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Suppose that you received acceptance from all three schools (ACOM, LUCOM and WCUCOM), which school would you choose, and why?
Thank you.
Thank you.
Beware! My opinion.Suppose that you received acceptance from all three schools (ACOM, LUCOM and WCUCOM), which school would you choose, and why?
Thank you.
Easy... Here is the ranking in order:Suppose that you received acceptance from all three schools (ACOM, LUCOM and WCUCOM), which school would you choose, and why?
Thank you.
Easy... Here is the ranking in order:
1. ACOM—Good clinical rotations.
2. WCOM—Relatively low cost and their board scores are increasing quite a bit over previous classes.
3. LUCOM—Do a search on this site. In addition, 16 students at this school failed the COMLEX. Do a search on LUCOM’s site to verify this info.
Beware! My opinion.
I would choose ACOM or forego a cycle to not attend the other two programs (though notably would not have gotten to the point where they would have accepted me, over concern that turning down an acceptance would work against me in the future cycle in some way).
ACOM is affiliated with a regional medical center and seems to have relatively superior clinical rotations. ACOM seems to be a very supportive environment with solid pre-clinical education.
WCUCOM seems to have poorer clinical rotations and does not seem to support students taking USMLE.
LUCOM is a religious institution that has numerous strict rules consistent with a conservative Christian institution. I have heard they have very high student attrition. Regardless of one's spiritual beliefs, I do not think it is desirable to formally affiliate clinical education with spirituality. It does not foster a diverse environment for people of different faiths, for one thing.
if you want to go to M.D. residenciesBesides LUCOM being a christian school, do you see any more negatives?
Also, speaking of WCUCOM and USMLE, do osteopathic medical students need to take USMLE? Isn't COMLEX enough to get residencies?
Here is the link related to LUCOM COMLEX Scores:Where did you get the information that 16 students failed the COMPEX at LUCOM?
Isn't COMLEX enough to get residencies?
NOT LUCOM.Suppose that you received acceptance from all three schools (ACOM, LUCOM and WCUCOM), which school would you choose, and why?
Thank you.
This notion that MDs will go into specialty fields at a higher rate, or have an easier path just isn't factually true based upon recent residency match numbers.
This is a mostly reassuring MD/DO match comparison. Much better/more varied for DOs than I anticipated. However I think it is important to point out the creator of this document made at least 1 deceptive claim about ortho surgery.I would caution against using % of Primary Care vs specialties as a deciding factor unless you are looking to do something super specific, in which case, yeah go look for the place that has the highest amount of those as a percentage graduating and has an established pipeline that clearly sets it apart from other schools. However, I think you will find if you go look at the numbers, is that all schools, DO's and MD's send roughly the same percentage of their class into the same percentage field as the national average. This notion that MDs will go into specialty fields at a higher rate, or have an easier path just isn't factually true based upon recent residency match numbers. The same goes for DO school 'A' vs school 'B'.
I’ll echo some advice given to me by several people I am close with who have recently graduated and currently residents at various places and also from a surgeon I worked for who served on several residency selection committees and even as a director himself at a few hospitals:
1) Choose the school YOU liked the most when you interviewed or toured it. Did you like the atmosphere? Did you like the faculty? Did you like the students? Did you like the town or area it was located? Etc. Weigh out the pros and cons. You will spend your next few years there so you better like it.
2) In the long run your biggest limitation to where you wind up is yourself. For some people that is a hard pill to swallow, but it is the truth. If you go to a program, fart around and not take it serious, not spend your breaks wisely like staying ahead or preparing for boards and then do mediocre or average on your boards, not reach out to hub site / future residency programs etc, and then find yourself scrambling to match into a not so competitive spot, in a location you're not happy with, then whose fault is it really?..........
3) If any school was just absolutely terrible then it would lose its accreditation. Also, no one on this message board can truly say that one school is worse/better than another, because no one on this message board has successfully completed programs at both schools. "Good" schools make bad doctors, and "Bad" schools make good doctors all the time.
4) Regardless of what you do, if it is competitive, then you will have to do the leg work to set yourself apart. You're going to have to seek out the RD's a year or two before you match. That's just Networking 101. Get face time with them and then build and maintain that relationship. Build and maintain relationships at the school you attend with your profs and admins. You never know, they may know someone that can help you out later down the road. It's not that difficult to schedule an appointment to go preview a program somewhere, and it’s not difficult to occasionally check in with that director to maintain a relationship if you are passionate about it. The best way to position yourself for success is to outwork your competition.
I'm a student at WCUCOM and I know my school is not widely known, as it is still fairly new (started in 2010), but even students in that first class (graduated 2014) were able to match into competitive fields like surgery, anesthesia, and derm with no prior alumni to lean on as a reference. They had to work for it, but the avenue was there, and they were able to do what they wanted. I'm proud of the school I attend and would recommend it to anyone who is interested. I know several students at ACOM that were in my graduate program, and they love their school too. I do not know anyone at LUCOM, but I have a family member up around there that works in a regional hospital with several of their doctors and she doesn't have anything negative to say about them.
Long story short…go with what you want.
If you want to know more about WCUCOM then feel free to PM me. If there is something specific you want to know about ACOM then PM me as well and I will pass that along to my friends over there and get back to you.
That goes for anyone else reading this*
I remember how stressful it was when I was in your position last year and I wish you the best of luck with making your decision!
@ Parselea......Not trying to be defensive, just want to get a better understanding here......How is it deceptive? Kind of a silly statement..... but if the numbers are the numbers then that is what they are, right? The sample size is indeed smaller for the DO match, but that's because in general (in terms of total population) there are 30000 MD's vs a few thousand DO's. That's why I think percentages are a more accurate thing to consider than raw numbers.
@AnatomyGrey12.... I see that train of thought thrown around here all the time without any data to back it up. It's like some of the other silly things people read on here and take as gospel. If the current residency match numbers are not a good indicator of specialties being distributed pretty much equally between the two designations, then what is?
@ Parselea......Not trying to be defensive, just want to get a better understanding here......How is it deceptive? Kind of a silly statement..... but if the numbers are the numbers then that is what they are, right? The sample size is indeed smaller for the DO match, but that's because in general (in terms of total population) there are 30000 MD's vs a few thousand DO's. That's why I think percentages are a more accurate thing to consider than raw numbers.
@AnatomyGrey12.... I see that train of thought thrown around here all the time without any data to back it up. It's like some of the other silly things people read on here and take as gospel. If the current residency match numbers are not a good indicator of specialties being distributed pretty much equally between the two designations, then what is?
1. Do proportionally as many DOs go into ortho surgery as MDs?
...the comparison made in the chart indicates that more DOs do, but this is not the case, as the true proportion is the combination of AOA and ACGME, which is not presented.
2. What will the future of the match look like (once everything will be ACGME) if we extrapolate from this data?
...for most specialties it looks like it could potentially be pretty good (better existing numbers than I thought), but the very low DO ortho numbers indicate that DOs may not do as well in that specialty once everything is ACGME.
Actually it used to be easier to do ortho from the DO side as the AOA match had a disproportionate number of spots. The rapid growth of DO schools, and now the merger, make this fact obsolete.
you in there bro?ACOM hands down.
you in there bro?
Some PD's of AOA programs want to keep their programs DO heavy and we won't know the actual effects of the merger until it's in full effect.
Disagree with the essence of what you’re saying. Maybe extrapolate is the wrong word, but the fact that some DOs match into ACGME specialties and have in the past can make one pretty confident that this will continue to happen, given that the pool of applicants is only really proportionally adding DOs.It is impossible to extrapolate anything from this data to post merger matching
Interesting to know that, though.Actually it used to be easier to do ortho from the DO side as the AOA match had a disproportionate number of spots. The rapid growth of DO schools, and now the merger, make this fact obsolete.
Disagree with the essence of what you’re saying. Maybe extrapolate is the wrong word, but the fact that some DOs match into ACGME specialties and have in the past can make one pretty confident that this will continue to happen, given that the pool of applicants is only really proportionally adding DOs.
A couple things, yes it is impossible to assume anything about the merger given the presented statistics. I never said that DO friendly specialties will not continue to take DOs. I do want to emphasize exactly how much the bolded is going to affect the future of DO matching, the match statistics are only going to go down with the increased competition and this is completely neglecting the fact that MD expansion has mirrored DO expansion so not only are you adding a boatload of new DOs but a sizable number of new MDs without increasing residency spots.
It is also important to consider that certain fields only take large amounts of DOs because of decreased interest from USMDs, with anesthesia and radiology being prime examples. As they regain traction in the MD world it will become harder for DOs to match them at the consistent clip that they do now. In fact, radiology is back on the uptick and there are numerous reports of very solid candidates getting fewer interviews than applicants of their caliber would have gotten in the past. This eb and flow in certain fields also makes it difficult to accurately asses DOs chances of matching into those fields too far into the future. Another example is EM, as they get more and more high quality MD applicants DOs will get pushed down the rank lists.