Hey,
As a 4th yr I have seen alot of changes, some of which I personally brought about. The school has changed alot since I started. You should be wary of new schools, but you should also find out if these new schools listen to student concerns. My school is always willing to listen (more than I ever thought) and the students have brought about alot of change especially with faculty (at least during my 1st 2 yrs).
I hear the curriculum has improved since i went through it. as a matter of fact when my class took the boards i think we had the highest pass rate of all the osteo schools in the country (i guess that says we learned something during the didactic yrs).
rotations are still being worked on. the school has them based at outpatient sites (excpept ones like surgery and ob/gyn, but even those have a considerable amount of office time). i think preceptor/outpatient/office based rotations were a good idea (although this is hotly debated between students). the school needs to get more hospital involvement. i have taken the last 8 months of rotations out of state (the school allows you to do this) and have worked at in-patient rotations. this has allowed me to see how hospitals work as well as showcase myself for different residencies. i would recommend this to everybody who goes/or plans to go there.
overall, the program is good and still has some improvements to make. the basic science faculty there is superb and has only continued to improve. by the time new students get to the clinical yrs they will have improved as well.
i would not have done anything differently. i think it's been pretty cool making the school what it is today. i hope i can stay in phx next yr to help/watch it grow some more.
you need to ask more people about it. everybody has a different opinion and a different story to tell.
that's my 2 cents worth.
- ponch
