PNWU-COM Discussion Thread 2009-2010

Getting into Med School is Hard? Not with BeMo.
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marshac said:
Thanks, you too :)

Where did you sit in the morning classroom session? I was up in the front row, center.
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I was second row on the far right. You were the one from Yakima if i remember correctly?
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It was probably just to be able to put faces to names even more than the name badges.

but other than that I really don't know why they would do that
 
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Waitlisted...

Anyone know how the waitlist works for this school?:confused:
 
cranialnecrosis said:
Waitlisted...

Anyone know how the waitlist works for this school?:confused:
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Sorry to hear that. You could call LeAnn and ask- expressing an interest in attending the school while on a waitlist never hurt anyone. Regardless though, it sounds like there is a lot of movement on the wait-list, so I wouldn't get too discouraged- it's better than a rejection for sure.
 
cranialnecrosis said:
Waitlisted...

Anyone know how the waitlist works for this school?:confused:
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I'm currently a first-year student at PNWU-COM; I was wait-listed too after I interviewed, and got a late offer in May of 2009. Don't get discouraged! The wait-list is not a bad thing; I would definitely encourage you to contact LeAnn Hunter if you have questions or are looking for updates as to movement on the list. It definitely moves!
 
cranialnecrosis said:
Waitlisted...

Anyone know how the waitlist works for this school?:confused:
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I talked to LeAnn after I was waitlisted last month. She said that they will continue interviewing, then re-evaluate/rank the entire waitlist in early-April. They will notify those who are in the top-10, and proceed to fill available spots.

She said that the calls can be as late as June, and last year there were around 20 waitlisters accepted. We should definitely remain optimistic - and just wait some more! :D
 
I have a quick question about the school for any current students (or applicants, if they know):

I took a tour of the school over Christmas break and the tour-guide said that all students are required to do a family medicine residency after graduation. Is this true? How is it enforced?

I apologize if this has been answered before.
 
thesauce said:
I have a quick question about the school for any current students (or applicants, if they know):

I took a tour of the school over Christmas break and the tour-guide said that all students are required to do a family medicine residency after graduation. Is this true? How is it enforced?

I apologize if this has been answered before.
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I did not hear this fact, and i dont believe they (or anywhere else for that matter) can force you to do any specific residency.
 
Mesican24 said:
I did not hear this fact, and i dont believe they (or anywhere else for that matter) can force you to do any specific residency.
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I would agree that they can't force you, but I can see how they could make it very difficult to do otherwise. For instance, they could simply not let you do rotations in certain specialties, say orthopedic surgery for instance. It would be hard to apply to ortho without having done an ortho rotation. They could also not provide you with a dean's letter (a required part of the residency application) if you don't apply for FM. I'm not saying this would happen, but I've always wondered how far a school would go to promote their primary care agenda. And what they said threw me for a loop.

I asked if they would allow peds, ob/gyn, or IM and they mentioned that you can do whatever you want after your FM residency, but that needs to be done first. I just thought it was interesting.

Other thoughts on this from current students?
 
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I just looked at the posted student handbook, and found nothing about residency in there.
 
thesauce said:
Well, I sure hope it's not true. Forcing students into specialties is not a good idea. I wonder why he said that.
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That is some crazy steep tuition if everyone is forced to go into FP afterwards. Now if their tuition was some of the lowest in the country and you matriculated with knowing you had to go into FP, I don't see a problem with that.
 
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thesauce said:
Ha. No, I didn't make that mistake.
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The day I interviewed, it was made quite clear that PNWU wanted to get more physicians in the rural NW, but we were also told that they were planning on getting many different residency programs set up locally that would encompass more than just primary care. Besides that, all DO's that are eligible can apply to the AOA and ACGME match which covers all specialties. The only program I know of that will "make" you go into primary care is at LECOM and you have to sign up for it so it really doesn't force anyone into anything they don't already want to do. That program is quite a deal and if I had decided to attend there I may have gone for it because you finish school in three years instead of 4 and primary care has some really great fields.

On a side note... did you do OSU or UW BioE?

Edit: I guess they could withhold a letter or something, but that would be a very unprofessional action and I've seen nothing but professionalism from the staff so far. Besides, there are only about 85 AOA ortho spots nation wide... slim chance that many of us will even be competitive (or desire to go into the field) for such positions when that day comes.
 
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thesauce said:
I have a quick question about the school for any current students (or applicants, if they know):

I took a tour of the school over Christmas break and the tour-guide said that all students are required to do a family medicine residency after graduation. Is this true? How is it enforced?

I apologize if this has been answered before.
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Your tour guide must have misspoke. They will not force us into family medicine. First, I don't think they can. I don't think the school gets to find out what programs you are ranking when applying for residencies. We also didn't sign any kind of contract stipulating that we would choose FM.

Second, the school is very supportive of people choosing the specialty that works for them. We have clubs for all kinds of specialties (FM, surgery, OG/GYN, EM, etc.). It's counterproductive to bring in a bunch of family practicioners into the northwest if some of them don't like what they are doing.

Obviously the school's goal is to end up with a bunch of people practicing primary care in the northwest, but they have often stated that that includes fields like OB, FM, IM, general surgery, etc.

Best of luck everyone. I came in off the waitlist too, so keep up hope.
 
Limvostov said:
The day I interviewed, it was made quite clear that PNWU wanted to get more physicians in the rural NW, but we were also told that they were planning on getting many different residency programs set up locally that would encompass more than just primary care.
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Definitely glad to hear that. I know Kadlec in Richland is on its way to getting a few set up.

Limvostov said:
Besides that, all DO's that are eligible can apply to the AOA and ACGME match which covers all specialties. The only program I know of that will "make" you go into primary care is at LECOM and you have to sign up for it so it really doesn't force anyone into anything they don't already want to do. That program is quite a deal and if I had decided to attend there I may have gone for it because you finish school in three years instead of 4 and primary care has some really great fields.
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Agreed. It sounds like LECOM has a good arrangement and I'm glad that they're upfront about it.

Limvostov said:
On a side note... did you do OSU or UW BioE?
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Neither, why?

Limvostov said:
Edit: I guess they could withhold a letter or something, but that would be a very unprofessional action and I've seen nothing but professionalism from the staff so far. Besides, there are only about 85 AOA ortho spots nation wide... slim chance that many of us will even be competitive (or desire to go into the field) for such positions when that day comes.
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I agree that they seem to be very professional at the school and I don't think they would withhold a letter to push you into a certain specialty. It was just the discussion with the tour-guide that got me a little confused. Ortho was just an example, but you can insert any subspecialty. If you don't do a rotation in it, you're probably not going to match.
 
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Limvostov said:
The day I interviewed, it was made quite clear that PNWU wanted to get more physicians in the rural NW, but we were also told that they were planning on getting many different residency programs set up locally that would encompass more than just primary care. Besides that, all DO's that are eligible can apply to the AOA and ACGME match which covers all specialties. The only program I know of that will "make" you go into primary care is at LECOM and you have to sign up for it so it really doesn't force anyone into anything they don't already want to do. That program is quite a deal and if I had decided to attend there I may have gone for it because you finish school in three years instead of 4 and primary care has some really great fields.

On a side note... did you do OSU or UW BioE?

Edit: I guess they could withhold a letter or something, but that would be a very unprofessional action and I've seen nothing but professionalism from the staff so far. Besides, there are only about 85 AOA ortho spots nation wide... slim chance that many of us will even be competitive (or desire to go into the field) for such positions when that day comes.
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Oh, FYI about your avatar: some guy who's last name was "Noid" held a bunch of people at a Domino's Pizza hostage because he was pissed off about their "avoid the Noid" promotion. :eek:
 
Laryngoscope said:
Your tour guide must have misspoke. They will not force us into family medicine.
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I'm definitely glad that they aren't stipulating specialties for you guys. However, I don't think that he simply misspoke because I challenged him on it by asking if other PC specialties would be acceptable (peds, ob/gyn, IM) and he said that you could only do that after FM residency.

Laryngoscope said:
First, I don't think they can. I don't think the school gets to find out what programs you are ranking when applying for residencies.
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You'll have multiple meetings with your dean about applications/dean's letter before it's actually written. If the school is only supporting an FM residency, it could simply just be written that way in the dean's letter. Trying to apply to any specialty when your letters contradict each other would be hard. The dean has more power than you might guess. Hypothetically, an applicant could lie (or omit info) to the dean until after the match, that's up to them, but it's really walking on thin ice.

Laryngoscope said:
We also didn't sign any kind of contract stipulating that we would choose FM.
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This is really the kicker. I think there would be hell to pay if they weren't upfront about it. If current students haven't heard this, it's probably not true.

Laryngoscope said:
Second, the school is very supportive of people choosing the specialty that works for them. We have clubs for all kinds of specialties (FM, surgery, OG/GYN, EM, etc.). It's counterproductive to bring in a bunch of family practicioners into the northwest if some of them don't like what they are doing.
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We're in agreement about that. FM isn't for everyone.

Laryngoscope said:
Obviously the school's goal is to end up with a bunch of people practicing primary care in the northwest, but they have often stated that that includes fields like OB, FM, IM, general surgery, etc.
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Sounds like the tour guide was mistaken.
 
thesauce said:
I have a quick question about the school for any current students (or applicants, if they know):

I took a tour of the school over Christmas break and the tour-guide said that all students are required to do a family medicine residency after graduation. Is this true? How is it enforced?

I apologize if this has been answered before.
Click to expand...

Would you mind letting us know, if you know, if you toured with a student, staff member, or possibly a volunteer... I think that makes a big difference as to what information you may have received (about the rotations and residencies anyway) As for the information given about residencies-- I mix rotations/residencies up in speech all the time and I'd put money on the tour guide doing the same thing. There is the requirement of doing family practice rotations in rural settings.. this is possibly what your guide was referring to.

PNWU is no way enforcing us to choose any specific residency program. They encourage primary care, which includes FP, IM, ER, Peds, etc. but in no way discourage others. We have never been told that we are to only consider primary care (however, there will be a heavier emphasis on setting up primary care residencies most likely).
 
I can "second" these statements. As a student I know for a fact they are NOT forcing us into any sort of specialty. Their emphasis is about starting up a great school and making sure we are all the best physicians we can possibly be (sounds like a bad ripoff of the army slogan haha).

I am pretty focused on doing EM, and I even shadow some of the faculty on the weekends to get exposure. They have done a great job encouraging us to explore what we enjoy the most about medicine, and though the mission statement of the school is to get an influx of primary care physicians of the northwest they are not limiting us in any way. Though I can say, after looking at FP a little bit more, its not a bad rap... :)
 
heaterfeater said:
Would you mind letting us know, if you know, if you toured with a student, staff member, or possibly a volunteer... I think that makes a big difference as to what information you may have received (about the rotations and residencies anyway) As for the information given about residencies-- I mix rotations/residencies up in speech all the time and I'd put money on the tour guide doing the same thing. There is the requirement of doing family practice rotations in rural settings.. this is possibly what your guide was referring to.

PNWU is no way enforcing us to choose any specific residency program. They encourage primary care, which includes FP, IM, ER, Peds, etc. but in no way discourage others. We have never been told that we are to only consider primary care (however, there will be a heavier emphasis on setting up primary care residencies most likely).
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It was a volunteer. Really great tour-guide except for that statement, which was clearly wrong. I wouldn't want to single anyone out.
 
Sandlot13 said:
I can "second" these statements. As a student I know for a fact they are NOT forcing us into any sort of specialty. Their emphasis is about starting up a great school and making sure we are all the best physicians we can possibly be (sounds like a bad ripoff of the army slogan haha).

I am pretty focused on doing EM, and I even shadow some of the faculty on the weekends to get exposure. They have done a great job encouraging us to explore what we enjoy the most about medicine, and though the mission statement of the school is to get an influx of primary care physicians of the northwest they are not limiting us in any way. Though I can say, after looking at FP a little bit more, its not a bad rap... :)
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Yeah, FM is pretty great, just not for everyone. EM can also be a lot of fun.

Thanks for the clarification and good luck with whatever you choose to pursue.
 
Meecho said:
Anyone else interviewing March 12th?
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I am! I had originally selected the 22nd due to another commitment, but I realized that this late in the game I should interview on the earliest date they had available. So I called and took the last 3/12 spot apparently. I'm excited to see the school and Yakima!
 
Hyperchondria said:
I am! I had originally selected the 22nd due to another commitment, but I realized that this late in the game I should interview on the earliest date they had available. So I called and took the last 3/12 spot apparently. I'm excited to see the school and Yakima!
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What state are you from? I heard PNWU favors in state applicants but I am coming from New Jersey...keeping fingers crossed and I look forward to meeting you on interview day :) Congrats!
 
Meecho said:
What state are you from? I heard PNWU favors in state applicants but I am coming from New Jersey...keeping fingers crossed and I look forward to meeting you on interview day :) Congrats!
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I'm from Oregon for the last six years...and Oklahoma before that. I'm not sure how heavily PNWU favors in-staters (or in-regioners), but I'm sure they give everyone a fair shake. Good luck to you and I look forward to meeting you as well!
 
I believe they actually mention on their website that they prefer applicants with Northwest roots/ties
 
Has anyone who interviewed on Feb 22nd heard back yet? I know the group will be notified of acceptances either today or tomorrow morning.
 
Keep your hopes up, try sending a letter of intent if this school is one of your top choices. I met a lot of students who were accepted off the waitlist on my interview.
 
I just wanted to give a shout out to those who have recently been waitlisted . . . don't be discouraged!!! I was waitlisted too, and I am currently finishing up my first year at PNWU. Feels a little weird to actually say "finishing up the first year. . ." I had the realization this morning we are at exactly the half-way point of the semester.
 
healthwonk said:
I just wanted to give a shout out to those who have recently been waitlisted . . . don't be discouraged!!! I was waitlisted too, and I am currently finishing up my first year at PNWU. Feels a little weird to actually say "finishing up the first year. . ." I had the realization this morning we are at exactly the half-way point of the semester.
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On a different but similar note, I was also waitlisted last year with no luck. I liked PNWU enough that I actually turned down another acceptance that year and sent in a letter of intent and still had no luck. It doens't bother me much as I will be a part of the Class of 2014 and was actually able to have quite the enjoyable year off.
 
tele turnin said:
On a different but similar note, I was also waitlisted last year with no luck. I liked PNWU enough that I actually turned down another acceptance that year and sent in a letter of intent and still had no luck. It doens't bother me much as I will be a part of the Class of 2014 and was actually able to have quite the enjoyable year off.
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Are all waitlisters guaranteed a spot in the following year's class? This doesn't seem right.

I would love it if this was the case... I am on the waitlist.
 
CunningCaregivr said:
Are all waitlisters guaranteed a spot in the following year's class? This doesn't seem right.

I would love it if this was the case... I am on the waitlist.
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Sorry, but no. Tele Turnin applied again and got in this time around (yay!)
I know KCOM gives out "accepted pending a seat," but I haven't heard of PNWU doing the same.

But keep your chin up and hopefully we'll see you in August!
 
CunningCaregivr said:
Are all waitlisters guaranteed a spot in the following year's class? This doesn't seem right.

I would love it if this was the case... I am on the waitlist.
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Sometimes applicants are given deferred acceptances, but not always. The waitlist does seem to move a fair amount for every school so don't give up. :)
 
Just got an email today about the start of them building a brand new building! Should be done sometime within a year from now, which is exciting as the floor plan has a student lounge, another large classroom, some study space for students, and what looks like some planned area for prof's to use for research purposes!!! Sweet!
 
Sandlot13 said:
Just got an email today about the start of them building a brand new building! Should be done sometime within a year from now, which is exciting as the floor plan has a student lounge, another large classroom, some study space for students, and what looks like some planned area for prof's to use for research purposes!!! Sweet!
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You should take a walk outside to see the outline of the building before you talk about how sweet it is.
 
milenko said:
You should take a walk outside to see the outline of the building before you talk about how sweet it is.
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Maybe you should drive to Yakima and take a look or... Google Earth it. It's up on there already.
 
milenko said:
You should take a walk outside to see the outline of the building before you talk about how sweet it is.
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Hey any new building is sweet! Cant complain about progress if you ask me :)
 
Roberie said:
No kidding. I was stoked to hear about this new building. Also noticed they revamped the webpage. Much easier to navigate now, by the way.
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+1

oh my gosh, it looks so much better than the old one :)
 
Looks like they lost there Boise/Caldwell/Nampa training site that was planned....bummer.
 
I'm a current CWU biochem student and I live in Yakima. I know several Yakima residents that plan of applying to PNWU but I have no idea of how many are currently attending. I know that the school has a preference for NW applicants but I would like to know more about Central Washington applicants. Does PNWU offer any other programs than DO? The website sort of talks about them, but doesn't offer up much detail.

New too the forum, I hope I've posted this message in the right spot!!!

Thanks,
GM
 
GidgetMarie said:
I'm a current CWU biochem student and I live in Yakima. I know several Yakima residents that plan of applying to PNWU but I have no idea of how many are currently attending. I know that the school has a preference for NW applicants but I would like to know more about Central Washington applicants. Does PNWU offer any other programs than DO? The website sort of talks about them, but doesn't offer up much detail.

New too the forum, I hope I've posted this message in the right spot!!!

Thanks,
GM
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GM,

PNWU should be starting a PA program in the near future, I think it is working on getting preliminary accreditation. Currently the DO is the only program. When I interviewed there were students from the entire West Coast and a few Midwesterners.

If you are local and you have lots of questions you should contact the school and arrange a tour.
 
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This isn't really a response to anything in particular, but with regard to their potential future PA program I'm glad the DO students are the only ones there at this point.

Before my interview at PNWU I was pretty set upon attending Midwestern and they seem to offer every degree under the sun for health professionals. For example, all the hubbub and new construction revolved around their new dental program. As an applicant, it seemed like all the attention had been diverted from the DO students and perhaps their tuition money, as well. At least that's what I took from the experience.

Anyway, with everything still so new at PNWU, I would be disappointed if they rushed into expanding their degree repertoire prematurely.
 
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