Western-Pomona vs WVSOM vs Touro-NV

[J15B]

Hey everyone,

I have been accepted to WVSOM and Touro-NV and am awaiting Western's decision (I feel like the interview went well...) and was wondering if you could help sway my opinion one way or the other as right now these are my top three choices. I also got into Touro-Cali and LECOM-B but did not like these schools as much as the other three.

I am a SoCal resident and definitely want to do residency here, so I think it is important that I do rotations here.

WVSOM requires all 3rd year rotations in WV (I think with some exceptions in Pennsylvania and Ohio?), so this would only leave me 4th year to get out to California. Is this enough time to create connections to help me match for residency? The people at WVSOM were incredibly nice and the campus is beautiful, and there seems to be a lot of outdoor activities, and also, although it is a small town, the local pub seems to be the place to be after exams (I got to experience this and it was a blast). Sadly I heard that the simulators (robots) are only used like twice by students in their curriculum. Is this true? Another thing I loved is the open-door policy for professors, and that the president of the school literally leaves out candy to entice the students to come to his office so he can get to know them better. It seems like getting to know faculty is really easy, especially because they say that their main purpose is being there for the students, and research and such comes secondary.

Touro-NV also seemed to have a nice open-door policy with professors and the area was great as well (went hiking at Red Rock which was tight and of course hit up the strip later on). What are rotations like? Are there many opportunities available in California as well?

Western-Pomona had me entirely stoked on its campus and curriculum until I saw the broadcasted lecture from Lebanon campus, which I think might get a little annoying because you do not have the professor in the classroom and have to wait for a phone call to ask questions. How often do these broadcasted lectures happen? Also, unlike the other two schools, it seems like a big campus and like it is difficult to get to know the faculty. You have to schedule appointments via email. I went to a big undergrad (UCSD) and hated the feeling of having to compete for the professor's time (what little there was). I only had half a day to assess this of course so what do I know, do the professors make an effort to get to know you? And could someone comment on rotations, i.e. ease of setting them up, and the level of education at the rotation?

The tuition is roughly the same for all, right around 50k.

Thank you all!

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[DE15C]

I would imagine it would be much harder to make the west coast connections from WV. If you want to do residency in California, I would try to be as close to there as possible.
Just my 2 cents.

 

[JediZero]

Some thoughts on Western U (Interviewed at TUCOM, but so did you and mine was 3 years ago, haha... don't know squat about WVSOM).

The simulcast lectures are now the status quo at Western, and will happen in all of your core classes (probably not OMM/ECM/etc, but I'm not sure). As the Pomona campus is bigger and has more professors, you will probably be hosting the majority of lectures (i.e. most lectures will be broadcast to Lebanon, not the other way around), though they are making an effort to even that out a little bit in fairness to the NW peeps. It seems like it would be really obnoxious (they started the year after me), but the classes who did them didn't seem too terribly upset about it. Bottom line is you get used to it. FWIW, a lot of my class would basically show up for the quiz and then either leave or study other material during lecture.

It certainly is a 'big school' atmosphere, and no, the professors will not make an effort to get to know you. I've never been one to talk with professors much, but my impression was that they were pretty available if you sought them out, either by email, during office hours, or between lectures if you feel like braving the pack of gunners that descend on them during the breaks.

Personally, I moved up to the NW for my rotations, but from what I see, the rotations are among the best you will find in the DO world. They're well-established, and you should have little difficulty in completing your core rotations. Fourth year, as with all medical schools, is a free for all, where it's your job to take the initiative in setting up your rotations, but the flip side is that at Western they're nearly all electives and that gives you a great deal of flexibility for auditions, etc. The quality is variable (again, a near-universal problem at DO schools), but Western has long-standing relationships with many great sites, and if you do your research and talk to the upperclassmen when arranging your 3rd year rotations, you should be able to do good rotations in your area(s) of interest, while keeping the mediocre ones to the specialties you're not interested in. It's much less of a crap shoot than what you'll find at younger schools.

Overall, if you want to end up in SoCal, then Western is the clear choice, period. You will make connections to people from residency programs all over the area, and it will give you an 'in'. I'll especially point out the crown jewel of Western's rotations, Arrowhead Regional Medical Center, which is where you'll do at least a couple rotations and which hosts a bunch of different DO residency programs. I'm applying for EM (for which Arrowhead has the only DO program on the entire West Coast), and I was granted an interview there without rotating (unusual for them) largely because I'm a Western U student.

Western U has flaws, much like anywhere else, but with your goals the benefits far outweigh the risks.

 

[NontradCA]

I would imagine it would be much harder to make the west coast connections from WV. If you want to do residency in California, I would try to be as close to there as possible.
Just my 2 cents.

Dis.

 

[J15B]

Thanks a lot for the thorough response! Well, I guess now it's stalking the mailman until my Western letter comes in. I think today is day 15 and they said 10-15 days to let us know.

That does make me feel really good about the rotations though, and I think this outweighs any problems in difficulty of getting to know faculty.

 

[JediZero]

Thanks a lot for the thorough response! Well, I guess now it's stalking the mailman until my Western letter comes in. I think today is day 15 and they said 10-15 days to let us know.

That does make me feel really good about the rotations though, and I think this outweighs any problems in difficulty of getting to know faculty.

Real talk? "Getting to know" your professors is great in undergrad, but it's irrelevant in med school. You are the one who has to take responsibility for your learning (more so than in undergrad), and they won't be writing letters for your residency app (that will be your rotation preceptors, who you will definitely get to know). Don't worry about it.