UIWSOM vs BCOM

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acadeca14

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I have been accepted into both schools and need to put down a deposit soon. One of my biggest concerns about BCOM is private loan for the first year. Both seem to be up-and-coming schools. I am pleased with the curriculum of schools, but are there any red flags for either school that I have missed? Thanks.
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Do any of the schools provide access to federal loans?
 
acadeca14 said:
I have been accepted into both schools and need to put down a deposit soon. One of my biggest concerns about BCOM is private loan for the first year. Both seem to be up-and-coming schools. I am pleased with the curriculum of schools, but are there any red flags for either school that I have missed? Thanks.
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I'm pretty sure UIWSOM would also be private only since they haven't even had one class yet. You're kind of picking between a poop hotdog or a turd sandwich. I'd go with BCOM, at least they'll have 1 year of students gone through by the time you matriculate.
 
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Do you happen to be from west Texas where they're both equal distances from your house?
 
I wouldn't be that cyclical, but you do have to go in eyes open. The biggest risk to a new school is that the Faculty, despite having experience teaching elsewhere, haven't gelled and will deliver a discordant curriculum. You'll need to be a good self-learner.

Rekt said:
I'm pretty sure UIWSOM would also be private only since they haven't even had one class yet. You're kind of picking between a poop hotdog or a turd sandwich. I'd go with BCOM, at least they'll have 1 year of students gone through by the time you matriculate.
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Goro said:
I wouldn't be that cyclical, but you do have to go in eyes open. The biggest risk to a new school is that the Faculty, despite having experience teaching elsewhere, haven't gelled and will deliver a discordant curriculum. You'll need to be a good self-learner.
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While I'm not disagreeing that a new school is guaranteed to be disorganized, I think it's funny how many of my peers at various reputable DO schools (myself included) still think the curriculum is in disarray. I can maybe see the year or so after getting a new dean or if there's an exodus of department chairs, but to consistently have a curriculum that meshes poorly despite neither of those factors is frustrating to say the least.
 
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O Grady said:
While I'm not disagreeing that a new school is guaranteed to be disorganized, I think it's funny how many of my peers at various reputable DO schools (myself included) still think the curriculum is in disarray. I can maybe see the year or so after getting a new dean or if there's an exodus of department chairs, but to consistently have a curriculum that meshes poorly despite neither of those factors is frustrating to say the least.
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Being a DO school and having to make sure your students can pass COMLEX and USMLE produces such a scenario.
I also think curriculums are fickle and they always are going to inevitably suck because what the students prioritize and what the faculty prioritize may not be in line. I.e IM faculty teaching from experiences and information they felt valuable in their practice life v.s what's on boards.
 
What som? Never heard of it. I cant keep up....
 
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O Grady said:
While I'm not disagreeing that a new school is guaranteed to be disorganized, I think it's funny how many of my peers at various reputable DO schools (myself included) still think the curriculum is in disarray. I can maybe see the year or so after getting a new dean or if there's an exodus of department chairs, but to consistently have a curriculum that meshes poorly despite neither of those factors is frustrating to say the least.
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Hah, sounds like mine. Been open for a long time, but it seriously feels like were the first or second class going through sometimes.
 
Rekt said:
I'm pretty sure UIWSOM would also be private only since they haven't even had one class yet. You're kind of picking between a poop hotdog or a turd sandwich. I'd go with BCOM, at least they'll have 1 year of students gone through by the time you matriculate.
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Because UIWSOM is part of an existing undergraduate school, wouldn't their students be eligible for federal loans?

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I'm an MD student but have lots of friends at DO schools, worked under professors at new MD and very old (prestigious) MD schools around the nation. New schools tend to have new curriculums, but unestablished clinical sites (or not enough). Faculty, old or new, will always have disparate teaching styles.

Often, new schools have to compete with established schools for clinical sites. It helps if you're in a big city like San Antonio. Honestly, 1 year of students before you won't do much. They might change the grading or adjust the difficulty of the exams, or refine exam questions or change the format of some lessons, but that's about it. Students in the 3rd and 4th class of this new school still have problems, and others in the 1st class of another are getting great residency spots.

I'd pick UIW. BCOM is in the middle of nowhere, and your patient population is not going to be very diverse.
 
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I'd pick UIW simply because they have an undergraduate institution behind them, are non-profit and texas has many residencies available. I don't think either school will be magically better than the other.
 
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O Grady said:
While I'm not disagreeing that a new school is guaranteed to be disorganized, I think it's funny how many of my peers at various reputable DO schools (myself included) still think the curriculum is in disarray. I can maybe see the year or so after getting a new dean or if there's an exodus of department chairs, but to consistently have a curriculum that meshes poorly despite neither of those factors is frustrating to say the least.
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What specifically feels disorganized? I'm assuming you're talking only about second year?
 
Yadster101 said:
What specifically feels disorganized? I'm assuming you're talking only about second year?
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More about 2nd year, yes. Similar to was mentioned above, teaching esoteric information that isn't even close to what we need to know for boards and clinicians getting brought in who only teach 2-3 lecture hours a year, and subsequently are not great at organizing and presenting information because they lack experience.
 
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NurWollen said:
Because UIWSOM is part of an existing undergraduate school, wouldn't their students be eligible for federal loans?

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Well, Marian had loans from first year I believe (I was told by one of the first years when I interviewed there that she had federal loans). So I think it is the same for UIWSOM. I am not sure how the whole two year waiting period thing works. I think the best answer will be from some one who attended ACOM the first and second year since it was a stand alone school.
 
mats7 said:
I'm an MD student but have lots of friends at DO schools, worked under professors at new MD and very old (prestigious) MD schools around the nation. New schools tend to have new curriculums, but unestablished clinical sites (or not enough). Faculty, old or new, will always have disparate teaching styles.

Often, new schools have to compete with established schools for clinical sites. It helps if you're in a big city like San Antonio. Honestly, 1 year of students before you won't do much. They might change the grading or adjust the difficulty of the exams, or refine exam questions or change the format of some lessons, but that's about it. Students in the 3rd and 4th class of this new school still have problems, and others in the 1st class of another are getting great residency spots.

I'd pick UIW. BCOM is in the middle of nowhere, and your patient population is not going to be very diverse.
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UIW would definitely be the better choice if they had federal loans from the get go.

However, don't think of DO school rotations like MD school rotations since all of them are not in the same town/city. BCOM will have their rotations in Albequreque, El Paso, and Tucson (which all have population of 500k) also. Plus, Las Cruces is at 100k which is a sizable amount. If we were to go by the numbers alone then Mayo Clinic would also be not be a good place to train in with its 100k population (yes they do have patients "shipped" there). Not really that large of a problem in this category. The issue would be more of how the rotation sites will handle new students for the 1st time.
 
IslandStyle808 said:
UIW would definitely be the better choice if they had federal loans from the get go.

However, don't think of DO school rotations like MD school rotations since all of them are not in the same town/city. BCOM will have their rotations in Albequreque, El Paso, and Tucson (which all have population of 500k) also. Plus, Las Cruces is at 100k which is a sizable amount. If we were to go by the numbers alone then Mayo Clinic would also be not be a good place to train in with its 100k population (yes they do have patients "shipped" there). Not really that large of a problem in this category. The issue would be more of how the rotation sites will handle new students for the 1st time.
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Where exactly in Tucson are these rotations going to be?

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both affiliated with undergraduate universities. , both new. BCOM has 100+ residencies created, rotations at ACGME affiliated hospitals. They share sites with Texas Tech, UNM, and UofA and have their own too. BCOM has a research requirement. I don't know much about the other place.
 
Dustbowl12 said:
both affiliated with undergraduate universities. , both new. BCOM has 100+ residencies created, rotations at ACGME affiliated hospitals. They share sites with Texas Tech, UNM, and UofA and have their own too. BCOM has a research requirement. I don't know much about the other place.
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BCOM only has a contract with a local University as opposed to actually being a part of an undergraduate institution. BCOM has created a total of ~100 residency spots total, that includes all PGY-(1-x) which means that when it is all said and done they created MAYBE 30-40 unique residency positions at community hospitals and most in rural areas. All residency positions will be ACGME accredited by the time either of these schools graduate their first class. BCOM's research requirement is not medicine based with respect to biological studies. It is more of an informative, epidemiological-type regional health research.

I am not telling you all of this to hate on BCOM. I think BCOM is great, but I think a lot of people are mislead by what they read and hear about BCOM.
 
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Dustbowl12 said:
BCOM has 100+ residencies created
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This is very misleading. Creating a few FM programs at small community places or some TRIs does not make them some great creator of residency spots. Also that is 100 spots total. Including every year. Like they say they have 15 ortho spots, that isn't true, they really have 3 spots each year.

I agree with the above, BCOM will be a good school and I'm not trying to bash it but a lot of what you posted is just overblown propaganda. Also they are not linked with NMSU. Their application site is very clear about that.
 
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I can only speak to BCOM, having interviewed there recently and spoke with several students and faculty. First off, the above posters are right about the residencies created and I felt somewhat mislead by their website. When I read 15 ortho spots, I thought damn I know Las Cruces has a lot of old people who may need surgery, but I didn't think it required 15 residents a year to handle it!? As it turned out, if you visit the AOA residency site, it shows exactly as stated: 3 unique spots per year. Despite this, by 2020 I believe BCOM will have created, IIRC, around 120 unique, per year, residency positions that likely will include a mix of prelim, categorical, and TRIs. I bring this up in addition to the fact that apparently the school has hired an individual, I know his first name is David, who is well experienced in GME development. People raved about him and the Dean said creating NM based residencies will be key. So I mention all this to point to the fact that I think BCOM is heading in the right direction. It will obviously not afford the same opportunities as say NOVA, but the school appears solid.

Up until last week I was going to attend BCOM and even put down my deposit, so I was researching the school, area, and even the clinical sites heavily. My overall impression was that the school will do right by their students. I will admit I was overly impressed by their "leading with GME" which to me set them apart from recently new schools, such as CUSOM and the like. It just seemed BCOM's administration was acutely aware that there was no point to creating a DO school without putting forth energy and resources towards GME development. That being said, a lot of the inaugural class is not from NM and I imagine many of them will train or have train outside of NM anyways.

Last point that I liked about BCOM: their entire 4th year is just audition rotations. At first I thought, great I can rotate and audition at programs that I like instead of having to do rotations at someplace I don't like. There is a feeling of flexibility. However, and I imagine actual OMSs can comment on this, that the need to organize all rotations by yourself may be a large headache. Anyways, I really like this school a lot, and if it were between BCOM and UIWSOM, I would go with BCOM for the reasons mentioned. One thing I found odd with UIWSOM was that their curriculum would have a large EMT component for the first year. I know they have other health-related programs but that struck me as odd. I'm sure UIWSOM will produce good DOs as well...and if all else is a tie, than go with whichever school is cheaper lol.
 
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AnatomyGrey12 said:
This is very misleading. Creating a few FM programs at small community places or some TRIs does not make them some great creator of residency spots. Also that is 100 spots total. Including every year. Like they say they have 15 ortho spots, that isn't true, they really have 3 spots each year.

I agree with the above, BCOM will be a good school and I'm not trying to bash it but a lot of what you posted is just overblown propaganda. Also they are not linked with NMSU. Their application site is very clear about that.
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fair enough. they are linked with NMSU however their students have access to all NMSU facilities, they also have NMSU accounts, etc
 
Doctor_Strange said:
I can only speak to BCOM, having interviewed there recently and spoke with several students and faculty. First off, the above posters are right about the residencies created and I felt somewhat mislead by their website. When I read 15 ortho spots, I thought damn I know Las Cruces has a lot of old people who may need surgery, but I didn't think it required 15 residents a year to handle it!? As it turned out, if you visit the AOA residency site, it shows exactly as stated: 3 unique spots per year. Despite this, by 2020 I believe BCOM will have created, IIRC, around 120 unique, per year, residency positions that likely will include a mix of prelim, categorical, and TRIs. I bring this up in addition to the fact that apparently the school has hired an individual, I know his first name is David, who is well experienced in GME development. People raved about him and the Dean said creating NM based residencies will be key. So I mention all this to point to the fact that I think BCOM is heading in the right direction. It will obviously not afford the same opportunities as say NOVA, but the school appears solid.

Up until last week I was going to attend BCOM and even put down my deposit, so I was researching the school, area, and even the clinical sites heavily. My overall impression was that the school will do right by their students. I will admit I was overly impressed by their "leading with GME" which to me set them apart from recently new schools, such as CUSOM and the like. It just seemed BCOM's administration was acutely aware that there was no point to creating a DO school without putting forth energy and resources towards GME development. That being said, a lot of the inaugural class is not from NM and I imagine many of them will train or have train outside of NM anyways.

Last point that I liked about BCOM: their entire 4th year is just audition rotations. At first I thought, great I can rotate and audition at programs that I like instead of having to do rotations at someplace I don't like. There is a feeling of flexibility. However, and I imagine actual OMSs can comment on this, that the need to organize all rotations by yourself may be a large headache. Anyways, I really like this school a lot, and if it were between BCOM and UIWSOM, I would go with BCOM for the reasons mentioned. One thing I found odd with UIWSOM was that their curriculum would have a large EMT component for the first year. I know they have other health-related programs but that struck me as odd. I'm sure UIWSOM will produce good DOs as well...and if all else is a tie, than go with whichever school is cheaper lol.
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You make some very good points - you definitely can't go wrong with either school, but I will always go in the direction of a non-profit, undergraduate linked medical school. There are more perks to this than one could imagine with respect to a private, independent medical school.

Dustbowl, almost every single DO school has some type of University affiliate that allows their students to access their close-by undergraduate institution. This isn't a selling point IMHO.
 
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Thanks for all of the input. I recently declined BCOM's acceptance. UIWSOM has federal loans and BCOM doesn't for the first year. UIWSOM also doesn't require any deposit till Dec. 14th, and I have a couple of interviews over the next couple of weeks (Rocky Vista and Campbell). I should find out if I am accepted to other schools before the deposit is due.
 
OrdinaryDO said:
You make some very good points - you definitely can't go wrong with either school, but I will always go in the direction of a non-profit, undergraduate linked medical school. There are more perks to this than one could imagine with respect to a private, independent medical school.

Dustbowl, almost every single DO school has some type of University affiliate that allows their students to access their close-by undergraduate institution. This isn't a selling point IMHO.
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So the Dean made a point to talk about the for-profit status and even before he spoke about it on interview day, I did enough research about BCOM specifically that suggested that the for-profit status would not be concern at all. Mind you, I sort of called the Dean out on this because I researched him too--he wrote a paper published in the JAOA saying for-profit schools diminish the quality and philosophy of non-profit DO schools. However, I think BCOM is different because they have invested money into the Burrell Health Institute that is meant to research NM relevant population health issues. For the BCOM investors, this is a wise investment: researching and improving the health of NMexicans over time would intuitively benefit the economy of the region. Second, RVUCOM is a for-profit school with success so at least their is a model to follow. And finally, BCOM students are allowed to do graduate programs at NMSU, including getting a MPH as well.

acadeca14 said:
Thanks for all of the input. I recently declined BCOM's acceptance. UIWSOM has federal loans and BCOM doesn't for the first year. UIWSOM also doesn't require any deposit till Dec. 14th, and I have a couple of interviews over the next couple of weeks (Rocky Vista and Campbell). I should find out if I am accepted to other schools before the deposit is due.
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This I did not know about and could sway in UIWSOM favor. I don't know the CoL in San Antonio either, but with your specific scenario it makes total sense (the 3k deposit is seriously ridiculous--that may be the only evidence of the for-profit status aka we want the $$$). The CoL in Las Cruces is apparently really cheap. Good Luck to you!
 
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I would pick UIWSOM because it is only a 1.5 hour drive from where I live.
 
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OrdinaryDO said:
You make some very good points - you definitely can't go wrong with either school, but I will always go in the direction of a non-profit, undergraduate linked medical school. There are more perks to this than one could imagine with respect to a private, independent medical school.

Dustbowl, almost every single DO school has some type of University affiliate that allows their students to access their close-by undergraduate institution. This isn't a selling point IMHO.
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Didn't you turn down several schools for BCOM, until your got into your state DO school? I'm kind of not following the whole non-profit thing. Do you mean a DO school apart of a public university?
 
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Doctor_Strange said:
So the Dean made a point to talk about the for-profit status and even before he spoke about it on interview day, I did enough research about BCOM specifically that suggested that the for-profit status would not be concern at all. Mind you, I sort of called the Dean out on this because I researched him too--he wrote a paper published in the JAOA saying for-profit schools diminish the quality and philosophy of non-profit DO schools. However, I think BCOM is different because they have invested money into the Burrell Health Institute that is meant to research NM relevant population health issues. For the BCOM investors, this is a wise investment: researching and improving the health of NMexicans over time would intuitively benefit the economy of the region. Second, RVUCOM is a for-profit school with success so at least their is a model to follow. And finally, BCOM students are allowed to do graduate programs at NMSU, including getting a MPH as well.



This I did not know about and could sway in UIWSOM favor. I don't know the CoL in San Antonio either, but with your specific scenario it makes total sense (the 3k deposit is seriously ridiculous--that may be the only evidence of the for-profit status aka we want the $$$). The CoL in Las Cruces is apparently really cheap. Good Luck to you!
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I realize the dean has changed his stance on the for-profit stance he once took - I have great respect for he dean and BCOM as a whole. However, RVUCOM is a good university with respect to statistics m, but they also recruit highly qualified students to reflect this. They are located in a much more desirable location, also. Almost every medical school in the nation offers graduate degrees for their medical students to undergo dual degree programs or graduate student programs. BCOM may have rushed this, though, because they are placing a lot on their plate before they ever even have a chance to fix their issues during the first matriculating class at BCOM. The cost of living around Las Cruces is absurdly high with respect to the southern region. Compared to the northern states I can understand how some people draw that conclusion of cheap CoL, but I can assure you it's not even close to competitive to other southern states close by.

IslandStyle808 said:
Didn't you turn down several schools for BCOM, until your got into your state DO school? I'm kind of not following the whole non-profit thing. Do you mean a DO school apart of a public university?
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I did turn down several schools for BCOM, but I did so because I had invested $3000 into BCOM already and had made friends and had my living situations set up. The other reasons for choosing BCOM was my love for the culture. The other 4 medical schools I turned down were in areas of the country I would rather not live in or just too far away for the amount of money I would have to pay. I am speaking of profit vs non-profit here because it is a comparison between two schools and what they can offer. Non-profit schools have an advantage over the for-profit colleges and they look better in terms of serving the community. Also, for-profit schools have a conflict of interest so if the investments aren't there, well, something's gotta give.
 
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OrdinaryDO said:
I realize the dean has changed his stance on the for-profit stance he once took - I have great respect for he dean and BCOM as a whole. However, RVUCOM is a good university with respect to statistics m, but they also recruit highly qualified students to reflect this. They are located in a much more desirable location, also. Almost every medical school in the nation offers graduate degrees for their medical students to undergo dual degree programs or graduate student programs. BCOM may have rushed this, though, because they are placing a lot on their plate before they ever even have a chance to fix their issues during the first matriculating class at BCOM. The cost of living around Las Cruces is absurdly high with respect to the southern region. Compared to the northern states I can understand how some people draw that conclusion of cheap CoL, but I can assure you it's not even close to competitive to other southern states close by.



I did turn down several schools for BCOM, but I did so because I had invested $3000 into BCOM already and had made friends and had my living situations set up. The other reasons for choosing BCOM was my love for the culture. The other 4 medical schools I turned down were in areas of the country I would rather not live in or just too far away for the amount of money I would have to pay. I am speaking of profit vs non-profit here because it is a comparison between two schools and what they can offer. Non-profit schools have an advantage over the for-profit colleges and they look better in terms of serving the community. Also, for-profit schools have a conflict of interest so if the investments aren't there, well, something's gotta give.
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Good points. As it pertains to CoL, I am not as well-versed in it as you are (or maybe anyone lol). LECOM-SH CoL is 24k and BCOM is 13k so it appeared that BCOM was really cheap, but perhaps if I look up ACOM that may be different. However, if you include NOVA and LECOM-B as part of the southern region their CoLs are much higher IIRC.

On another note, what I bolded is how I have been feeling these past two weeks. My mind was set on BCOM, but an unexpectedly accepted to LECOM-SH which by almost any metric is a better med school. Anyways good discussion! I am reading The White Coat Investor actually so I am interested in what makes one med school better than another and CoL is right up there.
 
Just as it can be done with KCU or any school, misinformation is shared or information that is supposed to be a "pro" for the school is stretched far beyond what it actually is for the sake of appeal. One thing is the fact that BCOM has created a "15 spot orth residency". Mind you, that this means (if everyone from bcom was to stay in the region) that only 3 would be accepted since it's 3 per year of a 5 year program so a total of 15 and not 15 ortho spots per year. When you add that to say a 30 spot family medicine. Residency (which would technically just be 10 per year for a 3 year FM program) you are already close to "50 residency spots" where in reality for each class that's only 13 available spots per year for those two programs. Just as a note, there is an acgme requirement for faculty to resident ratios as well as specific research requirements that just may not be accessible for these hospitals or programs hence why they can't have a 15 ortho spots per year program out in las cruces (well for now, things can change down the road).

As stated, a university affiliation is nothing that is new or groundbreaking.




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Las cruces is extremely affordable unless you're used to VERY low COL. Coming from Texas, it is still much cheaper. Don't want to get into an argument in this thread but I think it's quite hilarious to see some negativity and changes in stances from posters from a year ago. Just wanted to clarify, COL, very cheap in cruces. You can rent a house for 6-700 a month if you wanted


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FutureDO08 said:
Las cruces is extremely affordable unless you're used to VERY low COL. Coming from Texas, it is still much cheaper. Don't want to get into an argument in this thread but I think it's quite hilarious to see some negativity and changes in stances from posters from a year ago. Just wanted to clarify, COL, very cheap in cruces. You can rent a house for 6-700 a month if you wanted


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Are you a student here?
 
DO2015CA said:
How is the curriculum? How is it presented? How are students doing on the tests?
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It's a spiraled curriculum so we retouch on some stuff again periodically and it's integrated with the next block. It's systems based. We are very fast but Med school is fast. I've seen sample tests from schools like VCOM and they were more straightforward than our questions. We really don't have 1st order questions, they really try to ask us 2nd and 3rd order. As a whole, the class is scoring about the same. There's not that many huge outliers. We get firecracker and it's built around our specific blocks (we have USMLE, COMLEX, and whatever blocks we are on or have done) so we have specific firecracker questions from our current and past material. They have a committee with faculty that come from other Med schools that reviews the exams before the tests and then they review the exam after we've taken it. Results up within 72 business hrs


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FutureDO08 said:
It's a spiraled curriculum so we retouch on some stuff again periodically and it's integrated with the next block. It's systems based. We are very fast but Med school is fast. I've seen sample tests from schools like VCOM and they were more straightforward than our questions. We really don't have 1st order questions, they really try to ask us 2nd and 3rd order. As a whole, the class is scoring about the same. There's not that many huge outliers. We get firecracker and it's built around our specific blocks (we have USMLE, COMLEX, and whatever blocks we are on or have done) so we have specific firecracker questions from our current and past material. They have a committee with faculty that come from other Med schools that reviews the exams before the tests and then they review the exam after we've taken it. Results up within 72 business hrs


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That's great and all that you're doing the same but what is that average? A medical school grade average is about a low B. If all of the class is failing together or hitting 100s together that says something
 
DO2015CA said:
That's great and all that you're doing the same but what is that average? A medical school grade average is about a low B. If all of the class is failing together or hitting 100s together that says something
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Grade average was B for the test we just got


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Some school's averages are a C. It just depends on how difficult/intense the curriculum is. It varies. A C average in place X can be a B average equivalent in school Y
 
Niwrad said:
How have current students received funding? What private lenders or sources did you use for your loans?
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If you take a look at the BCOM website they have a link to a website where you can see all of the private loan partners they currently have. Interest rates don't appear to be that high and overall as the second matriculating class, we'd only have to take them out for a year before being able to take out federal loans!
 
In my opinion, SDN has really overblown this federal financial aid factor in order to crap on BCOM. With the federal graduate loan maximum being $137,500, the average medical student gets federal loans year 1 and 2 and private loans year 3 and 4. Going to BCOM would mean getting federal loans year 2 and 3 instead of year 1 and 2. That's not really a big difference to me. Yes the interest on those private loans year 1 will grow a little extra but again not big enough of factor to choose UIWSOM over BCOM. There are much more important, tangible factors to consider.
 
Just turned down my II at uiwsom as I don't see the school as an upgrade over my acceptance to BCOM. Hopefully they'll both turn out to be great schools and this discussion will be irrelevant!
 
SlugMD said:
In my opinion, SDN has really overblown this federal financial aid factor in order to crap on BCOM. With the federal graduate loan maximum being $137,500, the average medical student gets federal loans year 1 and 2 and private loans year 3 and 4. Going to BCOM would mean getting federal loans year 2 and 3 instead of year 1 and 2. That's not really a big difference to me. Yes the interest on those private loans year 1 will grow a little extra but again not big enough of factor to choose UIWSOM over BCOM. There are much more important, tangible factors to consider.
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That's not how it works. Grad plus, i.e. the second loan your getting is a federal loan, so you don't have a cap. So it's federal loans for all four years. It matters because you can't qualify for repayment programs with private loans. Also, people aren't hating BCOM because loans, they're hating BCOM because it's another brand new DO school that does not need to exist. Any school that hasn't had a class graduate or even take boards yet is automatically inferior to any other DO school who has.
 
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I didn't know that grad plus don't have a limit. That would make for an even better situation than I suggested. Only 1 year private loans and 3 years of federal. I have good credit so my private interest rate should be comparable to federal rates.

Just in case you didn't know, BCOM has access to federal loans starting Fall 2018.
 
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