PCOM vs. NEOMED

[medskoolpls]

Need help! Deciding between PCOM and NEOMED

PCOM:
-DO
-only 2 hours away from home (NYC) close to family and significant other
-really loved everything about the school and location

NEOMED:
-MD
-7 hours away from home
- super rural, not used to living in the middle of nowhere
- liked the school, they have great rotation sites and affiliates such as cleveland clinic
- more expensive

Really want to do MD but I feel that I won't be happy at NEOMED. Also interviewed at NYITCOM but not top 2 for me. Considering reapplying..

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[deleted859689]

the fact you are considering reapplying makes me wanna say “yep, reapply!”

take MD - opens more doors in terms of residency. If you are set on FM then I guess you can consider PCOM if you liked the fit better.

 

[AnatomyGrey12]

NEOMED and it isn't close. Turning down an MD acceptance is the most fatal mistake an applicant can make.

 

[Fishwithadeagle]

What I think everyone is missing here is that NEOMED is 95k tuition for some years. It is insanely expensive, and still a primary care / rural focused school

 

[AnatomyGrey12]

What I think everyone is missing here is that NEOMED is 95k tuition for some years. It is insanely expensive, and still a primary care / rural focused school

I would easily pay that in tuition if it meant being an MD in the match.

 

[Aleaz]

You really cannot GET a good Residency slot unless you rotate thru that place and SHINE. MD vrs.D.O. only becomes an issue when you are wanting to apply to places who have NO IDEA who you are. RURAL FP: If that's your thing? Then go D.O. as the manipulation will be used a lot as well as regular allopathic medicine which you also learn as most of your Residencies are MD anyway and D.O.s do all the same same except they use manipulation and tend to see the whole...as advertised (I was a D.O. Army surgeon-retired now). Loan get paid off and D.O. schools ain't cheap either. Visit and see the student body--if you are non traditional? You will fit better as a D.O. because they look at the whole person applying--not just grades. UNLESS YOU WANT SURGERY OR ANOTHER SPECIALTY NOT FP. Believe me--I had an uphill battle.But Do schools want to know who you are and what you have done in the world...as a result, they like older, more experienced students too so the student body is much more diverse. If you are traditional? Either one will be good--just depends on where you want to go.

 

[TheDataKing]

You can get instate tuition in Ohio after the first year. Turning down an MD acceptance and reapplying would make your app DOA

 

[Fishwithadeagle]

I would easily pay that in tuition if it meant being an MD in the match.

What specialty are you going for? I've followed a lot of your posts, and you really really seem to dislike a lot of the prospects as a DO. I know being an MD in the match helps by a wide margin, but there are many other factors to how you will match. Availability of research, environment if you are happy in it, etc. With NEOMED, if you take someone who is not comfortable being completely rural, and trust me, it is literally a medical school in a cornfield, and put them in NEOMED, they are going to have a rough time. Sometimes you may be better served with some other DO schools if you are more comfortable to the point that you will do better and develop the contacts to match better (and not blow your brains out during medical school)

 

[Fishwithadeagle]

You can get instate tuition in Ohio after the first year. Turning down an MD acceptance and reapplying would make your app DOA

Fair enough, it definitely would make it DOA in many ways, but they are extremely heavy in-state preferenced, so I'm surprised they have accepted almost exclusively OOS on the SDN thread for it. No idea what is going on there, especially since they have a big shift in the removal of the 6year bsmd program (which opens up many new spots).

Though, it is true that you can apply for IS tuition, which does ease the blow a bit.

I understand why there is the stigma between MD's and DO's, and also how I think it is a bit unfair to both, but I do understand why MD's want to protect what is technically in their name.

 

[AnatomyGrey12]

What specialty are you going for? I've followed a lot of your posts, and you really really seem to dislike a lot of the prospects as a DO. I know being an MD in the match helps by a wide margin, but there are many other factors to how you will match. Availability of research, environment if you are happy in it, etc. With NEOMED, if you take someone who is not comfortable being completely rural, and trust me, it is literally a medical school in a cornfield, and put them in NEOMED, they are going to have a rough time. Sometimes you may be better served with some other DO schools if you are more comfortable to the point that you will do better and develop the contacts to match better (and not blow your brains out during medical school)

The MD opens doors even the best DO students can only dream of. It doesn’t matter about other factors of your app when a ton of programs in ANY field will screen you out because of the degree and will never see your app.

This isn’t even getting into having to take two tests, learn OMM, and deal with all the other crap that comes with DO schools.

Choosing a DO school over an MD one is one of the worst decisions anyone can make. Many people don’t fully realize the effect of that decision until they get residency interviews at the same places MDs are getting with a much lower quality application. If you don’t have the opportunity to go MD then you take the DO and do the best you can, but you should never reject MD in favor of the DO. I don’t care if it’s in a cornfield or not.

 

[enchantments]

Need help! Deciding between PCOM and NEOMED

PCOM:
-DO
-only 2 hours away from home (NYC) close to family and significant other
-really loved everything about the school and location

NEOMED:
-MD
-7 hours away from home
- super rural, not used to living in the middle of nowhere
- liked the school, they have great rotation sites and affiliates such as cleveland clinic
- more expensive

Really want to do MD but I feel that I won't be happy at NEOMED. Also interviewed at NYITCOM but not top 2 for me. Considering reapplying..

NEOMED.

This isn't like a situation where you could turn down your DO acceptance and MD schools would be none the wiser during your re-app cycle. MD schools will ask whether you turned any MD acceptances the cycle before (you did), and they will expect you to have had a damn good reason for doing so (you don't).

 

[DrStephenStrange]

The MD opens doors even the best DO students can only dream of. It doesn’t matter about other factors of your app when a ton of programs in ANY field will screen you out because of the degree and will never see your app.

This isn’t even getting into having to take two tests, learn OMM, and deal with all the other crap that comes with DO schools.

Choosing a DO school over an MD one is one of the worst decisions anyone can make. Many people don’t fully realize the effect of that decision until they get residency interviews at the same places MDs are getting with a much lower quality application. If you don’t have the opportunity to go MD then you take the DO and do the best you can, but you should never reject MD in favor of the DO. I don’t care if it’s in a cornfield or not.

Unless it's Caribbean MD which gives you worst prospects or CNU which has similar outcome as most DO schools and no federal loans.

 

[medskoolpls]

Thanks everyone for the input. I’m interested in internal medicine and im from NYC so I feel the change to moving to rootstown, ohio (super rural) would be way too drastic. Cant picture myself there. Only appealing thing about NEOMED is the MD. OOS tuition is 100k for the first year and if everything is virtual due to covid, id have to still stay in the middle of nowhere to qualify as a resident.
I loved everything about PCOM plus the fact that its a 2 hour drive from home rather than a 7 hour drive. Only thing holding me back is the extra OMM + COMLEX. I also want to match to residency in new york if that makes a difference..

 

[AnatomyGrey12]

Thanks everyone for the input. I’m interested in internal medicine and im from NYC so I feel the change to moving to rootstown, ohio (super rural) would be way too drastic. Cant picture myself there. Only appealing thing about NEOMED is the MD. OOS tuition is 100k for the first year and if everything is virtual due to covid, id have to still stay in the middle of nowhere to qualify as a resident.
I loved everything about PCOM plus the fact that its a 2 hour drive from home rather than a 7 hour drive. Only thing holding me back is the extra OMM + COMLEX. I also want to match to residency in new york if that makes a difference..

You can match in NY IM, as it’s full of crappy IM IMG sweatshops, but the really good programs simply won’t happen from a DO school. Look at where PCOM grads have consistently matched in IM in NY and see if you would be ok at similar programs. If yes then sure, go to PCOM.

 

[BTR41]

Neomed isn’t as rural as you make it seem. I mean it’s close to Kent which is a college town and it’s only like 20 minutes from Akron which is a suburb near Cleveland. Also the last two years you can choose to do your rotations near Cleveland or Akron...
I would look at the match lists Neomed has like a 50/50 between primary care and specialities. Which will allow you to keep your options open if you choose to not go into internal medicine. Good luck

 

[BSMDDAD]

NEOMED is not in a Midwestern backwater. It is in the outskirts of Cleveland Metro area. It takes about 40 minutes to get to Cleveland and its airport, about 25 minutes to Akron and only about 10 minutes to Kent. Kent State is a big Party School (although I am not sure with COVID-19 how many parties will there be and how many would you like to attend). Actually, there are students who live in Kent (even Akron) and commute everyday as most of the rotations are in Akron-Canton area. Yes, Cleveland is not New York City but still it has quite a few things to do. Also NEOMED is quite reputable medical school and I believe one of the health directors in New York is a NEOMED medical graduate. It is true that a significant number of graduates stay in-state for residency, but that is by choice as a large majority of students are from Ohio. Also, it is true about any state medical school in pretty much every state. Just like you want to stay close to home, so do they. Also as others have correctly pointed out Ohio is pretty good as far as attaining residency is concerned. You can pay in-state tuition after first year after attaining residency. I think it is a no brainer to go to NEOMED. I am from New York area and my children who grew up here did not have any issues getting adjusted in that part of Ohio.

 

[zorcandpals]

You could move to Cleveland for the first online year to try and transition yourself away from being used to the big city and still fulfill the residency requirement for tuition although Covid is probably going to be worse in Cleveland.

 

[djiboutiman]

Definitely don’t reapply. I’d say take the MD for the better opportunities. That being said, it’s not like your life is over if you choose DO. PCOM is one of the best DO programs. People on SDN really exaggerate MD vs. DO. Of course being a DO limits you to mostly the mid tier programs and makes matching into Derm, Neurosurg, and other competitive specialties unlikely (30%-50% chance). But you should choose where you’d be happiest, so if that’s PCOM go for it.