So I found out that the LECOM has an Alpha group and the student with less than 2.5 GPA by the end of 1st year are placed in there. I am at this point fairly above 2.5 but thinking if there is any mishap what would be my disadvantage? I heard that those with less than 2.5 had to take a summer study group or smth ... Is that waste of time ?
Alpha group is restricted to doing their 3rd year cores at one of 2 locations: Arnot Ogden in Elmira, NY or Millcreek in Erie. Those locations have a big LECOM presence (they can monitor your progress more closely) and LECOM also has an agreement with each that they will send each location 52 students/year for rotations.
Other than that, I believe anyone with <3.0 by the end of fall MS2 will be required to attend the board review course offered to everyone in the Spring. Its possible (i.e. I'm not sure about this since I thought this was for people who had <2.5 going into Spring MS2) alpha group people also have to take that summer review course (usually reserved for those who fail the COMSAE), but the only downside to that is that you are required to log a certain number of hours of studying (not really a bad thing) and you lose your vacation block (your first block in summer would be your vacation block, during which you'll have to study for the COMLEX).
As far as the downside of being forced to go to one of those two locations, it really depends on your specific situation. I have one friend who really needs to be relatively close to one location during 3rd (and probably 4th yr), because his wife who goes to an MD school has to do her rotations in that area (most MD schools don't give you an option to go to many different places for core rotations). For him, being forced to be in Erie or Elmira for most of 3rd year would be terrible.
I also have another friend that doesn't care at all where he rotates as long as he spends most of his time in 1 location (doesn't want to have to move a lot). For him, he'd be happy at any of the 13s.
I'm somewhere in between those two. I would like to have options, but it wouldn't be devastating being at either. They both have a decent amount of affiliated residencies (AOA, part of LECOMT) and both aren't terribly far from my home town. That said, I also don't like the idea of my options being limited, so I don't want to be in alpha group (and unless some catastrophic thing happens like I fail my last PBL exam - PBL this semester is basically worth as much as all my credits from 1st semester - I shouldn't be).
