Western- Pomona vs. UC Riverside SOM

[otreezieo]

hey all!

I have been fortunate enough to have been offered an acceptance at both of these fantastic schools, and now face a debate as to which to attend. I was wondering if any of the current students or SDNers out there could provide me with some strengths and weakness/ pros and cons you see with both schools.

Western- Pomona is a more established program in regards to having rotational sites set up for their students through socal. Though Riverside is a new school it has trained students for their first two years of their medical education through the UCR-UCLA Haider Program. Now that Riverside has opened their own medical school students will be doing rotations not at UCLA, but at various sites established within the Inland Empire. My concern would be the strength of these clinical rotation as UCR is working to develop more rotation sites for their students.

Another factor to consider is residency placement. I have seen the match list for Western- Pomona which matched 100% of their students last year, but UCR who is currently enrolling their second class has not had this yet. Would attending a new medical like UCR affect matching into a residency program when the time comes?

Any advice would be much appreciated! Thanks

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[NontradCA]

UCR. End thread before DO v. MD.

 

[LostinLift]

Is this a thinly veiled DO vs. MD thread?

Edit: darn you @NontradCA

 

[alpinism]

UCR

 

[sobored]

The UCs have historically produced competitive applicants for residency. I imagine UCR will have similar success.

 

[TreadLightly]

The UCs have historically produced competitive applicants for residency. I imagine UCR will have similar success.

I've heard UCR described as the "armpit of the UC system" and I believe it lives up to its reputation.

However, this is essentially an MD vs DO question so...

 

[NuttyEngDude]

Amazing, these schools are literally within driving distance of each other. I dont have a personal suggestion but the consistent sdn wisdom has been MD>DO . oops i mean, hi.

 

[AlbinoHawk DO]

I've heard UCR described as the "armpit of the UC system" and I believe it lives up to its reputation.

However, this is essentially an MD vs DO question so...

It is, but I seriously doubt they will their med school go down in flames. Many schools ranked lower across the nation have good medical schools. It'll be no different for UCR.

 

[Plecopotamus]

Western- Pomona is a more established program in regards to having rotational sites set up for their students through socal.

Another factor to consider is residency placement. I have seen the match list for Western- Pomona which matched 100% of their students last year, but UCR who is currently enrolling their second class has not had this yet. Would attending a new medical like UCR affect matching into a residency program when the time comes?

This is one of the problems with pre-meds assessing match lists -- you have no idea how many people of that 100% had to SOAP/scramble into a specialty they did not want to enter, and while I don't know how many it was exactly, I knew more than one person in that class who did just that. I believe my friends who didn't match said there were 10+ classmates in the same boat. I'm not certain on the #, but if you're going to use the match list as a security blanket, you need to know what you're looking at, and you need to decide whether SOAP/scrambling into a slot counts for that security -- if that's good enough for you, I would bet that a new MD program which has had its hand held by UCLA during development will at least be able to guarantee you the ability to do as well as SOAP/scramble into several of the less competitive fields and will at best open doors at residencies that are not open minded regarding osteopathic applicants. Also, I think the acgme residencies that will frown upon an MD from a new school are going to be the same ones that would not seriously consider an osteopathic applicant . . . not sure there will be any acgme doors open to Western grads that aren't going to be open to those from UCR.

 

[otreezieo]

This is one of the problems with pre-meds assessing match lists -- you have no idea how many people of that 100% had to SOAP/scramble into a specialty they did not want to enter, and while I don't know how many it was exactly, I knew more than one person in that class who did just that. I believe my friends who didn't match said there were 10+ classmates in the same boat. I'm not certain on the #, but if you're going to use the match list as a security blanket, you need to know what you're looking at, and you need to decide whether SOAP/scrambling into a slot counts for that security -- if that's good enough for you, I would bet that a new MD program which has had its hand held by UCLA during development will at least be able to guarantee you the ability to do as well as SOAP/scramble into several of the less competitive fields and will at best open doors at residencies that are not open minded regarding osteopathic applicants.

Thanks for your feedback! I did not intend to make this a DO vs. MD question as this topic has been talked about in a million other threads. I was just hoping to get advice for some of the concerns i have because UCR is a new program. I just hope to pick a school not based on if its MD or DO, but on the strength of the curriculum of the school and what they have to offer. I know UCR has a heavy emphasis on primary care and that is what they mold their program around, but I honestly am not sure whether i want to go into primary care or specialize yet. Would attending a school with such a heavy emphasis on primary care influence or affect my chances at matching into a speciality if i choose to specialize?

 

[huskydock]

Thanks for your feedback! I did not intend to make this a DO vs. MD question as this topic has been talked about in a million other threads. I was just hoping to get advice for some of the concerns i have because UCR is a new program. I just hope to pick a school not based on if its MD or DO, but on the strength of the curriculum of the school and what they have to offer. I know UCR has a heavy emphasis on primary care and that is what they mold their program around, but I honestly am not sure whether i want to go into primary care or specialize yet. Would attending a school with such a heavy emphasis on primary care influence or affect my chances at matching into a speciality if i choose to specialize?

Think about it this way: If you go to UCR, I seriously doubt the school would do everything they can to block you from specializing. Schools that place heavy emphasis on primary care (think MD schools like TCMC or DO schools like ATSU-SOMA) have students match in all kinds of specialties. Perhaps your opportunities to pursue highly-specialized research may be more limited than someone at a research powerhouse like UCLA, but you would never be completely shut out of any specialty, whether it's family medicine or neurosurgery.

Also, I wouldn't be so worried about UCR being a new school. The UCs have a very strong reputation in the medical world. In fact, you're probably aware that UCR and UCLA did a joint program until UCR became an independent medical school. If anything, UCR is a new school that is prepped to grow into a very strong program because of its natural affiliation with the other UCs (all of which are top top schools...).