A little warning about Touro NY

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I know this isnt relevent to this particular post, but why are you saying that st. Luke, Fresno, and northwell IM are "horrible programs" because they have "too many DOs and IMGs," and then say you're shooting for Rutgers Derm, which you hope to have a chance at because there's "lots of DOs and IMGs?"

Although that might have been the other thread.

One has an average of 250-260ish, the other just needs you to meet the 192 cut off. I'll let you look into which is which.

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You only know what you yourself did not "the experience of every straight A student". Now you're just being ridiculous

My friends that chose to keep going to class and get their straight As. That's a half dozen right there. But I just need you to post the plethora of top matches given the 260, Straight A's you claim to know.
 
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FFS, GRADES DO MATTER. If you want to confirm it, ask the next ortho/derm/ENT/neurosurgery attending you come across.




240, hump of the curve, average, mediocre.

All synonyms.

Look, you're clearly angry and distressed about your potential to match in the fields you've probably been hoping to get into for a very long time. I understand that, and I can agree that it's hurtful when you put in a lot of work and feel like you can't make it. But lashing out and belittling people isn't the way to go about things. You did very well on the boards and you're clearly a smart person, lets just end the conversation at that. I'm sure that if you try your best you'll find a path that leads you to where you want to end up and a place where you'll be happy.
 
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Look, you're clearly angry and distressed about your potential to match in the fields you've probably been hoping to get into for a very long time. I understand that, and I can agree that it's hurtful when you put in a lot of work and feel like you can't make it. But lashing out and belittling people isn't the way to go about things. You did very well on the boards and you're clearly a smart person, lets just end the conversation at that. I'm sure that if you try your best you'll find a path that leads you to where you want to end up and a place where you'll be happy.

Nope, touro burned my chance. They lied at my interview saying class only goes until noon and you're off on fridays. Then when we saw it's a lie, we were met with 2 years of "NO" whenever we tried to come up with solutions with admin to fix it. They refused to hear us out completely. At this point, there is nothing that can fix it besides the school going back and retrospectively recalculating all grades without the clickers.

I just want every potential applicant to know that despite despite touro's 30 mcat average:

-Our comlex 1 has just this one year been average (with a huge portion of students held back.) And the score as I recall is 2 points above average (Standard deviation is 100 points). Seriously go ask the SGA but they'll been complete shills and liars since the COCA thing.

-Our comlex 2 has been the lowest or one of the lowest in the 10 years the school's been open.

-When you do score high against all odds, Touro still ruins your match chances with bad grades.


Everyone gets knocked down a notch.

Come one, come all, your 30 mcat will lead to a community IM/FM.
 
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And this is my last point here. I've had 2 private messages here telling me to stop airing the schools dirty laundry because it'll hurt our residency chances. They basically want me to lie so we can preserve our own chances.

Think twice about Touro before you sink 300-400k.

I'm out.
 
I'm glad that dirty laundry like this stuff is made awared in order to educate the premeds who qualify DOs by the average MCAT among matriculants. Every school should strive to maximize the students' chances at residency match instead of adding more bs like mandatory attendance and other bs just to appease boring lecturers' egos. Among DOs, Touro is getting the cream of the crop based on the stats among matriculants. However, when a school decides to torpedo a student chances with a poor clinical education, it should be branded as a garbage school until shown otherwise. At this moment, Touro NYC is on the same caliber as Ross.
 
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Will you quit obsessing about the MCAT scores and level I already? A good MCAT doesn't entitle you to anything, especially once you're already in med school.

In my own school's experience, the ten worst students can absolutely wreck both the entire Class' first time pass rates and avg. scores. So there's a reason why the school has the "pass COMSAE by this or else" policy...it's a good policy, and it protects the worst students from taking COMLEX until they're ready.

Good students will find ways to get into good residencies, even outside of FM, Peds and IM.

Look, you made your point. I, for one, agree that Touro-NY is not a school to be recommended. Now back away from the keyboard.

Nope, touro burned my chance. They lied at my interview saying class only goes until noon and you're off on fridays. Then when we saw it's a lie, we were met with 2 years of "NO" whenever we tried to come up with solutions with admin to fix it. They refused to hear us out completely. At this point, there is nothing that can fix it besides the school going back and retrospectively recalculating all grades without the clickers.

I just want every potential applicant to know that despite despite touro's 30 mcat average:

-Our comlex 1 has just this one year been average (with a huge portion of students held back.) And the score as I recall is 2 points above average (Standard deviation is 100 points). Seriously go ask the SGA but they'll been complete shills and liars since the COCA thing.

-Our comlex 2 has been the lowest or one of the lowest in the 10 years the school's been open.

-When you do score high against all odds, Touro still ruins your match chances with bad grades.


Everyone gets knocked down a notch.

Come one, come all, your 30 mcat will lead to a community IM/FM.
 
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FFS, GRADES DO MATTER. If you want to confirm it, ask the next ortho/derm/ENT/neurosurgery attending you come across.




240, hump of the curve, average, mediocre.

All synonyms.

I actually have asked ortho and ENT attendings. The grades matter if you failed something. Otherwise they are useless. How can you compare applicants between schools if one has pass/fail, one has letter grades, one has fail/pass/honors, etc. If schools don' have ranking that makes it even harder. It is very difficult to differentiate applicants using pre-clinical gpa, so why use it as a measure. It may matter to some, but it is near the bottom of the list of importance. You scored well on the boards, a standardized measure, which shows you know the material. Thinking 10% from clicker grades in pre-clinical classes is going to harm you is near neurotic.


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It's behavior like this that I can't recommend Touro-NY to those interested in DO schools. For the time being, I'm ranking them with LUCOM and Wm Carey, but for different reasons.

As a rule of thumb, if you're competitive for Touro-NY, then you're competitive for AZCOM, Touro-CA, Western, KCU and CCOM.
Look, you made your point. I, for one, agree that Touro-NY is not a school to be recommended. Now back away from the keyboard.

As someone who doesn't know much about DO schools, what advantages does Touro-CA provide over Touro-NY? Just out of curiosity (others are welcome to answer as well!).
 
Closer access to the Napa Valley? You don't have to go as far to get good wine compared to having to drive up to the Finger Lakes or out to Jamestown for Touro-New York.

I think your question is better answered by Touro students

As someone who doesn't know much about DO schools, what advantages does Touro-CA provide over Touro-NY? Just out of curiosity (others are welcome to answer as well!).
 
Closer access to the Napa Valley? You don't have to go as far to get good wine compared to having to drive up to the Finger Lakes or out to Jamestown for Touro-New York.

I think your question is better answered by Touro students

Very true. Touro CA is substantially closer to Napa Valley than it is to San Francisco proper. I've never been to Touro CA but I am very familiar with the greater SF area. Also, you can't throw a rock without hitting a weed grow house. Tons of hippies, just not really in Vallejo.
 
Just a question for @doczebra: if you were a 1st year last year (Oct 2015), how have you already gotten 260 on step 1, 6-whatever on level 1 and already be in rotations? Did you skip a year or something? One of your first comments on the board was that you are a first year, and now a year later you are a third year. How was this possible and maybe share so other incoming students can do the same. Do you even go to Touro or just like to bad mouth the program?

Post is from 10/11/15

Hey guys, another first year here and I'm going to have to disagree with my colleague above. The statement that we dont have to attend lecture is misleading. We have 20 hours of mandatory class a week + tests. The total number of physical hours spent in class is pretty on par with other schools. We have the prerecorded lectures to watch on top at home before class to prepare for the clicker sessions.

That kinda translates to you going home after class and studying 5pm-11pm. My brother's experience on a west coast school went more along the lines of study 8am-5pm in pajamas at home and take the rest of the day off.

Just be aware of a school's attendance policy when picking schools.
 
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:eek: #receipts

never a dull day when it concerns Touro-NY affairs. at least you'll never be bored, prospective students!
 
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Just a question for @doczebra: if you were a 1st year last year (Oct 2015), how have you already gotten 260 on step 1, 6-whatever on level 1 and already be in rotations? Did you skip a year or something? One of your first comments on the board was that you are a first year, and now a year later you are a third year. How was this possible and maybe share so other incoming students can do the same. Do you even go to Touro or just like to bad mouth the program?

Post is from 10/11/15

Ouch... It's probably a disgruntled student who's close to the bottom of the class. However, Touro NY Step 1+2 are not impressive. As a consumer, I usually like to read the negative comments about a product bc 10-20% of the negative ranting usually contains some truth in there somewhere.
 
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Ouch... It's probably a disgruntled student who's close to the bottom of the class. However, Touro NY Step 1+2 are not impressive. As a consumer, I usually like to read the negative comments about a product bc 10-20% of the negative ranting usually contains some truth in there somewhere.
I don't think education is quite something that you can reduce to a Yelp review. People can rail on the fact that Touro doesn't do much formal prep for Step 2, and that's reflected in the pass rate, but after a certain point, if wanting to get a good score and land a good residency isn't enough of a motivator, that's not on the school.
 
Also, I keep thinking about what doczebra says about the board scores and mandatory attendance, and I can't help by wonder...

Students learn at different rates, and especially with medical students, each person does not operate at the same level.

If I were Touro, I'd tailor my second year to make sure that everyone PASSES the boards. I wouldn't be focusing on getting everyone 260+ on the USMLE. That's INSANE. (And Doczebra, speaking of insane, I'm sure you're a good guy, but suggesting that 240 is a mediocre or average score-especially for a DO school- is F**KING BONKERS.)
 
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I don't think education is quite something that you can reduce to a Yelp review. People can rail on the fact that Touro doesn't do much formal prep for Step 2, and that's reflected in the pass rate, but after a certain point, if wanting to get a good score and land a good residency isn't enough of a motivator, that's not on the school.

The school definitely does not do enough for level 2 prep and historically the first-time pass rate is abysmal in comparison to many other schools. That is something that administration should consider improving upon. However, I do agree with you, they can't hold our hands for everything and it is up to us to choose to succeed.
Let's see what the numbers are like for my class; hopefully we've done better. The school has gotten much more selective over the years, each incoming class is more competitive and 'smarter' than the previous, so I expect all board scores to increase in accordance.
 
The school definitely does not do enough for level 2 prep and historically the first-time pass rate is abysmal in comparison to many other schools. That is something that administration should consider improving upon. However, I do agree with you, they can't hold our hands for everything and it is up to us to choose to succeed.
Let's see what the numbers are like for my class; hopefully we've done better. The school has gotten much more selective over the years, each incoming class is more competitive and 'smarter' than the previous, so I expect all board scores to increase in accordance.

Very true. My class is full of the goddamn smartest kids I've ever met, and I've bummed around an embarassing number of medical schools, MD and DO. Plus our exam curves are clearly kicking the **** of whomever we're being compared to (last year? Last 2 years).
 
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The school definitely does not do enough for level 2 prep and historically the first-time pass rate is abysmal in comparison to many other schools. That is something that administration should consider improving upon. However, I do agree with you, they can't hold our hands for everything and it is up to us to choose to succeed. Let's see what the numbers are like for my class; hopefully we've done better. The school has gotten much more selective over the years, each incoming class is more competitive and 'smarter' than the previous, so I expect all board scores to increase in accordance.

I'm curious as to when numbers are going to come out. After all the carping from the administration, I was expecting a personal note of congratulations after I passed. Funny, that didn't happen.

I would have loved them to give us access to resources that didn't put money directly in Fischer's pocket, and I think the lack of dedicated study time is a failing, but eventually everyone is responsible for him/herself.
 
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Because to break my cap from 70% on uworld to 90% I had to skip class. Skipping class sunk my transcript.

Once you do score well on step 1, the school comes back and sinks your chances at good residencies just because they dont like you doing your own thing. When the school hurts my career like that, I'll make sure everyone gets to know it.

I've come to the conclusion that you're just a huge troll, but I'm bored, so I'll bite. You're upset about the school hurting your career. Meanwhile, you're running around like a chicken with its head cut off trying to ruin the reputation of the school from which you may receive a medical degree. I can't believe I have to spell this out for you, but if everyone thinks the school you graduated from is sh*tty, they'll think you're a sh*tty doctor. Lol I seriously question that alleged 260 step 1 score.
 
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First time pass rate I can believe, but schools sure are loathe to give out actual scores!

Side note, why do a lot of DO schools only post COMLEX 3 pass rate? I'm hard pressed to find COMLEX 1 averages or pass rates for many schools.


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Side note, why do a lot of DO schools only post COMLEX 3 pass rate? I'm hard pressed to find COMLEX 1 averages or pass rates for many schools.

Touro doesn't have stats for the most recent academic year, but they do have information about pass-rates for all three levels through April of this year (which would only have it through COMLEX 1 for my class). I don't know about other schools, but I did find some numbers (a bit outdated) on UNECOM when I was Googling.
 
This thread progression

touro NY stats (alleged)
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Just a question for @doczebra: if you were a 1st year last year (Oct 2015), how have you already gotten 260 on step 1, 6-whatever on level 1 and already be in rotations? Did you skip a year or something? One of your first comments on the board was that you are a first year, and now a year later you are a third year. How was this possible and maybe share so other incoming students can do the same. Do you even go to Touro or just like to bad mouth the program?

Post is from 10/11/15

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Beware many of the problems that plagued this school are still around. The administration is extremely unsupportive of students who want to enter a specality. Many of my classmates will be forced to rotate a community centers and outpatient offices.
 
This school is a prime example of how DO schools have a major discrepancy compared to MD schools when it comes to clinical education
 
As someone who is going to TouroNY Middletown next year, should I be worried?

Granted, I haven't read anything on this thread. It's my only acceptance although I'm waitlisted at MSUCOM.
 
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As someone who is going to TouroNY Middletown next year, should I be worried?

Granted, I haven't read anything on this thread. It's my only acceptance although I'm waitlisted at MSUCOM.

I too have the same question
 
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This school is a prime example of how DO schools have a major discrepancy compared to MD schools when it comes to clinical education
If you are just now realizing that DO schools are quite different compared to MD schools, that's on you. Most of us are going in knowing MD schools have greater support and teaching skills compared to DO schools. Really should have thought that out before choosing a DO school.

Im assuming you did not get the electives you wanted etc. Perhaps you could try working with the school or being more specific? I feel like the negatives would be more known if it really was a common problem. Sure, the COMLEX 2 passing rate is low, but for the class of 2021, we still have plenty of time before we get there.
 
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All I know about this school was that their secondary was ridiculously overpriced (200$), and that I got an II even though I wrote my secondary essay in under an hour and didn't edit it. probably exaggerated a lot too because IIRC their essay prompt was something or other about how being an URM has changed you or how you've made a difference in the lives of URMs. Also their campus looks hilarious and I would be embarrassed if I told someone I went there and they looked it up and saw that it is sitting on top of a cash only pawn shop in harlem

Didn't attend the II.
 
So no? I shouldn't be worried ?

There's no point in being worried. If that's where you're accepted, then work hard and be a good person and in four years you'll become a doctor.


If you are just now realizing that DO schools are quite different compared to MD schools, that's on you. Most of us are going in knowing MD schools have greater support and teaching skills compared to DO schools. Really should have thought that out before choosing a DO school.

Depends on the school (state schools are good). Probably true on average though.
 
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In order:
-Do lecom and Cusom have 30 hours of mandatory lecture per week?
Yes, LECOM has mandatory lecture if you choose to be part of the lecture pathway. When I was there it was 8-4ish every day with an hour break for lunch. I liked the structure and it worked for me. LECOM has 3 pathways dependent on your learning style. So if you don't want to sit in class then do PBL or independent study. Will that said you will still have to attend anatomy, embryology and OMM regardless of what track to go to - this is Erie only BTW. The other campuses are PBL only.
 
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As someone who is going to TouroNY Middletown next year, should I be worried?

Granted, I haven't read anything on this thread. It's my only acceptance although I'm waitlisted at MSUCOM.

If its your only acceptance you have no choice.
 
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There's no point in being worried. If that's where you're accepted, then work hard and be a good person and in four years you'll become a doctor.




Depends on the school. Probably true on average though.

Yes DO schools tend to have poor quality of clinical eduation compared to allopathic schools... I knew this and my classmates knew this. What we didn't know was how bad touro is compared to other DO schools when it comes to clinical education.
 
Yes DO schools tend to have poor quality of clinical eduation compared to allopathic schools... I knew this and my classmates knew this. What we didn't know was how bad touro is compared to other DO schools when it comes to clinical education.
I have my issues with Touro-NY, but really, there IS a school-specific thread in these fora, and you could have used this resource. You went into this eyes open.
 
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I have my issues with Touro-NY, but really, there IS a school-specific thread in these fora, and you could have used this resource. You went into this eyes open.

This seems dismissive to me. I know nothing about that poster, but if this was their only acceptance were their only two options to either turn it down and not be a physician, or accept the offer and not complain about any aspect of the education for which they are paying?
 
If it's their only accept, it's on them to make use of every opportunity, and/or make their own.


This seems dismissive to me. I know nothing about that poster, but if this was their only acceptance were their only two options to either turn it down and not be a physician, or accept the offer and not complain about any aspect of the education for which they are paying?
 
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If it's their only accept, it's on them to make use of every opportunity, and/or make their own.
I don't see how this relates to them having problems with the quality of the school. They may be taking full advantage of the opportunities available, that doesn't mean they can't have complaints.
 
Go re-read his post. This isn't about complaining, this is about failing to do due diligence.

I don't see how this relates to them having problems with the quality of the school. They may be taking full advantage of the opportunities available, that doesn't mean they can't have complaints.
 
Go re-read his post. This isn't about complaining, this is about failing to do due diligence.

I read the post, and I agree it comes across as not doing due diligence--that's not really the issue I'm addressing. My point was more that even if they had, if it were their only acceptance 1) it wouldn't have mattered, and 2) not knowing ahead of time what to expect doesn't disqualify them from having concerns about their education. I take issue with the assertion which basically boils down to "you should've known your education was going to suck so you can't complain now." If I'm misinterpreting the thrust of your argument please correct me. If I bought a note 7 without doing my due diligence and knowing that it could explode, that doesn't mean that samsung is off the hook when it explodes--the product is still unacceptable (note, this is just an illustrative example, I have no personal knowledge of the quality of the education at the school in question).
 
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This stuff wasn't known about the school before. I am trying to educate SDN about this school...
 
This stuff wasn't known about the school before. I am trying to educate SDN about this school...

Your version of the story is one sided and your "unhappiness" is probably due to your lack of preparation and poor planning.

There are many high quality and happy students at TouroCOM NY
 
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