Hello all!
I need to make a deposit soon at one of these schools and am having trouble selecting which school I want to make a deposit at. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
ICOM
Pros:
- Staff and student body seemed positive about the environment
- they called me for acceptance
- i would like to experience living somewhere with four seasons
Cons:
- rotation sites
- not pass fail
- dress code I think
Burrell
Pros:
- pass fail
- Florida has nicer weather
Cons:
- new campus in Melbourne Florida. Could be a pro or a con not sure if this affects anything given that it is a different campus to their New Mexico one
- hybrid virtual anatomy lab
I interviewed and was accepted to ICOM as well, I can’t speak on Burrell but I declined my ICOM acceptance for a variety of reasons. Obviously please take what you will with these they are just my own personal thoughts and reasons. Any med school is a great med school if it’s the right fit for you. You’re gonna be a great doctor no matter what and congratulations on having options!!
1. During my interview the staff told me they are having large problems with being able to keep clinical professors on staff. When I asked why they thought that is both of my interviewers attributed it to a lack of connections with local clinics and hospitals meaning clinical professors don’t have any easy access for places to practice.
2. It’s a new school so alumni networks are small.
3. I have heard of many students struggling to get clinical rotations, since the school doesn’t have many connections some students every year have said they are getting stranded in a sense and are having to personally call doctors for rotations.
4. The lack of governmental recognition means you can only take out private loans, talking with admissions they do ease this problem by partnering with two loan companies to do all student loans. But when I looked into it further the only loans most middle class students will qualify for have a minimum interest of 10% or higher. This was a big factor for me. Without a co-signer the loan I was looking at would have had around 14+%. As far as the government is concerned you’re not in school so if you have undergrad loans you can’t defer those easily.
4b. They say they are getting governmental recognition “soon” talking with 3rd and 4th years they said they were told that in their 1st years too. Seems like there is something holding them back from getting this recognition.
5. They actually called me this summer (like 3 weeks before they started this year) and wanted to accept me for the 2027 class instead of 2028. While this boosted my confidence the more I thought about it that means they had such a hard time filling their 2027 class they looked to the next years applications. This felt a little red flag-ish.
As far as pros go everyone was so nice and helpful, the location is actually great. For me (northern utah resident) it’s close to home and that was a plus. The school is beautiful and the class seems really nice and collaborative despite being a fully graded (not pass fail) program. It definitely wasn’t fun to turn the program down but it wasn’t the best option for me given my other acceptances.
