UIWSOM vs BCOM vs WCUCOM

[greenbannan4]

I am originally from a large city so naturally have more of an urban preference, but I've heard incredible things about rural medicine on rotations. That being said though, I would prefer to do residency in a large city! Any advice/insight on the below would be incredibly helpful - Thanks in advance!!!

Side note: I am currently most interested in EM, IM, FM!

BCOM
Pros

• Creating their own GME's
• Only 1 other med school in NM so should get good clinical experiences (right?)
• Border opportunities
• Decent match with 90% first time board score pass rates

Pro/Con

• Hub/spoke model - I don't know how good the experiences are in this format and how much travel would be needed

Cons

• For profit school
• Small town
• Newer school

UIWSOM
Pros

• In large metro city
• Has EMT program and Street-Medicine team (I currently work as an EMT on a street med team and love it!)
• Rotations in both large urban centers and rural sites
• Students don't need to travel far for rotations
• Decent match for first year (1 vascular surgery)

Cons

• Unsure how I would do in PBL environment
• New school with 83% COMLEX pass rate
• Not a lot of EM matches

WCUCOM
Pros

• More established program
• High level 1 scores (97% pass I believe?)
• Diverse match to some solid programs

Cons

• Never been to Mississippi and heard it's not too diverse there
• I've heard the clinicals can be really bad and are dependent on the preceptor. This is honestly a huge red flag for me, but I honestly have no real idea - can anyone add color to this?
• Expanding class size to 200 - I'm unsure how this would look, especially if clinical rotations are preceptor based

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[deleted1066189]

I'd choose UIWSOM out of the three. BCOM is for profit and WCU has had some serious issues.

 

[greenbannan4]

I'd choose UIWSOM out of the three. BCOM is for profit and WCU has had some serious issues.

Could you elaborate on some of the issues WCU has?

And would your reasoning for choosing UIWSOM be essentially that it is less problematic of the 3 haha?

 

[deleted1066189]

Could you elaborate on some of the issues WCU has?

And would your reasoning for choosing UIWSOM be essentially that it is less problematic of the 3 haha?

WCU has had one of the lowest match rates (even post-SOAP) for a DO school. Rumor is the administration places an interview cap on students.
They also tend to be a "last resort" option along with LMU-DCOM. And the fact they plan to double their class size with so many current issues, is alarming.

UIWSOM is the least problematic of the three, however BCOM seems to have it's fans. I believe the low COMLEX pass rate at UIWSOM may be due to the fact that exams use essay style questions. I'm not sure how current this is, but it was a notable feature of the curriculum.

 

[ChocolateChip>Oreos]

UIW

 

[greenbannan4]

UIW

Is there a particular reason? I'm starting to lean towards there anyway, but their low EM matches, and geographic placements kind of worry me (I'm trying to go either CA or NY!).

 

[greenbannan4]

WCU has had one of the lowest match rates (even post-SOAP) for a DO school. Rumor is the administration places an interview cap on students.
They also tend to be a "last resort" option along with LMU-DCOM. And the fact they plan to double their class size with so many current issues, is alarming.

UIWSOM is the least problematic of the three, however BCOM seems to have it's fans. I believe the low COMLEX pass rate at UIWSOM may be due to the fact that exams use essay style questions. I'm not sure how current this is, but it was a notable feature of the curriculum.

Ahh I had no idea about the WCU match rate. Thank you!

 

[FutureDoctor5000]

WCUCOM>UIW>BCOM
None of the stuff that the above poster said is really true... WCUCOM is significantly more established than either programs.
As far as clinicals, I can assure you that all three schools use a mix of preceptor based/wards based options. WCUCOM has more wards based options and you get a residency rotation at every core site.

 

[chilly_md]

WCU has cleaned up and is better than BCOM.