Here you go-- I am compiling this information from other threads about the postbac program at LECOM, it is a lot of general information and should answer many questions about the program:
The LECOM biomedical program is 1 year and has a class size of roughly 60 or so students. This number includes the biomedical post-bacc students, the Masters of Science students as well as pharmacy post-bacc students as well as any MS1 students who have unsatisfactory grades during their first year, so the realistic number is closer to 40ish. Dress code is mandatory on campus grounds and for guys the standard is a dress shirt, tie and slacks/khakis and for girls this is more "lax" whatever that translates into. There is no water or food allowed in the buildings outside of the cafeteria. Yes this includes water. Attendance is also mandatory. Security is strict and you will need your ID/key card to gain enter the building. The curriculum for the biomedical students are taught by the Basic Core MS1 faculty for LECOM and include:
Cell Biology 2 units
Biochemistry 3 units
Physiology 4 units
Histology 1 unit
Genetics 1 unit
Microbiology 2 units
Medical Terminology 2 units
Anatomy 5 units
Immunology 1 unit
Virology 1 unit
Pathology 4 units
Pharmacology & Toxicology 3 units
Intro to Medicine 1 unit
There will also be some smaller group setting lectures to accustom students to the PBL modalities of instruction.
A 3.0+ in the program and a certain minimum MCAT are "high predictors" of acceptance for medical school in the fall. Successful candidates will have a choice of the 3 LECOM campuses (Erie, Seton Hill, Bradenton) as well as a choice of tracks (PBL, LDP and ISP depending on which campus you choose/qualify for). Bradenton reserved only 5 spots for this year's class though so the majority entered Erie and SH. Acceptances elsewhere included PCOM and WVCOM.
LECOM-E has expanded to a campus located 10 miles out from their main campus on Grandview. This is located near the bay and will house the biomedical program students/classes, the Masters students/classes and probably the PBL MS1 students as well. Some administrative offices will also be located here.
Housing is primarily found near the main campus though some students choose to live closer to the Bayfront campus. The popular store for grocery shopping is Wegmans which is located near the main campus as well as other amenities such as Barnes and Noble and Borders. There is also a large new gym/rec facility that is located 1-2 miles away from the main campus that is available to be used by all LECOM students.
Other things that may or may not interest people are pretty scarce. Erie is located 2 hours drive from Buffalo, Cleveland and Pittsburgh and has not much to do. For food I hear it's mostly pizza and wings though Indian, Thai and Japanese I have heard are "palatable" options should you choose to eat out. I am a huge fan of food in general =X. Mm.. 25 cent beer is what I hear but I find that hard to believe. Erie has its own airport and flights out tend to get cancelled on a pretty regular basis due to snow. Flying in is never really a problem but departing is sometimes an issue and if successful will involve making a stop at either Cleveland, Pittsburgh or another city before departing to your actual destination.
Erie is probably colder than most areas that people will come from. Snow is also prevalent but supposedly they are great at clearing the roads/parking lots and salting. Erie's own parking lot behind the school is cleared by 3 plows apparently. That's as much as I can think of as of now so if you have any questions, you can always PM or post here and I'll try to answer with my limited knowledge. I plan on visiting in June to find housing/take care of pre-matriculation paperwork/background checks/other matters.
Class schedule/ Housing
What is our class schedule like? There are conflicting times on the website and from other web pages.
- If last year and the years before were any indication, classes will be late in the afternoon from 5-8 PM.
From another year -- Classes run from 2-6pm but usually end around 5pm.
The Postbacc courses take place in the Bayfront building in Erie.
The address is :
1 Rentway Pl , Should be right near Midtown and Presque Isle.
Beautiful campus but VERY hard to find. Take W 6th St (ALT 5) to Top Road. Just before you get to Top Road you will see a little sign for LECOM. I would advise everyone to figure out where the campus is a few days in advance as this seems like a weird city to drive in. The address is 1 Lecom Place, even though my GPS did not recognize the address, I just followed W. 6th St. till I saw Top Road. It seems like it is 10-15 mins to Main Campus. I talked to the grounds guy and he said most people only come to Bayfront for class then head to the main campus to study since the library is there.
Will we need to "dress up" even though classes are this late and it is at the Bayfront Campus?
- Yes. Anytime you wish to enter one of LECOM's campus buildings beside the new rec/wellness center, you must adhere to their dress code. The two campus buildings will close around midnight so this is unfortunate for those who wished to stay after hours to study.
Dress code is in effect until 5:30 pm on weekdays. Therefore, if you go there after 5pm or on weekends, you can dress casually.
-Please try and keep in mind that though the main campus is on Grandview, the biomedical program students, the M.S. program students, and PBL students are all taking classes at the Bayfront Campus. If you are planning on walking or biking to class, keep in mind if you choose to live around the main campus, it is about a 10 min drive to where we (biomedical class) will be taking classes.
- There are buses that will take you to campus if you do not wish to bring a car. However the one that drops you 2 blocks away from campus only comes around 3 times a day.
-Be careful where you park your cars if it's in the street or out in the open. In most cases that I've heard there is never any problem but petty crime seems to be an occasional occurrence.
Housing
- For apparently most of the housing in Erie, the universal pattern seems to be very thin walls. If you plan on being home much and studying there, it would probably be a good idea to avoid certain areas.
- Most places in Erie finding anything less than 1 year for lease terms is extremely hard. I only know of 2 that allow 3/6/9 months and they will charge pretty steep increases in rent for doing so.
Housing information from LECOM:
.www.goerie.com...
.www.rentalguideerie.com.
DO NOT, under ANY circumstances, move into the Granada apartments. All the horror stories you'll read about Granada are most definitely true...and I assure you, there are far more than you want to know. If you know anyone who's going to the postbac...STRONGLY advise them not to move into Granada as well...it's just not safe there...
. .
.Completing the Program/Going to Med School.
.The 2009-2010 Post-Baccalaureate Program certified 40 of the 52 students who completed the 2 semesters of coursework, with the following placement according to admissions data and student responses:..
.
.29 students were accepted to a LECOM program..
..4 to Erie campus in the ISP pathway..
..14 to Erie campus in the LDP pathway..
..5 to Bradenton campus (PBL pathway)..
..6 to Seton Hill campus (PBL pathway)..
.
.5 students were accepted elsewhere..
..2 to Ross University School of Medicine..
..1 to DMU-COM (Des Moines UniversityCollege of Osteopathic Medicine)
1 to WVSOM (West Virginia School of Osteopathic Medicine)..
..1 to unspecified medical school in NYC..
.
.6 students remained unplaced or did not provide placement information at the time of last contact..
..40 out of 52 certified at the end of program. 32 of those 40 got into a US Osteopathic school afterwards with 6 students who qualified that did not report their plans. ...
. .
.Postbacc Testimonial (SDN Member= Navigon):.
I just finished the post bac and would be glad to answer any questions any incoming post bacs may have. Regarding the difficulty level, the lectures are near identical to the first year medical students (LDP pathway). I say nearly identical because the professors sometimes will tell us to focus on a particular part of the lecture or material presented for the exam whereas the MS1's have to learn everything. That being said, in my own personal opinion, I thought most of the material was of equal difficulty as undergrad (some of the stuff like read EKGs is much more difficult) but overall its just learning to absorb a lot of material in a limited amount of time (more time than MS1s are given though)
I think the post bac is an effective program because it's a good indicator, for a mere $13K
rather than the $29K MS1's pay, of whether or not you have what it takes to make it through medical school. If you are struggling through this program, chances are you would be struggling even more in medical school.
With regards to placement. I think the metrics used were a little skewed because the class actually started with about 57 students but when the placement was calculated, the students that dropped out or just stopped attending weren't included. The 6 students that were certified but didn't get into LECOM probably didn't have the MCAT requirement or decided not to goto medical school (I know one guy in our class went to chiropractic school). My advice to the imcoming post bacs is to work as hard as you can your first semester and try to overcome what held you back as an undergrad from getting into medical school (i.e. poor study habits, waiting to the last minute, ect.) and shoot for a 4.0. While the yield might be a little low this year for placement into the medical school, i'm confident if you managed your time right, found a good study group, and treated school like a job, you can get a 4.0. I mean honestly, if you are in the post bac this is like an all or nothing, last chance effort to get into medical school and should be treated as such. If you do well the first semester, there is a lot less stress to deal with the second semester and you can go out and explore all what Erie has to offer (besides the snow
).
Advice:
.Originally Posted by
pianoman511 .
....
.If you are doing the one year post-bac and hope to get in to LECOM as a med student, a few words of advice.
1) Get as close to a 4.0 GPA as you can during the first semester. It is one of the biggest things that admissions looks at when considering your application.
2) Don't slack off second semester just because you get in to med school, you still have to pass post-bac to be awarded admission to LECOM.
3) Get as much out of post-bac as you can. If you plan on going to LECOM you will have the same professors and pretty much everything you will be learning in post-bac over again. Get it down while in post-bac and you only have small amounts to study at one time, and it's a heck of a lot less that you need to worry about when actually in med school (you have a huge advantage in that you've seen test questions just like or identical to what you'll have in med school).
4) Enjoy yourself (i.e. only having a few hours of class per day), medical school is a solid 6-8 hours of lecture material plus hours of studying (on average), so take this opportunity to relax just a bit.
5) Visit the main campus - post-bac is mainly at the bayfront campus, but take advantage of having access to the main campus to get an idea of what LECOM is like. I don't know if it's still allowed, but back when I did it we could sit in on any lectures we wanted to. I know that last year we had post-bac students watch our H&P classes and it's a great preview of coming attractions. If you're on the fence about going to LECOM for medical school it's a good way to make your decision..
On MCAT and GPA (From FutureDoc01):
In all seriousness about the program. You have to score a 22 on the MCAT or higher. If you don't have that by the start of the program in September I wouldn't even do the program. I know there are kids in the program without the 22. Why would someone go to a program spend 30K and not even have a high enough MCAT to get into the next phase of the program? That is rather stupid. So they are putting all their eggs in one basket in Jan? That would make me really nervous.
They are less strict about the GPA. I'm not sure if they have a cut off, but I want to say a 3.0 or higher in undergrad. I graduated with a 3.6 from a major university so it didn't matter.
I'll say it again... the MCAT is the big deal. If you get a 21 on the MCAT they will NOT accept you. They make that very clear.
If you get a 22 on the MCAT and have close to a 3.0 in program you will get a interview. If you do all 3 things (22 or higher on the MCAT, a 3.0 in the post bacc program when it finishes in April, and no drugs) you will be accepted. Everyone that did all three of things were accepted last year.
Don't worry about having the application in the first day. The admissions office is really slow. They have 4 admissions people for 3 branches. It takes months. I applied in Jan, it took till the end of March for them to get my MCAT, and then I was accepted the last week of May.
This school is very strict on rules. The dress code must be followed. You are not allowed to eat in class or even drink. People do it. They bring water in and they mark them down. They do attendence everyday and you have to be on time. It would look awful to be interviewed with 30 tardies in the first semester alone. If this really turns you off, I wouldn't go to LECOM. I honestly didn't know it was like this when I signed up. Just a FYI....
Basic Med School Interview Questions:
Why DO?
Why medicine?
What are 3 Strengths and 1 Weakness that you have?
What's your Leadership style?
What do you do to relieve stress?
Talk about a time when you had a conflict with someone and how you handled the situation
How do you work in a team?
Tell us something about yourself that is not on you application..