What kind of BS should I expect being enrolled in a new DO school

[corolla3000]

So it's 5/8 and fingers cross I get off some waitlists, but for now I'm preparing for what's in front of me.

I'm going to a new spanking clean DO school. I asked them about their rotation sites. Looks like random clinics scattered around a tristate. I'm curious how will that play out. Will I be driving somewhere and living there every few weeks? Does my school even have me covered in terms of rotation? Will there be any chance of me scrambling and emailing random clinics begging to "rotate" just to get my eval done?

Super scared. Would appreciate any sort of advice even ones not related to my questions.

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[DrStephenStrange]

I was among the second class to graduate from my school last year, and now I get to practice in my dream specialty. Stay optimistic and keep your eyes on the bigger picture! Obviously there are a lot of unknowns associated with new schools, but it is still a medical school that will give you a chance to become a doctor. You know what they say, when life gives you lemon…

 

[Angus Avagadro]

Make sure you are able to get a rotation on an in house IM service. I have heard of some students graduating new schools that had an "All Outpatient" clinical rotations.. An in house IM rotation will teach you how to critically review a scientific journal article and how the in house medicine service runs. Use an elective if you need too.

Edit. Expect a lot of BS at any med school. Med school is quite stressful for all but the elite students.

 

[corolla3000]

Make sure you are able to get a rotation on an in house IM service. I have heard of some students graduating new schools that had an "All Outpatient" clinical rotations.. An in house IM rotation will teach you how to critically review a scientific journal article and how the in house medicine service runs. Use an elective if you need too.

Edit. Expect a lot of BS at any med school. Med school is quite stressful for all but the elite students.

Thanks. I'll try to remember this. Will I be able to find them or you mean what my school has to offer?

 

[corolla3000]

I was among the second class to graduate from my school last year, and now I get to practice in my dream specialty. Stay optimistic and keep your eyes on the bigger picture! Obviously there are a lot of unknowns associated with new schools, but it is still a medical school that will give you a chance to become a doctor. You know what they say, when life gives you lemon…

I know. I thought about reapplying but I don't have the motivation to so I plan to make the most of this.

I think I know which school you graduated from. Any specific advice on rotations or research?

 

[Angus Avagadro]

Thanks. I'll try to remember this. Will I be able to find them or you mean what my school has to offer?

That depends. You probably will have to find your own, but your school might have those options. You need to know how an inpatient medicine service works. How to use emr to find labs and write orders. I have seen PDs on SDN say they won't hire residents without this experience as they will have to take time in July to train them.

 

[Goro]

So it's 5/8 and fingers cross I get off some waitlists, but for now I'm preparing for what's in front of me.

I'm going to a new spanking clean DO school. I asked them about their rotation sites. Looks like random clinics scattered around a tristate. I'm curious how will that play out. Will I be driving somewhere and living there every few weeks? Does my school even have me covered in terms of rotation? Will there be any chance of me scrambling and emailing random clinics begging to "rotate" just to get my eval done?

Super scared. Would appreciate any sort of advice even ones not related to my questions.

Pre-clinical woes:
1) Expect a lot of redundancy in your lecture content. The Faculty have yet to gel on delivering a coherent curriculum, so Professor A won't know what Prof B is teaching.
2) Expect minimal help in learning
3) Expect little help in self-care, especially in mental health
4) Unless you have an experienced Curriculum Dean, expect minutiae being taught from a rookie Faculty.
5) Expect poor, if any Board prep

Clinical woes:
This has already been covered but to this, add:
1) little oversight on your training and preceptors, as the new Clin Ed dep't is likely to be understaffed
2) Poor advice on residency targeting, unless the school has a former/current PD on staff
3) Yes, expect rotation sites to vanish before your eyes, even once you've signed a lease before starting the rotation.
4) Expect some rotations to be glorified shadowing. New schools can be desperate for any preceptors, and will take any warm body.
5) Expect poor, if any Board prep

The above are why I can't recommend new schools until they have graduated a class. Double so if it's a for-profit school,

 

[Drjc1977]

So it's 5/8 and fingers cross I get off some waitlists, but for now I'm preparing for what's in front of me.

I'm going to a new spanking clean DO school. I asked them about their rotation sites. Looks like random clinics scattered around a tristate. I'm curious how will that play out. Will I be driving somewhere and living there every few weeks? Does my school even have me covered in terms of rotation? Will there be any chance of me scrambling and emailing random clinics begging to "rotate" just to get my eval done?

Super scared. Would appreciate any sort of advice even ones not related to my questions.

Legitimate questions, why don't you just ask the school?

 

[BobbyKoch]

Legitimate questions, why don't you just ask the school?

Good idea, but I found when I applied to several new schools they were quite talented at razzle dazzling around most of my questions, especially regarding their 3rd year sites, and I may as well have not asked in the first place. A new school still has two years to finalize their rotation sites and many things will change over this time I imagine, so whatever they tell you take it with a few mmol of NaCl.

 

[Osminog]

Good idea, but I found when I applied to several new schools they were quite talented at razzle dazzling around most of my questions, especially regarding their 3rd year sites, and I may as well have not asked in the first place. A new school still has two years to finalize their rotation sites and many things will change over this time I imagine, so whatever they tell you take it with a few mmol of NaCl.

Yes, it's always best to ask current students. Medical school admissions offices will never give straight answers about their programs' negative qualities.

 

[corolla3000]

Legitimate questions, why don't you just ask the school?

How exactly? "Hey are you guys going to shaft me over?" lol

 

[corolla3000]

Pre-clinical woes:
1) Expect a lot of redundancy in your lecture content. The Faculty have yet to gel on delivering a coherent curriculum, so Professor A won't know what Prof B is teaching.
2) Expect minimal help in learning
3) Expect little help in self-care, especially in mental health
4) Unless you have an experienced Curriculum Dean, expect minutiae being taught from a rookie Faculty.
5) Expect poor, if any Board prep

Clinical woes:
This has already been covered but to this, add:
1) little oversight on your training and preceptors, as the new Clin Ed dep't is likely to be understaffed
2) Poor advice on residency targeting, unless the school has a former/current PD on staff
3) Yes, expect rotation sites to vanish before your eyes, even once you've signed a lease before starting the rotation.
4) Expect some rotations to be glorified shadowing. New schools can be desperate for any preceptors, and will take any warm body.
5) Expect poor, if any Board prep

The above are why I can't recommend new schools until they have graduated a class. Double so if it's a for-profit school,

I know. I didn't expect my cycle to go this terribly. Sitting on 3 waitlist and took many post-II Rs but I made up my mind about not doing another cycle.

 

[Angus Avagadro]

I know. I didn't expect my cycle to go this terribly. Sitting on 3 waitlist and took many post-II Rs but I made up my mind about not doing another cycle.

Then all you can do is make yourself the best applicant possible for residency and play the residency Match Game well. Good luck and best wishes

 

[BobbyKoch]

I know. I didn't expect my cycle to go this terribly. Sitting on 3 waitlist and took many post-II Rs but I made up my mind about not doing another cycle.

3 waitlists is so close op. Take your time and regroup if this is what you want. I applied 3x and am graduating this weekend, so I feel your pain but the waitlists are actually a good sign you’re headed in the right direction.

 

[corolla3000]

3 waitlists is so close op. Take your time and regroup if this is what you want. I applied 3x and am graduating this weekend, so I feel your pain but the waitlists are actually a good sign you’re headed in the right direction.

Thanks. Ngl I'm a little fearful of taking the risk. I'll make a post on reapp and see what people think.

 

[Bluesandstuff]

My DO school, like most, sucks. New schools suck as much or more. Basically expect your lectures and clinical rotations to actively make it harder for you on boards which will be the main way you can prove you’re a decent candidate. Also, yes they’ll still decelerate or fail you if you don’t do well enough on the board practice tests.

Borrow enough extra money to have good study resources like BNB, Pathoma, sketchy ands UNR pixorize subscriptions for years 1, 2 and 3.

 

[Goro]

My DO school, like most, sucks. New schools suck as much or more. Basically expect your lectures and clinical rotations to actively make it harder for you on boards which will be the main way you can prove you’re a decent candidate. Also, yes they’ll still decelerate or fail you if you don’t do well enough on the board practice tests.

Borrow enough extra money to have good study resources like BNB, Pathoma, sketchy ands UNR pixorize subscriptions for years 1, 2 and 3.

Sadly, The newer schools will keep their failing students in as long as possible. , in order to get as much tuition money is possible.

they can't afford to lose those students.

 

[thumbz]

I can not overstate the importance of getting wards based clinical experience enough. Do you know the most common reason people end up in the bottom half of our rank list? They've never done an inpatient IM rotation on a TEACHING service. Most have never even met a resident, let alone worked with one. At brand new schools, especially with rotations spread that far out, expect a real challenge getting inpatient rotations. Plan to do at least 1 or 2 subi's to make up for it (in the speciality you want to match in to). Which you'll be less competitive for but you should be able to get.

And before anyone comes in saying COCA requires at least one inpatient teaching rotation per student - COCA is a joke. I interview for an IM program and ask every DO to tell me about their experience on their inpatient teaching rotation, and ~25% of them have never had one.

And yes, I am a DO. And not a self hating DO either. But I know so, so very well that you get out of your rotations what you put it. I had hard preceptors, and easy ones. Including ones who had me show up for an hour a day during my Step 2 study time and otherwise let me study. So I know how easy it is to coast.

 

[Prehealth1011]

Expect these gems
1) Admins: WHY you taking the USMLE! COMLEX is enough to match into ANYTHING you want
2) Coordinators: Sorry you're on your own for 4th year just go set all of your rotations up yourself thanks BUT don't forget to still mail us the 60k tuition for the year
3) OMM: we're all just faking it until we graduate but if you're at one of those militant DO schools, it's a headache a cervical HVLA won't fix

 

[MateoGM416]

Expect these gems
1) Admins: WHY you taking the USMLE! COMLEX is enough to match into ANYTHING you want
2) Coordinators: Sorry you're on your own for 4th year just go set all of your rotations up yourself thanks BUT don't forget to still mail us the 60k tuition for the year
3) OMM: we're all just faking it until we graduate but if you're at one of those militant DO schools, it's a headache a cervical HVLA won't fix

I heard AT Still OMS1's and 2's do 8 hours of OMM a week minimum, there's no way the newer schools could be worse than that

 

[corolla3000]

Just got taken off a waitlist. I'm so glad. I couldn't sleep last night. Mashallah. @BobbyKoch

I'm still going to have the challenges of a DO school, but at least it will have cadaver lab. It's also at a location I really like.

 

[Bluesandstuff]

Sadly, The newer schools will keep their failing students in as long as possible. , in order to get as much tuition money is possible.

they can't afford to lose those students.

Oh yeah, mine did that too. They used the comsae + in house board prep to freeze them in board study limbo then decelerated to the next class them then flunked them out before they could mess up our board pass rates.

 

[Bluesandstuff]

Just got taken off a waitlist. I'm so glad. I couldn't sleep last night. Mashallah. @BobbyKoch

I'm still going to have the challenges of a DO school, but at least it will have cadaver lab. It's also at a location I really like.

Congrats!!! Happy for you!!!!! DO life is harder but having a alumni network, residents already thriving in programs and upper class men to tell you how to navigate the minefield is so helpful. And we end up being bomb doctors!

 

[WhereMyLiberalsAt]

but at least it will have cadaver lab.

Speaking of a con…

****s a meme

 

[corolla3000]

Speaking of a con…

****s a meme

You mean with cadaver or no cadaver. I just feel like it would make the school experience feel more "legit."

 

[Darrow O'Lykos]

You know what they say, when life gives you lemons…

...find the lemon's anterior Chapman's point?

 

[fluffyquail]

Does anyone know if pre-accred COCA schools will be allowed to do aways through LCME/COCA accredited programs?

 

[DO2015CA]

You mean with cadaver or no cadaver. I just feel like it would make the school experience feel more "legit."

I wish I didn’t have to do cadavers. Talk about a waste of time. I think the best of both worlds would be prosected cadavers. Instead I spent 4 hours picking fat trying to identify structures

 

[DrStephenStrange]

Does anyone know if pre-accred COCA schools will be allowed to do aways through LCME/COCA accredited programs?

Yes, why not?

 

[fluffyquail]

Yes, why not?

I wasn't sure and I'm a first gen. My school isn't on VSLO and I wanted to know if I would have trouble finding aways Y4. So my goal was to try to find any new DO school alums or OMS34s. Could you elaborate on how you know?

 

[fluffyquail]

Yes, why not?

I sent you a PM, Dr. Strange!

 

[BobbyKoch]

I wasn't sure and I'm a first gen. My school isn't on VSLO and I wanted to know if I would have trouble finding aways Y4. So my goal was to try to find any new DO school alums or OMS34s. Could you elaborate on how you know?

I don’t remember ever seeing any DO schools offering rotations on VSLO. In any case, it doesn’t matter—anyone enrolled in medical school can apply for rotations on VSLO.* I think all you need is a token from your school to access it.

That being said, depending on what specialty you are looking at, you may still have trouble getting away rotations. But it’s the same struggle we all go through and not likely related to your school being new. I think I applied to 45-50 rotations and got 4 or 5 offers. Plan to be early with your applications and proactive about following up with student coordinators. Also look for places that schedule outside VSLO. Best of luck Op

*

How to Use the VSLO® Application Service

The VSLO® application service makes it easier for medical students to apply for opportunities.

students-residents.aamc.org

 

[chilly_md]

Does anyone know if pre-accred COCA schools will be allowed to do aways through LCME/COCA accredited programs?

Please keep this topic to the thread you had already created.

Closing as OP reported they got into a more established school earlier.