Touro-Nevada vs UIWSOM

[VanillaClassic]

Hello, I am here to get some feedback from both schools. I am having a hard time trying to decide between the two schools. I am from Texas and plan to come back to Texas after medical school. For specialties, I am leaning away from PC and more towards anesthesiology or orthopedics.

UIWSOM (San Antonio, Texas)

Pros

• Closer to home
• Possibly more in-state residency match
• San Antonio is a well populated area
• Pass/Fail system

Cons

• Mandatory attendance for most lectures/group works
• Professional attire during lectures
• Higher cost of living
• No open office (by appointment)
• New school (No statistics)
• Away from main campus, and a very small medical school

Touro-Nevada (Henderson, NV)

Pros

• No mandatory attendance (besides OMM/labs)
• Much cheaper cost of living (found a someone to share a house with)
• Do not have to buy any books for school as far as I know
• Henderson is a very nice area
• Open office
• Has good residency match with Texas and competitive specialties

Cons

• Far away from home
• School is has no windows (so far, lol)

They both have similar tuition, but I think UIWSOM has more abit more in fees (parking and etc). Any other information or correction would be helpful in my decision. Thank you!

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[singletxpurpose]

UIWSOM may not reparare you as well for the specialities you are looking to go into. It may be hard to make you competitive since their mission is so aligned with primary care and their opportunities are focused on that. Don’t know what things you’ll be able to make happen in 4th year but I personally don’t think the way their teach their students is prime time for a super specific speciality. Especially not something like anesthesiology. Plus Touro has a good reputation... despite UIWSOMs effort to hide their negative feedback, you can probably do some research and see that they are struggling right now. I chose not to attend UIWSOM and will be going to another school in Texas.

 

[J.Docere]

All DO schools are on equal ground when it comes to primary care emphasis because whole personhood is an osteopathic tenant that parlays well into primary care. That being said, UIWSOM does make it known their mission is to meet the need of the underserved. This is not relegated to primary care though. I believe Texas legislature recently approved to expand loan repayment programs to OBGYN specialty to meet the awful shortage of providers in rural areas. It may be the only state to-date to do so. Thats definitely an advantage for establishing relationships through clerkships in Texas.
As far as other specialties, I would say UIWSOM curriculum is increasingly aimed at pulling more clinical skills into year 1 and 2 which equates to better clerkship experiences. All medical schools rotate through the same specialties and afford electives in year 4. If a medical student has grown confident and been exposed to clinical skills from day 1, they are more likely to get more out of the specialty rotations. A better performance in clerkship (along with boards scores) is really what will determine options for specialty. That should be a consideration.
Undergraduate medical education is designed to give you a foundation that prepares a student doctor for ANY specialty. Graduate medical education (Residency) is what prepares you for specific specialty. To that end, it's not any school's mission to specialize their curriculum.
To my knowledge, most schools have student organizations around specialties and these allow students to network with, gain additional training in, attend guest speakers of, conferences, etc in their specialty of interest. UIWSOM is no exception; they have anesthesiology and orthopedics.