TCOM Class of 2009

[DocJam]

Hey everyone! I am new to SDN and I have been accepted to TCOM and the dual DO/PhD program. Is anyone else doing the dual? I am super excited. TCOM was my first choice.

Name: Jamie Huff
Age: 22
School: Texas Lutheran University
Major:Molecular Bio
Location: Seguin for the time being
Graduate: May 2005
Hobbies: Reading, Movies, Dancing, Painting
Medical Interests: Ob/Gyn and Repro Endocrinology...I know super specific for not even having started school yet...

As for some of the previous posts...I found a great townhouse apt to rent in Highland Park Apts. I love the area. It is like 7 miles from campus. I am not sure what types of summer programs you guys were looking for, but I know I am doing research in the physiology lab this summer starting in May, and I may actually take one of my graduate school classes in June. So if anyone is up in the area and would like to hang out this summer I will be there. Also, I am going to Spring Fling as well...you will be able to pick me out because I am the nerd whose parents will be there. My mom is bummed that she has not even seen the school or my new apt, so she invited herself and my dad. Super dorky?

Congrats to all my fellow classmates. Feel free to e-mail me. [email protected]


oh, and whoever posted about the weirdness of stats on the waitlist was right. i know someone with a 35 MCAT that got wait listed!!! good luck to everyone though.

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[STAC]

Hey all...I am currently trying to decide between TCOM and another school and was hoping someone could help make an informed decision by answering some of my questions?

What is the grading system like (I know its the number scale with 70 passing) but is there a mandatory curve. Someone told me there is a bell curve which can be bad at time since it may force some to fail.

What is the academic attrition rate? (I’m assuming it low like most med school and actually when I interviewed one of the students said something like less that 5 from her class had to repeat)

Also I havent heard of TCOM having any summer programs before 1st year, but I’m just wandering if anyone has.

First off, UNTHSC-TCOM is the best osteopathic school in the country, one of the friendliest places and full of beautiful people. All of this is true. About grades..there is a mandatory curve...but it only helps us and never hurts the class. The faculty love to see the mean above an 83 which is the ave they are shooting for on each exam. If it is below 83 then they curve the class average up to an 83. That can actually take you from failing a test to passing. So it only helps! But...if the class average is high then we don't really expect to get any points(questions thrown out) on poorly written test questions...that would be a question for instance where only 60% of the class got it correct. They run statistics on each question on each exam and do some analysis against the students with the highest scores on the exam to see if it was a statistically sound question. Something like that anyway. We have post exam reviews where we are handed back our exams (secure test file) for an hour and we can see where we screwed up on the test. All of the professors that lectured and wrote test questions for that exam are present to discuss any questions the students might have on the test. It is meant to be a learning session for us.

For example, our last test in GI we were given something like an hour and half to take the exam. Normally, I take the full time to take the exam because I need the time to finish the exam whereas about half the class finishes before time and hand in their test early and then leave. So I finish my last GI test with about 30 minutes left (which is a lot of time for me because normally I have about 10 minutes to spare to look back at questions I narrowed down to two answers) and since I had SO MUCH time left, I decided to go through the entire test again. I ended up changing 6 of my answers. During the post exam review I was able to look back on those questions I changed and see that I screwed up royally!!! I changed one wrong answer to another wrong answer so no big deal right? But I changed 5 correct answers to WRONG answers!!! That's ten points!!! So...I learned not to change my answers on an exam. This is one of the benefits of the post exam review. The other is to clarify your thinking about a particular question. Maybe you thought too much or had the concept wrong in your head or you just didn't learn the concept in the first place. The faculty is there to help you through that so you know what and how you missed questions on the exam.

You are correct about the number of students that had to repeat this year who started last year. Five of the 120 or so. However, after finding out about each of those folks situations last year one realizes that the reason they are repeating is NOT because these folks aren't smart enough to get the material. If you are accepted to medical school...then you ARE smart enough to get through and know the material. The reasons they repeat are never about if they are smart enough or not. It is because some crap screwed up their lives while they were in school last year. For example, someones parent or sibling dies. Someone has a serious health problem. Your personal life gets really screwed up beyond your control and you get bummed, can't study and fail a couple of exams. So...don't worry about the academic side of medical school you can and WILL get that down. It is your PERSONAL life that you have to worry about more than anything else! These guys are doing great in school now by the way.


I know they were talking about having a prep class for students this summer to get them ready for cell science but I don’t know if that is gonna happen for you guys or not. I know we complained a lot about it this year so they would change things for the incoming students, I don’t know if they have or not…if you want to do research I am sure that you can. Just contact admissions and they can lead you in right direction (personally I don’t see a reason to do it but whatever.) I do STRONGLY suggest you take biochem or cell bio in the summer if you haven’t had these classes or did poorly in them. It will make your transition into medical school SOOOOOOO much easier if you have these classes down. I know that others said that it would help if you take an anatomy class or even an A&P class down at the junior college before you get started. If you have these three subjects down, you will be golden during first year!!!

Let me know if I can answer anything else for ya. Send me a private message if need be. Best of luck!!! And I wasn't kidding about all the beautiful people here either!!!

 

[discover]

THanks for the reply...Yeah your right they dont have any summerprep program and thats probably a good thing because I was told by several people that its best to relax your last summer!!! And thats what im gonna do ......NO work no school...

 

[hyperbaric]

Jamie - Congrats on the dual degree progam! I'm in grad school now and I've had enough research for the time being.

btw - I'm moving to FW toward the end of May.

 

[snowstreet]

I haven’t posted on SDN in almost 4 years but I felt inclined to comment...


I am a third year and first off have to say DO NOT STUDY this summer.(Do not take any classes, and TCOM luckily doesn’t have a prep program to worry about)..I know you feel like you should but IMHO you will not help yourself and may only hurt your stamina in the long run...The stuff isn’t super hard its just so much of it...!!


That being said.. I wish to offer another perspective on this school.....I know there are a lot of “johny-med students” out there who offer nothing but rosy insight on this school... I know I read a bunch of them when I was applying..(sometimes they remind me of “Baghdad bob” the propaganda minister of Iraq) ok maybe im going too far.. maybe its not propaganda to falsely boost the image of a mediocre school but more of just the same type of people posting....

First off...the academics.....don’t worry about the academic attrition rate, most will pass (this is the case with most schools), but I will tell you that this school IMO is more competitive that others...I have several friends at some of the other TX schools and their seems to be less competition and more cooperation at those... I attribute this to the “DO inferiority complex”... Most of students here did not choose to be DOs and as a result feel that they have to get the best grades possible to get a good residency position...(I generally don’t agree with this) ...There are a lot of people who will lie straight to you face and a lot who haven’t gotten out of their premed phase, maybe again is the result of the “DO inferiority complex”


I know the second big issue I have is with the training sites with this school, I think as a general our sites are less than ideal and (Im talking about your rotations which a lot of you are not thinking about but I thought it may be worth a mention) a lot feel that are second rate... A fourth year once told me that hes gonna be a good physician despite this school and not as a result of this place. I didn’t really understand it then but I actually do NOW!


anyway sorry to sound so negative and I know every point im will have several counterpoints...but just thought you all would welcome another perspective...ask several people and take everything someone says (mine included) with a grain of salt

I think the bottom line is...think long and hard about your choice of schools...it is your life and education were talking about, make certain that you are making an informed decision, I know I didn’t when I applied, unfortunate I only applied in-state and didn’t have much of a choice---trying to save money---but if I could do it again I would have applied to more schools because remember you will be able to pay off your loans but its your education and experience which you will only get one chance at...

 

[hyperbaric]

Hey all...I am currently trying to decide between TCOM and another school and was hoping someone could help make an informed decision by answering some of my questions?

What is the grading system like (I know its the number scale with 70 passing) but is there a mandatory curve. Someone told me there is a bell curve which can be bad at time since it may force some to fail.

What is the academic attrition rate? (I’m assuming it low like most med school and actually when I interviewed one of the students said something like less that 5 from her class had to repeat)

Also I havent heard of TCOM having any summer programs before 1st year, but I’m just wandering if anyone has.

Thanks to STAC and snowstreet for their feedback.

I will be at TCOM in the fall, so I can’t comment on grading or the competitiveness of the class. However, I can tell you why I chose TCOM (chose as in I could have gone to another med school).

1. Friendliness of admissions staff and basically everyone I have encountered thus far. On more than one occasion I have called the school to ask a question (before I knew about SDN). They were usually very nice and eager to help. At the very worst they were never rude. Not to point fingers, but I have had very BAD experiences when calling other schools (two in LA, several in TX). Visiting some wasn’t much better. This is just MY experience.

2. The anatomy lab!! If you haven’t seen it, then ask for a tour. By far the best I saw, some schools decline to go there.

3. OMT – Maybe I’ll use it, maybe I won’t. Either way, I’ll be great with my hands. (I know some of you will pervert that statement, but I’m going to go with it anyway.)

DO vs MD, MD vs DO – I could care less. If I never got in (or if I don’t make it out), I would have been PAC, RN, LPN, EMT or something. I love medicine!!

Hope this helps...

 

[JiveTurkey]

snowstreet,
I'm interested in your experience with the rotations. I'll be beginning school at TCOM this fall and wondered what exactly you felt was subpar about the clinical experience. Were you still rotating at the osteopathic hospital while it was open...and do you agree with others who say that it's closing will actually improve the quality of the rotations? What are the requirements for the 3rd and 4th years as far as locations go, I guess my question is that if you felt the quality of these years was poor why didn't you try and could you have set up rotations elsewhere?

 

[APTX]

snowstreet,
I'm interested in your experience with the rotations. I'll be beginning school at TCOM this fall and wondered what exactly you felt was subpar about the clinical experience. Were you still rotating at the osteopathic hospital while it was open...and do you agree with others who say that it's closing will actually improve the quality of the rotations? What are the requirements for the 3rd and 4th years as far as locations go, I guess my question is that if you felt the quality of these years was poor why didn't you try and could you have set up rotations elsewhere?

I, too, am interested in where 3rd and 4th years can do their rotations, particularly outside of Fort Worth and even Texas. Outside of Texas, can students only do rotations at other osteopathic schools/hospitals?

 

[hyperbaric]

snowstreet,
I'm interested in your experience with the rotations. I'll be beginning school at TCOM this fall and wondered what exactly you felt was subpar about the clinical experience. Were you still rotating at the osteopathic hospital while it was open...and do you agree with others who say that it's closing will actually improve the quality of the rotations? What are the requirements for the 3rd and 4th years as far as locations go, I guess my question is that if you felt the quality of these years was poor why didn't you try and could you have set up rotations elsewhere?

I copied this from another thread (TCOM Closing by DeLaughterDO):

quote from SophieJane
We are less than 5 miles from a thriving private hospital district and a large county hospital that welcome our students regularly and will continue to do so.

My big question is:

Why, since all of the hospitals in the area are so welcoming of our students have we just now begun to move into other arenas?

Oh, yeah... I forgot - we don't try to better our educational opportunities until the crappy ones we already have are taken away from us.

This whole situation stinks, in my opinion. I'm personally glad the O closed, since now we will have a chance to train at some real volume/pathology hospitals. Oh yeah, and the option to have core rotations at AOA AND ACGME hospitals just ROCKS!! I certainly hope that stays around after december! Maybe all our rotations can be here or away instead of assigned here and you can only leave if you have a "max."

Anyway, TCOM is here to stay. Let the rumours die here. OMCT is dead and gone, TCOM is going strong!

I guess at least one other person thinks the O closing was a good thing.

 

[STAC]

I haven’t posted on SDN in almost 4 years but I felt inclined to comment...


I am a third year and first off have to say DO NOT STUDY this summer.(Do not take any classes, and TCOM luckily doesn’t have a prep program to worry about)..I know you feel like you should but IMHO you will not help yourself and may only hurt your stamina in the long run...The stuff isn’t super hard its just so much of it...!!


That being said.. I wish to offer another perspective on this school.....I know there are a lot of “johny-med students” out there who offer nothing but rosy insight on this school... I know I read a bunch of them when I was applying..(sometimes they remind me of “Baghdad bob” the propaganda minister of Iraq) ok maybe im going too far.. maybe its not propaganda to falsely boost the image of a mediocre school but more of just the same type of people posting....

First off...the academics.....don’t worry about the academic attrition rate, most will pass (this is the case with most schools), but I will tell you that this school IMO is more competitive that others...I have several friends at some of the other TX schools and their seems to be less competition and more cooperation at those... I attribute this to the “DO inferiority complex”... Most of students here did not choose to be DOs and as a result feel that they have to get the best grades possible to get a good residency position...(I generally don’t agree with this) ...There are a lot of people who will lie straight to you face and a lot who haven’t gotten out of their premed phase, maybe again is the result of the “DO inferiority complex”


I know the second big issue I have is with the training sites with this school, I think as a general our sites are less than ideal and (Im talking about your rotations which a lot of you are not thinking about but I thought it may be worth a mention) a lot feel that are second rate... A fourth year once told me that hes gonna be a good physician despite this school and not as a result of this place. I didn’t really understand it then but I actually do NOW!


anyway sorry to sound so negative and I know every point im will have several counterpoints...but just thought you all would welcome another perspective...ask several people and take everything someone says (mine included) with a grain of salt

I think the bottom line is...think long and hard about your choice of schools...it is your life and education were talking about, make certain that you are making an informed decision, I know I didn’t when I applied, unfortunate I only applied in-state and didn’t have much of a choice---trying to save money---but if I could do it again I would have applied to more schools because remember you will be able to pay off your loans but its your education and experience which you will only get one chance at...

I know I don't know much because I am a first year but everyone reading this MUST understand that each incoming class takes on a personality. My guess is that snow streets class was competitive but 2008 is certainly not competitive and extremely cooperative and I think our class as a whole is always trying to help each other out. I found it interesting that the majority of the students that made it to the deans list this last semester were married. I know for a fact that if I needed help on anything that those people would bend over backwards to help me out. We have just some great people in our class and I feel blessed and very proud to be in the bunch!
If I could do it over again, I would have taken a biochem or cell bio class before school started. I struggled in that first class and it sucked for me! I can't tell you how crappy it was to feel like you were going to fail out of your first class. That stress sucked big time! I did get through and then made and A in our next class, but when you do well it is so much easier to keep the ball rolling. It sucked climbing back up the hill until I was doing well in school. That stress just sux!!! So, if you can avoid it then do it. I really don't think you will get burnt out unless you are constantly struggling to catch up in a sense with the class. Besides everyone is so geeked up to be in med school that the energy and excitement carry you through big time! Before you know it Christmas is here and then everyone exhales and says "Hey, that wasn't so bad!" Bottom line: take the extra class even if you don't work hard in it it will help you out. YOu are already in med school so don't stress out if you are taking the summer class.
I am also happy the O closed!!! Big time! Besides, if you already know what area of medicine you are interested in, then you can start looking into getting your rotations set up on your own at the hospitals you want to go to in the future.
Best of luck!!! CYA soon!

 

[APTX]

I copied this from another thread (TCOM Closing by DeLaughterDO):

quote from SophieJane

This whole situation stinks, in my opinion. I'm personally glad the O closed, since now we will have a chance to train at some real volume/pathology hospitals. Oh yeah, and the option to have core rotations at AOA AND ACGME hospitals just ROCKS!! I certainly hope that stays around after december! Maybe all our rotations can be here or away instead of assigned here and you can only leave if you have a "max."

Definitely encouraging news to read about. I was a bit concerned when I got the letter saying that the osteopathic hospital was closing, though that sounds more and more like a good thing now. I know a doctor who works in Fort Worth and while she said Plaza Medical Center is so-so, she mentioned that JPS is a great place for students to do rotations. I feel better already.

 

[APTX]

Who's going to Spring Fling this weekend?

 

[Future Doc B]

Who's going to Spring Fling this weekend?

I am...

 

[hyperbaric]

Who's going to Spring Fling this weekend?

I'll be there...

 

[APTX]

I'll be there, and I think some of my classmates who matched at TCOM will attend as well. It should be a nice-sized crowd

 

[hyperbaric]

Just a quick hello to all those I met at Spring Fling. Our class is going to be great!!

And thanks to all the first years for showing us a great time.

 

[afabela]

I was just wandering how many of yall were accepted from the post bac program at TCOM. What were your stats and was it worth it doing the post bac program.

 

[Assistant]

Hey Y'all!

I just want to say hi. I just got called off the waitlist and will be one of your fellow classmates.

Here are my stats:

Name: Amber Thomas
Age: 29
School: Texas A&M University
Major: B.S. Biochem, M.S. Health Ed
Location: Amarillo
Graduate: May 1998 (B.S.), May 2000 (M.S.)
Hobbies: Reading, Outdoors stuff, refurbishing furniture, running, crochet
Medical Interests: Family med, internal med, preventive med

I look forward to meeting you all this July!

Hope everyone is having a good summer,

Amber

 

[hyperbaric]

Hey Y'all!

I just want to say hi. I just got called off the waitlist and will be one of your fellow classmates.

Here are my stats:

Name: Amber Thomas
Age: 29
School: Texas A&M University
Major: B.S. Biochem, M.S. Health Ed
Location: Amarillo
Graduate: May 1998 (B.S.), May 2000 (M.S.)
Hobbies: Reading, Outdoors stuff, refurbishing furniture, running, crochet
Medical Interests: Family med, internal med, preventive med

I look forward to meeting you all this July!

Hope everyone is having a good summer,

Amber

Hello, welcome and congrats!

 

[Warlock132]

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[hyperbaric]

Hi, I am an accepted student for this Fall and had a few questions about TCOM. I was looking at the academic calendar and saw that the first year ran from Aug 1 to July 1... 11 months! Is that right? Does that give you enough time to do other things like study for boards after your second year or do research during the summers? Also, is there any kind of notetaking service for the lectures or are the lectures recorded in any form? My final question is about doing rotations outside of Texas during your fourth year, I would love to know if that's allowed and if so if there is a cap on the number of rotations you can do outside of the school. Thanks.

Semester 1 is July 25-Dec 16.
Semester 2 is Jan 2-June 30

Second year, all of May(?) is dedicated to board review, I think.

I'm under the impression that our class will decide about notetaking, etc.

You set up your own 4th rotations and can do them where you please.

Check out the message board on our class site (www.hsc.unt.edu/tcom2009/).