RVU-CO vs. UNECOM

[PreMedHeart]

Hi all,

I am hoping to get some feedback on UNECOM vs. RVUCOM. To be clear- I have not been accepted to either at this point. I am interviewing at RVU-CO soon, and was invited to interview at UNECOM around 3-4 weeks after my RVU-CO interview. RVU-CO has a fairly high interview acceptance rate, so I am asking assuming I will get in. IF I get in, I am not sure if I should attend my UNECOM interview (though this is complicated because they give you 5 days to confirm you want the interview...can I even withdraw if I say yes?)

Anyway- I am mostly trying to decide if I should attend the interview (if) I get into RVU-CO.

I live in the West Coast with a lot of family in the East Coast. I've been to CO several times before and love the state. It's beautiful and perfect for an avid hiker like myself. I really like RVU's match list, and that the USMLE is required (i.e. dedicated time for it etc). It's also easier for my partner and I to relocate as they can find a job in CO with fair ease (more related to their field there).

UNECOM, I'm not as familiar with which I guess is why I'm posting. I've never been to Maine, but it's definitely much closer to family (though still a flight). It seems like a strong school as well, considering they're in the top 10 for COMLEX scores. Maine seems super DO friendly, and both schools seem to have good Match lists.

They both seem like strong schools, so I'd love people's feedback on any distinguishing differences/benefits/downfalls of each.

Thank you so much!

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[libertyyne]

I would be cautious in interpreting single years match lists to make a determination. It is also akin to reading tea leaves if you dont know what programs are good. I would personally think very carefully about attending a for profit school. However, it seems like you have lots of pros in terms of area and ease for SO. @Goro might be able to give you some more insight into RVU.

 

[PreMedHeart]

I would be cautious in interpreting single years match lists to make a determination. It is also akin to reading tea leaves if you dont know what programs are good. I would personally think very carefully about attending a for profit school. However, it seems like you have lots of pros in terms of area and ease for SO. @Goro might be able to give you some more insight into RVU.

Believe it or not, UNECOM is considered non-profit and is around ~3k more expensive tuition, so the cost/for-profit status is not really a make or break deal for me. I am likely attending both, but right now leaning towards RVU-CO. At the same time, I don't know too much about UNECOM besides their rankings etc.

 

[libertyyne]

Believe it or not, UNECOM is considered non-profit and is around ~3k more expensive tuition, so the cost/for-profit status is not really a make or break deal for me. I am likely attending both, but right now leaning towards RVU-CO. At the same time, I don't know too much about UNECOM besides their rankings etc.

Its not the tuition difference that I am concerned about, it is the cutting corners on medical education to maintain a bottom line. Even if the for-profit is less expensive, that doesnt mean they are spending the same proportion of the tuition on the students.

 

[PreMedHeart]

Its not the tuition difference that I am concerned about, it is the cutting corners on medical education to maintain a bottom line. Even if the for-profit is less expensive, that doesnt mean they are spending the same proportion of the tuition on the students.

Hm. I think that's an interesting point I haven't thought of. I'm having trouble finding exact rotation sites for RVU, and they're preceptor based. UNECOM seems to allow you to spend a whole year in one state (which is nice, considering they're all along the east coast), but kind of confusing in terms of making things work with a partner if my school is in Maine and I'm living out of state for all of third year. This whole thing is so confusing! Though I am now leaning more towards attending both interviews.

Thanks for sharing some feedback

 

[Goro]

I would be cautious in interpreting single years match lists to make a determination. It is also akin to reading tea leaves if you dont know what programs are good. I would personally think very carefully about attending a for profit school. However, it seems like you have lots of pros in terms of area and ease for SO. @Goro might be able to give you some more insight into RVU.

It's like reading tea leaves to compare match lists, but the wise @Med Ed, whose advice I always value, seems to be unimpressed with RVU's match list.

In looking at match lists, a VERY rough rule of thumb to use might be # of people who make it to University hospitals vs community hospitals. Another is how many people get into specialties vs Primary Care.

UNECOM has required lecture attendance, this is a turn off for me at any school.

@Mad Jack can give you some insight into UNECOM

 

[PreMedHeart]

It's like reading tea leaves to compare match lists, but the wise @Med Ed, whose advice I always value, seems to be unimpressed with RVU's match list.

In looking at match lists, a VERY rough rule of thumb to use might be # of people who make it to University hospitals vs community hospitals. Another is how many people get into specialties vs Primary Care.

UNECOM has required lecture attendance, this is a turn off for me at any school.

@Mad Jack can give you some insight into UNECOM

Thank you for your feedback! I’m mostly wondering about year 3 and 4 at this point. It seems unecom pretty much guaranteed a lot of moving out of state.

 

[Mad Jack]

Thank you for your feedback! I’m mostly wondering about year 3 and 4 at this point. It seems unecom pretty much guaranteed a lot of moving out of state.

I think about 70 people stay in state, my memory is a bit fuzzy though. Here's where everyone else ends up:

Clinical Campuses | Pre-Doctoral Medical Education | University of New England in Maine, Tangier and Online

If you want to stay in Maine, it's not that difficult, as other areas tend to be more competitive depending on how your class divvies up spots. But there's a chance you'll go elsewhere, obviously. Year 4 is something you set up yourself at pretty much any DO school though, that's not going to change much.

 

[Tay2016]

I interviewed at UNE-COM last week and spent a week vacation there a few days ago. Maine is beautiful, and the people were very friendly. While on the beach, many people came up and talked to me (had an OU shirt on), and asked me the typical "you're from Oklahoma?", "how are you liking it here?" and so on. People talked about things I could see and do while there. I would mention I am there for UNE-COM, and the people had nothing to say but good things about the school. The community is really supportive of the school, and Maine is very DO friendly as UNE-COM is the only medical school in their state. Biddeford is smaller, ~20,000ish people, and truthfully there was not a lot to do there other than see the beaches. Traffic is non-existent, which is good since it is like a 15 minute drive from town to the school. There are some very nice resort communities around it with interesting shops, and Portland is only 25 minutes north. Portland was great, so many things to do, so many places to eat, shop, lots of beer (if that's your thing), and super pet friendly (my favorite). You can do tours of lighthouses, go whale watching, and people do surf during the summer.

During my interview day, students talked about where to live. 3 options: Biddeford, Portland, or like 1 mile from the school in beach houses. Worst thing about the houses is that you can not live in them during summer since they are rented out for ~$3,000 a week to people on vacation, and term for UNE starts July 31st but those houses are not up for rent until Sept. 1st. So, students that lived there said they basically had to couch surf until then. I think that would be crazy stressful, but to each their own.

Here is where things get real. So, they rank in top ten board schools of DO schools and top ten of residency match rates as well. They have 4 years of matches on their website and you can easily find them. They do block curriculum. They do have a long list of sites to do clinicals. You rank them and they try and place you in top 3, or you can go lottery. If you explain that you have a family/pets/whatever, they will try and keep you within a shorter radius. Year 3 is basically those set rotations you do everywhere, year 4 is up to you. You have to do some electives/selectives to graduate, but they let you pick the specific ones and where.
Boards: Level 1- 95.3%, Level 2-CE- 95.1%, Level 2-PE- 93.3%

The school is private. Now, I know medical school is expensive, la duh. But this is the most expensive one I have applied to (I applied to ten schools). Tuition is a lovely $55,080, but you have to add in everything else which includes their health insurance plan. I think the grand total is around $79,000. There are other schools I have applied to that are just as good or better than UNE-COM, and are much cheaper (not even factoring in OSU-COM with my in state tuition).

You'll be on campus with undergrads. There is about 3,000 undergrads at UNE for degrees in the arts, and then there is like 180 of medical students. Medical students did not seem to have a problem with it, but ehhhh I could see some negatives. They do a year of anatomy, which they talked about extensively during my interview day. We did not get to tour the anatomy lab, but we took a virtual tour. It seemed like the facilities were okay, and there is 4 students to every cadaver. OMM room was standard, nothing crazy special about it. No dress code. Classes are mandatory. They do have some PBL. Grades are a little different. It is a pass/fail and you can get honors, but they have just recently implemented something into clinical knowledge that is like meets expectations or something like that. Honestly, my student did not explain it well, and did not seem to have a good grasp of it either. Someone on the UNE-COM thread for this year might have talked about it in more detail if you want to check it out. They will cancel classes if the roads are too bad, which I consider to be a positive. They have facilities for standardized patients that are supposed to be set up like the rooms that boards will be in, which is fairly standard in my opinion.

So, hope all of this helps and I am sorry if I rambled a bit or gave unneeded information. If you have anymore questions, feel free to PM me.

 

[PreMedHeart]

I interviewed at UNE-COM last week and spent a week vacation there a few days ago. Maine is beautiful, and the people were very friendly. While on the beach, many people came up and talked to me (had an OU shirt on), and asked me the typical "you're from Oklahoma?", "how are you liking it here?" and so on. People talked about things I could see and do while there. I would mention I am there for UNE-COM, and the people had nothing to say but good things about the school. The community is really supportive of the school, and Maine is very DO friendly as UNE-COM is the only medical school in their state. Biddeford is smaller, ~20,000ish people, and truthfully there was not a lot to do there other than see the beaches. Traffic is non-existent, which is good since it is like a 15 minute drive from town to the school. There are some very nice resort communities around it with interesting shops, and Portland is only 25 minutes north. Portland was great, so many things to do, so many places to eat, shop, lots of beer (if that's your thing), and super pet friendly (my favorite). You can do tours of lighthouses, go whale watching, and people do surf during the summer.

During my interview day, students talked about where to live. 3 options: Biddeford, Portland, or like 1 mile from the school in beach houses. Worst thing about the houses is that you can not live in them during summer since they are rented out for ~$3,000 a week to people on vacation, and term for UNE starts July 31st but those houses are not up for rent until Sept. 1st. So, students that lived there said they basically had to couch surf until then. I think that would be crazy stressful, but to each their own.

Here is where things get real. So, they rank in top ten board schools of DO schools and top ten of residency match rates as well. They have 4 years of matches on their website and you can easily find them. They do block curriculum. They do have a long list of sites to do clinicals. You rank them and they try and place you in top 3, or you can go lottery. If you explain that you have a family/pets/whatever, they will try and keep you within a shorter radius. Year 3 is basically those set rotations you do everywhere, year 4 is up to you. You have to do some electives/selectives to graduate, but they let you pick the specific ones and where.
Boards: Level 1- 95.3%, Level 2-CE- 95.1%, Level 2-PE- 93.3%

The school is private. Now, I know medical school is expensive, la duh. But this is the most expensive one I have applied to (I applied to ten schools). Tuition is a lovely $55,080, but you have to add in everything else which includes their health insurance plan. I think the grand total is around $79,000. There are other schools I have applied to that are just as good or better than UNE-COM, and are much cheaper (not even factoring in OSU-COM with my in state tuition).

You'll be on campus with undergrads. There is about 3,000 undergrads at UNE for degrees in the arts, and then there is like 180 of medical students. Medical students did not seem to have a problem with it, but ehhhh I could see some negatives. They do a year of anatomy, which they talked about extensively during my interview day. We did not get to tour the anatomy lab, but we took a virtual tour. It seemed like the facilities were okay, and there is 4 students to every cadaver. OMM room was standard, nothing crazy special about it. No dress code. Classes are mandatory. They do have some PBL. Grades are a little different. It is a pass/fail and you can get honors, but they have just recently implemented something into clinical knowledge that is like meets expectations or something like that. Honestly, my student did not explain it well, and did not seem to have a good grasp of it either. Someone on the UNE-COM thread for this year might have talked about it in more detail if you want to check it out. They will cancel classes if the roads are too bad, which I consider to be a positive. They have facilities for standardized patients that are supposed to be set up like the rooms that boards will be in, which is fairly standard in my opinion.

So, hope all of this helps and I am sorry if I rambled a bit or gave unneeded information. If you have anymore questions, feel free to PM me.

This was super useful! Thank you so much for your help. I PMd you