Whats up with Ohio??

[Dr. Macenat]

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I recieved my secondary from ohio osteopathic school today, but whats messing with along with the secondary was a 5 year contract! I thought that was a rumor I heard a while ago but evidently it's true. R they serious??? That is such a commitment.... Does anyone knows what the consequences are for breaking that contract, I mean really what if you get to ohio and hate it???

Thanks guys

 

[Nate]

If you break contract you have to repay some rediculous amount of tuition per year.

 

[WillowRose]

The 5-yr contract isn't as bad as it sounds.

If you do a residency in a CORE hospital, it counts toward your commitment. If you do your residency in a CORE hospital in a primary care area, then 3 yrs will count as 5 yrs.

If you want out, there are ways to buy it out. It doesn't have to be paid all at once, though.

The school was mandated by the Ohio legislature to produce physicians for underserved areas of Ohio. It is a state-supported school, so the state of Ohio is contributing to your education. The payback for that is giving time back to the state.

It's really not as bad as it sounds. Go ahead and sign it if you're interested in getting an interview. You aren't bound by it unless you actually enroll. If you get an interview, you can take some time to talk to John Schriner in admissions and he will explain all the details of the contract. You'll know before you even leave your interview whether it is an unacceptable deal or not.

Willow

 

[Nate]

One other tidbit, you have to pay out-of-state tuition comparable to other private schools anyway, even if you sign this contract! So I am not sure exactly what the state is paying for that differs from other schools.
Don?t get me wrong, I am sure it is a wonderful school and it may be worthwhile if you are mobile and end up liking Ohio, but that is not a gamble I was willing to take; are you?

 

[Shinken]

One other tidbit, you have to pay out-of-state tuition comparable to other private schools anyway, even if you sign this contract! So I am not sure exactly what the state is paying for that differs from other schools.
Don?t get me wrong, I am sure it is a wonderful school and it may be worthwhile if you are mobile and end up liking Ohio, but that is not a gamble I was willing to take; are you?

Yes and no. If you remain a resident of a state other than Ohio then yes, you pay out of state tuition. However, during that first year of med school you can establish Ohio residency and pay in-state tuition for the remainder of your three years of med school. Most med schools will not allow you to convert to in-state tuition after you enroll as an out-of-stater. OU-COM will allow you to do that.

Please note that even if you become a resident of Ohio, all you do is pay in-state tuition. Your out-of-state contract still applies. Trust me, though, OU-COM is an outstanding school. As an out-of-state student I couldn't be happier with my choice of school. I'm going to become a kick-gluteals physician.

 

[Nate]

I have no doubt that OU is a great school and that you will become a kick ass physician. However, having a choice to go to any other medical school without a binding 5-year contract (which is any other medical school) I would pick any of the other schools over it hands down (and I did). Maybe if they offered a really low tuition in return for the five year contract it would make more sense, but even being in-state after the first year the tuition is comparable to other in-state schools.

 

[EReze]

I think that is a crazy stipulation. I could understand 2-3 years (including residency) but they essentially want to dictate where you spend the early years of your career and your life! It is a demand I am just not willing to commit to. Ohio may very well be a great state and OU may be a great school, but that little piece of information is held until after they get your money from AACOMAS. Before I applied, I went to the website looking to see if that rumor was true. I found no such information. I feel suckered. If they want to contractually demand you stay in that state, then they should make that fact known before people pay money to apply. I was born and raised in NJ and plan to come back to my own state (if need be) to serve underserved communities here so is it really fair to force people to stay somewhere. I am sure there are plenty of students that love and want to stay in Ohio VOLUNTARILY. Why force people? Wouldn't you produce more even better physicians if you didn't force the people who want to leave to stay where they aren't happy?

 

[Buckeye(OH)]

I think that is a crazy stipulation. I could understand 2-3 years (including residency) but they essentially want to dictate where you spend the early years of your career and your life! It is a demand I am just not willing to commit to. Ohio may very well be a great state and OU may be a great school, but that little piece of information is held until after they get your money from AACOMAS. Before I applied, I went to the website looking to see if that rumor was true. I found no such information. I feel suckered. If they want to contractually demand you stay in that state, then they should make that fact known before people pay money to apply. I was born and raised in NJ and plan to come back to my own state (if need be) to serve underserved communities here so is it really fair to force people to stay somewhere. I am sure there are plenty of students that love and want to stay in Ohio VOLUNTARILY. Why force people? Wouldn't you produce more even better physicians if you didn't force the people who want to leave to stay where they aren't happy?

With all that searching you did, you didn't find OU's number where you could have called them to confirm/deny such rumors?



Adrian

 

[EReze]

With all that searching you did, you didn't find OU's number where you could have called them to confirm/deny such rumors?



Adrian

Yes, but I didn't have that much time holding up my entire application to wait for a reply from a school that wasn't in my top 5 choices. I decided to give it a shot and hope it wasn't true. I don't think it is a bad school by any measure, but I don't want to relocate to that region. And I don't think it is fair to contractually bind people to do so. There could be a million reasons as to why a person may want to leave a state after graduating-- why shouldn't they be able to?

 

[WillowRose]

Just to clarify for any lurkers who may not quite understand these points:

1. You do not have to serve in an underserved area of Ohio to fulfill this obligation. You can go to the richest part of Columbus where there are 100 doctors in your office and still fulfill the contract.

2. Residency counts toward the time. Primary care residency makes 3 yrs=5 yrs. While there are always exceptions, most people look for residencies in the hospitals where they've rotated. There's no requirement to do your residency in Ohio.

3. Even with out-of-state tuition, you do not cover the balance of what is spent on medical education. So the state still funds a portion of your education. Certain people have suggested eliminating the out-of-state contract, but the Ohio legislature isn't going to let that happen any time soon.

4. If you don't like the idea, then don't apply (or don't send in your secondary). Aside from calling the school, this subject has been discussed *many* times on SDN. All I did was ask a person who had attended OU-COM. The admissions staff is really fast about answering the phone and taking your questions, so it wouldn't have held up an applciation at all. By the way, if you don't sign the contract, you won't get an interview so don't waste your money sending in a secondary application unless you're willing to consider that commitment.

5. Ohio has some really nice loan repayment programs where you can pay off your loans in exchange for time served in designated areas of the state. Nothing in the contract precludes you from taking advantage of those programs. (Meaning you can pay off your debt while fulfilling your obligation).

Honestly, it's no different than other schools (PCSOM and VCOM come to mind) that take the majority of their class from a particular area. These schools have a mandate to provide doctors to a particular population. PCSOM and VCOM accomplish their goals by giving preference to applicants from particular areas. OU-COM does it through a contract. If you aren't committed to at least giving a portion of your time back to the state that educated you, that's fine. But the purpose (and the means) are not at all ludicrous. They're designed to meet a need. As another comparison, last time I looked at the University of Kentucky (allopathic), they had a class size around 100. They took *maybe* 3 or 4 out-of-state students in each entering class. Point being, every school has its way of "weeding out" the out-of-staters who probably won't stay around after graduation. Some do it with preferences for one group, others just throw out your app unless it meets some ridiculously high standard, OU-COM sends you a contract. 🙂 Obviously it has the desired effect.

 

[HussainGQ]

Do you guys think with a 3.0 GPA I would have a realistic shot of getting in? I have allready submitted my primary (applied to 6 schools), but do you think with my stats it would be worth applying to Ohio (keep in mind that I am out of state).

 

[Nate]

See WillowRose, it may have been discussed a million times but people still don't understand. You say that one can fulfill the contract by doing your residency. This is only the partial truth.
This is from the contract itself that one signs.
"The applicant understands that internship, residency and postgraduate fellowships are included within postgraduate medical education and applicant understands that he/she will receive no credit toward the five (5) year requirement to practice medicine in the State of Ohio while applicant is pursuing said postgraduate medical education."
This is from their website, and by the way, everything you need to know is there but it takes a lot of digging
"Individuals who complete their entire postgraduate medical education at an AOA-approved residency program in an Ohio osteopathic hospital may apply for credit toward the five-year requirement period."
The residency only counts towards the 5-years if you do an osteopathic residency in an Osteopathic CORE hospital within Ohio, more and more limiting.

The reason I am trying to make this clear is I applied to OU as well and received an invite for interview and found this whole thing very confusing until I did much work to sort it all out and decide it wasn't for me. I am not saying that it is wrong for everyone but I believe it should be well understood.
Also, when I said that the tuition is not low enough to warrant the contract I did not say that the tuition covers the expenses of training a physician; I said that it is comparable to other schools and so having a choice I could not find a reason to go to Ohio above any other school unless I already knew Ohio was without a doubt where I would want to spend the first 5-years of my career. It may very well be, but I cannot foresee the future.

 

[EReze]

Thanx Nate for the clarification. I am going to withdraw my application, b/c it's just not for me.

 

[HussainGQ]

Hey, with my stats (as posted above), and with the time of year it is, would it be worth it for me to call up ACCOMAS and tell them to add OhioU to my list?

 

[Dr. Macenat]

Hey, with my stats (as posted above), and with the time of year it is, would it be worth it for me to call up ACCOMAS and tell them to add OhioU to my list?

I would give it a shot, Hussain! 3.0 is not a bad gpa, the minimum is 2.7 in most osteopathic schools.

 

[WillowRose]

See WillowRose, it may have been discussed a million times but people still don't understand. You say that one can fulfill the contract by doing your residency. This is only the partial truth.

I do believe I stipulated that the residency had to be done at a CORE hospital. (There are 9, I think). While it may have limited you, for many others, 9 hospitals to choose from is not all that limiting.

I agree that the contract itself was confusing. Lawyers get paid big bucks to make them that way. However, it only took me about 10 minutes in the Admissions Office at my interview to straighten out exactly what was involved.