I have been accepted to both schools but I don't have the $$$ for both deposits. I had a lot of fun in WVSOM, the people were really nice and the students seem to love it there, but I can't find any stats. They stress their interest in rural medicine, but I am NOT interested in rural medicine. I want to move to CA for residency and TOURO has really good stats matching in CA, but went I was there I did not get a good feeling for the school. The tour guide was awful, did not tell us anything about clubs, activities, or life as a student.....really. The curriculum is going to change and I don't really want to be a guinea pig. The new curriculum might even hurt my chances in scoring well in the boards.
Can anyone help me ?
Hi. I am a student at WVSOM,
Yes, we are a very nice school. I have a fish tank that is on my desk. It is not a gold fish, but a Japanese koi. We have no clue what to do with him because sooner or later he's gonna out grow the small tank he is in; we will have to release him into the wild soon.
And we are a politically liberal school. Democrats are all over the place
However if you are really looking at a California residency or being close to home, then I think Touro will do you just fine. Now about WVSOM and rural medicine, they ain't going to force you to do rural medicine or something. You can hang around Clarksburg or CAMC, those are 400 and 900 bed hospitals for those of you interested in that.
There are good things about big hospitals but also bad things too. At a big hospital you will be able to see many pathologies and procedures being done. And very importantly, you will be able to experience the structure of the residency system/heiracrchy - by that I mean:
Attending/Preceptor Physician >Chief Resident>Resident>Intern>4th Year>3rd Year.
You will also have good lectures at big hospitals. And it is important for LORs, and applying for more of the compitive residencies. In particularly AGCME residencies if that is your cake.
On the bad side, you will not be doing many procedures at larger hospitals. There will be NPs, PAs, RNs, and residents who will do everything ahead of you. You don't get to do too many things, cause the residents are going to be doing them.
Now for the smaller hospitals, like Huntington or Wheeling, well - you don't see the residency heirarchy. And there is minial lecture and didatics talks. So that is the big disadvantage. And rotations at smaller hospitals can give you a disadvantage for LORs and applying for the residencies that are very hard to get into. However, at a smaller hospital, it is YOU AND THE ATTENDING PHYSICAN. So, thats thing with the whole rural medicine. You get to do a lot of deliveries, a lot of procedures, and a lot of stabbing for that nice subclavian vein - and screwing up too.
There is more hands on, because there are less NPs, PAs, and residents to do things - so in the end they make you do them. And also the scut work comes with it as well.
And this can be a good thing - if you get along with the attending physician.
Or it can be a bad thing if you don't get along with the attending physician.
Some people are all for this one on one, but honestly I am a little bit nervous about it. I sometimes think like, "What if I screw up royally and like have an IV drip go into a patient in like 10 minutes when it should have been over 1 hour"
So you see, that's the thing. You do much, but I get the feeling much will be asked of you. And rural medicine entails talking to patients a lot too. Like a few days ago someone walked into the school geriatrics center and told me how he was going to get married soon. So we talked and it turns out this was going to be his 7th wife - and he wanted viagra too. Good thing a fouth year student was there too, he took over the discussion really quick.
But anyway, you got to choose what's right for you man. There are MANY MANY things that go into choosing a school. So take a good several hours to meditate on this cause this is A VERY IMPORTANT POINT IN YOUR LIFE.
I wish you the very best!
C&C
