- Joined
- Jul 6, 2012
- Messages
- 6
- Reaction score
- 4
I am working as a pharmacist now after graduating from LECOM Erie a few months ago. Before choosing to attend the school, I had read lots of negative posts on SDN about it and had always planned to leave a review about it giving the positives and negatives for other pre-pharms. So, here's my review.....
Positives
The tuition and living expenses in Erie are dirt cheap. It is a condensed 3-year program and you only really have to spend the first 2 years in Erie. You can do rotations in other states. Many kids from NYC say Erie is boring, but I thought it was a pretty nice medium-sized city and a great area to go to school. It is a great scene in the summer. People come from miles around to party at the water front and the bar scene is awesome. There is a park called Presque Isle, which is this massive plateua that goes out on the lake Erie, and it is absolutely beautiful. If you are into hiking, fishing, biking, or jogging, or just chilling at the beach and getting a tan, you will love Presque Isle. There is no school housing, but there are lots of apartment complexes near the school so you can walk instead of driving.
Negatives
There is a paradox at LECOM that is kind of annoying...It is really not a high quality education, but at the same time the school is ultra worried about their "image" and make the students follow all kinds of rules as if it were an ivy league school. When you look up "degree mill" in the dictionary, you see a picture of LECOM. The school is run like a business... they admit as many students as they possibly can to collect their tuition money, but don't have much space. All the classes are taught in the same, cramped classroom. There is really no campus, just this small, awkward little building. There are like 150 students in each graduating class and you have to strain to get into your seat. I'm a 5'6'' girl and many times I had to hold my backpack above my head while the other people in my row uncomfortably scooted in to get to my seat in the middle of the row. There is a dress code. Guys have to wear ties and khakis. It is slightly less annoying for girls than guys because they can get away with more. But here's the paradox again...if I'm gonna be hearded like a cow and put into an uncomfortably cramped cattle car with 150 other cows, they could at least let me wear some comfortable sweats, right? Conditions are so cramped that they were having issues with some overweight students with body odor problems stinking the place up. People around them were coughing and complaining. It was just ridiculous. You can't eat or drink in lecture hall either, and there are surveillance cameras everywhere.
The administration is absolutely nuts. They don't treat people like human beings. There was this guy in my class who told the school psychologist, Dr. Kovacs, that he smokes marijuana sometimes to deal with stress. You would think that what you tell a school psychologist is confidential, right? Well apparently not at LECOM. He told the Dean of the Pharmacy School, and they wouldn't let him attend classes again until he went down to Pittsburgh to get evaluated by a "substance abuse specialist". Then, after he got evaluated, the school made him get random urine tests and go to substance abuse counseling sessions until he graduated. This really happened. All because he opened his mouth and told the school psychologist the truth. It's the paradox again.... they don't really care about their students, they're just trying to remove liability from their business. Be very paranoid at LECOM...it's for your own good. The Italian lady who runs the school is always sending out threatening emails telling students not to do things or to be professional. One would think she is ego tripping.
In all fairness, I did have many instructors that I really liked, who were quality, and did care about the students. However, LECOM is kind of like the minor leagues for professors. They get their first jobs at LECOM and then try to leave as soon as possible to better paying, more prestigious schools. There is a massive amount of turnover. There are new faces every year and this lead to disorganization. Perhaps this is the trend at many new pharmacy schools, I'm not sure. Starting my 2nd year, they were still rushing to hire people to fill the spots of people who had left with a week to go until classes started. We got syllabuses with no instructor names.
You have to sit in assigned seats and they will randomly take role. If you are marked absent, you could get 5% taken off of your grade in a class. There was a group of students in the class behind me who skipped class after St. Patrick's day, and they had to meet with the Dean of the school like 5 times to "negotiate" what their punishment would be. It kind of reminds me of attending a military school in the 1930's. After 2 years, about half of the class had been called into the Dean's office at least once for something very stupid, like not sitting in their assigned seat. The school made a business partnership with a local coffee shop, and immediately removed all of the candy machines from the school in hopes that students would spend more money at the coffee shop. How convenient for the students.
LECOM doesn't pay for rotations. You have to schedule them on your own and often times they're very hard to get because the school doesn't have any of their own hospitals (besides Millcreek...see below). Hospitals in other cities have obligations to local state schools. In general, it's not a very good school to go to if you're trying to get a residency. It's not very prestigious and part of getting matched for a residency is making contacts with preceptors at quality rotations. The school just doesn't have the resources, reputation, or connections to give you a good chance of matching to a residency in the ultra competitive environment. Many of my friends who initially wanted to do clinical had great grades but still didn't get matched to a residency and are now working retail. The one hospital that is affiliated with LECOM in Erie is called Millcreek and is IMHO a crap hole. I don't even consider it to be a real hospital and would never take anyone in my family there. There are only like 15 beds and there are literally 2 confused student doctors for every patient. The general attitude among students is to avoid rotations at Millcreek like the plague.
Well, there you have it, my review
. Despite the fact that my negatives section was much longer than the positives, I am working as a pharmacist now and I did get an education at a reasonable price, and I guess I have LECOM to thank for that. Just be aware that if you choose a more expensive, 4 year program, the extra money you pay may ultimately make your pharmacy school experience better. You get what you pay for. Best of luck with interview and choosing a school!!!!
Positives
The tuition and living expenses in Erie are dirt cheap. It is a condensed 3-year program and you only really have to spend the first 2 years in Erie. You can do rotations in other states. Many kids from NYC say Erie is boring, but I thought it was a pretty nice medium-sized city and a great area to go to school. It is a great scene in the summer. People come from miles around to party at the water front and the bar scene is awesome. There is a park called Presque Isle, which is this massive plateua that goes out on the lake Erie, and it is absolutely beautiful. If you are into hiking, fishing, biking, or jogging, or just chilling at the beach and getting a tan, you will love Presque Isle. There is no school housing, but there are lots of apartment complexes near the school so you can walk instead of driving.
Negatives
There is a paradox at LECOM that is kind of annoying...It is really not a high quality education, but at the same time the school is ultra worried about their "image" and make the students follow all kinds of rules as if it were an ivy league school. When you look up "degree mill" in the dictionary, you see a picture of LECOM. The school is run like a business... they admit as many students as they possibly can to collect their tuition money, but don't have much space. All the classes are taught in the same, cramped classroom. There is really no campus, just this small, awkward little building. There are like 150 students in each graduating class and you have to strain to get into your seat. I'm a 5'6'' girl and many times I had to hold my backpack above my head while the other people in my row uncomfortably scooted in to get to my seat in the middle of the row. There is a dress code. Guys have to wear ties and khakis. It is slightly less annoying for girls than guys because they can get away with more. But here's the paradox again...if I'm gonna be hearded like a cow and put into an uncomfortably cramped cattle car with 150 other cows, they could at least let me wear some comfortable sweats, right? Conditions are so cramped that they were having issues with some overweight students with body odor problems stinking the place up. People around them were coughing and complaining. It was just ridiculous. You can't eat or drink in lecture hall either, and there are surveillance cameras everywhere.
The administration is absolutely nuts. They don't treat people like human beings. There was this guy in my class who told the school psychologist, Dr. Kovacs, that he smokes marijuana sometimes to deal with stress. You would think that what you tell a school psychologist is confidential, right? Well apparently not at LECOM. He told the Dean of the Pharmacy School, and they wouldn't let him attend classes again until he went down to Pittsburgh to get evaluated by a "substance abuse specialist". Then, after he got evaluated, the school made him get random urine tests and go to substance abuse counseling sessions until he graduated. This really happened. All because he opened his mouth and told the school psychologist the truth. It's the paradox again.... they don't really care about their students, they're just trying to remove liability from their business. Be very paranoid at LECOM...it's for your own good. The Italian lady who runs the school is always sending out threatening emails telling students not to do things or to be professional. One would think she is ego tripping.
In all fairness, I did have many instructors that I really liked, who were quality, and did care about the students. However, LECOM is kind of like the minor leagues for professors. They get their first jobs at LECOM and then try to leave as soon as possible to better paying, more prestigious schools. There is a massive amount of turnover. There are new faces every year and this lead to disorganization. Perhaps this is the trend at many new pharmacy schools, I'm not sure. Starting my 2nd year, they were still rushing to hire people to fill the spots of people who had left with a week to go until classes started. We got syllabuses with no instructor names.
You have to sit in assigned seats and they will randomly take role. If you are marked absent, you could get 5% taken off of your grade in a class. There was a group of students in the class behind me who skipped class after St. Patrick's day, and they had to meet with the Dean of the school like 5 times to "negotiate" what their punishment would be. It kind of reminds me of attending a military school in the 1930's. After 2 years, about half of the class had been called into the Dean's office at least once for something very stupid, like not sitting in their assigned seat. The school made a business partnership with a local coffee shop, and immediately removed all of the candy machines from the school in hopes that students would spend more money at the coffee shop. How convenient for the students.
LECOM doesn't pay for rotations. You have to schedule them on your own and often times they're very hard to get because the school doesn't have any of their own hospitals (besides Millcreek...see below). Hospitals in other cities have obligations to local state schools. In general, it's not a very good school to go to if you're trying to get a residency. It's not very prestigious and part of getting matched for a residency is making contacts with preceptors at quality rotations. The school just doesn't have the resources, reputation, or connections to give you a good chance of matching to a residency in the ultra competitive environment. Many of my friends who initially wanted to do clinical had great grades but still didn't get matched to a residency and are now working retail. The one hospital that is affiliated with LECOM in Erie is called Millcreek and is IMHO a crap hole. I don't even consider it to be a real hospital and would never take anyone in my family there. There are only like 15 beds and there are literally 2 confused student doctors for every patient. The general attitude among students is to avoid rotations at Millcreek like the plague.
Well, there you have it, my review
. Despite the fact that my negatives section was much longer than the positives, I am working as a pharmacist now and I did get an education at a reasonable price, and I guess I have LECOM to thank for that. Just be aware that if you choose a more expensive, 4 year program, the extra money you pay may ultimately make your pharmacy school experience better. You get what you pay for. Best of luck with interview and choosing a school!!!!
