Hello All, I have an update. Thanks for the support and encouragement during those touch and go months. (Seriously most stressful time of my life)
I am honestly so eternally grateful for these school giving me a chance to come and visit them. This experience has changed my life forever. I am going to be a PODIATRIST! I am proud and oh so thankful for the opportunity.
Real quick--->seriously couldn't have done any of this without my boo(not that she will ever read this). She hates science...WHAT! Also, God. I needed and still need him the most.
As this is a long post it is meant to spark a respectful discussion. Hmm what was that we learned in high school?...oh yeah a healthy debate. I do not have all of the answers, nor do I pretend to. Please correct me if I am wrong. To anybody reading...I see the importance in statistics, but I see an even greater importance on what can be deduced from statistics and on life experiences.
I got this in a message from
av897494 on 12/3. I hope it this isn't putting more of his/her information out there than they would like. (If so shoot me a message and I will take this post down)
av897494 writes:
Sooo i am lost and wondering if i have a chance. I have a 3.2 gpa and 26 MCAT as of now tons of clincial shadowing experience, voluneteering, research, blah blah blah. I am re-taking my MCAT January 10 and then applying everywhere. In the mean time getting recommendations, writing my statement. What do you think my chances are of getting in anywhere? I really would love NYCPM, please help and let me know your turn out as of now since it is already December! Any advice would be most appreciated
My response: This goes to all who are interested. At this moment I am writing this in reflection of my application process. Even though I never said where I was accepted to
av897494 asks me my advice. I will gladly give out advice, as best I can, as others have done for me. Well without further adieu if you look over at my little orangutan you can see it now says Podiatry student. I ultimately received 5 interviews.
1st- Western, offered me an interview, offered me a seat, I declined it.-5 Day response time
2nd-Barry, offered me an interview, offered me a seat, I declined it.-8 Day response time
3rd-NYCPM,offered me an interview, did NOT offer me a seat-14 Days response time
4th-Scholl, offered me an interview, offered me a seat, I ACCEPTED IT!-21 Days response time
5th-Kent, offered me an interview, offered me a seat, I declined it-1 Day response time
There are amazing stories associated with each of these interviews and school interactions. I thought when I started this whole journey, "I wasted my money". WHY did I even apply? It was the best $500 spent(or however much it was). I don't even care. This is all my experience and my perception of the process.
As a person who went through all of this my response to you av897494 is don't worry. Of course you can always make your application a little better, but it is hardly necessary to get in. However, if you want to get a scholarship get that MCAT as high as you can. You have the stats. If you have good interviewing skills you will get in to any school that gave me an interview. Practice interviewing. Practice showing passion during your interviewing practice sessions. Literally research each school. Know about current issues relevant to the podiatry profession. I was asked about that stuff at NYCPM. I remember that. I answered well. I know why I wasn't accepted to NYCPM. They asked why I had 2 Fs for physics. My response was the same to every school. I thought that since they were taken at a community college I could just leave that transcript off of my application. I just stopped going and that is how I got the Fs. I didn't know that it would have an effect in the future. It was my mistake. That was the same answer to every interviewer. They all showed sympathy for my genuine misunderstanding of the how those grades would transpire into the future, EXCEPT NYCPM.
2 VERY OLD guys interviewed me. They honestly were traditional. They did very little to make me feel comfortable(not sure if that was a strategy). There were quite a few reasons I decided NYCPM was at the bottom of my list if I was even accepted. I have valid reasons for that and don't feel like I am jaded, but in the end they are my opinions.
Main reason I thought at the time Scholl was the best school for me when compared to other schools:
I am going to stay away from obvious pros and cons which can be seen in the itinerary of the interview day. For example, eating with an actual student vs. eating with a person from the administration. Also all staff and administration was great unless otherwise stated.
Western- Beautiful facility, beautiful city. Good anatomy lab. Not impressed with how HUGE the lecture hall was. It lacked tons of intimacy with the professor. I also noticed out of ~300 students who were in the class about 50 remained after the first 15 minutes of class. They were having a quiz that day, but that has to say something. They weren't getting something by being in class. High cost of living, I guessed it would cost me ~70K per year x 4= 280K and after you add interest...A LOT! The school also does not give scholarships. 1,000$ plus utilities is the cheapest rent around and it is very competitive to get those spots closest to school. Many people commute 15 minutes at least or pay way higher prices than just 1000$(as you will see later this was a big deal for me) You also had to pay for parking and it was a pretty far walk from the parking lot to the school.
1st year(almost 2nd year, since it was in the summer) students stopped me and told me DO NOT COME HERE!!! They went on and on for literally an hour.... <---Not exaggerated......telling me the school is BEYOND hard. They said the founder is trying to essentially trying to make it the "Harvard" of podiatry schools. I met the man, Dr. Harkless. He was an amazing man! Truly inspirational. Just do the tiniest amount of research and you will see I am not the only person who thinks this. Okay back to the day....Walking out of this interview, before running into these two students, I knew without a doubt I wanted to go here. I didn't care about the price, which was high. These students changed my mind. The conversation went on for an hour because I had to play detective. I had to determine: how smart are these people? Are they lying for "some" reason? Do they seem trustworthy? Did they present good things about the school as well? Would they be saying "how hard it is" no matter where they went to school? They both gave me their contact info. Here are a couple things they told me. Half of the people are going to have to remediate in some capacity the first year, ie. 1 failed class over the summer retaken, 2 classes failed makes you remediate entire year, and 3 failed you are kicked out. They said the highest grade on the first test was a 70% and the guy I was speaking to said he got that grade. They said bonus points were given in an arbitrary manner CAUSING people to fail. (The way it would cause the students to fail is if they were given a huge curve for one test and none for another, just inconsistency I figure). That point was brought to my attention a few months ago when I had this conversation. I can't remember exactly how he explained it. They also admitted this problem had most likely been resolved, so that it could be prevented from happening to the next year's class. Of the two students one of them said he was at the top of his class and the other girl said she failed two classes, requiring her to remediate the year. She said she was going to take a year off and apply to another podiatry school. They basically said there is no foundation with this school. The school itself is very new. It hasn't gotten all of it's growing pains out of the way and in the mean time students are paying the price for this. The two student told me that there was no time for anything other than school. LIKE NO TIME!!! They explained the curriculum and how the podiatry students are given the exact same work as the DO students except with the exception of the musculoskeletal manipulation. They said it was all of that curriculum plus the extensive clinical time/podiatry specific classes necessary for the podiatry students. They said that this was not at all comparable to the DO's musculoskeletal manipulation curriculum, with respects to time required. They stated that going to school at Western is a near impossible task and you will be MISERABLE if you go here. Zero free time if you want to pass the curriculum. They also said that the professors do not teach to the boards. This would cause major problems when preparing for boards if true. Last point, I read this here on SDN, so mind the source, the school is able to have such a high board pass rate(was 100%, not sure what now) by essentially weeding out the students who would not be able to pass boards by failing the student(or the students failing themselves when put up against a near impossible task;however you want to think of it).
Okay that last point is something that opens up other issues such as some schools are taking in students who are under qualified. You may be thinking well they took me, FutureDoctor9891, I will return to this point. Schools that have a curriculum that can be passed, but the students' pass rate on boards are low, are schools who are taking a students money(35-50K, tuition only). Thieves. I respect what Dr. Harkless, Founder of Western Podiatric Medical School, is doing. He is trying to raise the standard. Even though it is a competition between schools we need to raise the national board pass rates. If we want parity with MDs and DOs this is a step in the right direction. If MD and DO students' pass rates are 95% for national average, then Podiatry students need to be just the same.
Barry-First and only school to give me a scholarship. $6,000. So grateful for that! It showed me that not only do they want me to go to their school, but I was more than welcomed. My self-esteem was really down and that helped my confidence a lot! I won't forget it. It was a very nice gesture, regardless of their motives. Positives about the school, campus is very pretty with green grass, red sidewalks, and architecture of (a couple of)the campus buildings. The weather was great. Only a few minutes from the beach! That seemed to be a point they didn't want you to forget. They also stated that you would actually have time to go to the beach. This was unique from my first interview at Western. Western made no mention of free time or what you can do if you ever have any. This is something that you want to watch out for when you are at the school. Just wait and see if they bring up. It will give you an idea of the rigor of the curriculum. (End of pros)
Barry is separated into a Barry University campus and Barry Podiatric Medical School. It is not even near walking distance, besides you would not want to go walking in this neighborhood. The podiatric school has a chain linked fence going around the entire parking lot. Okay I will speak bluntly. It looked trashy. I know it was for added protection from the community that lived in the area, but then again I would rather not need it to begin with. The landscaping was not kept up on the podiatric school property. I know this is way on down the future but eventually my family would go to the campus that I graduate from,coming all the way from Texas. I don't want them seeing this. I will admit that last one was being nit-picky, but I want to be proud of the campus and not have to steer my family away from certain parts. Biggest con was that everything was ancient inside. What I mean is things looked like they were falling apart. I bet the desks in the main lecture classroom were older than the desks my dad used as a kid when he was in school. So serious. The anatomy lab was teeny tiny. The instructor was set up for an anatomy practical in the lab and had about 12 bodies layed out in preperation for the examination and some other bones on tables. 30 total tagged structures, I would estimate. Point is, that was probably one of those tests where you didn't want to miss hardly any because each was worth so much. There were less opportunities to learn in the end at Barry. Less resources, smaller lab, and old desks that could just be a red flag for things to come. They said the technology was up to date in classrooms. That I can not comment on, since I didn't see it and no further information was given on the specific technologies. Last con for Barry, who comes up with this tuition in the 3rd and 4th year? It peaks(this is to the best of my memory) at the 4th year at 75-80K that includes living expenses. That is just a scary number to see on paper. What they have done is add in traveling expenses for residency rotations. No other school adds that or even advertise that that is a reality for ALL 4th year podiatry students. Other schools don't show that to prospective students. It makes the total cost of 4 years sky rocket up there with the west coast schools. You can look at that as a positive or negative, although I would take that number with a grain of salt. Living expenses are higher as well in Miami. The administrative lady told us an efficiency costs around 600$, I believe. An efficiency would suck for 4 years and at 600$ plus utilities it isn't reasonable. Barry's web site is lacking very much. I remember that from when I was researching all those months ago and I am reminded now when I try to find the breakdown of their tuition.
As a side note DO NOT go to a school that requires attendance in class or one that does not have a recording system for past lectures. As I just finished writing that sentence, I remember being told that most or all schools record lectures.
NYCPM-
So I already hit on this a little. I will say I was warned that I could go anywhere except NYCPM, but at the time I was going where I could get accepted, so I flew from Miami to NYC. I know I may sound like a tourist for a second, but it is important to know, so you can understand why I made certain decisions. I have only ever been to southern states in my life, well the highest north was colorado during the summer. NYC was breathtaking. I actually saw the Statue of Liberty from the plane. I am fairly "street smart" in that I can find my way around easily. I also don't get intimidated by things I don't understand(hints why I'm going into medicine). I was also ready for new experiences, new surroundings, and to be more globalized, even though I was still in the US. The school was in what seemed like a decent part of town. Harlem. It sounded scarier than it actually was. I even went out to a restaurant at night time, the Harlem Shake. Got a burger and shake. (In case you ever go, great atmosphere, small burger, and bad quality milkshakes.) The school was older, obviously it is NYC. It isn't very presentable, just looks old. The student housing may or may not have openings (competitive). If it does it will cost $1000 including utilities, if I remember correctly. That great, but a gamble for housing. I had just stayed the night at a piece of crap B&B for 160$. My thought process was if I get stuck without getting the student housing I will be paying a lot for a crappy place. I also assumed since it was NYC it would be a small place wherever I stayed. I wasn't a big fan of living in a tiny box, just like at Barry for the efficiency. This school was the only one that I felt had a TRUE gait analysis lab. I was very impressed. The rest was stairs, small spaces, and all of the interior of the building old looking, staff was very old. It didn't feel like a school. We also were not able to see the lecture rooms on the tour. That's pretty important. I really liked that we didn't eat with a student ambassador or admission staff. We ate with a student. I felt like this gave us the truest depiction of what we could expect as students. As mixed as my feelings were about NYCPM I didn't like how I was being addressed during the interview. It was very formal. They asked a question. I would give my response and they would just STARE at me....and wait....It was an awkward silence. I was waiting for them to respond. They didn't, so I thought they wanted me to elaborate after I had stated my whole point/opinion/answer. I began to try to fumble words together thinking, "What do you guys want?" It was not a conversation like my other interviews. It did leave a bad taste in my mouth or so to speak. The interviewers truly made me feel unwelcome. All of the staff there was old. I didn't like the bus system either. Coming from Texas I drive my car everywhere. That was one thing that was hard for me to grasp. No car for me, essentially. I was warned, "Do not go to NYCPM. Anywhere but there. They just have a reputation for putting out sub-par doctors. This was someone else's opinion. I would say this is unsubstantiated pass rate of 96%, with a final pass rate of 100%, 100% residency placement.
Scholl:
Obviously I chose here. Not because it was perfect, but because it felt like my school. Cons:Financial Aid Department freaking sucks soooooo bad. To this day they are the rudest people and take forever to get back to students. Other schools have in depth financial aid sessions. Scholl did not. It was very superficial. Numbers on pamphlets were not up to date. When I asked a question I was told "that" information was on their website. I wanted to say look lady if I wanted to look on your website(which I had already done) I could have stayed in Texas and saved my time and money. The weather, no matter what it is, is unimportant to me. A pretty big con was that they said they do not match scholarships. I was trying to get them to give me a scholarship matching Barry for $6,000. They said no. That just made me feel not as wanted.
Pros of Scholl vs. all other podiatric medical schools. Scholl in the cheapest. Living here is the cheapest. I pay 400$ per month for rent, utilities, and internet. I live in a nice large room. Now my girlfriend is moving in with me. That wouldn't really be an option if I lived in an efficiency. I also live about a 4 minute drive from school. I am also 15 hours from home if you drive the speed limit. In other words I can drive home if I wanted to. The anatomy lab is enormous! Being in a larger class has little effect, either good or bad. Okay, so I didn't know this when I started here but, the staff is amazing. Every teacher, in my honest opinion, is invested in your success. They either really care or they are getting a big incentive to fake like they care. That was a little joke* The thing that made me decide I wanted to come here was the scholarship opportunity. 24 1st, 2nd, or 3rd year students who apply and have a GPA of at least 3.4 can be a recipient of a scholarship for half tuition for the following year. If you work hard then, this is money in the bag. You can only get this one year. This was my thinking. Still it makes the school the most affordable along with the cheap living expenses. There were also a few other scholarships that caught my attention. This school was by far the nicest looking of the schools I had seen. Just impeccable.
Kent- Cons were meal plan was forced on students. Automatically students had to pay for a food meal plan. Why? It may have only been $500-$1,000, but why can't the students just use their cash. Same difference right? They also said if you didn't use them you would lose them. Financial aid was fairly unintelligent, but very nice and eventually was able to answer all of my questions. All other schools need to take a note on customer service skills from this welcoming admission staff. A big concern for me was living more than 15 minutes away from ANY school I would potentially go to. Independence is the city Kent is in. In Independence, people are rich, signs for advertising businesses(McDonald's) must stay on the ground, and NO APARTMENTS. It is a city ordinance. Are you kidding me? I then learned the nearest "safe" apartments are more than 15 minutes away. My time is precious. Every minute I spent away from Texas I wanted it to be working toward a bigger goal. Driving that much was a big turn off. Also rent was around $800 plus utilities.
The lecture hall has a slowly descending floor to the stage, so I did not feel as though every seat was equal. I quite enjoy the stairs and sitting higher up in the middle of the screen(like at the movie theater).
Pros-lots....It would pretty much tie with Scholl on the looks, but you have to understand it is an old bank. They are still in the process of updating it on the inside. The outside is great, very pretty. I really liked the doctor's office simulation layout. I suppose there really isn't anything too special about it, but even when we go to the one here at Scholl I think I am going to that one. That one just made an impact on me. The anatomy lab is large and my favorite part; you aren't in the dark basement. Kent also agreed to match my scholarship in the amount of $6,000. Once again, I felt wanted. There are windows. I was really torn between Scholl and Kent and when I calculated gas, rent, tuition, and scholarships I realized either would make me happy. Kent seemed to have a tight knit class. It was only podiatrists there. They in a way get babied, since they don't share facilities with anyone else. Kent was where the residency director, of the residency I want to attend, went to.
3 things sealed the deal for me: I was dreading a more than 15 minute drive each way to and from school.
The scholarship opportunity in Scholl made it the cheaper option.
The rent made it a cheaper option.
The schools are equally ranked in my book. Scholl is just nicer, newer, bigger, and cheaper.
av897494,
I say to you, write a killer personal statement! Dominate the MCAT! Submit your application! Practice interviewing! Interview! Acceptance!
Believe me I understand the stress. Oh and by the way it has only just begun. Best of luck.
I don't know if I answered your question, but if you have any specific ones or something I didn't address feel free to ask.
