Suwanee, GA
Osteopathic Medical Schools | Private Non-Profit
Overall, students rated the program a 2.5 out of 10 for satisfaction. The student body is described as moderately cooperative. The environment is considered supportive for underrepresented minorities, LGBTQ+ students, married students, students with disabilities, non-traditional students. Graduates feel underprepared for board exams. Faculty members are seen as reasonably approachable.
🎓 The Basics ▼
What was the zip code of your residence in high school?
| Response Avg | # Responders |
|---|---|
| 24,502.00 | 5 |
What do you like most?
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Professors not associated with administration or 3rd and 4th year. They care the most and have the most invested in their students.
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Not much competition, so if you work hard you can put yourself at the top.
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Small school size.
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Building is open 24/7
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Faculty are extremely supportive, community is huge here, OMM department is tough, but is world class, personable, knowledgeable professors that genuinely do care about your success and will help you whenever needed, close proximity to Atlanta/very nice area, great peer tutoring/TA/academic support programs, lots of options for clinical sites, lots of established MD and DO connections in a vast majority of medical specialties in the primary care skills dpt, a bunch of ways to get involved, extremely diverse classes, plenty of diverse research opportunities, very tough but doable curriculum with fair exams that tend to be quite boards-relevant, lots of real-life simulation opportunities 1-2nd year, faculty advising programs, great library, plenty of places to study/never full
What do you like least?
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Clinical Education. Their meetings are disorganized and and full of double speak, making it impossible to give them what they want. They don't respond to emails and have admitted in the past that they won't if they feel they don't need to respond. The major issue with this is, emails include questions indicating a point of confusion or dispute. This typically would be something that would require a response. When students aren't able to perform to a standard that is never communicated to them, Clinical Education staff respond with professionalism violations and aggressive emails. PCOM-GA is rapidly losing preceptors in the area and it is very easy to see why when the ClinEd department behaves the way they do.
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Everything that has to do with the administration, quite literally everything. Also the building or “campus” as they call it as about as bad as it gets.
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Unsupportive faculty and administration.
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Administration and Mandatory Lectures
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80% Mandatory classes even sometimes around exam time for things like Primary care skills, epidemiology/biostat/Medical law/public health, interprofessional classes, guest lectures etc., no completely dedicated boards studying time, sometimes condescending administration (who we just tend to avoid/ignore) who doesn’t always listen to listen to our problems like the mandatory class policy, curriculum starting from 1st year is very intense from 8-4 or 5 every day, not really allowing for easy adjustment as needed, guest lecturers tend to be great physicians but not the best teachers, OMM courses are tough, with quizzes every week, tough board-style exams, and strict rubrics for practicals, faculty will push for you to take the USMLE but administration will tell you otherwise she to merger
🧾 The Details ▼
What are the facilities and clinics like (old/new, well maintained, etc.)?
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They're okay. Not top of the line but also not old and worn down. The mannequins and new surgical suite/ICU suites used for simulations are wonderful. It's a shame students only get in them 6 times per year.
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Facility as a whole is an old gutted Lowe’s or something along those lines. All in all it’s embarrassing. Library looks like a kindergarten classroom. Private study spaces are very limited and shared between all programs on “campus”. Classrooms are outdated and have the cheapest chairs the administration could purchase (you may laugh at this, it matters after sitting in them for 8+ hours/day for months straight).
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Old.
How do students from this program do after graduation - are they adequately prepared for practice?
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In many cases yes. Much of this success is in spite of PCOM-GA not because of PCOM-GA
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Faculty (silently) “pushes” as many students as possible into primary care. It’s pretty hard to be unprepared for primary care.
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Unsure.
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100% match rates
What are rotations like?
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Unorganized and hectic. Students have their rotations cancelled last minute and are left with nothing to do for months at a time. Preceptors often complain students don't know how to report back to their preceptors.
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Less and less rotation sites are being offered every year. Quality seems to be declining also.
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Unsure.
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5
How do students from this program do in the Match?
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Misreported match rates make it seem like they do better than they really might.
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Okay.
Any other information you want to share?
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The OMM department is incredible and have done wonders to prepare students for the OMM component of COMLEX. Classes are weighed down by "clinical applications" lectures which, while helpful, are not concepts tested on boards and detract from relevant board study. Student affairs leave much to be desired. Students who submit reports about harassment/stalking received from other students are cross examined as to why they allowed a person who would harass them into their life and told that they should have done more to protect themselves instead of receiving help. Professors are allowed to yell at students during exams with no repercussion and no addressing of incidents by administration.
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Interviews on going at the moment (Nov. 2020) for a new campus dean. Both candidates seem to have great ideas to get this school headed in the right direction, but it’s been 15 years, I’m not holding my breathe.
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It’s a great school, but even though it’s been here for 8 years it’s still got some kinks to work out to make it even better. Overall I love it, and made the best out of my experience here. It’s getting harder and harder to get into, and they’re really starting to push for increasing board scores, so they’re pushing for a “changed atmosphere” on campus by making classes pretty much mandatory and interactive, and more clinically based. 2nd year here is no joke, and I mean it’s extremely integrative in systems-based physiology/pathophysiology and clinical skills become a large part of your schedule, so there’s a lot to worry about, but I think that’s the case everywhere. 1st year was an adjustment and got easier, until neuro hit and things got real. Should be interesting how the merger works out, since lots of people entering are pursuing more competitive specialties.
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