Great idea to troll the threads the cycle before applying. I'm getting a bunch of II's now but am woefully lacking on info about each school.
I toured Lebanon back in may or June. I'd be very interested to hear your take on both campuses, your own personal pros and cons. Feel free to post here or just PM me.
DISCLAIMER- I am from Oregon. Some say it is a backwards state. Ha ha. I grew up in a suburb of Portland, and live in Oregon City now. The only time I did not live in the Portland area was in college when I went to Southern Oregon in Ashland (the last city in Oregon before crossing into California on Interstate-5)
A lot of people come and don't realize that the pace here is SLOWER than other places. (on average) People don't drive as fast, they don't work as fast, and they don't die as fast. Even the person that gave the tour in Lebanon stated that the Pomona people don't understand how we can be so relaxed all the time. Portland has been named the #1 most friendly large city to drive in a few years in a row. Not at all like LA or even Seattle.
Pomona- nice weather. That is about the only plus in my book. I hate the city sprawl that is the LA inland empire. The freeways just about gave me a heart-attack. The campus was a converted strip-mall in the beginning, it still looks like one. The new buildings are nice. There is cool artwork all over (a statue artist did a show there and just left the pieces). I have heard that Pomona is not a good place to live and that to get good housing it is a 20 minute drive (on the freeway that would kill me). Large hospitals close for rotations is also a plus. Rotations are already solid and in place.
Lebanon- in the country. If you drive less than 5 minutes there are farms, cows, chickens and other barnyard animals. 30 minutes to Corvallis or Albany (medium size cities). 60 to 90 minutes to Salem or Portland (large cities). Only one building, but plans for expansion. The hospital that is across the road is a level 2, so not huge, but does have some volume. To get to the level 1 trauma you need to get to Portland (OHSU and Emanuel). Rotations currently in place for only 1/3 the people (the NW track has been sending people up from Pomona for about 10 years), but they are building up rotation sites like crazy and should have enough by this time next year when the first class will reach third year. Possibility of rotating in Portland, but also in rural Oregon. There is affordable, nice, new apartments 500 feet across a barren field (soon to be the rest of the medical campus). Plans are in to build a VA hospital/medical center in the next few years.
Since the lectures are streamed from one site to the other, you get the benefit of having good professors at both locations. One person in last years thread was talking about the Lebanon anatomy prof (Berringer or something like that) who is an editor of Netter's Anatomy and the anatomy prof in Pomona is a paleontologist. There was slight competition between the two schools in the first semester about who had the better scores in anatomy. When they were talking about it, the Lebanon campus was slightly ahead.
The one bad thing about Lebanon is the weather. There are only three months, or so, that it does not constantly rain. I am not talking about rain like in Florida where 1-2 inches comes down in 30 minutes, but it will drizzle all day long and there will only be 1/4 to 1/2 of an inch. Just enough to make life outside miserable. Last winter there were 30 days in a row that was rainy without a break. And when it is not raining, there are clouds. It rarely snows, but when it does everything shuts down and everyone freaks out. Nobody knows how to drive in the snow here. Two inches of snow will shut down the entire city of Portland. Ha Ha.
It may get hot in Pomona in the summer, but then it is 3-4 months of staying inside with the A/C on. there are still 8-9 months that the weather is good enough to go outside and do stuff.
I am choosing the Lebanon campus. You should look at each and make a choice for yourself.
dsoz
Though this school is in rural Oregon, is expensive, and a good portion of the classes are done through web-conference. Otherwise, a great place to learn if you want to stay in Oregon but can't make the ridiculously competitive seats at OHSU
