I think lack of full-time faculty is a big downside. Narkotics dismissed it as a non-issue above, but don't you think students deserve accessible and dedicated faculty for the kind of tuition they pay in professional school? I would. That's a hard thing to accomplish when most of the faculty have OCPM just as their second part-time teaching job. The issues with old tests, cheating, etc are pretty well documented if you search the forums.
I'm not really sure which schools share their board scores. They might tell you they have a "100% pt1 national board passage," but that just means by graduation. A lot of schools use that figure, and it's misleading. Maybe some students had to take it multiple times (fairly significant at $900 a pop plus having to divert your energy from classes/clinic to re-study), or maybe the school just ended up flunking out students who didn't pass.
I think "face time" varies in importance from student to student. It's a bit easier to build relationships, get difficult material clarified, get LORs, etc when you have direct access to the faculty on your campus. Every school has a few bad/lazy professors who aren't much help and the class effectively becomes independent study, but some schools have more of those than others. JMO
I agree 100%^
I agree totally and think this is a pretty significant weakness to the free-standing pod schools. OCPM sold the old Cleveland property for profit, and they moved to the new location. Class sizes are getting to be about the largest of any pod school, and that is because they chose to remain an independent for-profit school. I think integration with Case Western or another major institution would have been a better move, but we'll see...
I'm not "ripping" anything or anybody. The topic of this post was for the guy to learn a bit more about the program, and I mentioned a few possible things to look into. I've posted about the strengths and weaknesses of Barry's program when that info was requested also. It's very very hard to ascertain much more than just the condition of the facilities and how friendly the interviewer is during the pod school campus visit, so it should be no wonder that people ask for a bit more in depth info here.
I totally agree here.^
are you serious? here is a list of what you see the "pros" to integrating might be:
faculty offices right upstairs (more dedicated)
more and better technology
multiple uses out of supplies
supplies don't collect dust.
so, by having faculty offices right upstairs, a student is more likely to get high grades or even pass? all but one of the teachers i have had so far have offices right upstairs...some of them are just not in them from 8-5, mon-fri. again, i never needed that security blanket, and i don't think a lot of people do..
more and better technology. ours is pretty damn sweet right now! you should see all of the plasma screen they have in the anatomy lab. pretty cool! all of our classes are recorded (A/V) as well as any note the teacher makes. i love this feature!
the last two items are don't even merit a response. at 25k/year, i couldn't care less if i am the only dude using something. i am paying a substantial tuition and expect appropriate learning tools. if that means they sit on the shelf and collect dust after i use it twice, it doesn't really matter.
the moral: don't come to ohio if you need someone holding your hand. come to ohio if you are a self-starting and appreciating individual.
This is something which cannot be understated.
Basic sciences should be taught by PhDs IMO. Would you rather learn from a clinically trained guy who had two or three grad level classes in the course subject, or would you want to learn from a PhD who probably had dozens of grad and PhD classes, research, and a thesis directly related to the course? No contest.
Shows your ignorance.
You don't need a punchline, you're an embarrassment to our alma mater.
