Vcom

This forum made possible through the generous support of SDN members, donors, and sponsors. Thank you.

fdonkor

Junior Member
10+ Year Member
5+ Year Member
15+ Year Member
Joined
Jan 26, 2006
Messages
35
Reaction score
0
Hi guys I haen't heard much about VCOM. Anyone interviewed there and how did it go? Also how are they with MCAT scores. Also want to know the MCAT and GPA stat of people that were accepted there. Thank you guys for the reply.
 
fdonkor said:
Hi guys I haen't heard much about VCOM. Anyone interviewed there and how did it go? Also how are they with MCAT scores. Also want to know the MCAT and GPA stat of people that were accepted there. Thank you guys for the reply.

I am going there.
I love VCOM. the school is high tech and VT is a plus.
They interview about 360 and accepte about 320 and the class are about 150.
if they invite you for interview you will have a very good chance to get accepted.
according to my experiance the staff is very nice. they are always trying to help.
they do not care much about the MCAT but they love high GPA.
let me know if you need anything. I will be happy to help you.
 
I agree. VCOM is awesome. Not only is the technology state of the art, but the faculty is extremely nice. The interview is completely relaxed. I got accepted with a 3.8 GPA and a 24 MCAT.
 
fdonkor said:
Hi guys I haen't heard much about VCOM. Anyone interviewed there and how did it go? Also how are they with MCAT scores. Also want to know the MCAT and GPA stat of people that were accepted there. Thank you guys for the reply.

Ditto to what the other responders have stated.

VCOM was the first of several schools where I interviewed and I was always somewhat partial to it as a result. It is a fabulous campus, and is on the edge of the VT undergraduate campus close to the Hokie football stadium (VCOM students also carry VT student ID cards = football tickets 👍 ).

The school is currently in it's third year of operation. The current (and very first) class of MS3's just took step one of the COMLEX and had almost 100% pass rate.

If you get invited for an interview you have a very good chance of acceptance unless you come across as a clod/egotist/narcissist.

Since they took me, the school obviously looks past your paper application and looks at the total person. As stated in their website, they give extra attention to folks with previous healthcare work experience, and to those with a certain spiritual orientation to life and service as a physician.

The school conducts three separate one-on-one interviews with applicants. All three of my interviewers made specific reference to something I wrote in my personal statement on the AACOMAS and/or VCOM secondary application, which shows they pay attention to more than GPA/MCAT when deciding on who to invite for interviews.
 
Hi guys, Thank you very much for the reply. I believe I will get an interview over there. Thank you very much for the reply. 🙂 I appreciate it.
 
football tix are worfless...you dont get to see marcus vick stepping on ppl's legs 🙁
 
how are their affiliations with hospitals for rotations...can rotations be done in PA?..what kind of residency placements do you see in the future..I know it's hard to tell now, but any idea?

What would it be like if one would not choose to practice in a rural area if they attend vcom? are you obligated to?
 
mikeypo0 said:
football tix are worfless...you dont get to see marcus vick stepping on ppl's legs 🙁

It's a bummer that we won't get to see his poor sportsmanship next season. After VT gave him the boot, he went and got himself arrested for pulling a gun on a couple of teenage kids.
 
shaggy411 said:
What would it be like if one would not choose to practice in a rural area if they attend vcom? are you obligated to?
No you are not obligated. You can do what you want once you have a licence. Unless you've already been accepted to VCOM I wouldn't say that too loud though.
 
hi,

I know my application is comlete, but I still havent got an interview notice.
My application has been complete as of mid December.

My stats : 3.51 overall and 3.55 science and MCAT 25.

Hopefully ill hear from them soon...it will be great to get an interview...especially with those acceptance stats for interviewed students.
 
Hey,
A 3.45 and 24 MCAT with a health care background is good enough for acceptance. 👍
 
VCOM impressed me, have great people on admissions staff, everything seemed wonderful, however, the cost of living in VA (housing) was too expensive for me.
 
Raven Feather said:
VCOM impressed me, have great people on admissions staff, everything seemed wonderful, however, the cost of living in VA (housing) was too expensive for me.
Housing is very cheap in blacksburg and christianburg.
 
JO300 said:
Housing is very cheap in blacksburg and christianburg.

I didn't think so, although Christiansburg is 10% cheaper. I have a family so I would need to purchase a house, Megan told me that a typical 3 BR ranch would run around 200K, that is double or more than other places.

It might be more doable for single, 1 BR apartments.
 
Raven Feather said:
I didn't think so, although Christiansburg is 10% cheaper. I have a family so I would need to purchase a house, Megan told me that a typical 3 BR ranch would run around 200K, that is double or more than other places.

It might be more doable for single, 1 BR apartments.

I am coming from NY / NJ area where 200K do not get you anything.
for me housing is very cheap.
 
how selective are they in terms of not picking people from the "appalacian region".. i'm interested in VCOM as well, but i'm not "nestled in the foothills of the appalacian mountains" like apparently they want their applicants to be

i'm a minority, if that helps any
 
JO300 said:
I am coming from NY / NJ area where 200K do not get you anything.
for me housing is very cheap.

I guess what is "cheap" is relative to ones experience. Around these parts (1hr away from Chicago) you could get the same house for about 90k. I guess if you are used to what I call "pricey" then it wouldn't be that big a deal.
 
chuckcamp said:
how selective are they in terms of not picking people from the "appalacian region".. i'm interested in VCOM as well, but i'm not "nestled in the foothills of the appalacian mountains" like apparently they want their applicants to be

i'm a minority, if that helps any

They accepted me and Im from the Midwest.
 
Raven Feather said:
They accepted me and Im from the Midwest.
ya, but are there are lot of "non-appalacian" people like you? there's always gonna be the outliers, but i'm wondering of VCOM isnt as selective with their recruiting of applicants in the area as it says it is
 
My GPA is hi, esp at PCOM where I am doing my biomed course but my MCAT is below average. I do though have a very solid health care background for 6 yrs. I hope they look at my application. My home is in Dacula, GA I am sure that is part of the appalachian region. I am hoping for an interview now that my application is complete. Houses are just expensive in VA and around here in Philly. I lived in Texas for a while and the prices for houses there are considerably cheaper in comparison to VA.
Do they allow some rotations outside VA? I would like to know that, please. Thanks
 
chuckcamp said:
ya, but are there are lot of "non-appalacian" people like you? there's always gonna be the outliers, but i'm wondering of VCOM isnt as selective with their recruiting of applicants in the area as it says it is

I have a friend in Michigan who was also accepted but declined to got MSU-COM. At my interview, there were people from all over the place interviewing. I honestly think they aren't as *in* to the App regions--but probably more VA region people get accepted there b/c the increased probability for an applicant to matriculate there based on geographics.
 
fdonkor said:
My GPA is hi, esp at PCOM where I am doing my biomed course but my MCAT is below average. I do though have a very solid health care background for 6 yrs. I hope they look at my application. My home is in Dacula, GA I am sure that is part of the appalachian region. I am hoping for an interview now that my application is complete. Houses are just expensive in VA and around here in Philly. I lived in Texas for a while and the prices for houses there are considerably cheaper in comparison to VA.
Do they allow some rotations outside VA? I would like to know that, please. Thanks


First of all the statement, "The current (and very first) class of MS3's just took step one of the COMLEX and had almost 100% pass rate."---I don't think that that is true. The pass rate has not been released yet to my knowledge and there are many students retaking the exam. The school is giving them review and time off and lots of support but I think there is some misconception about the statistics.

It is a beautiful school with state of the art facilities. The community is a great place to raise a family and housing is modest but not cheap by any stretch of the imagination. I think that you could find a 3-bedroom, one bath ranch in Christiansburg for $150K. Blacksburg is much more expensive. The biggest problem is that houses sell like hotcakes in this town. Any decent house under $200k sells within a week usually! So you have to be on the spot to buy one.

There are many students from outside of Appalachia that go to school at VCOM. There are a fair number of minorities, though not a huge number. I think that is because it's target audience--Appalachia--is not an area with a huge minority population. As a matter of fact I think most of the minorities in the 2007 class are from outside of Appalachia, at the very least they are mostly city folks: NJ, Penn., FL. One from NC which probably qualifies depending on where in NC they are from, and there is one person from Roanoke. So I think minorities are not unwelcome, or excluded, They are just in the minority! The 2007 class had about 5% African American and about 7-8% other minorities.

And the final answer is yes they do allow some rotations out of state but most of them are done in this area. I think you have 4 electives that can be done out of the area and another 4-5 selectives that can be done at a different AOA approved residency site. Those numbers may be slightly different--that is off the top of my head.

Good luck
 
Thanks for the info but how low MCAT scores do they get even though I know they are not concerned about that. Thank you.
 
I was accepted and am attending VCOM in August. I live in Washington state and went to undergrad in Washington but I graduated high school in VA so I am not sure if they counted me as a WA or VA resident. I got accepted with a 21 MCAT so they deffinitly weigh other aspects of the application more.
 
cyclegirl said:
I was accepted and am attending VCOM in August. I live in Washington state and went to undergrad in Washington but I graduated high school in VA so I am not sure if they counted me as a WA or VA resident. I got accepted with a 21 MCAT so they deffinitly weigh other aspects of the application more.

They love GPA more than MCAT.
and if you have research will be plus.
 
thanks guys for the intant reply, that gives me some hope. I do have some research background
 
What is the lowest MCAt scores do they accept at VCOM, anyone.
 
fdonkor said:
What is the lowest MCAt scores do they accept at VCOM, anyone.


I was accepted to VCOM: GPA 3.7, Science 3.75 and an MCAT of much below average. But, I have tons of health care experience, volunteer experience and missions trips. When I interviewed, they specifically told me they look at experience and GPA much more than they do MCAT scores, which was good for me 🙂 If your scores are below average, don't worry, as long as your app. is strong in other areas, you should be just fine!
 
Thanks for the info. I hope I get an interview. My application was complete about 12 days ago.
 
fdonkor said:
Thanks for the info. I hope I get an interview. My application was complete about 12 days ago.
Good Luck
 
Top