- Joined
- Jul 30, 2001
- Messages
- 823
- Reaction score
- 0
Anyone with opinions?
TUCOM vs AZCOM
- Thread starter Sharky
- Start date
- Joined
- Dec 16, 2002
- Messages
- 371
- Reaction score
- 1
Sharky,
TUCOM!TUCOM!TUCOM!
I say this with such enthusiasm because TUCOM is my first choice, and let me tell you why (and hopefully I will address most of your questions.)
1) Location: I consider NorCal my home and I can't imagine going to school in any other state. Couple this with the fact that I want to practice osteopathic medicine explains why I only applied to TUCOM and COMP. I interview at COMP on 1/21 and TUCOM on 3/4... If I was offered acceptances from both schools, I would choose TUCOM faster than a synaptic vesicle can release neurotransmitter! The one other school I applied to was my alma mater UC Davis... my friend (who has been accepted to TUCOM '07) and I went snowboarding yesterday and talked about what we would do if UC Davis and Touro accepted us... I told him, I probably flip a coin to choose... On one hand is a philosophy that i wholeheartedly believe in, on the other is a much much much lower tuition and a more well known institution.
2) Youthful exuberance: Touro is a new school, at least the Mare Island campus is, and I think that is a great opportunity to establish new organizations and help sculpt and direct the future of the university. Can you imagine teaching for TUCOM decades from now or serving on the adcom and saying "yeah, I helped develop that club" or "I remeber when we didn't have that, so me and my classmates rallied to get it, and now it has developed into as you see it today"?....I think about all the time...
3) Location: Oh, did I already talk about this? Mare Island is close to SF, Napa, and the Sierras... I worked in San Leandro (East Bay Area) as an EMT for almost 2 years, and I am familiar with a lot of the hospitals that TUCOM is affiliated and I excited at the prospect of doing rotations at hospitals that I used to bring patients to..
4) Housing: Coming back to the youth of TUCOM, I'm sure housing is up toward the top of the to do list for TUCOM administration. My friend is a second year at Touro and he lived on campus in a studio. It was very close to where classes are held, and it looked very condusive to studying.
5) Curriculum and faculty: Since my friend is a second year, I have gotten to get is insight on his education so far, and he says that the faculty is first rate; everyone is very approachable, receptive, and committed to excellence. From their website, I have found a bunch of electives that I want to take if I am lucky enough to convince the adcom to let me go to their school in the fall.
Those are just a few of the reasons TUCOM is my #1 choice.. if you want to talk more about it, just email me at [email protected] or IM me.. my AOL IM screenname is ez073323. Or if you are near Sacramento (150 mile radius) I would be up to having dinner with a fellow applicant.. In fact, I will be having lunch on Saturday 1/18/02 with my second year friend, as well as another person that is a part of TUCOM '07, and I will be taking a tour of the school on Tuesday 1/14/02, and you are welcome to join us if you are available.
The only thing that bums me out about Touro... No WiFi.. I am trying to justify to myself (actually to my wife) why I need to buy the newest and greatest laptop, but integrated 802.11b technology is a hard sell if my school doesnt have 802.11b transmitters.. If I get it, I will definitly do my best to have it installed..
Hope this helps and good luck in all your endeavors.. I apologize that I am not able to provide insight to AZCOM and please keep SDN updated with your progress!
Brian Enriquez
[email protected]
TUCOM!TUCOM!TUCOM!
I say this with such enthusiasm because TUCOM is my first choice, and let me tell you why (and hopefully I will address most of your questions.)
1) Location: I consider NorCal my home and I can't imagine going to school in any other state. Couple this with the fact that I want to practice osteopathic medicine explains why I only applied to TUCOM and COMP. I interview at COMP on 1/21 and TUCOM on 3/4... If I was offered acceptances from both schools, I would choose TUCOM faster than a synaptic vesicle can release neurotransmitter! The one other school I applied to was my alma mater UC Davis... my friend (who has been accepted to TUCOM '07) and I went snowboarding yesterday and talked about what we would do if UC Davis and Touro accepted us... I told him, I probably flip a coin to choose... On one hand is a philosophy that i wholeheartedly believe in, on the other is a much much much lower tuition and a more well known institution.
2) Youthful exuberance: Touro is a new school, at least the Mare Island campus is, and I think that is a great opportunity to establish new organizations and help sculpt and direct the future of the university. Can you imagine teaching for TUCOM decades from now or serving on the adcom and saying "yeah, I helped develop that club" or "I remeber when we didn't have that, so me and my classmates rallied to get it, and now it has developed into as you see it today"?....I think about all the time...
3) Location: Oh, did I already talk about this? Mare Island is close to SF, Napa, and the Sierras... I worked in San Leandro (East Bay Area) as an EMT for almost 2 years, and I am familiar with a lot of the hospitals that TUCOM is affiliated and I excited at the prospect of doing rotations at hospitals that I used to bring patients to..
4) Housing: Coming back to the youth of TUCOM, I'm sure housing is up toward the top of the to do list for TUCOM administration. My friend is a second year at Touro and he lived on campus in a studio. It was very close to where classes are held, and it looked very condusive to studying.
5) Curriculum and faculty: Since my friend is a second year, I have gotten to get is insight on his education so far, and he says that the faculty is first rate; everyone is very approachable, receptive, and committed to excellence. From their website, I have found a bunch of electives that I want to take if I am lucky enough to convince the adcom to let me go to their school in the fall.
Those are just a few of the reasons TUCOM is my #1 choice.. if you want to talk more about it, just email me at [email protected] or IM me.. my AOL IM screenname is ez073323. Or if you are near Sacramento (150 mile radius) I would be up to having dinner with a fellow applicant.. In fact, I will be having lunch on Saturday 1/18/02 with my second year friend, as well as another person that is a part of TUCOM '07, and I will be taking a tour of the school on Tuesday 1/14/02, and you are welcome to join us if you are available.
The only thing that bums me out about Touro... No WiFi.. I am trying to justify to myself (actually to my wife) why I need to buy the newest and greatest laptop, but integrated 802.11b technology is a hard sell if my school doesnt have 802.11b transmitters.. If I get it, I will definitly do my best to have it installed..
Hope this helps and good luck in all your endeavors.. I apologize that I am not able to provide insight to AZCOM and please keep SDN updated with your progress!
Brian Enriquez
[email protected]
- Joined
- Nov 12, 2001
- Messages
- 1,322
- Reaction score
- 0
this is kind of a tough question as it pits two schools and groups of students against each other. I was accepted to both and give you what i felt at each respective school. Personally-- and i don't want to offend anyone out there-- i liked AZCOM MUCH more. Like i said, i interview and was accepted to both and AZCOM just seemed to be more on the ball. I attribute this greatly to the fact that touro is so new, but also to the fact that they want to expand the school into an undergrad/law/business school. While this is great, it means that--again this is my personal opinion-- that it seems your tuition is going into expanding the school and not so much into you as a DO school student. I thought AZCOM's facilities are much nicer- comp.labs, classrooms (AZCOM wins this without comparison!--tiered, A.V. vs. an old movie theater), and i felt the students were much more united and supportive at AZCOM--again my opinion--. It seemed to me that touro is still experimenting while AZCOM is quite established. Both are in unique areas but it seems AZCOM has integrated itself more into the community. The rotation set up at AZCOM is wonderful as well. Preceptor based will allow one-on-one learning, mixed with traditional hospital based-- you'll stand out as one who understands how medicine works on a more intimate level. Many medical schools are now implimenting what AZCOM is doing with 3rd/4th year rotations. Also, early patient contact is what drew me to AZCOM. In your first year you are spending time in a docs office seeing patients, doing histories, learning about the diagnostic process-- that is awesome!!! Dr. Haight told our interview group to expect spending most of the 3rd/4th years OUTSIDE the bay area-- i have heard conflicting info on this site so i'm not too sure. It is interesting that the two schools are almost the same "age" yet AZCOM just seems much more developed, built, and progressing. It is important to note that AZCOM's mother school is Midwestern(CCOM) so they had the advantage of building on the century plus of experience CCOM was able to provide.
Touro has a lot of potential-- but at the moment i would choose AZCOM with little/no hesitation. Everyone will have an opinion- but go with the gut feeling you had while interviewing--where did you feel most comfy and where could you see yourself earning your DO degree? I hope this helped, and again, i hope i didn't offend anyone.. i don't mean any of this maliciosly-- just my personal opinion. We all will be working next to each other some day and in the end our respective schools will only help us contribute to one anothers development.
Touro has a lot of potential-- but at the moment i would choose AZCOM with little/no hesitation. Everyone will have an opinion- but go with the gut feeling you had while interviewing--where did you feel most comfy and where could you see yourself earning your DO degree? I hope this helped, and again, i hope i didn't offend anyone.. i don't mean any of this maliciosly-- just my personal opinion. We all will be working next to each other some day and in the end our respective schools will only help us contribute to one anothers development.
- Joined
- Dec 16, 2002
- Messages
- 371
- Reaction score
- 1
Amen jhug! It never hurts to speak from the heart! Congrats on both of your acceptances (thanks for freeing up one spot at Touro for me!) and I wish you continued success.
Brian Enriquez
[email protected]
Brian Enriquez
[email protected]
- Joined
- Sep 27, 2002
- Messages
- 270
- Reaction score
- 0
I can't speak about AZCOM because I never applied there or visited the campus. I was accepted to TUCOM, Class of 2007, and will tell you honestly what I can in response to your questions.
As for on-campus housing, yes Touro has good housing. Unfortunately, the school was not able to renew the lease for the 3 BR houses they had on campus and so there was a bit of a shuffle with housing during this last year. They have 3BR townhouses, studio apts and graduate student dorms. The dorms will be offering both single and double occupancy (with more of them being double occupancy). The dorms haven't opened yet (the last correspondence I recieved indicated they are just now opening them up).
Due to not having the houses available anymore, there will no longer be family or married housing available on campus. Townhouses are only for students. All of the housing is within walking distance to the classrooms (5 minutes).
Many interviewees have been discouraged by the buildings on the campus as they were part of the former Naval base. Most of the building are a horrible tan color but that is because they are historical landmarks and the school is NOT allowed to change the color. One of the buildings is actually called the Lincoln building (I think because it was build when Lincoln was still president). That should give you an idea of how long this place has been around. I agree that some other parts of Mare Island leave much to be desired as they are industrial looking and much of the buildings aren't being used at all but given the location of many other med schools around the country, I can't use it as a criticism. Just an observation.
True, there are no commercial vendors on the island (sorry you have to take a bike ride to find a Starbucks) but once the undergrads are on campus, I am sure that much will change. If you really need coffee that bad then come by my room!! I have the best fresh roasted organic coffee from a little wine country roastery anyway!!
As for urban and lively. Well I can't think of any better place to be. You get the privacy and seclusion of being on the island but you are surrounded by the hustle and bustle of the Bay Area. The ferry is just minutes away from campus and takes you right into the heart of San Francisco. If you are a sports fan, then you will have no shortage of opportunities. There is plenty of culture here and LOTS of great food. You are bordered on one side by the wine country, the snow of Lake Tahoe is just a couple of hours away in the other direction and then access to all of the other med schools in the area.
Every student that I know has been extremely satisfied with the education that they are receiving at TUCOM. I have been told on multiple occassions about the lecturers that come over from Stanford, UCSF, etc. Touro has an ever growing list of clinical sites for rotations and when asking the school about rotation sites, we were told there were ample rotation sites near campus and a student told me that they didn't know of any student that could not do their rotations locally that didn't want to go out of area. I personally like the fact that during the fourth year, I can apply to Stanford, UCSF and UC Davis as a visiting student and do rotations at these schools. Check the match results and you will find that past students have been very successful at matching to bay area hospitals and one student matched at Stanford for pediatrics.
As for prestige? I don't know that either school at this point can grasp the title as they are both too new. AZCOM does have its connection with CCOM and so may have an advantage by association with this school but I have seen many threads about the residency match and that, repeatedly, applicants have discussed that they are seeing TUCOM grads get multiple and excellent interviews at residency programs and that the newness of the school (or lack of reputation) is obviously not a factor in that arena.
If I had been given the option to go to AZCOM, I would not have gone there over TUCOM. I am from the bay area and so my decision is probably a little biased but only because I have more information on the area and having been around UC Davis, Stanford and UCSF, I put an extremely high value on being able to work with students, staff and hospitals that have affiliations with all of these organizations while not having to give up the osteopathic philosophy that I identify so much with.
Good luck in making your choice and I hope that this info helps.
As for on-campus housing, yes Touro has good housing. Unfortunately, the school was not able to renew the lease for the 3 BR houses they had on campus and so there was a bit of a shuffle with housing during this last year. They have 3BR townhouses, studio apts and graduate student dorms. The dorms will be offering both single and double occupancy (with more of them being double occupancy). The dorms haven't opened yet (the last correspondence I recieved indicated they are just now opening them up).
Due to not having the houses available anymore, there will no longer be family or married housing available on campus. Townhouses are only for students. All of the housing is within walking distance to the classrooms (5 minutes).
Many interviewees have been discouraged by the buildings on the campus as they were part of the former Naval base. Most of the building are a horrible tan color but that is because they are historical landmarks and the school is NOT allowed to change the color. One of the buildings is actually called the Lincoln building (I think because it was build when Lincoln was still president). That should give you an idea of how long this place has been around. I agree that some other parts of Mare Island leave much to be desired as they are industrial looking and much of the buildings aren't being used at all but given the location of many other med schools around the country, I can't use it as a criticism. Just an observation.
True, there are no commercial vendors on the island (sorry you have to take a bike ride to find a Starbucks) but once the undergrads are on campus, I am sure that much will change. If you really need coffee that bad then come by my room!! I have the best fresh roasted organic coffee from a little wine country roastery anyway!!
As for urban and lively. Well I can't think of any better place to be. You get the privacy and seclusion of being on the island but you are surrounded by the hustle and bustle of the Bay Area. The ferry is just minutes away from campus and takes you right into the heart of San Francisco. If you are a sports fan, then you will have no shortage of opportunities. There is plenty of culture here and LOTS of great food. You are bordered on one side by the wine country, the snow of Lake Tahoe is just a couple of hours away in the other direction and then access to all of the other med schools in the area.
Every student that I know has been extremely satisfied with the education that they are receiving at TUCOM. I have been told on multiple occassions about the lecturers that come over from Stanford, UCSF, etc. Touro has an ever growing list of clinical sites for rotations and when asking the school about rotation sites, we were told there were ample rotation sites near campus and a student told me that they didn't know of any student that could not do their rotations locally that didn't want to go out of area. I personally like the fact that during the fourth year, I can apply to Stanford, UCSF and UC Davis as a visiting student and do rotations at these schools. Check the match results and you will find that past students have been very successful at matching to bay area hospitals and one student matched at Stanford for pediatrics.
As for prestige? I don't know that either school at this point can grasp the title as they are both too new. AZCOM does have its connection with CCOM and so may have an advantage by association with this school but I have seen many threads about the residency match and that, repeatedly, applicants have discussed that they are seeing TUCOM grads get multiple and excellent interviews at residency programs and that the newness of the school (or lack of reputation) is obviously not a factor in that arena.
If I had been given the option to go to AZCOM, I would not have gone there over TUCOM. I am from the bay area and so my decision is probably a little biased but only because I have more information on the area and having been around UC Davis, Stanford and UCSF, I put an extremely high value on being able to work with students, staff and hospitals that have affiliations with all of these organizations while not having to give up the osteopathic philosophy that I identify so much with.
Good luck in making your choice and I hope that this info helps.
