2017-2018 Pacific Northwest University of Health Sciences College of Osteopathic Medicine (PNWU-COM)

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Hey guys I'm a third year and just wanted to pop in and say good look in the app cycle! If you have any questions just let me know!
How have you liked PNWU so far?
How's Yakima? The farthest east I've ever gone was Cle Elum.
How much of a problem is gang activity? I've heard rumors, not sure if others are blowing it out of proportion.
How do you guys spend your free time?

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Hey guys I'm a third year and just wanted to pop in and say good look in the app cycle! If you have any questions just let me know!
Thank you!

How are current students involved in admissions (if at all) at PNWU?
Is there consensus for how low of a GPA/MCAT spread accepted students have at the school or in your class?
 
How many of the students in your class are not from the pacific northwest area? Just trying to figure out how good my chances are as an east-coaster


I'm from California and we had a reasonable amount of people from out of the area, i think the class of 2020 has even more. They care more about your dedication to rural care than where you grew up usually.
 
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How have you liked PNWU so far?
How's Yakima? The farthest east I've ever gone was Cle Elum.
How much of a problem is gang activity? I've heard rumors, not sure if others are blowing it out of proportion.
How do you guys spend your free time?

I really enjoyed my time at PNWU overall. We have some amazing faculty, and like every school some that aren't rock stars. My class is super close which helped a lot when the curriculum got tough.

Yakima has just enough to do on the rare occasion you have free time, but not so much you always feel like you're missing out.

It was not a problem, granted I didn't go hang out in the less safe neighborhoods by myself at night. Like anywhere be smart, make good choices, and you will be fine. In my opinion the rumors are a major overstatement and there's no more problems than in any other city the same size.

A lot of people go hiking or to the gym by school Yak fitness. I was a personal fan of the fro-yo shop by the school. The school also raffles off free tickets to the symphony which has surprisingly good shows.
 
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Thank you!

How are current students involved in admissions (if at all) at PNWU?
Is there consensus for how low of a GPA/MCAT spread accepted students have at the school or in your class?


We can put in recommendations for applicants and they do seem to put weight in that. I think class of 2020 is trying to be more involved with that but idk how that is going.

I think they have class stats on the website but I don't know them off hand. Basically once you get the interview invite those numbers are worth a whole lot less and they just care about your personality and goals.
 
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Does PNWU screen? Submitted my primary 6/13 and still haven't heard about a secondary.
 
Sure - cGPA and sGPA on the low end (3.0) and 510 MCAT
Your stats meet the cutoffs, esp that mcat (great score!). I have a lower-to-mid 3 gpa and lower mcat than yours, submitted later, and got a secondary. Have you checked your spam folder?
 
I'm complete today! Just checked the portal


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Hey guys I'm a third year and just wanted to pop in and say good look in the app cycle! If you have any questions just let me know!
If you woke up in the morning as an administrator for PNWU-COM, what three things would you change about your program?
 
Anybody else see "Committee" under decision status in the portal?
 
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I submitted my secondary and received an email that I should receive a username and password to sign into the portal but i haven't received anything. Has this happened to anyone else?
 
I submitted my secondary and received an email that I should receive a username and password to sign into the portal but i haven't received anything. Has this happened to anyone else?
What was the date of the secondary submission and subsequent email?
 
I received the "Self-Service Account" info email first. The email with the notice that I submitted my secondary and to watch for the login info email came after, for whatever reason.
Secondary submitted: 07/20
Email: 7/24
Hmmm, I received the email w/ the account info first, then the secondary received, be on the look-out for the email w/ the portal details, I got a day after lol. Maybe wait for the rest of the week to play out before contacting them. The good thing is they confirmed that they received your secondary, at least.
 
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My status on the portal changed to deny-post secondary. Not in the 5 state catchment area but was shocked because I line up with the schools mission a lot. Cant win them all though! Best of luck to you all!
 
My status on the portal changed to deny-post secondary. Not in the 5 state catchment area but was shocked because I line up with the schools mission a lot. Cant win them all though! Best of luck to you all!

Damn I'm sorry. I'm not either so that does make me a bit nervous.
 
My status on the portal changed to deny-post secondary. Not in the 5 state catchment area but was shocked because I line up with the schools mission a lot. Cant win them all though! Best of luck to you all!
Shoot, I'm sorry as well, but loving your attitude to it. I've had a few rejections so far, and it can be hard to shake off that momentary shot to the gut. I wish you the best with the rest of your cycle! :)
 
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My status on the portal changed to deny-post secondary. Not in the 5 state catchment area but was shocked because I line up with the schools mission a lot. Cant win them all though! Best of luck to you all!
I'm sorry to hear that :( Your positive response, like Danse said, is admirable. All the best with your other schools!
 
My portal changed to pending 2 days ago.......I have no idea what that means.
 
If you woke up in the morning as an administrator for PNWU-COM, what three things would you change about your program?

Great Question!!

Things may have changed (but I doubt it) - but what id do is get rid of time waster classes during the second year. We used to have Comdoc class - that was basically a 4 hour class on Monday where we'd have to do absolutely ridiculous things for that four hours. Example:

we'd have to study very specific elements of writing research papers or analyzing the data. Sure spend 30 minutes on number needed to treat...but not waste a half a day on that crap. The professor teaching it was a phD trying to sell herself as a big researcher. nobody cared - we had boards to focus on or other classes to study. We had more in class time for Comdoc than our actual systems classes!! that four hours would have been much better spent going over didactically the Current system or reserved for board prep.

Near April and May - many of us became super annoyed that we had to do ACLS, BLS classes, comdoc, plus our system AND study for boards. Other schools had built into their second year almost the entire month of May OFF for board studying. We were in school all the way up until June. It sucked. The instruction is good there for core classes. But like I said - second year priorities really should have been re-evaluated. We also wasted an afternoon every week in "clinical medicine"...which was basically hearing one case and writing soap notes on it..then presenting notes. Sounds good right? wrong - most of the professors overseeing the activities were terrible at writing soap notes themselves! Aside from two professors, the other 4 were terrible in clinical medicine. We had to learn how to embarrassingly scrap what we were taught (which varied widely depending on who you had as a professor that semester for clinical skills) and actually learned how to write succinct soap notes on wards during third year.

you asked what I'd change - most of my class would echo these statements.
 
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If you woke up in the morning as an administrator for PNWU-COM, what three things would you change about your program?


I would make the "community doctoring" course closer to an MPH curriculum, and have the option for students to do a few extra classes and get their MPH if they want it.

I would work on making the OPP lab time used more efficiently ( which we already did have a meeting about last year so there should be a lot of really positive changes there).

I would have more community outreach programs throughout the year. We have one awesome event each year but some of our neighbors still don't know we exist.

Bonus fourth change would be an on campus gym.
 
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Great Question!!

Things may have changed (but I doubt it) - but what id do is get rid of time waster classes during the second year. We used to have Comdoc class - that was basically a 4 hour class on Monday where we'd have to do absolutely ridiculous things for that four hours. Example:

we'd have to study very specific elements of writing research papers or analyzing the data. Sure spend 30 minutes on number needed to treat...but not waste a half a day on that crap. The professor teaching it was a phD trying to sell herself as a big researcher. nobody cared - we had boards to focus on or other classes to study. We had more in class time for Comdoc than our actual systems classes!! that four hours would have been much better spent going over didactically the Current system or reserved for board prep.

Near April and May - many of us became super annoyed that we had to do ACLS, BLS classes, comdoc, plus our system AND study for boards. Other schools had built into their second year almost the entire month of May OFF for board studying. We were in school all the way up until June. It sucked. The instruction is good there for core classes. But like I said - second year priorities really should have been re-evaluated. We also wasted an afternoon every week in "clinical medicine"...which was basically hearing one case and writing soap notes on it..then presenting notes. Sounds good right? wrong - most of the professors overseeing the activities were terrible at writing soap notes themselves! Aside from two professors, the other 4 were terrible in clinical medicine. We had to learn how to embarrassingly scrap what we were taught (which varied widely depending on who you had as a professor that semester for clinical skills) and actually learned how to write succinct soap notes on wards during third year.

you asked what I'd change - most of my class would echo these statements.


Just a follow up on this. Second year comm doc was changed this last year because that professor left last year. It was deffinately still a frustrating class but ran by other people and they did take some feedback. They are re-overhauling it yet again though so who knows.

It sounds like clinical skills has changed a lot too. We would cycle through having a standardized patient, a group simulation, and a case day every few weeks. That's also where we did skills labs and BLS/ ACLS stuff. The amount of time you had to be in clinical skills varies widely each week depending on what activity you have and what proffesor you have for it. The proffesor changes pretty much every time so you don't get stuck with one person if you aren't getting anything out of it. Don't get me wrong it still left some to be desired as far as organization, but it sounds like it has improved.
 
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My portal changed to pending 2 days ago.......I have no idea what that means.
How long did it take for the checklist to show complete? Also how soon after it showed complete did it go to pending? My app was submitted on the 17th and everything still shows as pending, but it was included on the AACOMAS app. I am assuming that is a good sign that yours changed to pending otherwise it would say something along the lines of rejection? So hopefully congrats. Its a beautiful school. My wife and I went to one of their open houses and the faculty is super helpful. Beautiful campus and you really get the feeling that everyone there wants you to succeed. From the President all the way down to the super nice head of security, who will answer any and all questions you have of the area. Great school.
 
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My status on the portal changed to deny-post secondary. Not in the 5 state catchment area but was shocked because I line up with the schools mission a lot. Cant win them all though! Best of luck to you all!

Aw I'm sorry. Good luck on the other schools. Did you ever end up attaching that essay for this school's secondary? Earlier you posted saying that there wasn't an essay, but there is. Hopefully you weren't denied because you forgot the essay!


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Aw I'm sorry. Good luck on the other schools. Did you ever end up attaching that essay for this school's secondary? Earlier you posted saying that there wasn't an essay, but there is. Hopefully you weren't denied because you forgot the essay!


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Yes it was an issue with my web browser I ended up sending to them and they attached it to my file. Thank you very much though!
 
Hey everyone, like bumble1768, I'm a current 3rd year student, and I've tried to stay active on the forums, but unfortunately haven't been so good at it lately. I just wanted to drop in and say good luck to the applicants and if you have any questions feel free to ask. There are lots of people here who can give you good insight, but just remember that everyone has a different take on things, so don't be afraid to ask around and get a full spectrum of responses.

I was an in-state applicant born and raised in western WA and am currently rotating on the "west side", (basically west of the mountains), so if you have any questions about WA in general, the school, or rotating in the state just let me know. I, as well as my classmates are more than willing to help in any way we can!


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Whats it like rotating on the west side? In your experience, are there good rotations especially for IM? Im curious because I'm looking to go into IM and would love to match at least at a mid tier academic university program (to keep the possibility of fellowship open)?
 
How many of the students in your class are not from the pacific northwest area? Just trying to figure out how good my chances are as an east-coaster
+ 1. Is it worth submitting a secondary? 3.7cGPA, 3.8sGPA, 502 MCAT. I am from the east coast.
 
I received the "Self-Service Account" info email first. The email with the notice that I submitted my secondary and to watch for the login info email came after, for whatever reason.

Hmmm, I received the email w/ the account info first, then the secondary received, be on the look-out for the email w/ the portal details, I got a day after lol. Maybe wait for the rest of the week to play out before contacting them. The good thing is they confirmed that they received your secondary, at least.

So I sent Hope an email about the login info and haven't heard back all week o_O
 
So I sent Hope an email about the login info and haven't heard back all week o_O
Call, they're really nice and you'll get an answer the same day!
 
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Call, they're really nice and you'll get an answer the same day!

Thanks! I'll do that on Monday. Is your user ID a random number or aacomas ID, pnwu ID, etc? I figured I might give "Forgot your password" a try if I could guess my username lol
 
Thanks! I'll do that on Monday. Is your user ID a random number or aacomas ID, pnwu ID, etc? I figured I might give "Forgot your password" a try if I could guess my username lol

If your name is

Firstname Lastname

I think your user ID is

FLastname

Though I have a short last name so I'm not sure if there is a character limit
 
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Yeah that's what it was for me after it was all done, but for the password it's something the school generates for you like "vbkadfE@-asdb32" before you setup your own on the portal thingy.
 
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If your name is

Firstname Lastname

I think your user ID is

FLastname

Though I have a short last name so I'm not sure if there is a character limit
Yeah that's what it was for me after it was all done, but for the password it's something the school generates for you like "vbkadfE@-asdb32" before you setup your own on the portal thingy.

Yup that's it but I can't verify my security questions so I'll have to call anyways. Thanks!
 
How long did it take for the portal to show that your LORs were uploaded? Mine says that my LORs are still pending and that the due date for them is 8/20.
 
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How long did it take for the portal to show that your LORs were uploaded? Mine says that my LORs are still pending and that the due date for them is 8/20.
Same here. Submitted secondary july 17th, been pending ever since. Mine are due on the 16th of this month and they were all included on the AACOMAS app. I called and they said it would just take a while because they have so many applications.
 
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How do you access the portal for this school?
 
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