So you think the school is going to close if students will be attracted to the new school? I think that will take some time though...
I am not aware of the problematic history CSPM has had...how would though influence students currently going/planning on going to school there?
From what I understand, CCPM (the old name of the school when it was located in san fran) was the place to go for pod school back in the day...along with PCPM (now temple). Cali was the pioneer of biomechanics and huge in this field and I understand it still is very important with their curriculum. Anywho, I understand they had financial troubles in the late 90s/early 00's. They ended up selling the campus in San Fran's western addition and moving up north to vallejo at Touro University (with the osteopathic med school). From hearing on my interview day, CCPM seemed to be getting the shaft with this partnership and said "it did not work." Anywho, they ended up moving to Samuel Merritt College (nursing, AP nursing, PA, physical therapy) in Oakland in the summer of 2002 and have been there ever since. The DPM is highest degree at the college but they may be adding a PHARM D program in the future. The name changed to the California School of Pod Med (CSPM).
I do not know about you but this problem they had was not very long ago at all. It is a concern to me that the school had it sell its campus and then move 2 different times. They are definitely financially stable now but still, the financial problems are something that is bothering me about CSPM. It just seems odd that the/one of the biggest named school in podiatry ended up with such a bad situation. Furthermore, they are accepting a minimum MCAT score of 16 (stated directly on the website) and still offering same-day acceptances. I have not talked to someone who DID NOT not get accepted to CSPM but that may just be me. From what I understand, the first time pass rates are about/barely above the average. I just don't see these things are positives of the school.
Anywho, I am more concerned about the new school opening up in Pomona. Supposedly its first class will have 50 students (bigger than CSPM's first year class). A lot of the students I talked to come from southern california and pick CSPM because its closer to home. I don't know about you but if I'm from socal and want to stay close to home, I would prefer to stay in socal. I feel the new school has awesome leadership - Lawrence Harkless - a huge name in podiatric medicine/diabetic limb salvage. You can more or less guarantee that the pod students will take classes with the osteopathic students, this is a direction some pod schools are going and I feel its a huge positive, especially if we want Vision 2015 to happen. Furthermore, the "College of Osteopathic Medicine of the Pacific" is a great DO school that probably has the highest admissions stats of all the osteopathic programs. I think the podiatry program at Western is going to be a great school in the long run.
I'm not sure what CSPM is going to do once they have to compete with a new school in the same state. I asked specifically about this but of course I could not get much information. Personally, if I had the situation now of choosing between the 2 (I'm from the east coast so unbiased to location), I would pick the new school at Western. Even though it does not have a track record...the affiliation with an awesome osteopathic school, strong vision, relatively similar small class size, and great leadership makes me lean towards Western.
I'm not sure how much the new school will affect CSPM. Overall, I feel that in the long run they are going to lose a chunk of students who would normally go to CSPM. The one safety net financially CSPM has now is it is affiliated with a healthcare college instead of being independent. So I don't think they will close, but I feel the new school is going to draw away students.
