LECOM-Erie

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nextgenpharmer

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Anyone graduated from LECOM-Erie and would like to offer feedback of their experience? You can PM if you like, I would like to attend a 3 year school but I've read some very negative things about this particular school and wanted to talk to a graduate first hand! Thanks.

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I've had some experience precepting students from this school and eh............
 
Isn't that the school everyone ragged on awhile back? Something like treating the students like crap, no water in class allowed, torture, etc.
 
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I'm surprised that school is still open. They are also the school that had put something on their facebook site about pharmacists getting paid 6 figures to do nothing.
 
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I recently interviewed at this school.

Pros
-Very CHEAP school. Heath insurance is 3x the normal pharmacy school rate (rare)and mandatory (uncommon) but the tuition is only ~26k Excellent value IMO

-Nice workout area located a 20 minute walk from the school.

-3 year school means one less year of rent, tuition, food ect and 1 additional year of getting paid as a pharmacist

-low cost of living

-free lunch during the interview process (uncommon for pharmacy interviews)

-Stuck to the schedule and were punctual

Cons
-Erie is an economically depressed city

-The weather is terrible due to lake effect snow

-The school is shared with DO students. The DO students take priority as evidenced by the fish sculpture on the 2nd floor. One side of the fish is decorated by the pharmD students the other is painted by the DO students. The DO side of the fish is always facing outward and the pharmacy side is closely against the wall and covered in dust. Parking is also given to the DO students. They do this by scheduling the DO classes earlier than the pharmacy classes so the DO students get the parking they want.

-The interviews type done is poorly organized and done in group interview fashion. Compared to Roosevelt's intelligent multi-mini interviews with 7 thought provoking stations, Neomeds 2 on 1 20 minute interview or Rosalind and Franklin's 30 minute 1 on 1 or even Saint Joseph's personal one hour, 2 faculty on one student, LECOM's interview is best described as a sloppy 30 minute rushed interview full of generic questions that would not challenge even an ungulate.

-They try to sell you on D.O. > M.D. even though it has virtually nothing to do with the PharmD degree they are providing. This was not something I encountered at all at R and F which has an allopathic medicine (MD) program. This speaks volumes. The faculty defensively argues that a D.O. degree is equivalent to a M.D. with a 20 minute speech on it to their pharmD candidates. (completely unnecessary and embarrassing)

-Men must wear a shirt and tie everyday of class. Huge pain in the butt. I'm here to learn, not attend a fashion show.

-Excessively advocating greed. This was the only pharmacy school I interviewed at where the presenter went on a tangent about how much money a pharmacist could make, going as far to brang one of their students started off making 130k+
 
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Graduated from this program a couple of years back. School is what you put into it no matter where you go. There are better professors than others like at any school. The gym was beautiful. 3 years is great. People say year around is awful but your first summer you basically get 7 weeks off due to rotations. Winter sucks. Lots of snow and classes have never been canceled. Wearing a shirt and tie daily is awful. No water in class is awful.

I would go back in a heart beat. I learned everything I needed to. I really don't believe bashing any school considering some of the best pharmacists have come out of the "worst" programs. Of course we had people that were there to get C's, barely pass, and make 120k a year. Any specific questions feel free to ask.
 
I recently interviewed at this school.

Pros
-Very CHEAP school. Heath insurance is 3x the normal pharmacy school rate (rare)and mandatory (uncommon) but the tuition is only ~26k Excellent value IMO

-Nice workout area located a 20 minute walk from the school.

-3 year school means one less year of rent, tuition, food ect and 1 additional year of getting paid as a pharmacist

-low cost of living

-free lunch during the interview process (uncommon for pharmacy interviews)

-Stuck to the schedule and were punctual

Cons
-Erie is an economically depressed city

-The weather is terrible due to lake effect snow

-The school is shared with DO students. The DO students take priority as evidenced by the fish sculpture on the 2nd floor. One side of the fish is decorated by the pharmD students the other is painted by the DO students. The DO side of the fish is always facing outward and the pharmacy side is closely against the wall and covered in dust. Parking is also given to the DO students. They do this by scheduling the DO classes earlier than the pharmacy classes so the DO students get the parking they want.

-The interviews type done is poorly organized and done in group interview fashion. Compared to Roosevelt's intelligent multi-mini interviews with 7 thought provoking stations, Neomeds 2 on 1 20 minute interview or Rosalind and Franklin's 30 minute 1 on 1 or even Saint Joseph's personal one hour, 2 faculty on one student, LECOM's interview is best described as a sloppy 30 minute rushed interview full of generic questions that would not challenge even an ungulate.

-They try to sell you on D.O. > M.D. even though it has virtually nothing to do with the PharmD degree they are providing. This was not something I encountered at all at R and F which has an allopathic medicine (MD) program. This speaks volumes. The faculty defensively argues that a D.O. degree is equivalent to a M.D. with a 20 minute speech on it to their pharmD candidates. (completely unnecessary and embarrassing)

-Men must wear a shirt and tie everyday of class. Huge pain in the butt. I'm here to learn, not attend a fashion show.

-Excessively advocating greed. This was the only pharmacy school I interviewed at where the presenter went on a tangent about how much money a pharmacist could make, going as far to brang one of their students started off making 130k+

wow!!! 26k? thats damn amazing. Almost half of most pharm schools in Cali. I do find it funny that u mention the lunch as thing pro... that's just one day out of 3 yrs!
 
Financially speaking, LECOM-ERIE is an excellent deal with the total cost of education (tuition, room, board... etc) around 100k for 3 years. This is in comparison to most other programs where it would run you double that amount for 4 years and getting out into the market 1 year earlier (this may be especially important with the market so tight). Downside... your in ERIE, PA.
 
Graduated from this program a couple of years back. School is what you put into it no matter where you go. There are better professors than others like at any school. The gym was beautiful. 3 years is great. People say year around is awful but your first summer you basically get 7 weeks off due to rotations. Winter sucks. Lots of snow and classes have never been canceled. Wearing a shirt and tie daily is awful. No water in class is awful.

I would go back in a heart beat. I learned everything I needed to. I really don't believe bashing any school considering some of the best pharmacists have come out of the "worst" programs. Of course we had people that were there to get C's, barely pass, and make 120k a year. Any specific questions feel free to ask.

@PharmDDDD

What's the course schedule and workload like? Are you in class from 8/9AM - to 4/5PM every day like the DO students?

How much time did you and your peers spend, on average, outside of the classroom studying and preparing?

Besides going year year round, how else is the program compressed? Do they trim any of the extra BS (projects, poster presentations, etc.) to streamline the curriculum?

Thank you in advance!
 
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Graduated from this program a couple of years back. School is what you put into it no matter where you go. There are better professors than others like at any school. The gym was beautiful. 3 years is great. People say year around is awful but your first summer you basically get 7 weeks off due to rotations. Winter sucks. Lots of snow and classes have never been canceled. Wearing a shirt and tie daily is awful. No water in class is awful.

I would go back in a heart beat. I learned everything I needed to. I really don't believe bashing any school considering some of the best pharmacists have come out of the "worst" programs. Of course we had people that were there to get C's, barely pass, and make 120k a year. Any specific questions feel free to ask.

Ahh Yeah, I forgot about the draconian food laws. No water in class and no food outside the cafeteria not even in the study rooms. The students that "get C's" may have trouble finding employment in the next 5 years as the competition for jobs increases.
 
That school has a reputation for having an awful pharmacy school and an even Worse osteopathic program.
Is your idea of a bad program a school that has a near 100% board pass rate and excellent residency matching rate, including very competitive residency positions? Do you have any idea what you're even talking about?
 
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Yup. They accepted people that my school denied.
I know 1 person who got into Yale, but rejected from Harvard. Yale must be a second rate diploma mill with that logic.
 
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I graduated almost a decade ago. I can think of 1 & 1\2 million reasons why lecom wasn't that bad. Welcome to thelp real world of demanding administrations. Wait til you enter the world of chain pharmacy if you think lecom is bad.
 
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The complaint that they favor DO students getting better parking by scheduling our classes to start an hour earlier? Seriously?

First of all, many of the DO students are already on campus 2-3 hours before our first class / meeting start because holy crap do we have a lot of studying to do, and the library / cafeteria / student lounges are great places to do that. Still, though, there is never any lack of parking. Getting there as late as 7:45, I have still been able to find great spots without really trying. If you don't roll in until mid morning, you might have to choose a space a few rows back or over, but if that is a major disaster in your day, maybe appreciate how great that must mean your life really is.

Yes, they don't let you have food / drinks in the classrooms. That isn't the same thing as not allowing you to have food / water / coffee at all. No LECOM students are starving. You might have to walk down to the cafeteria (which serves large portions of decent food at prices that suggest to me that the school is subsidizing our meals, or at least not making a profit on them.)

Yeah, it was first a medical school. But it is a medical school with a relatively inexpensive, high quality pharmacy program that you can do in just 3 years in an area with low cost of living and lots of amenities. If having to wear a tie to class is so much of a downer to you that it outweighs the considerable benefits of LECOM, please consider a different school. (Though, if you can somehow tolerate that imposition, take heart that at least you won't have to change in and out of dress clothes multiple times per day, like the DO students.)
 
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Well put my friend. Well put.

PS. Does anyone realize that this is a thread that has been resurrected from the dead?!

Yeah, I saw it was a necrobump, but that just means that it has the potential to attract a new set of readers for a while. And even if it just fell back down into the archives, some people would likely find it in searches. So, I like to leave something more accurate for them than "I heard they beat the students there."
 
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That school has a reputation for having an awful pharmacy school and an even Worse osteopathic program.
I grauated from this school several years back, did a residency, and I am very competent in my career. It is definitely a good school, and if I had to go back and do it all again, I would do it all the same. i think if you do not have direct evidence of how this school is run....you shouldnt open your fat mouth.
 
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Maybe it is better now, but someone asked for an opinion and I provided one.

Just not a very informed one. So, when it was a new school, it had some issues, and accepted someone your program didn't interview, so based on that you feel comfortable to bash not only the pharmacy program but the osteopathic medical program?

You are right that you can say what you like. And so can people who actually have attended the school themselves. The readers will determine for themselves what to believe, "reputations" spread by people who are talking out their tails, or reports from current and former students.
 
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I know 1 person who got into Yale, but rejected from Harvard. Yale must be a second rate diploma mill with that logic.

Well, you're talking apples and oranges. Those ivy schools are in their own league. Relatively speaking, yes, Yale is second-rated (figuratively and literally speaking) compared to Harvard.
 
Is your idea of a bad program a school that has a near 100% board pass rate and excellent residency matching rate, including very competitive residency positions? Do you have any idea what you're even talking about?
I recently interviewed at this school.

Pros
-Very CHEAP school. Heath insurance is 3x the normal pharmacy school rate (rare)and mandatory (uncommon) but the tuition is only ~26k Excellent value IMO

-Nice workout area located a 20 minute walk from the school.

-3 year school means one less year of rent, tuition, food ect and 1 additional year of getting paid as a pharmacist

-low cost of living

-free lunch during the interview process (uncommon for pharmacy interviews)

-Stuck to the schedule and were punctual

Cons
-Erie is an economically depressed city

-The weather is terrible due to lake effect snow

-The school is shared with DO students. The DO students take priority as evidenced by the fish sculpture on the 2nd floor. One side of the fish is decorated by the pharmD students the other is painted by the DO students. The DO side of the fish is always facing outward and the pharmacy side is closely against the wall and covered in dust. Parking is also given to the DO students. They do this by scheduling the DO classes earlier than the pharmacy classes so the DO students get the parking they want.

-The interviews type done is poorly organized and done in group interview fashion. Compared to Roosevelt's intelligent multi-mini interviews with 7 thought provoking stations, Neomeds 2 on 1 20 minute interview or Rosalind and Franklin's 30 minute 1 on 1 or even Saint Joseph's personal one hour, 2 faculty on one student, LECOM's interview is best described as a sloppy 30 minute rushed interview full of generic questions that would not challenge even an ungulate.

-They try to sell you on D.O. > M.D. even though it has virtually nothing to do with the PharmD degree they are providing. This was not something I encountered at all at R and F which has an allopathic medicine (MD) program. This speaks volumes. The faculty defensively argues that a D.O. degree is equivalent to a M.D. with a 20 minute speech on it to their pharmD candidates. (completely unnecessary and embarrassing)

-Men must wear a shirt and tie everyday of class. Huge pain in the butt. I'm here to learn, not attend a fashion show.

-Excessively advocating greed. This was the only pharmacy school I interviewed at where the presenter went on a tangent about how much money a pharmacist could make, going as far to brang one of their students started off making 130k+

That's really unprofessional of them to even present that kind of DO>MD argument to pharmacy students. Talk about being insecured.
 
I went there and I have no memory of them saying DO is better than MD. I HAVE MY ISSUES WITH THAT PLACE LOL, but that's not true.
 
I applied there and after my interview (which was very adversarial, btw) we got to meet with current students. They were talking about how they were on rotations and they made comments about how they felt like school went so fast that they didn't learn what they needed to. When they said this, I don't think they realized how it came out, but it sounded very negative. The only reason I was considering the school was for it's accelerated program. I initially paid the matriculation because it was the first school that accepted me, but later opted for a 4 year program ($500 down the drain) because I'd rather have time to learn than get my degree finished quickly. After completing the four year program, I thank god every day that I didn't do an accelerated one. The material was so dense, that I just don't see how a person can fit in enough study time and not get completely burned out in a 3 year program.

On a side note, I did research for a short time with a professor of mine and mentioned I had almost gone to LECOM. He told me that he had previously worked with someone very important there, with whom he kept in touch,(I am being vague as to not give away identities) and they had a heck of a time bringing in quality professors and getting good rotations for their students. Additionally, he said that he has no idea how they can squeeze in all of the coursework without severely affecting retention of material. He personally thought that even the 4 year program was too short. Thus, I made the right call in trusting my instincts after talking to the students there.
 
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I recently interviewed at this school.

Pros
-Very CHEAP school. Heath insurance is 3x the normal pharmacy school rate (rare)and mandatory (uncommon) but the tuition is only ~26k Excellent value IMO

-Nice workout area located a 20 minute walk from the school.

-3 year school means one less year of rent, tuition, food ect and 1 additional year of getting paid as a pharmacist

-low cost of living

-free lunch during the interview process (uncommon for pharmacy interviews)

-Stuck to the schedule and were punctual

Cons
-Erie is an economically depressed city

-The weather is terrible due to lake effect snow

-The school is shared with DO students. The DO students take priority as evidenced by the fish sculpture on the 2nd floor. One side of the fish is decorated by the pharmD students the other is painted by the DO students. The DO side of the fish is always facing outward and the pharmacy side is closely against the wall and covered in dust. Parking is also given to the DO students. They do this by scheduling the DO classes earlier than the pharmacy classes so the DO students get the parking they want.

-The interviews type done is poorly organized and done in group interview fashion. Compared to Roosevelt's intelligent multi-mini interviews with 7 thought provoking stations, Neomeds 2 on 1 20 minute interview or Rosalind and Franklin's 30 minute 1 on 1 or even Saint Joseph's personal one hour, 2 faculty on one student, LECOM's interview is best described as a sloppy 30 minute rushed interview full of generic questions that would not challenge even an ungulate.

-They try to sell you on D.O. > M.D. even though it has virtually nothing to do with the PharmD degree they are providing. This was not something I encountered at all at R and F which has an allopathic medicine (MD) program. This speaks volumes. The faculty defensively argues that a D.O. degree is equivalent to a M.D. with a 20 minute speech on it to their pharmD candidates. (completely unnecessary and embarrassing)

-Men must wear a shirt and tie everyday of class. Huge pain in the butt. I'm here to learn, not attend a fashion show.

-Excessively advocating greed. This was the only pharmacy school I interviewed at where the presenter went on a tangent about how much money a pharmacist could make, going as far to brang one of their students started off making 130k+

What does "R and F" mean?
 
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