us during orientation week. According to the president of the Osteopathic Institute of the South, the rotation sites for GA-PCOM were established long before the school was even a thought. The OIS created the rotation sites to bring DO students to the south in the 80's and 90's to train in a different area of the country where DO's arent very well known. The track was successful and when word got out that PCOM was looking to expand somewhere that needed physicians, the OIS president contacted PCOM and told them about the rotation sites. PCOM decided Atlanta would be the perfect place to branch to, so they provided the funds to build the school, hire the professors, and to teach the first 2 years of school around the already established rotation sites. I know that in the school directory on the PCOM site, it has the list of all the sites. It is quite large and from talking to 3rd and 4th years, everyone seems happy so far. Our upperclassmen are being very well received in the hospitals and are said to be better clinically trained then students from MCG/Emory, etc. They have tracks in GA, FL, AL, and other surrounding states as well as the ability to do electives at different areas if you can arrange it. Going to PA would be possible, but would take some coordination b/t programs.
 
Thanks for the information. All of these schools seem so vague with things. Even after interviewing, I feel kind of left in the dark. So far I have left each place with the same feeling I've had coming in.
 
One of the things I really liked about this place was that they didn't really give a hard sales pitch or put on some huge presentation. It was pretty much an interview and a tour, and that was it. And I still left with a good feeling about the school. It felt like they had their **** together, and they aren't trying to be just another revenue-producer for PCOM (only 86 students in a class... realistically, if they just wanted to make money, this facility could handle probably twice that.

The teachers here are good. I'm not saying I love every lecture, but I don't feel like I'm wasting my time by going to class either. And I'm learning. Only time will tell if I'm learning enough, but people are passing their boards, so I guess they're doing something right.
 
Yo need that letter from the dean or registrar's office before you're considered complete right?
 
Anyone interviewing in Philly on 10/13? My interview is set for that date. (Also interviewing at Drexel on 10/14.)
 
I have yet to receive their secondary....Did you guys get that in the mail?? or email?
 
I got my secondary in the mail about 10 days after I was verified...
 
How long did it take PCOM to contact you for interviews after submitting secondaries?
 
Man out of 12 DO schools I applied to, I have received 8 interviews but am dying for PCOM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I received a letter almost 1 month ago saying I was complete. Ayyayyayy come on PCOM!!
 
You know what's a little frustrating? On the SDN interview feedback for PCOM, many students wrote on the PCOM-PA page for experiences with GA. And it throws me off. This is my official frustration post.
 
axylotl said:
Man out of 12 DO schools I applied to, I have received 8 interviews but am dying for PCOM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I received a letter almost 1 month ago saying I was complete. Ayyayyayy come on PCOM!!
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I only have one interview (MD) and I'm dying for a PCOM interview! I submitted everything this week so I guess I have to wait a bit....sadness.

PS looking at your mdapps makes me feel a bit ill. I don't like being in the same pile as you....talk about feeling inferior....
 
beachblonde said:
PS looking at your mdapps makes me feel a bit ill. I don't like being in the same pile as you....talk about feeling inferior....
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oh goodness please don't lol. I feel really honored to be part of this process with so many great applicants. I definitely have my set of weaknesses as well 🙂

I wish you luck with PCOM! If you don't mind me asking, which MD school did you interview at?
 
GA-PCOM used to have its own interview feedback, but they got rid of it for some reason and replaced it with George Washington when they reorganized that portion of the site. I sent a notice about it to a few mods, but nothing has been done about it in like 4 or 5 months.

khen7513 said:
You know what's a little frustrating? On the SDN interview feedback for PCOM, many students wrote on the PCOM-PA page for experiences with GA. And it throws me off. This is my official frustration post.
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In their 2ndary it just asks for one from the advisor and one from a physician.
I was wondering if they would look at other LORs on top of those?
I've got a couple good ones I'd like to send in.

Thanks
 
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