Hello there, and congratulations on your acceptances! I'm a current OMS1 at WesternU COMP who had other acceptances to CHSU and KCU-Joplin, To answer your questions about COMP:
1. I am also a CA native, so KCU-Joplin was ruled out after I got the A from COMP. CHSU is closer to my home in the Bay, but it is a for-profit program that's so new that none of their current classes have taken board exams yet.
2. Students in my cohort seem very chill. "Drama" is nonexistent and the overall atmosphere is a "commuter school" - students show up for mandatory lectures/labs and then typically just go back to their apartments. Cliques/friend groups have been established at this point, but there is an "Orientation Week" with fun activities during which you can make friends. Discord is the main mode of messaging for our entire cohort. Note that DPM students learn the same material as DO students (with exception of OMM), so you'll be seeing some of them in anatomy lab and whatever lectures are deemed mandatory.
3. Varies by faculty member, but they are typically very supportive and encourage students to use our discussion board for questions.
4. OMS2 students are very helpful and have been providing their resources to us first years! Every lecture also has learning objectives (LOs) that some - but not all - faculty draw their exam questions from. Note that as material becomes more complicated, LOs become less of the "wink wink you should know this term" and more "guideline" in nature, at least imo.
5. Less so about the school, but COMP is located in downtown Pomona. This surrounding area is much like USC (sadly, WesternU itself isn't as pretty a campus as USC, imo) - higher levels of gang activity, drug presence, presence of people who are homeless, and prostitutes at night. Not an area you want to be exploring at night alone. Because campus is also open to the downtown area, people who are homeless can wander onto campus and pose a problem for students, but there is security present and students are more than encouraged to request security walk them to class/their cars as needed!
6. COMP does offer a Research track (as well as other tracks such as Business in Medicine, Applied Anatomy, etc. - note that students are NOT at all required to join a track), but obtaining research opportunities outside of students in this track seems to be a do-it-yourself thing.
7. Most students match into SoCal residencies with ~50-60% matching into primary care specialities. Students who match into Anesthesiology also tend to match into the nearby Riverside County. Match data for COMP is accessible online via a Google search.
8. There isn't much to do in Pomona itself, but Chino Hills and Diamond Bar have nicer food options/hangout spots, and Montclair and Claremont are both nicer cities in which some students may choose to live. OC, Anaheim, and the beaches are about a 1hr drive away at most.
9. I wouldn't say the curriculum is straight board-prep style, as exams heavily favor in-house content, so students are discouraged from ignoring lecture recordings in favor of B&B/Anking. However, faculty and admin do make attempts to give students better deals for board prep material as they approach their 2nd year.
10. As a first year, admin hasn't spoken to us much regarding board prep, but they do try to procure deals for students to subscribe to B&B/Amboss for cheaper. Other than that, I feel like COMLEX/USMLE prep for COMP students is similar to MCAT studying for applicants - find materials that best suit your intentions, and go from there.
Something important to note is the way curriculum is structured at COMP. There are 4 aspects to our material: (1) didactic material, (2) OMM, (3) CMR, (4) anatomy. Didactic material is typically given through prerecorded lecture videos with an associated PPT. Students can watch it ahead of time if the recordings are available, on the same day it's "scheduled," or later as they choose - but beware of falling behind on lectures. Anatomy lab is typically once or twice a week with group dissections, but students are encouraged to go into lab during open hours to study cadavers from other groups, because practical exams are structured around ALL cadavers, not just your own group's. OMM is mandatory attendance up to (but not usually) 3 times a week, during which material is lectured to students and practice time is provided. CMR is our clinical medical reasoning class - AKA physician roleplay. You learn physical examinations, signs/symptoms, and practice on each other. During Assessment Week, there is an OMM practical, CMR OSCE, anatomy practical, and the overall didactic exam that tests material from all 4 aspects.
