PCO Scholars v. NECO

[OptomCritter]

Hey everybody! I was recently accepted into MCPHS, NECO, and PCO. I've pretty much ruled out MCPHS and am looking at PCO and NECO. I liked the people at NECO a lot, and it seemed like all of the students who led the tours were very happy to be there. I also have the benefit of being offered a $10,000 scholarship to attend there. However, I'm from central Pennsylvania and I'm not sure I would be particularly interested in living in Boston, with its high cost of living.

On the other hand, there is PCO. I've been accepted to both the Scholars and Traditional programs, but so far haven't heard anything about scholarships. The Scholars program only has three years of tuition to pay for which is nice, as well as the fact that I could be making money as an optometrist in the fourth year (if I don't do a residency). I do like the fact that PCO is more suburban and closer to home. I've heard a lot of negative things about PCO on this forum, so that has me worrying. People have complained that there is too little meaningful doctor-student interaction and I was hoping that might be different in the scholars program which seems to be more involved with the faculty. Any thoughts? I really appreciate any advice you guys have to give.

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[Commando303]

I believe the total tuition amount (i.e., by the program's end) is the same between P.C.O.'s regular and it's three-year program.

 

[mathcod]

How will the tuition compare to the traditional program?
The annual tuition for the Scholars Program is the same as for the Traditional Program, however, students in the Scholars Program will incur three year’s tuition as opposed to the Traditional Program’s four years. Besides the one year tuition savings, students in the Scholars Program will have one less year of living expenses and be able to enter the job market one year sooner than those in the four year program. Similar to students in the Traditional Program, students in the Scholars Program will be considered annually for merit-based scholarships administered by Salus University.

 

[tkuhug]

Reviving this thread, can a current student give feedback on their Scholars Program?

Do you feel rushed, is the material too crammed? Do you feel like youre given enough time to learn? How do you feel the scholars program compares to the traditional?

What sorts of independent study do you do, do you have a lot of time with a faculty, ie doing research?

Saw on the website there is 20 students max in the program, is thsi helpful?

TIA!!!!

 

[tkuhug]

Just called them today and they couldn't give me information on when we take boards. Also have been hearing bad things about the school overall such as enrolling more students than they can take on and failing students then having them pay a big sum to retake courses.

 

[Xtermination]

Just called them today and they couldn't give me information on when we take boards. Also have been hearing bad things about the school overall such as enrolling more students than they can take on and failing students then having them pay a big sum to retake courses.

Schools don't fail students. It is a doctoral program so one needs to be able to study independently, and needs to be able to manage time wisely and effectively. Of course there will always be some exception!

 

[Groucho Marx]

Schools don't fail students. It is a doctoral program so one needs to be able to study independently, and needs to be able to manage time wisely and effectively. Of course there will always be some exception!

You can't make this conclusion without knowing every detail of each particular student's school experience. When programs have high variation in testing conditions and grading (such as in clinical courses), don't give students a reasonable amount of personal instruction, have unclear exam questions, pressure students in a way that causes unnecessary and unhealthy amounts of stress, etc., you can say that the school is failing the student--not just in terms of grading, but also in terms of not upholding their implicit duty to the student. (This stuff could be at any school.)

I know you said that there are some exceptions. I was uncomfortable with your initial statement of, "Schools don't fail students," so I felt obliged to reply. I'm not a bitter person who failed or did poorly either. I always did pretty well academically, but I saw some students around me have to repeat certain courses or years, and I don't think that it was always the fault of the student--not by any means. When you talk about large sums of tuition money and feel that a school could have done better for the student, it becomes a serious issue.

Of course there will be cases where students will actually be responsible for poor performances and lackluster grades, but you're right, it's a doctoral program.

As for the initial question about the Scholars program, I have no idea if it's bad, good, great…but maybe someone can weigh in?

 

[Groucho Marx]

Just called them today and they couldn't give me information on when we take boards. Also have been hearing bad things about the school overall such as enrolling more students than they can take on and failing students then having them pay a big sum to retake courses.

Didn't know or wouldn't say? That's kind of odd. Anyway, maybe you could ask the school to help you get in touch with a current student in the program? I'm sure they would take a few minutes to give you their honest opinion.

 

[MissOptometry]

Hi,
I'm in a similar situation (accepted to Neco with 10,000/year, ,accepted to salus scholars/traditional and accepted to suny)
I'm wondering which option you chose and why?

Just wondering, what are your stats if you don't mind me asking?