WUCO Concerns

[XxMsICarexX]

Hello everybody,

I am a current student at WUCO. I was here last year trying to get help about which school to choose since I got accepted to both PCO & WUCO. Obviously, I ended up going to WUCO instead. I am here today to share some experiences about our student life and not wanting to start any arguments or debates. So for all who have doubts and hatred on us (and you know who you are), please keep your thoughts to yourself.

Although we're a new school, we are proud! Many of us entered feeling worried, some disappointed, but all ended up happy. Our class size is perfect (78). Everybody in our class bonded very well. I don't know how to express this even more than say, "just talk to us!" We'll have all these great stories to tell. Some other institutions are very competitive, our class are very supported. If you have spare time and come to our common, we may even have 30 people in there studying at 12AM together. It had only been 3 months, but it felt like we've known our classmates since forever. That's what I love about Western, I love my classmates! Not forget to discuss about our championship at the basketball game against SSCO few weeks ago.

Beside that, we had the greatest professors we could ever asked for. Maybe our program is new and we have a new system, professor-student relationship is absolutely connected, started at ORIENTATION! (Not to mention, they were probably the greatest professors at their previous teaching institutional)

As far as our academic program goes, we had midterms & quizzes almost everyday. After first 3 weeks of school, we already finish four finals and started seeing our patient the week after! The direct quote from Dr. Scott, our Ocular Anatomy professor was, "This is the smartest class I've ever taught, the exam average was 85%". Since we have no mentor to tell us how hard/easy the class is, we expected everything to be the hardest and put our best effort on everything! Maybe because we wanted to proove to the world that we're not what the trash where other schools rejected! Mayb our OAT/GPA score is quite a bit low, and I did wonder why? We ended up with students who had a 3.0 and OAT of 370! We had a lot of "second chance" students! And believe me, we are studying as hard, if not harder than other students at other schools.

Not to mention, we had to take classes together with other professions (DOs, Dentals, etc). All our Bios/gross anatomy/head&neck anatomy are probably harder than other school since we are treated at the same level and expected to know as much as the other profession! The hardest part is our current MCBM course which includes -BioChem, Physio, Molecular Bio, Human development, Genetics, & History all in one course --this course is loaded with A LOT of information. So instead of having 6 final, we had it combined in one final. As far as clinical base, we will be doing that next semester. By far, we've been to schools in our communities & done vision screening on kids every week. We are currently studying low vision & neuro-rehabilitation -- something that many other schools do not offer!

WesternU is probably the best choice for me by far (& all other classmates) --I really hope this can give you a little understanding about our live as a student at a new school!

This is my experiences at WesternU. I only hope to hear comments from pre-optometry students who are interest in our school.

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[doc25398]

Hello everybody,

I am a current student at WUCO. I was here last year trying to get help about which school to choose since I got accepted to both PCO & WUCO. Obviously, I ended up going to WUCO instead. I am here today to share some experiences about our student life and not wanting to start any arguments or debates. So for all who have doubts and hatred on us (and you know who you are), please keep your thoughts to yourself.

Although we're a new school, we are proud! Many of us entered feeling worried, some disappointed, but all ended up happy. Our class size is perfect (78). Everybody in our class bonded very well. I don't know how to express this even more than say, "just talk to us!" We'll have all these great stories to tell. Some other institutions are very competitive, our class are very supported. If you have spare time and come to our common, we may even have 30 people in there studying at 12AM together. It had only been 3 months, but it felt like we've known our classmates since forever. That's what I love about Western, I love my classmates! Not forget to discuss about our championship at the basketball game against SSCO few weeks ago.

Beside that, we had the greatest professors we could ever asked for. Maybe our program is new and we have a new system, professor-student relationship is absolutely connected, started at ORIENTATION! (Not to mention, they were probably the greatest professors at their previous teaching institutional)

As far as our academic program goes, we had midterms & quizzes almost everyday. After first 3 weeks of school, we already finish four finals and started seeing our patient the week after! The direct quote from Dr. Scott, our Ocular Anatomy professor was, "This is the smartest class I've ever taught, the exam average was 85%". Since we have no mentor to tell us how hard/easy the class is, we expected everything to be the hardest and put our best effort on everything! Maybe because we wanted to proove to the world that we're not what the trash where other schools rejected! Mayb our OAT/GPA score is quite a bit low, and I did wonder why? We ended up with students who had a 3.0 and OAT of 370! We had a lot of "second chance" students! And believe me, we are studying as hard, if not harder than other students at other schools.

Not to mention, we had to take classes together with other professions (DOs, Dentals, etc). All our Bios/gross anatomy/head&neck anatomy are probably harder than other school since we are treated at the same level and expected to know as much as the other profession! The hardest part is our current MCBM course which includes -BioChem, Physio, Molecular Bio, Human development, Genetics, & History all in one course --this course is loaded with A LOT of information. So instead of having 6 final, we had it combined in one final. As far as clinical base, we will be doing that next semester. By far, we've been to schools in our communities & done vision screening on kids every week. We are currently studying low vision & neuro-rehabilitation -- something that many other schools do not offer!

WesternU is probably the best choice for me by far (& all other classmates) --I really hope this can give you a little understanding about our live as a student at a new school!

This is my experiences at WesternU. I only hope to hear comments from pre-optometry students who are interest in our school.

I am very pleased to hear your thoughts on the program. I have heard many great things about WesternU, and have thoroughly enjoyed every informative visit there. I would like to ask if the curriculum has any mention of future trips to help underserved countries? I know that many dental, and medical schools offer the option to travel abroad, and assist underserved communities however, have not heard it mentioned for many Optometry schools. Also I would like to know if WesternU is offering any sort of preparatory courses similar to KMK's program to ensure success on the National Boards?

 

[Arctic]

Very nice to hear that. I look forward to seeing how you guys do on the National Boards (I absolutely love to compare/contrast statistical data sets).

 

[XxMsICarexX]

My point here is not to compare and contrast schools.. But I have faith in myself as well as my classmates that we'll go through these four years, national board, and all the challenges had been tossing at us together. With the hardship we overcome, that might even build us to be a better doctor for society. Afterall, we all just want a doctor who knows and understand over a doctor who's successful academically and have character issues. Of course, being a doctor, we must surpass all the exams (such as national board). We all must pass to be in the position we'll be in society. We'll be treated equally, tested equally, no matter what school we'll go to.

To Doc25398, as far as I know, we might not have the program to go to other countries. However, our program is new and anything might be possible (suggestions?) Such as -we made our own dress codes? But school location is located in an underserve area where majority of the poor/low income live, anyways.

However, the program may not exist -we made it possible. We have an international student in our class who's parents are both doctor in foreign country. She's planning to go back home and take few weeks to do vision screening there. Our classmates are planning to tour Asia this summer, so we might consider doing that for a week or two for fun!

Hope that answer your questions =)

 

[blazenmadison]

So for all who have doubts and hatred on us (and you know who you are), please keep your thoughts to yourself.

Realize...when you are applying for jobs/sending out resumes/networking in this awful economy... senior docs will give more thought into a PCO graduate than a WUCO graduate. Why chance your practice with a new graduate from an unknown school.

Then you say...well I wanted to work in a commercial setting anyway...too bad there aren't any (from a 4th year looking at jobs)!!

Good luck