UHSCOM vs. UOMHS vs. CCOM vs. NSUCOM

[necee]

I have been accepted to UHSCOM, UOMHS, CCOM, NSUCOM and am having a difficult time deciding which school would be the best for me. To be honest, I don't know what I am looking for in a school. At first, I just wanted to receive an interview invitation, then an acceptance. Now, I am confronted with multiple acceptances. All of these schools are very good, but I am sure there are negs. to every one of them.

I would like to hear from current CCOM, UHSCOM, UOMHS, and NSUCOM students or interviewees. Please state why you attend or will be attending your chosen school.

As a CCOM, UHSCOM, UOMHS, or NSUCOM student are you required to take and pass both Board examinations in order to graduate?

What academic safety nets are established to prevent a student from dropping out, ie, decelerated program (5yrs. instead of 4), free tutoring, mentoring/counseling, testing of learning disabilities or whatnot,...?

Exam schedules... does your school utilize a block exam period or employ regular exams throughout the academic school year?

Thank you.

necee

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Relax and Breath Deeply! Necee

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[UHS03]

I'm a first year at UHS. We are required to pass step I and step II of COMLEX. If you choose to take the USMLE your welcome to, but the school (nor any osteopathic school that I'm aware of) requires it. We take exams in blocks, so we have 4-6 weeks between exam weeks. There is free tutoring available and the other students are pretty willing to help out anyone having trouble. In my opinion, it is fairly non-competitive here among the students (although you do have your competitive gunners in any school) and I really like it. Second year students who are going through the match for their rotations right now may not have as a high an opinion (I've heard it has gotten fairly screwed up because the office keeps adding and deleting sites and their match is only a week away!)

Entering students will be faced with a curriculum overhaul. You will spend less time in lecture and lab then we have had to and you will have many more opportunities to gain clinical exposure during the first year. The curriculum will be mostly problem based and you will learn about all aspects of a proces at the same time..for instance if your talking about congestive heart failure in physiology, you will also get all the biochemistry, pathology, pharmacology, etc. Currently during the first year you only touch on the path and pharm and the vast majority of it comes in the second year when you actually take those courses. I think it's good in the respect that students will see the relevance of what they are learning right away, however I like having by subjects separated and then integrating things on my own. The downside is that you will be the first students going through the new curriculum so I'm sure there will be some bumps in the road as the instructors adjust to the changes.

I came to UHS because I felt at home during the interview. You should choose the school that you were the most comforatable at when you visited. Also, it sounded like you had an acceptance to an MD school also, is that right? Which philosophy do you prefer? If your interested in research and not so much in OMT and osteopathic philosophy, go MD. As far as the things you'll learn and the resources available to you, I doubt you will find a real stark contrast between any of the schools. All of them will have their ups and downs. Hope this helps.

[This message has been edited by UHS03 (edited 03-02-2000).]

 

[necee]

UHSO3,

DO is the only choice for me. I don't think I mentioned any MD schools.

Thanks for the reply.

necee.

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Relax and Breath Deeply! Necee

 

[UHS03]

sorry, I wasn't familiar with UOMHS and assumed it to be an MD school. I'm glad I was able to help.

[This message has been edited by UHS03 (edited 03-03-2000).]

 

[UHS2002]

I am a MSII at UHS and UHS03 did a great job already (as usual ) in descrbing UHS and the atmosphere there.

I would like to re-emphasize the new curriculum. It is going to be awesome and a lot of us are feeling kind of sour that we didn't have the chance to experience it.

I thought UHS was a good choice 2 years ago and I think it is an even more attractive choice for the incoming class, thanks to the new curriculum, the mentoring program, the free tutoring and lots of other major improvements the school is undergoing. To be sure, the tuition is steep but I do feel my money is being well spent by the school (I know some of my classmates will disagree, but the improvements will benefit my class too, in the long run, as the reputation of the school grows).

I think you got a tough choice between all the schools you have been accepted to. I interviewed and was also accepted to CCOM and I thought it was an excellent school. The lower cost of living in Kansas City and the less chaotic pace of life here tipped the scales heavily in favor of UHS, but I think you will receive a great education at CCOM too. This doesn't mean that the same is not true for NSUCOM and UOMHS, I am just not familiar with these schools, so I can't comment.

 

[UHS03]

Thank you very much UHS2002.

I hope your match goes well despite all the setbacks. I'd love to meet with you sometime and talk about it (after your match is done that is.)

 

[ewagner]

Unfortunately, I do not share the same enthusiasm as UHS2002 (rarely do I disagree with he/she). I don't really agree with the reasoning of this massive undertaking called Genisis 2000(curriculum change). I find it to be a marketing ploy without much substantial research or track record. There will be MANY growing pains and I (as are MANY students) am glad I won't be here to share in the experience. I will point out one thing...I haven't found too many (actually none)clinicians that are enthusiastic about this change.

enjoy

 

[UHS03]

I have noticed that reluctance on the part of the faculty as well. I think they resent having to rehash lecture notes and lecture schedules when the present system seems to work well. I don't really blame them.

Some students in my class are upset about not being able to be a part of the new curriculum, largely because of the many clinical experiences the new students will have access to which the second years (us) will not be able to participate in.
I too am glad to be not going through the new curriculum, but I do have some concerns about next year (when I will be a second year.) First, the faculty teaching my classes (which will be under the old curriculum) will also have demands placed upon them from the first years because they will be teaching aspects of their class as well. I think this is spreading the faculty a little thin. Second, I resent the entire studeny body at UHS being hit with a 6% tuition raise when the clear spending priority of the school is a new curriculum which will only affect classes which come after my class. I understand that in any revision there has to be a transitional class, and that is my class, but I don't think it is right to pump up tuition for everyone.

 

[necee]

UHSers,

The negative to UHSCOM that i see is that students are required to pass both Boards I & II for graduation. I am not the greatest test taker and would not want this to be a hinderance some day.

Also, if a student experiences academic difficulties, how accomodating is the school in remediating these deficiencies. Better yet, what services or what type of action will the school take to assist the student?

Necee

 

[UHS2002]

Necee,

don't base you decision to attend a school on whether that school requires COMLEX part I and II to graduate. If you choose a school that doesn't, and you base that choice solely on that, you may be disappointed later on, as 4 years is actually quite a long time and schools do change their requirements during that time. I would not be surprised if this was the case for all osteo schools by the time your graduation rolls around. Obviously, if they changed the system at your school during your graduating year, your class would probably not be required to take part II, but if they decide to change it while you a re an MS1 or MS2 then your class would almost certainly be included in the change.

As we mentioned, at UHS, there is a free tutoring service. There is also an individual who is in charge of counseling students with academic difficulties and helping them formulate strategies to improve their performance. If you are failing a class, the school will strongly encourage you to see this counselor and I know he has helped several of my classmates. There are no repeat exams at UHS. If you fail a class, however, you can remediate it during the summer. This means that you take a test a week for each corresponding test block that class had during the regular school year. You don't actually sit in class again, so you have to do the studying on your own.

The faculty at UHS is very helpfull and, if you seek help early on at the first hint of difficulties, the professors will go out of their way to help you.

Don't fret too much over this. If these schools have offered you an acceptance is because each of their admcoms thought you have the ability necessary to make it through. To be truthfull, there are always a few people that do not, but they are an incredibly small minority.

The name of the game in med school is to study a lot and then cram some more. If you only rely on cramming you will find yourself hopelessly behind, with little to no chance of catching up. If you study everyday after classes, for a couple of hours, and then put a chunk of hours into it every weekend, there is no reason for you to fail.

As for not being a good test taker, there is no way out of this one. By the time you are ready to take your boards, you will be a pro at taking tests, as you will have taken enough already to last you into your next lifetime... If you have troubles taking tests in general, then seek help from the start, even before your first test block.

 

[telewizare]

Hi,
I am a fourth year student and am going to take COMPLEX Part II this Tuesday and Wednesday, but not very ready yet. Can anyone out there, please my fellow D.O., send me some study materials (including OMT) to save me? Thanks My email is: [email protected]

 

[kgDO]

One more thing to consider about UHS. How heavy into OMT do you think you will be? Last year we lost one of our most inspiring professors (some people may disagree however), and recently two more resigned. There has been no mention by the administration as to who they are planning on hiring to replace them if at all. I am sure you will still get some education on Osteopathic principals and practice, however, no one is really saying how this will be integrated into the new curriculum.

All in all you will get a great education here, even with the new curriculum (I think), but if you really want to be hit hard with OMT, then you might want to call the school and ask some questions about how much it will be emphasized or deemphasized (spelling?). Good luck.

 

[UHS03]

My understanding (and this may be wrong) was that under the new curriculum, OPP lectures are being done away with and there will only be one lab a week. I heard that somewhere anyway. I foyur interested, verify it, don't take my word for it. I am concerened about the OPP department next year.

 

[Kent Ray]

Hi, I am a fourth year at DMU (UOMHS). This is a big decision for you! Let me tell you a little about our school. We are the second oldest DO school in the country. We have an excellent integrated cirriculum with a system approach in the second year.
Right now the school is in the middle of a "growing spell". The university has many other programs, DPM, PT, PA, MHA, MPH,
The school is on the ICN. This is a dedicated fiber optic line that runs throughout Iowa. This is new for the school but they already have satillites set up for HCA,MPH degrees. In the future this will be used for medical student education while they are out on rounds.
Currently 3/4 of our students go to Ohio, and Michigan. The school is currently working on creating more residency spots in Iowa. Once this happens more of our students will be able to stay in Iowa. Currently we have new core rotations at Mercy in Des Moines (>1000 beds, Mayo Family Practice program their filled 1/2 with DMU grads), we also have a new affiliation with a hospital in Mason city, Ia. I just read a letter yesterday that offered 30,000 in tuition if you stay in iowa to practice.
One of the universities main stratigies is to become the number one Osteopathic school in terms of research funding and development. We are not close yet but they are making good ground. Please go to our website www.dsmu.edu. On the left hand side their will be a link to "visit our site update" The first link will be to updated research.
I have a friend at the KC school. I think they get a good education. If you are going to be a DO then you need to be able to practice OMM. It sound like from the previous posts that KC doesn't take OMM training seriously. I am not an OMM guru but I know how to use it in a clinical setting, and I do! We are always in the top in board scores and always #1-3 in OMM scores.
Please email me at [email protected] if you have any questions.

 

[necee]

Thanks everyone for your replies and posts. This is a really tough decision that I have to make soon. So far, I am leaning towards UHS and DMU. If you have anything else to add, please post.

Thanks again.

Necee.

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Relax and Breath Deeply! Necee