Touro Univeristy - California (TUCOM-CA) Discussion Thread 2015 - 2016

[Captain_Underpants]

Interviewed 3/22

Accepted today!

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[premedM]

Just withdrew my acceptance here in favor of another great program closer to my spouse's job. I absolutely loved Touro-CA, however, and am sure I would have been really happy there. It was tough to hit "send" on that withdrawal email. I hope my spot goes to somebody here who needs it!!🙂

 

[Captain_Underpants]

I was wondering if a current student could PM with their honest take on this school. About lectures, teachers, preparation for boards, student support, and ease of getting rotations etc. I know it's a lot to ask but anything would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

 

[JustKeepGoing]

I submitted my secondary in August, and I still haven't heard a word from the school. Anyone know if they are still handing out interview invites, and when the last interview slots are?

 

[pglo]

I submitted my secondary in August, and I still haven't heard a word from the school. Anyone know if they are still handing out interview invites, and when the last interview slots are?

I would also like to know. I'm in a similar boat and get the same response every time I inquire about my status.

 

[JustKeepGoing]

I submitted my secondary in August, and I still haven't heard a word from the school. Anyone know if they are still handing out interview invites, and when the last interview slots are?

I would also like to know. I'm in a similar boat and get the same response every time I inquire about my status.

What response is that?

 

[ganima422]

I submitted my secondary in August, and I still haven't heard a word from the school. Anyone know if they are still handing out interview invites, and when the last interview slots are?


What response is that?

Probably something along the lines of "Your application is under review by the Admissions Committee"

 

[skyghighight]

I submitted my secondary in August, and I still haven't heard a word from the school. Anyone know if they are still handing out interview invites, and when the last interview slots are?

I had submitted my secondary in August too, and got interview invitation last week. I canceled it though because already got accepted to another school. Don't lose hope, they still give interview invitations.

 

[fatkitty]

@pglo

When I inquired about interview dates, I was told they will interview through May.

 

[fatkitty]

Also figured I would give some input about the school since I interviewed here. The campus is really cool, it's an actual campus as opposed to many other DO schools that are just a giant building or maybe a few buildings at most. It is a little weird that there's a giant abandoned naval hospital smack in the middle of campus. Neighboring Vallejo definitely has some sketchy neighborhoods but there are many that are perfectly safe and as long as you use common sense and lock your doors, you'll be fine. The school facilities are about average I'd say, nothing too special. The gym is very small with a lot of equipment packed in, but they do have a very active weightlifting club and two squat racks and powerlifting platforms. Basketball and squash/racketball/bouncy ball room too. Anatomy lab is fairly standard, very little smell but no flat screen tv's and iPads I've seen at other schools. The anatomy curriculum is getting overhauled by two new incoming faculty, so the anatomy department is kind of in limbo. Mr. Silver said they're currently at about 7 students/cadaver but will drop to 5/cadaver in the new curriculum. Library is also a little on the small side. Personally, I like cubicles for studying and most of the studying space was just long open tables. They have a microwave room, which is exactly as it sounds, a room with like 10 microwaves. I thought it was funny.

The administration we spoke with during the interview heavily emphasized the MPH program (costs an additional $23k and uses your summers so you don't have to lengthen your time in schools) and also emphasized that the school purposely didn't have high tech simulation robots/dummies/labs because you don't interact with them as a physician and instead spend a lot of money to hire standardized actor patients. However, as soon as I heard that I could not stop thinking about where the 51k tuition (and 87k COA) is actually going. I don't think the school is very well known in the Bay Area, at least to the average person. I stayed with some friends that had been living in SF for years and had never heard of Touro. Of course it may have a complete different reputation to the people in the medical world, but I have no idea of that. Current class size is about 125 students and they don't seem to be keen on increasing enrollment because that would require remodeling and building new facilities instead of retrofitting the old naval buildings they inherited. I was told and thought there would be a strong sense of camaraderie among the students, especially because they have a relatively small class size, but honestly I didn't see that much of it compared to other schools I interviewed at. Of course it could have been because they had huge exams the following week and everyone was in study/hibernation mode.

They receive pretty substantial NIH funding but it is very specific in the field of fructose consumption and diabetic research. Other than that, there's not too many research options. Obviously there are plenty of extremely prestigious research institutions in the Bay Area but I'm not sure how those schools see Touro students/what opportunities are available to Touro students.

As you can probably tell, I wasn't the biggest fan of the school. Take it with a grain of salt though because I was only there a day, while current students can provide you much more up to date info. But you really can't beat it's location in California and they consistently match students every year in all of the most competitive specialties (i.e. DO neurosurgery) so going to the school will in no way be a limiting factor in matching residencies.

 

[hrbird]

I received an interview invite in my email this evening. Pretty late in the game.

 

[21341234]

I received an interview invite in my email this evening. Pretty late in the game.

Congrats! I am waiting for one too

 

[Lillyanne]

I received an interview invite in my email this evening. Pretty late in the game.

I got one too! If you or anyone else here (female preferred) is interviewing on monday May 9 and wants to share a hotel room, let me know! 🙂

 

[hrbird]

I got one too! If you or anyone else here (female preferred) is interviewing on monday May 9 and wants to share a hotel room, let me know! 🙂

I'm still trying to decide if I want to interview. I have an acceptance at PNWU. Also I am female and would love to share a room. I'll be in touch.

 

[Teioh]

I got one too! If you or anyone else here (female preferred) is interviewing on monday May 9 and wants to share a hotel room, let me know! 🙂

Congrats! Any idea how far into May they're interviewing?

 

[medicii]

Have admitted students received financial aid yet? If so is it visible here: https://tcweb.touro.edu/cgi-bin/login.mbr/login

They have my wrong mailing address so I'm also wondering if they've sent any documents to admitted students so far. Can anybody please help?

 

[benlola33]

Have admitted students received financial aid yet? If so is it visible here: https://tcweb.touro.edu/cgi-bin/login.mbr/login

They have my wrong mailing address so I'm also wondering if they've sent any documents to admitted students so far. Can anybody please help?

I have not heard anything from them about any of this yet and I just checked, my mailing address is correct.

 

[sweettooth711]

The fin aid dept said they will send out letters late june or late july. Ridiculous imo...


Sent from my iPhone using SDN mobile app

 

[drkube]

The fin aid dept said they will send out letters late june or late july. Ridiculous imo...


Sent from my iPhone using SDN mobile app

Wow thats pretty late. Do you know if they'll run out of money?

 

[benlola33]

The fin aid dept said they will send out letters late june or late july. Ridiculous imo...


Sent from my iPhone using SDN mobile app

then i hope they arent expecting to get paid a single cent from me cuz i literally cant until then ?!

 

[fuzzisthebest]

Got an II on Wednesday 4/27. Super late and was not expecting it at ALL. (I was complete end of July/early August)

My options were May 2nd or May 17th. Hope this gives everyone some hope!

 

[shope]

Got an II on Wednesday 4/27. Super late and was not expecting it at ALL. (I was complete end of July/early August)

My options were May 2nd or May 17th. Hope this gives everyone some hope!

Would you mind sharing your stats (GPA,MCAT)? Thank you ahead of time. 🙂
I am going to apply this upcoming cycle.

 

[fuzzisthebest]

Would you mind sharing your stats (GPA,MCAT)? Thank you ahead of time. 🙂
I am going to apply this upcoming cycle.

I PMed you!

 

[21341234]

I PMed you!

Can you pm me your stats as well ? I am also waiting for a possible II. Thanks !

 

[fuzzisthebest]

Can you pm me your stats as well ? I am also waiting for a possible II. Thanks !

Sure thing

 

[blueumbrella]

.

 

[BfreeXI]

Is anyone else wondering why we have to put down $3000 (acceptance + tuition) nonrefundable worth of deposit by mid May? 🙁

Preach! Still hoping to get off waitlist at another school but it looks like I'm going to have to pay the deposit regardless to keep my spot at this school. So pooooor

 

[blueumbrella]

.

 

[jevindoes]

Cali resident, secondary submitted in July. Still waiting to hear from here...would love to stay in Cali.

 

[benlola33]

Preach! Still hoping to get off waitlist at another school but it looks like I'm going to have to pay the deposit regardless to keep my spot at this school. So pooooor

lol this is exactly why they keep asking for money ... what a racket !!!!

 

[BfreeXI]

lol this is exactly why they keep asking for money ... what a racket !!!!

Hahah, exactly! Waitlist movement for the school I'm hoping to get in will likely start after May 15th, so touro will be getting another 1000$ from me!

 

[gringottsgobin]

i keep vacillating between wanting to go here and not. I think I'm going crazy. Touro has such high standards for MCAT scores, but why are their comlex first time pass rates so low? For every year, they're either at or kinda below the national average.....Is there something wrong with the curriculum or the amount of time/resources that are available to the students?

 

[Captain_Underpants]

i keep vacillating between wanting to go here and not. I think I'm going crazy. Touro has such high standards for MCAT scores, but why are their comlex first time pass rates so low? For every year, they're either at or kinda below the national average.....Is there something wrong with the curriculum or the amount of time/resources that are available to the students?

Would also like some clarity on this. Although on talking to students, I heard they are trying to make changes to address this issue.

 

[teracky]

In the past, TUCOM had all students take COMLEX regardless of their readiness; nowadays many schools, including TUCOM, will hold back weaker students and make them go through a board bootcamp to make sure they pass before taking it; thereby increasing passing rates (taking notes from Caribbean schools). Also admin monitors your test score trends to intervene earlier.

Board scores are more dependent on individuals' work ethic than school teaching imo. Don't worry bout it

 

[dogemeow]

Would also like some clarity on this. Although on talking to students, I heard they are trying to make changes to address this issue.

It seems like this is a trend between other Touro campuses as well (Touro NY for sure). Ironic because the whole point of the MCAT is that it's supposed to let adcoms know how "well" a student is likely to do on board exams.

 

[Teioh]

Cali resident, secondary submitted in July. Still waiting to hear from here...would love to stay in Cali.

Any luck getting a II?

 

[jevindoes]

Any luck getting a II?

Nope, rejected a few days ago 🙁

 

[Veni_vidi]

DRUG SCREEN:

Hey TUCOM-CA! I am starting as an M1 for the class of 2020, and I want to know whether there is an initial drug screen for my first year.

I know TUCOM previously skipped the initial drug testing and only did drug tests before rotations, but that info is from 5 years ago.

Please help!

 

[khrisskhoras]

is the waitlist ever gonna move for this school?

 

[pinky22]

Hoping to get off the waitlist at another school. If I do, I will be withdrawing from TUCOM and hopefully the spot goes to one of you on the waitlist! Don't lose hope!

 

[BfreeXI]

Hoping to get off the waitlist at another school. If I do, I will be withdrawing from TUCOM and hopefully the spot goes to one of you on the waitlist! Don't lose hope!

+1!

 

[spadeofaces]

Has anyone been pulled off the wait list yet? Any updates?

 

[change4med]

Withdrew, hope it goes to one of you!

 

[JavaLatette]

DRUG SCREEN:

Hey TUCOM-CA! I am starting as an M1 for the class of 2020, and I want to know whether there is an initial drug screen for my first year.

I know TUCOM previously skipped the initial drug testing and only did drug tests before rotations, but that info is from 5 years ago.

Please help!

Say no to drugs, my friend

 

[IUHoosier23]

Does anyone know if the waitlist has moved at all or if they are still taking people? There hasn't been any updates since the mid-late June.

 

[dai11221989]

I was wondering about any waitlist movement as well. Has anyone heard anything recently?

 

[BfreeXI]

I was wondering about any waitlist movement as well. Has anyone heard anything recently?

Someone on Facebook group said they were accepted off waitlist yesterday

 

[futuredrummerdoctor]

Does anyone who has been accepted to this medical school have any recommendations for me? My family is moving to this area and this is my top choice medical school. I could go on and on about why I love this school and area. Obviously, people have bad things to say about it, but there's a whole slew of good things about it. I'm just really worried about my stats...

Undergraduate: Bachelor's in Neuroscience, 3.447 cum GPA, 3.564 SGPA--> Retook pre-req's while getting my master's because I initially graduated undergrad with a 2.8.
Graduate: Master's of science in neuroscience, 3.08 GPA (I seriously worked my butt off and got straight B's in the master's program, it was infuriating and I should have done a lot better, but I can't change the past).
MCAT: 509
Extracurriculars: I won't bore you with the details, bc most of us have strong EC's. The activities that stand out to me as what I was most dedicated to are that I've formed and led two service trips to underserved areas which I'm actually passionate about and didn't just do for the resume boost, and these took a lot of work (I want to go into primary care or rural/translational medicine), 2 publications from Yale doing neuroscience research that I'm very passionate about and starting my own project in the spring, lots of clinic volunteering and direct patient care, crisis center volunteer, shadowing, etc...
My rec. letter will be a pre-medical committee letter, and one from a DO who I shadowed in an underserved prison. My adviser from the master's program is also writing me a heart-filled letter.
Other: I have a strong story to tell.

Please help, I'm trying to stay positive <3 I'm definitely going to be applying to the post-bacc at touro-CA, but the financial risk of a second master's really scares me.