I'm going to Western this August and it was my top choice (given my choices). In fact I picked this school over several other top DO schools and a few MD schools from the East Coast. There were a lot of factors in picking this school, but honestly location was the number one reason since I grew up right around there. It is expensive, there's no way around that fact. But compared to most private schools, the tuition should not be shocking to anyone. It's right where it's supposed to be unfortunately. Try to get into your state public medical schools. That's the best option if money is the biggest concern (and rightfully so). But most DO schools are private anyways and state MD schools in CA are no walk in the park either. Good luck!
First of all you are not a medical student until you have your white coat ceremony. You are still a pre-med. Dont mean to be an ass, but its false for you to make your status "medical student".
I am almost certain you will be like most people in my class who chose Western over MD schools out East: They regret their decision
Western (pomona) has one, literally one thing going for it:
Location.
The education you will receive is subpar at best. They will not go out of their way to prep you for board exams. So why do Western students generally do OK on boards? Location. People are attracted to Western because of the location. Thus many people in SoCal who are too afraid to leave the area, apply to MD schools in Cali and Western. Most who do not get into California MD schools come to Western and seeing as how there is so many pre-meds graduating from UC schools, the competition to get into Western is higher by default and by location. As a result, decently intelligent people are getting into Western. Like I said, the school has subpar teaching and board prep too. The only reason students do OK on boards is because its a bright group of people to begin with who are able to teach the info to themselves.I honestly believe your pathway to getting a good board score and residency would be MUCH EASIER at an MD school out east.
(for the record, im talking about USMLE boards as I know most people going DO have the intention of doing an MD residency. Western actually does well on the COMLEX)
In my opinion, $50k a year at Western is not worth it. If tuition here was $30k I would consider it if I had to do it again. For $50k a year you can get much more bang for your buck at one of those MD schools out East. A huge chunk of my class hate OMM so the whole DO thing is kind of pointless when you consider that it has limits as to what fields you can go into, but thats a whole other discussion.
Generally my class seems pretty split: some people love western, some people hate it (although to me it seems like more people complain about it than complement on how good it is). However most people seem to agree that the cost of Western simply is too much for what we get in return.
The good: We have some decent rotation sites around LA. We do many rotations at Arrowhead, which is a major trauma center. However I have heard we may lose our rotations to UC Riverside but there is no evidence to back this up. We do have a small handful of really good professors who are well connected. The handful is even smaller when you exclude the profs who just practice OMM.
There is some reviews of Western somewhere on SDN made by students this year that I read a few months ago. Search for them, its a detailed evaluation of Western (although just one or two peoples opinions)