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235750
Hi everyone,
I had the pleasure of interviewing at LECOM and was accepted a few days ago, however I had some bad impressions of the school. I'm curious to know other people's thoughts, specifically from LECOM students and graduates, but also fellow interviewees who came out of the process excited about LECOM.
I should mention that my visit to LECOM was biased due to several posts on SDN. If one googles "student doctor network LECOM" you will find the first hit is for a thread called "Don't go to LECOM" and a student tries to talk people out of going to the school. Now, I had no experience with the school so when I had a chance to talk to the students without the administrative staff around, the plan was to ask them and try to get honest answers.
Well, I never had such an opportunity because the older lady (forgot her name) who gave us the initial welcome was in and out of the room constantly when we were supposed to be having some time with the students and the students only. They did not have time to answer my questions about LECOM's COMLEX pass rate and their opinions on the PBL curriculum. These observations seemed to confirm the anonymous allegations that LECOM does everything it can to keep its students on a tight leach to give a highly controlled view of the school. Did anyone else get that sense? At PCOM I just sat down in the cafeteria and asked students questions, it wasn't difficult. The tour guides at CCOM/PCOM/TOURO were all students so again it was easy to ask things without worrying that the questions would get back to your file.
Did anyone else notice the silly rules posted around the school? For example, there was a sign saying something like, "students are not allowed to enter or be in the front entrance at any time". The gentleman who was our tour guide quipped, "This is the first and last time you'll be in this gorgeous entryway." Why? Why couldn't you trust your students to behave in the hallways? They are medical school students for goodness sake. Again, this added to the domineering attitude that the school had.
When I asked our guide (the older woman) what the COMLEX pass rate was, she said 99%. I was stunned because I had heard the rate was much lower. I asked if that was for first time test takers and she didn't know. I asked her what the average COMLEX-step one score was for first-time takers and she didn't know that either. Does anyone know the answers to these questions? She got very defensive and referred me back to the piece of paper showing which hospitals their graduates matched at.
That's another question I have. I am looking at this piece of paper right now that shows "match results", although really it doesn't. It does not show speciality, only the hospital. Now, I am not a med school guru, but isn't that silly? CCOM, PCOM-PA, and most other schools I interviewed at had the actual match list (starting with anesthesiology and going to radiology). Why would LECOM not do the same? Are they hiding something?
The other thing I am worried about is that LECOM doesn't do much in terms of networking to help you get placed for your residency. Again, I got this idea from several SDN posts. But, I was not able to talk to any students, and those students who we talked to were first years so they had no idea anyway. Dose any 3rd/4th year students have experience, good or bad, with LECOM?
To sum up: I am concerned about choosing LECOM because they seemed non-transparent, overbearing to their students, and dishonest/uninformed about their own school statistics. Can anyone help alleviate my worries?
Also I would like to add that the students (from what short time we had with them) seemed like very wonderful people, and I mean no offense to them or those who have already decided on LECOM. I am just trying to make one of the biggest decisions of my life right now and I need honest help.
I had the pleasure of interviewing at LECOM and was accepted a few days ago, however I had some bad impressions of the school. I'm curious to know other people's thoughts, specifically from LECOM students and graduates, but also fellow interviewees who came out of the process excited about LECOM.
I should mention that my visit to LECOM was biased due to several posts on SDN. If one googles "student doctor network LECOM" you will find the first hit is for a thread called "Don't go to LECOM" and a student tries to talk people out of going to the school. Now, I had no experience with the school so when I had a chance to talk to the students without the administrative staff around, the plan was to ask them and try to get honest answers.
Well, I never had such an opportunity because the older lady (forgot her name) who gave us the initial welcome was in and out of the room constantly when we were supposed to be having some time with the students and the students only. They did not have time to answer my questions about LECOM's COMLEX pass rate and their opinions on the PBL curriculum. These observations seemed to confirm the anonymous allegations that LECOM does everything it can to keep its students on a tight leach to give a highly controlled view of the school. Did anyone else get that sense? At PCOM I just sat down in the cafeteria and asked students questions, it wasn't difficult. The tour guides at CCOM/PCOM/TOURO were all students so again it was easy to ask things without worrying that the questions would get back to your file.
Did anyone else notice the silly rules posted around the school? For example, there was a sign saying something like, "students are not allowed to enter or be in the front entrance at any time". The gentleman who was our tour guide quipped, "This is the first and last time you'll be in this gorgeous entryway." Why? Why couldn't you trust your students to behave in the hallways? They are medical school students for goodness sake. Again, this added to the domineering attitude that the school had.
When I asked our guide (the older woman) what the COMLEX pass rate was, she said 99%. I was stunned because I had heard the rate was much lower. I asked if that was for first time test takers and she didn't know. I asked her what the average COMLEX-step one score was for first-time takers and she didn't know that either. Does anyone know the answers to these questions? She got very defensive and referred me back to the piece of paper showing which hospitals their graduates matched at.
That's another question I have. I am looking at this piece of paper right now that shows "match results", although really it doesn't. It does not show speciality, only the hospital. Now, I am not a med school guru, but isn't that silly? CCOM, PCOM-PA, and most other schools I interviewed at had the actual match list (starting with anesthesiology and going to radiology). Why would LECOM not do the same? Are they hiding something?
The other thing I am worried about is that LECOM doesn't do much in terms of networking to help you get placed for your residency. Again, I got this idea from several SDN posts. But, I was not able to talk to any students, and those students who we talked to were first years so they had no idea anyway. Dose any 3rd/4th year students have experience, good or bad, with LECOM?
To sum up: I am concerned about choosing LECOM because they seemed non-transparent, overbearing to their students, and dishonest/uninformed about their own school statistics. Can anyone help alleviate my worries?
Also I would like to add that the students (from what short time we had with them) seemed like very wonderful people, and I mean no offense to them or those who have already decided on LECOM. I am just trying to make one of the biggest decisions of my life right now and I need honest help.