Here's a few DMU thoughts. I don't know anything about Scholl.
4th year - May is technically still 3rd year, but we are being sent out for clerkships so technically you could be visiting programs in May through January and still call it pre-interview opportunities. Must do 1 month of internal medicine, 1 month of private practice, and a 3 month core that comes from a list of ~20 that DMU provides (that list isn't up for negotiation). I believe the 3 month core provides another internal medicine month. When describing 4th year we usually describe it in terms of "maximum # of pre-interview clerkships", but as I understand it you could do your core + 4 clerkship months, the PP month, and the internal medicine and from then on out the rest of the schedule could be "elective" with 1 vacation. Anyway, DMU does allow a lot of pre-interview clerkship months (let's call it 8 max), but the only thing I'm reasonable confident about Scholl is that they maximize clerkships opportunities too. Being a 3rd year I'm reasonable stoked about doing 4th year - I may be eating these words in a few months. It seems students have the freedom to ..slack or punish-enrich themselves.
3rd year - I'm pretty sure I signed a document at some point in time saying that I wouldn't say negative things about my school (maybe its in a podiatry oath somewhere or something), but this is the year that DMU gets grief from its own students and from students at other schools. Our EBMs this year are actually pretty great (small group discussion/teaching/journal review with faculty). Our VA podiatry rotation is stellar and I have heard nothing but praise for our private practice months. We need more patients at the clinic. I would actually be really curious to know what other people are doing and seeing. How many patients are students tackling a day? How many surgeries are they scrubbing in on? Are they doing hospital rotations? Are they putting in orders on patients? We all keep getting accredited even though DMU students see 2 patients a day at the DMU clinic on a good day and other schools flunk out 30% of their class by graduation - go figure.
2nd year - pharmacology is our last class with the DOs (so its well done). Our lower limb class is excellent and with lower limb being a gigantic portion of the part I board I would say that I appreciate their close proximity. I thought other parts of this year should have been more rigorous, but in general we teach by the podiatry and medicine by the books. There wasn't anything I saw on my internal medicine rotation that I hadn't heard of and the majority of our surgery classes are very much in line with the corresponding McGlamry or Mann chapter. Mostly still a class year, but the non-anatomy labs become podiatry focused and are often pretty decent (injections, casting, taping, etc.)
1st year - incredibly rigorous. With the DOs for all the science classes. I've never studied so hard in my life. Don't view the DOs as a threat. They are your friends and classmates and in no time at all a lot of them will be just like you - tired, hungry, and desperate for a few days off. Like your podiatry classmates some will be gunners and some will be slackers. There are plenty of professors to go around.
Overall - Des Moines is beautiful and affordable. The weather is either beautiful or winter. The school is pretty darn flexible for the first 2 years when it comes to getting the job done - by which I mean that I never went to class 1st year except for labs and studied/watched lectures at home. This in no way impacted my academic success. Great facilities. I like the vast majority of the faculty. First year is amazing and we seem to be rocking the boards year after year so the academics are doing something right.
I would strongly encourage you to take into account your personal life outside of school. As someone who didn't attend school very often 1st year (and I could have done the same second year) it really would have mattered where I was spending my home life. Des Moines isn't going to offer the night life or population that Chicago does though that doesn't mean I haven't roamed the streets of downtown in the depths of night.
The decision in the end will be deeply personal. Once you make - take it and run with it. More often than not I tell myself that I would never have gone anywhere but DMU. I love my classmates and its been far more good than bad. I've been bitching and moaning a lot lately, but I'll probably come back around to DMU's corner soon enough. Sometimes you'll love your school and sometimes you'll hate it. In the end, your school just gives you a set of letters that let residencies know they should think about giving you a shot. If you can escape first year, pharmacology, and lower limb you could probably graduate knowing very little. What you get out of this is what you put into it. People who work hard are going to be amazing and people who don't need to get really good at bluffing or shrug their shoulders a lot.
