Top 10 things I like about Nova
To review: Bradenton, my dream school, has me on the waitlist for Class of 2012. I sent a Letter of Intent last week, humbly expressing my gratitude and devotion, which brought the brown-nosing down to shoulder level. So we'll see what happens with Bradenton.
Meanwhile, Nova accepted me, and Nova looks fine. There's lots to like. Top ten great things, in no particular order.
1. Dress code: scrubs
Florida seems pretty gung-ho about enforcing a dress code on professional school students, as well as enforcing no-eating-in-class and mandatory-attendance policies. My Birks and Uggs will be so sad.
But Nova allows students to wear scrubs as professional dress, which means I get to go to school in pajamas. The med students wear light blue (specifically, "Ciel Blue"). Pharm, dental and the other disciplines wear teal, maroon, navy, etc. Kind of like the social stratification in high school on game days when the football players had to wear suits, the cheerleaders wore their cheering outfits, and band geeks like me wore homemade t-shirts saying "Clarinets Rock!!!" Except now I get to be on the football team.
I won't be allowed to wear my Curious George scrubs though. I'll save them for my peds rotation.
2. Dolphins, Sharks and the RecPlex
The Miami Dolphins practice adjacent to Nova's campus. They have an air-conditioned field that's covered with a big white balloon that looks like a slug. I was told to expect to have opportunities to work with the team's orthopedists, who are DOs.
Nova sports teams are called the Sharks. Which is cool.
The brand-spanking-new RecPlex (see left) is stunning, with an outdoor Olympic-sized swimming pool.
3. I can live across the street
I bitched about Fort Lauderdale's traffic earlier, but the good news is that there are decent places to live adjacent to Nova's campus, and most are dog-friendly. I'm not likely to land in a house with a yard, but there's hope that I could at least be in a townhouse with entrenched retiree neighbors. Who cook me dinner and walk Clifford on exam days, maybe.
4. OPP fellowship == free tuition
This might be the coolest part. OPP is Osteopathic Principles and Practice, which is part of the DO curriculum: it's the two years and 300-600 hours of training that separates DOs from MDs. At Nova I have the option to apply for a fellowship which would add a year to my schooling, during which I would work in the clinic, do research, and teach. The fellowship year is tuition free, and then my 3rd and 4th years of tuition are waived. Plus I get to pick first when rotation sites are being assigned.
Bradenton's tuition is about $25k per year, and Nova's is about $34k. With the OPP fellowship, Nova saves me a nice chunk of debt.
5. Free MPH
Nova also offers its med students a free Masters of Public Health, which can be completed during the OPP fellowship year. This is a good thing for me to have for future work with Doctors Without Borders or Partners in Health.
I met a few Nova students who are doing the OPP fellowship, and one who is also doing the free MPH. She seemed tired but happy.
6. established school == established rotations == access to good residencies
Nova started its med school in 1979, Bradenton in 2004. (Bradenton's mothership school in Erie, PA started in 1992.) Nova's been putting med students in southern hospitals for 30 years, and Nova graduates have been infiltrating "MD" residency programs around the country for about 25 years. About 60% of osteopathic physicians train in "MD" residency programs instead of "DO" residency programs. DO residencies are fine, but arguably offer less rigorous training and are available in fewer locations. To get into an "MD" residency as a DO, I have to do an audition rotation at the residency site, take the MD board exams as well as the DO board exams, and skip the DO residency match. It's complicated, and I'll get into it more later.
Point being, Nova keeps doors open for me. Bradenton will too, but with Bradenton I'd likely be the first graduate a residency program director has met, vs. maybe the 100th Nova grad.
7. Admin is on the ball when it matters
Nova's admissions office is notoriously bad, as I've mentioned. If the forums on studentdoctor.net are to be believed, there's no point in calling or emailing the school for information. A candidate should not expect to receive an information packet before the interview, and may or may not be expected at Nova on the assigned interview day. I flew to Miami without any confirmation of my interview date. By contrast, my other 5 interview invitations were confirmed by postal mail with clear instructions and personalized agendas. In this regard, Nova is nerve-wracking.
But last week I had reason to contact Nova's admissions office, and I won't go into the situation here, but I got an immediate personal email response. I'm not worried about this office anymore.
8. Famous foul-mouthed faculty
This is Elaine Wallace, D.O., Nova's chair of OPP. Nova was smart enough to keep her from accepting an offer to head OPP at the new DO school in Colorado. If I do an OPP fellowship, she'd be my boss.
The Nova students I met said she's a character, and that she curses like a sailor. I asked if that meant she generated innovative curse words, but no, she's a creative artist at curse combinations, such as giving Our Lord interesting middle names. I love her already.
9. New big fat research center opening '09
The field of Osteopathic Medicine is infamous for weak, underfunded research efforts. Only within the last dozen years have the "P's" in OPP (principles and practice) been studied with any rigor. Several schools are trying to get research funding up over $1 million a year, as compared to the University of Washington which brings in about $600 million a year, just in NIH funds.
So, Nova is on the bandwagon. This is a picture of the research center that's being built next to the Health Sciences School, and all of Nova's Health Sciences departments are under the gun to pursue funding and publish in peer-reviewed journals. Nova expects to offer research fellowships with the same benefits as the OPP fellowship.
The niggling "oh what have I done, why am I doing DO instead of MD" thoughts that I have quiet down a bit when DO schools are hard core like this. Nova is a big, big school and its capability to aggressively pursue research is a big, big positive.
10. They love me
Oh, sweet Nova. Nova invited me to interview within minutes of receiving my application. Nova overlooked my 23 years of transcripts, mostly littered with indiscretions and poor judgment. Nova gushed over my engineering and management background. Nova threw me the ball. Gotta love Nova.
Meanwhile, Nova accepted me, and Nova looks fine. There's lots to like. Top ten great things, in no particular order.
1. Dress code: scrubsFlorida seems pretty gung-ho about enforcing a dress code on professional school students, as well as enforcing no-eating-in-class and mandatory-attendance policies. My Birks and Uggs will be so sad.
But Nova allows students to wear scrubs as professional dress, which means I get to go to school in pajamas. The med students wear light blue (specifically, "Ciel Blue"). Pharm, dental and the other disciplines wear teal, maroon, navy, etc. Kind of like the social stratification in high school on game days when the football players had to wear suits, the cheerleaders wore their cheering outfits, and band geeks like me wore homemade t-shirts saying "Clarinets Rock!!!" Except now I get to be on the football team.I won't be allowed to wear my Curious George scrubs though. I'll save them for my peds rotation.
2. Dolphins, Sharks and the RecPlexThe Miami Dolphins practice adjacent to Nova's campus. They have an air-conditioned field that's covered with a big white balloon that looks like a slug. I was told to expect to have opportunities to work with the team's orthopedists, who are DOs.
Nova sports teams are called the Sharks. Which is cool.
The brand-spanking-new RecPlex (see left) is stunning, with an outdoor Olympic-sized swimming pool.
3. I can live across the street
I bitched about Fort Lauderdale's traffic earlier, but the good news is that there are decent places to live adjacent to Nova's campus, and most are dog-friendly. I'm not likely to land in a house with a yard, but there's hope that I could at least be in a townhouse with entrenched retiree neighbors. Who cook me dinner and walk Clifford on exam days, maybe.
4. OPP fellowship == free tuition
This might be the coolest part. OPP is Osteopathic Principles and Practice, which is part of the DO curriculum: it's the two years and 300-600 hours of training that separates DOs from MDs. At Nova I have the option to apply for a fellowship which would add a year to my schooling, during which I would work in the clinic, do research, and teach. The fellowship year is tuition free, and then my 3rd and 4th years of tuition are waived. Plus I get to pick first when rotation sites are being assigned.
Bradenton's tuition is about $25k per year, and Nova's is about $34k. With the OPP fellowship, Nova saves me a nice chunk of debt.
5. Free MPH
Nova also offers its med students a free Masters of Public Health, which can be completed during the OPP fellowship year. This is a good thing for me to have for future work with Doctors Without Borders or Partners in Health.
I met a few Nova students who are doing the OPP fellowship, and one who is also doing the free MPH. She seemed tired but happy.
6. established school == established rotations == access to good residencies
Nova started its med school in 1979, Bradenton in 2004. (Bradenton's mothership school in Erie, PA started in 1992.) Nova's been putting med students in southern hospitals for 30 years, and Nova graduates have been infiltrating "MD" residency programs around the country for about 25 years. About 60% of osteopathic physicians train in "MD" residency programs instead of "DO" residency programs. DO residencies are fine, but arguably offer less rigorous training and are available in fewer locations. To get into an "MD" residency as a DO, I have to do an audition rotation at the residency site, take the MD board exams as well as the DO board exams, and skip the DO residency match. It's complicated, and I'll get into it more later.
Point being, Nova keeps doors open for me. Bradenton will too, but with Bradenton I'd likely be the first graduate a residency program director has met, vs. maybe the 100th Nova grad.
7. Admin is on the ball when it matters
Nova's admissions office is notoriously bad, as I've mentioned. If the forums on studentdoctor.net are to be believed, there's no point in calling or emailing the school for information. A candidate should not expect to receive an information packet before the interview, and may or may not be expected at Nova on the assigned interview day. I flew to Miami without any confirmation of my interview date. By contrast, my other 5 interview invitations were confirmed by postal mail with clear instructions and personalized agendas. In this regard, Nova is nerve-wracking.
But last week I had reason to contact Nova's admissions office, and I won't go into the situation here, but I got an immediate personal email response. I'm not worried about this office anymore.
8. Famous foul-mouthed facultyThis is Elaine Wallace, D.O., Nova's chair of OPP. Nova was smart enough to keep her from accepting an offer to head OPP at the new DO school in Colorado. If I do an OPP fellowship, she'd be my boss.
The Nova students I met said she's a character, and that she curses like a sailor. I asked if that meant she generated innovative curse words, but no, she's a creative artist at curse combinations, such as giving Our Lord interesting middle names. I love her already.
9. New big fat research center opening '09
The field of Osteopathic Medicine is infamous for weak, underfunded research efforts. Only within the last dozen years have the "P's" in OPP (principles and practice) been studied with any rigor. Several schools are trying to get research funding up over $1 million a year, as compared to the University of Washington which brings in about $600 million a year, just in NIH funds.
So, Nova is on the bandwagon. This is a picture of the research center that's being built next to the Health Sciences School, and all of Nova's Health Sciences departments are under the gun to pursue funding and publish in peer-reviewed journals. Nova expects to offer research fellowships with the same benefits as the OPP fellowship.
The niggling "oh what have I done, why am I doing DO instead of MD" thoughts that I have quiet down a bit when DO schools are hard core like this. Nova is a big, big school and its capability to aggressively pursue research is a big, big positive.
10. They love me
Oh, sweet Nova. Nova invited me to interview within minutes of receiving my application. Nova overlooked my 23 years of transcripts, mostly littered with indiscretions and poor judgment. Nova gushed over my engineering and management background. Nova threw me the ball. Gotta love Nova.
posted by Cy at 5:18 PM
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