Philadelphia COM - Georgia (GA-PCOM) Discussion Thread 2013 - 2014

BU Medical Sciences
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There was just one interview group per day, right? Or was there two?
 
baboxxyun said:
There's 9 total (that's what they told me when i interviewed back in october). I'm assuming the school is about halfway done with the interviews at this point.
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So only once a month? They go until April...
 
Carl Seitan said:
There was just one interview group per day, right? Or was there two?
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They hold the interviews for other programs too on the DO interviews days (like for pharmacy and biomed). But, to my knowledge, it's only one time slot per date for a designated program.

Ski.the.East said:
So only once a month? They go until April...
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I don't think its once month consistently. Some months have two. In october there were two interview dates, one early in the month and one later in the month.
 
I received an ii on 12/24 for 1/6. I replied to confirm my attendance hours after receiving the invite but have yet to get a response. Has anyone else in this same situation received or not received a response?
 
spcallie58 said:
I received an ii on 12/24 for 1/6. I replied to confirm my attendance hours after receiving the invite but have yet to get a response. Has anyone else in this same situation received or not received a response?
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I'd guess that the delay is due to the holidays. Give them a call tomorrow to confirm and it should be fine.
 
spcallie58 said:
I received an ii on 12/24 for 1/6. I replied to confirm my attendance hours after receiving the invite but have yet to get a response. Has anyone else in this same situation received or not received a response?
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Yes. Exactly my situation. The fact that they were working Christmas Eve probably means that they got the rest of the week off, so I expect they'll send out the email tomorrow.
 
spcallie58 said:
I received an ii on 12/24 for 1/6. I replied to confirm my attendance hours after receiving the invite but have yet to get a response. Has anyone else in this same situation received or not received a response?
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I got my email today... If you didn't, make sure to check the spam folder.
 
soggydog said:
You mind telling us when you were complete?
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I turned in my secondary the first time on 10/7/13 but one of my professors had not signed her recommendation or put it on letter head. After waiting and checking up on admissions, my application was finally 100% complete on 12/13/13.
 
I'm a current 2nd yr student, so I figured I'd chime in on a couple things I've seen you guys ask.

Boards: We are the first class that will actually be allowed to take an optional month off (June or July) to study for boards, giving up a vacation month in our 4th yr. You also have the option to not take the month off and go ahead and start rotations. We have classes and tests until June 6th I believe so that optional month is the only dedicated study time. The school gives us access to some question banks as well. The schedule thus far for this year has been pretty ****ty so here's to hoping for something better 3rd term.

As far as rotations go, we just went through this process right before Christmas break. We are also the first class that has participated in an online match system. What was mentioned as far as the live in person lotto has been done away with. With the current system, you rank all the options which including all the atlanta tracks were 20 or so. Then, once everyone has submitted their rank list, "some magic algorithm" matches you to a location. It is supposed to match 85% of ppl with their top 4 choices. It worked semi-decently. We were given 3 weeks or so to do a one for one trade with another student then everything gets finalized and no switches are allowed. And since you will NEVER get this info from the school (we didnt even get it until a couple months before the selection process) there are Jtracks which are based in the ATL area up to 2 hrs or so in any direction. Half of your class will end up on Jtrack. THERE IS A TON OF TRAVELING. With those, you go to a new office/hospital every month and have to credential at every spot. Then there are anchors where you move to the location and do you rotations at the same 2-3 hospitals in the area. These include: Birmingham, AL, Montgomery, AL, Dothan, AL, Rome, GA, Warner Robbins, GA, Columbus, GA, Albany, GA, Milledgeville, GA, West Palm, FL and 2 new spots in PA. These change a little every year. Also, I saw some ask about preference with those who are married/families and no, they do not factor this in in any way. I am married and live in Lawrenceville with my husband who is in school in the area. I wanted Jtrack and got an anchor. No one wanted to trade their Jtrack and the school would not open another spot for me, so we are moving to Warner Robbins. Probably a blessing in disguise, as we are hearing horror stories from our 3rd yr comrades who have had numerous dropped/canceled rotations on Jtrack. I prob shouldnt be saying all this, but where you are for rotations is a huge deal to all of us personally and there has been a lot of frustration.

Feel free to message me with other questions, I will try to check every couple of weeks! And good luck
 
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rjelalam said:
I'm a current 2nd yr student, so I figured I'd chime in on a couple things I've seen you guys ask.

Boards: We are the first class that will actually be allowed to take an optional month off (June or July) to study for boards, giving up a vacation month in our 4th yr. You also have the option to not take the month off and go ahead and start rotations. We have classes and tests until June 6th I believe so that optional month is the only dedicated study time. The school gives us access to some question banks as well. The schedule thus far for this year has been pretty ****** so here's to hoping for something better 3rd term.

As far as rotations go, we just went through this process right before Christmas break. We are also the first class that has participated in an online match system. What was mentioned as far as the live in person lotto has been done away with. With the current system, you rank all the options which including all the atlanta tracks were 20 or so. Then, once everyone has submitted their rank list, "some magic algorithm" matches you to a location. It is supposed to match 85% of ppl with their top 4 choices. It worked semi-decently. We were given 3 weeks or so to do a one for one trade with another student then everything gets finalized and no switches are allowed. And since you will NEVER get this info from the school (we didnt even get it until a couple months before the selection process) there are Jtracks which are based in the ATL area up to 2 hrs or so in any direction. Half of your class will end up on Jtrack. THERE IS A TON OF TRAVELING. With those, you go to a new office/hospital every month and have to credential at every spot. Then there are anchors where you move to the location and do you rotations at the same 2-3 hospitals in the area. These include: Birmingham, AL, Montgomery, AL, Dothan, AL, Rome, GA, Warner Robbins, GA, Columbus, GA, Albany, GA, Milledgeville, GA, West Palm, FL and 2 new spots in PA. These change a little every year. Also, I saw some ask about preference with those who are married/families and no, they do not factor this in in any way. I am married and live in Lawrenceville with my husband who is in school in the area. I wanted Jtrack and got an anchor. No one wanted to trade their Jtrack and the school would not open another spot for me, so we are moving to Warner Robbins. Probably a blessing in disguise, as we are hearing horror stories from our 3rd yr comrades who have had numerous dropped/canceled rotations on Jtrack. I prob shouldnt be saying all this, but where you are for rotations is a huge deal to all of us personally and there has been a lot of frustration.

Feel free to message me with other questions, I will try to check every couple of weeks! And good luck
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So if you guys have class until June 6th, when do you start 3rd year rotations? Plus I heard that 3rd term is relatively easy which gives you time for boards. Sorry for being misinformed but what is a J track?
 
Anybody know any Very cheap hotels near Suwanee? I don't care about quality for a one night stay. Ill be there 1/6.
 
EMDO2018 said:
So if you guys have class until June 6th, when do you start 3rd year rotations? Plus I heard that 3rd term is relatively easy which gives you time for boards. Sorry for being misinformed but what is a J track?
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We start actual rotations August 1st with ACS (advanced clinical skills on campus) either June or July depending what month we decide to take off. This is all new so we are still working it out. And Jtracks are the Atlanta tracks (sites within 2-3 hrs of campus) where you stay living here and just drive to your site each day which changes every month.
 
EMDO2018 said:
Anybody know any Very cheap hotels near Suwanee? I don't care about quality for a one night stay. Ill be there 1/6.
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I got a room at red roof off 85 (against the advice on this thread) because it was $50 as opposed to $100-150 of many of the other hotels in the area. Like you said, it's one night.
 
EMDO2018 said:
Anybody know any Very cheap hotels near Suwanee? I don't care about quality for a one night stay. Ill be there 1/6.
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Just go to Priceline and see what has the best rate. You can stay in a good hotel for $75 per night.
 
rjelalam said:
We start actual rotations August 1st with ACS (advanced clinical skills on campus) either June or July depending what month we decide to take off. This is all new so we are still working it out. And Jtracks are the Atlanta tracks (sites within 2-3 hrs of campus) where you stay living here and just drive to your site each day which changes every month.
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Thank you rjelalam for all of this information - this is something very serious to take into consideration. Like you said, the school would never tell us this because I almost see it as a negative. 2-3 hours of travel/day just to get to a clinical rotation?! That seems way overboard.
 
Ski.the.East said:
Thank you rjelalam for all of this information - this is something very serious to take into consideration. Like you said, the school would never tell us this because I almost see it as a negative. 2-3 hours of travel/day just to get to a clinical rotation?! That seems way overboard.
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To be more clear, for Jtracks if your site is more than 60 miles from the campus they will provide housing for you for that rotations, but under that (which can still be 1-1.5 hrs) you have to drive everyday (sometimes through ATL traffic). Some sites are close to campus, some are not. That's the risk that comes with doing Jtrack vs. Anchor.
 
rjelalam said:
To be more clear, for Jtracks if your site is more than 60 miles from the campus they will provide housing for you for that rotations, but under that (which can still be 1-1.5 hrs) you have to drive everyday (sometimes through ATL traffic). Some sites are close to campus, some are not. That's the risk that comes with doing Jtrack vs. Anchor.
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I know the lottery system is new, but did it seem like those who ranked the anchor tracks over Jtracks were more likely to get their choice? Also, if you go with the Jtrack, do you have any say about which hospitals you will rotate through or is it all set up for you?
 
jayoh said:
I know the lottery system is new, but did it seem like those who ranked the anchor tracks over Jtracks were more likely to get their choice? Also, if you go with the Jtrack, do you have any say about which hospitals you will rotate through or is it all set up for you?
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Most ppl in the class, regardless of what they wanted, got their choice. I believe there are only 10 or so who are really unhappy. Your chances of getting anything in particular depend greatly on your class. Like who wants to move, who has a family and will rank Jtracks, ect...For the Jtracks, you are in a group of 5 and among your group you decide who goes where for each rotation. So for ex, Peds there are 5 site I believe so you decide who goes where between your group.
 
rjelalam said:
Most ppl in the class, regardless of what they wanted, got their choice. I believe there are only 10 or so who are really unhappy. Your chances of getting anything in particular depend greatly on your class. Like who wants to move, who has a family and will rank Jtracks, ect...For the Jtracks, you are in a group of 5 and among your group you decide who goes where for each rotation. So for ex, Peds there are 5 site I believe so you decide who goes where between your group.
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Ok cool. I guess I can see pros and cons to both Jtracks and anchor tracks, being that I have a family as well.

But it does seem like (using your example) if there are 5 different hospital choices, and one is piedmont in atlanta, and another is union general hospital in blairsville... that could cause some complication. Have you experienced/heard of this being an issue?
 
jayoh said:
Ok cool. I guess I can see pros and cons to both Jtracks and anchor tracks, being that I have a family as well.

But it does seem like (using your example) if there are 5 different hospital choices, and one is piedmont in atlanta, and another is union general hospital in blairsville... that could cause some complication. Have you experienced/heard of this being an issue?
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Your are absolutely right, If you get a crappy group who is always butting heads its going to be a pain. I've heard of one guy already refusing to travel for Jtracks so his group is kinda pissed about that. You just hope everyone can be an adult and make it fair!
 
rjelalam said:
Your are absolutely right, If you get a crappy group who is always butting heads its going to be a pain. I've heard of one guy already refusing to travel for Jtracks so his group is kinda pissed about that. You just hope everyone can be an adult and make it fair!
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Haha oh boy. Well thank you for the information. It is extremely helpful and appreciated.
 
jayoh said:
Haha oh boy. Well thank you for the information. It is extremely helpful and appreciated.
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Jayoh if you and I end up in a j track together it could be simple you take hospitals north of Atl and I take the south side hahaha but for real I would hope people would try to split the longer drives that's kinda BS that the one person is refusing to travel and if so he/she should have switched to an anchor track
 
lcollier7 said:
Jayoh if you and I end up in a j track together it could be simple you take hospitals north of Atl and I take the south side hahaha but for real I would hope people would try to split the longer drives that's kinda BS that the one person is refusing to travel and if so he/she should have switched to an anchor track
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haha deal
 
I'm sure it's been posted on here before, but would someone mind posting the secondary essay question? Still waiting on the secondary and want to get it out as soon as I receive it. Thanks!
 
Ski.the.East said:
Thank you rjelalam for all of this information - this is something very serious to take into consideration. Like you said, the school would never tell us this because I almost see it as a negative. 2-3 hours of travel/day just to get to a clinical rotation?! That seems way overboard.
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This point was actually mentioned during our intreview day. The person who mentioned this was very clear about the pros and cons of the different tracks, distances, time, etc
 
soggydog said:
I'm sure it's been posted on here before, but would someone mind posting the secondary essay question? Still waiting on the secondary and want to get it out as soon as I receive it. Thanks!
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Please respond to the following essay topic, limiting your response to 250 words.
We recommend typing your essay in a Word document and pasting into the field below.
  • * Noting the missions and objectives of the Osteopathic profession and PCOM, please describe your personal characteristics that demonstrate your interest in this field. Include an example of an event in which your actions directly influenced the life of another person and relate this to your goal of becoming a DO.
 
TXKnight said:
This point was actually mentioned during our intreview day. The person who mentioned this was very clear about the pros and cons of the different tracks, distances, time, etc
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I agree, and the students we met also told us their experiences. The only thing they were vague about was the actual hospitals that they rotate through.
 
I also think it's worth noting that all of my friends at MCG (in their third year) are traveling quite a bit for their rotations. Some have been staying with me for their rotations at AMC/emory because otherwise it would be 2+ hours from augusta.
 
jayoh said:
I also think it's worth noting that all of my friends at MCG (in their third year) are traveling quite a bit for their rotations. Some have been staying with me for their rotations at AMC/emory because otherwise it would be 2+ hours from augusta.
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Wow! All of this is so crazy to me...

Can we, as future GA-PCOM Class of 2018 SDN'ers, make a pact not to be jerks to our group members in the J-track?
 
Carl Seitan said:
Please respond to the following essay topic, limiting your response to 250 words.
We recommend typing your essay in a Word document and pasting into the field below.
  • * Noting the missions and objectives of the Osteopathic profession and PCOM, please describe your personal characteristics that demonstrate your interest in this field. Include an example of an event in which your actions directly influenced the life of another person and relate this to your goal of becoming a DO.
Click to expand...

Thanks!
 
jayoh said:
I agree, and the students we met also told us their experiences. The only thing they were vague about was the actual hospitals that they rotate through.
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+1.
Also, there is a list of the hospitals we can rotate through somewhere in this thread, Carl Seitan posted got that for us, though you may have already seen it.
 
TXKnight said:
+1.
Also, there is a list of the hospitals we can rotate through somewhere in this thread, Carl Seitan posted got that for us, though you may have already seen it.
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Just want to mention that the list he posted is a little misleading. You can do electives at those places, but for core (required rotations) in Jtrack there are 5-6 sites for each specialty and you split them up among your group. So you can't just pick a hospital from that list and do any rotation there. Just to be clear about that list!
 
Here's the most recent match list if anyone is curious. This is me procrastinating for an endocrine test. The numbers are low bc this class matriculated before they increased the class size.
 

Attachments

rjelalam said:
Just want to mention that the list he posted is a little misleading. You can do electives at those places, but for core (required rotations) in Jtrack there are 5-6 sites for each specialty and you split them up among your group. So you can't just pick a hospital from that list and do any rotation there. Just to be clear about that list!
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So in each group, somebody ends up getting the short end of the stick and rotating at a place that sucks. So seems like the anchor sites are the better deal. Are there any negatives to the anchor sites besides having to move out of Atlanta.
 
EMDO2018 said:
So in each group, somebody ends up getting the short end of the stick and rotating at a place that sucks. So seems like the anchor sites are the better deal. Are there any negatives to the anchor sites besides having to move out of Atlanta.
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Right. I think the groups try to split up the travelling evenly so the same person isn't getting shafted each time but you never know who you will end up in a group with. I haven't heard many negatives about the anchors. I know you can get dropped from a rotation regardless what track your on, but at least if you at an anchor they can just find someone else in the hospital to take you. If you get dropped from a Jtrack, you could end up on a dif side of ATL than what you planned for that month. I could tell you tons of pros for anchors, but few for Jtrack.
 
If you do an anchor, how far are some of the sites that you can end up rotating at? I know with the Jtracks, some can be one or two hours away depending on where you're coming from.
 
EMDO2018 said:
So in each group, somebody ends up getting the short end of the stick and rotating at a place that sucks. So seems like the anchor sites are the better deal. Are there any negatives to the anchor sites besides having to move out of Atlanta.
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I don't think anyone is implying that someone gets "the short end of the stick" for every single rotation on Jtrack. I only meant to suggest that it COULD cause some issues. If you have a good group then it could be good for everyone.
 
Carl Seitan said:
If you do an anchor, how far are some of the sites that you can end up rotating at? I know with the Jtracks, some can be one or two hours away depending on where you're coming from.
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As far as I know, at an anchor, the most I've heard is like 30 min driving.
 
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