Hi! I was accepted at Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine, and am very excited! However, I feel like I have a lot of questions remaining following my interview. Could any PCOM students comment on the following?
- How many hours of class do you have per day in the first and second years?
- Is the curriculum strictly lecture based? Is there any small group learning?
- Are there elective courses offered (such as medical humanities courses)?
- As far as clinical rotations, how are they assigned? Are most students sent to distant locations?
- If you have interest in working in a specific environment (such as an academic medical center), are there opportunities to complete rotations in these settings?
- Are there research opportunities for students? Is the faculty open to students working on research at other locations (during the summer, for example)?
- How is the social life? Do students tend to student together/hang out together outside of class? How is the work/life balance?
Current M3.
-BS1026 above outlined the 1st and 2nd year schedule pretty well. I will caveat it with this--I don't think most days after spom are 8-12. Generally, there's an OMM lecture or two (or different lecture) after lunch. Rarely until 4, but often times until 2 or 3. Also, OMM lab once per week for an hour and a half in the afternoon throughout all of 1st and 2nd year, so I wouldn't plan on being done at noon each day.
-Mostly lecture based. Some small group learning, but honestly, I'd say very little.
-No electives. See BS1026's answer above.
-Again, outlined above well. I will say that the office of clinical ED are moving more and more towards CCC's for rotations. I believe their goal was 50% in a CCC by the time the C/O 2020 starts clinical rotations. Also, CCC's are about 50/50 in Philly/outside of Philly. There's AtlantiCare, Reading, Conemaugh Medical, Geisinger Danville, Geisinger Northeast, Lehigh Valley, and UPMC Horizon. These are all outside of Philly. The only ones in Philly are Einstein, MainLine, and Mercy (to be fair, these three hold about 50% of the CCC students). Put it this way-if you want to stay in Philly and not be farmed out, you should be able to do so fairly easily. Most J group people end up having to spend 1 or 2 months somewhere else, but generally minimal. You will not get stuck in a CCC if you don't want to (you only bid for CCC's if you want them, otherwise, you bid for your J group). Also, brand new is the elimination of the rural rotation and the Sub-i rotation in 4th year. Rural guaranteed you'd be gone for a month. Sub-i was ~50/50 whether you were in Philly or not. Now those months are just electives. So schedule is slowly changing for the better, IMO.
-Opportunities to work in an academic medical center-Best bet is Einstein. Highly academic, and you stay at one hospital the entire year. MainLine is academic as well, but there are 4 hospitals and only one houses the residency programs. Choosing MainLine means you'll have only a couple rotations 3rd year at the main hospital, and then somewhat equal time at the other 3. Lehigh Valley in Allentown is also an academic hospital with a lot of programs as well. It's one hospital and you're there all year. I can't comment on the other CCC's because I'm not sure how academic they actually are. J groups is hit or miss whether you're at an academic program or community hospital. That being said, it's nice to make some connections with program directors and the like, but community hospitals really do give awesome hands-on learning experience. Case in point: if you're at a major program for OB/Gyn, you're 3-4 people deep-->attending/chief resident/junior resident/possible 4th year/then you. The opportunity to actually deliver a baby or be involved in the surgery is sometimes a bit remote. By contrast, in a community hospital, you're often just one on one with the attending, and I have to say I probably caught 15ish babies in my couple weeks on L&D. It's a give and take.
-Research-there are opportunities if you want them. In general, it's only all that important if you're going into a specialty that requires it or is research heavy. I am not, so I never did any.
-Social life--definitely PEP's. You find your group of friends and are as social as you want to be. Personally, I have a family, so I was never at post-exam parties or big get-togethers. 99% of my time was spent at home with my husband and kids. But there is plenty of time to socialize. 1st and 2nd year is decent for this. Less so in 3rd (and presumably 4th) years as everyone is all spread out and on different schedules. I think work/life balance is totally fine. I suppose it depends on your level of expectation for this. I expected med school to be a horribly grueling, soul-sucking experience. I had my months where it was like a never-ending black hole, but I'd say that more often than not, it's been fine. If you go in thinking it's all roses and butterflies and you'll have every weekend off to go to the shore, then you'll be pretty disappointed!
