I want to share with all of you the HORRIBLE experience I've had with OCOM. My name is Iva Marinkovic and I got accepted to OCOM on March 19th 2025. I am an immigrant who lives LEGALLY in United States for 10 years.
I moved from Serbia to Arizona in 2015 and have an active immigration case. When I applied to OCOM, I clearly stated in my primary application that I am still in process to receive my green card. I also contacted the school before applying to ask and was told they encourage diversity and would never discriminate against immigrants. Little did I know, that was a complete and utter lie.
After receiving my acceptance letter in March, I was on a first flight to Florida in April for Accepted Student Day. I spoke personally to Dean Hasty and thanked him for giving me an opportunity explaining how much it means to me being an immigrant to have the chance to study medicine in the U.S. I mention this only to show that all the members of OCOM administration were AWARE of my immigration status during my acceptance.
In June, I've moved with my family from Arizona to Florida (leased an apartment, purchased all the furniture, shipped a car..etc.) excited to start school in August. All together it cost my family over 30K to make a move out of state. Additionally, we already paid another 30K for OCOM tuition in full. This entire time, nobody from OCOM administration mentioned any problems with my immigration case as they accepted money with open arms.
Everything was well prepared for the first day of school (August 4th) when I received a phone call from Mrs. Bendall (Associate Dean for Student Services) on July 18th asking for my residency documents.During the phone call (in the presence of my family) she said on speakerphone that there is NO PROBLEM with me attending OCOM with the paperwork I provided. The only possible issue might be matching into residency program. Mrs. Bendall asked for some time to do research about how to handle the issue with RESIDENCY saying she will call me back later that day. When there was no phone call or email from Mrs. Bendall as promised, it made me anxious and I decided to give admissions office a call. They said Mrs. Bendall left LONG TIME AGO and haven't left any messages for me. Then at 11:30 pm (yes, at NIGHT) I receive an email from said lady with a letter terminating my acceptance to OCOM. I can only hope anyone reading this might empathize with the young woman reading this letter. What kind of institution of MONSTERS handles situation in such a way?
Due to personal reasons, I will not disclose the details of the state that I was in that night. All I will say is that I was close to being hospitalized from the panic attack I experienced in front of my family ( this included two young siblings who had to watch me go through this). Not only was it completely UNPROFESSIONAL to send this letter on a Friday NIGHT but their LACK OF EMPATHY in a way they chose to handle this situation is appalling to me till this day. The job of a medical school is to raise empathetic physicians who care about people's health and I promise you OCOM is not a place for that. I will use my voice and all means necessary to ensure NOBODY is ever forced to go through the type of discrimination I went through that day.
If anyone asks me whether they should apply to OCOM, my answer is this: Are you sure you want these people to teach you how to...
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