Touro CA vs Western Pomona

[PrinceElvis97]

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Hey Guys,

I grew up and currently reside in the Bay Area. However, I went to undergrad at UCLA, so I’m familiar with the so-cal life too!

I’m deciding between Touro CA vs Western Pomona.

My desire is to go into Academic IM and pursue a fellowship (Heme Onc) after, so would either of these schools give me a leg up with that?

Generally, I know both of these schools are considered top tier but is one better than the other? @Goro

Thanks!

 

[Goro]

Which one has the cheaper tuition?

Both schools will get you where you want to go. Their graduates tend to do very well, from what I've seen from the match lists.

Living closer to home tends to be a draw for a lot of people.

 

[hellosnd]

N=1
From bay, went to undergrad in SoCal, ended up going Western over Touro

 

[PrinceElvis97]

Hello Everyone,

I'm currently deciding between two DO schools: Touro CA and Western CA (I'm from the bay area and went to undergrad at UCLA). This is very early, but I am potentially interested in pursuing an Academic IM Residency and wanted to ask you guys a question regarding my selection process.

As far as I understand people say that Western's rotations tend to be better than Touro's rotations. However, my feeling is that because I want to pursue an Academic IM position, the school's 3rd year rotations don't matter as much as the away IM rotations I will have to do in my 4th year right? Neither school will offer rotations likely at an academic institution I believe, so I'll want to rotate at the institutions I hope to match at and get letters there.

I'm leaning towards attending Touro CA since its in my home town and I believe "prestige" wise they're both similar aren't they? So is the rotations factor something I should consider in regards to my future prospects and my ultimate decision ?

Thank you so much for helping me make this call guys 🙂 Happy New Year!!

 

[DoReMiFaSo]

Doesn't make a meaningful difference. Your future med school GPA and USMLE scores will be the most heavily weighted factors in determining the caliber of program you end up matching at. These two schools' tuitions are similar. Would recommend staying close to home by going with Touro. - IM APD

 

[ToKingdomCome]

Doesn't make a meaningful difference. Your future med school GPA and USMLE scores will be the most heavily weighted factors in determining the caliber of program you end up matching at. These two schools' tuitions are similar. Would recommend staying close to home by going with Touro. - IM APD

Med school gpa definitely doesn’t matter

 

[pigsinacloth]

Your 3rd year rotations matter if they are done at hospital with a residency program. Otherwise prestige does not matter for DO schools, no one cares which one you went to. All they care about is your step 2 score, research, letters of rec, and that you don't have any red flags. If neither gives you the option to do rotations as a 3rd year at places with residency programs (for all things not just IM) then pick the cheaper one. The biggest issue that most programs have with DO students is they assume we have no inpatient training since many of them allow you to escape all your core rotations with outpatient if you really want to. Also there is no garuntee you will get away rotations as a 4th year since you apply for those.

 

[DoReMiFaSo]

Med school gpa definitely doesn’t matter

FWIW, I work as an APD at an allopathic tertiary academic institution. Our committee notes applicants’ GPA quartile in the MSPE. We dont care if GPA quartile is concordant with USMLE performance. However we flag discordant GPA vs USMLE (for example, high GPA with low UMSLE, or low GPA with high USMLE).

 

[deleted1067319]

FWIW, I work as an APD at an allopathic tertiary academic institution. Our committee notes applicants’ GPA quartile in the MSPE. We dont care if GPA quartile is concordant with USMLE performance. However we flag discordant GPA vs USMLE (for example, high GPA with low UMSLE, or low GPA with high USMLE).

By low gpa I assume you mean 4th quartile or 5th quintile? Ty for the input as a PD!

To OP, a DO school is a DO school outside of like MSU or OSU. Go wherever is closer to home and cheaper they are all about the same, they almost all lack their own teaching hospital, research, and own residencies. its going to be completely up to you with how you do on boards/rotations and hustling research

 

[DoReMiFaSo]

By low gpa I assume you mean 4th quartile or 5th quintile?

Yes. Most med schools do 4 evenly distributed quartiles to label their students in MSPE. I've seen bizarre ones that do even 6 groups (forgot which school), with uneven distribution in each group mind you.