I'm late to the party, but I'll address these from the perspective of an upperclassmen with no connections (or much knowledge) about DCOM whatsoever:
- The ever expanding class size (translates = money for the school) is literally too big to accommodate all the second year students into the lecture hall
Sadly this a problem at many schools apparently. Class size expansion is a problem, but do you really attend the lectures, or just watch them at home? If its the latter, this really doesn't matter. Most lectures are glorified outlines anyway, so your learning in 1st and 2nd year is mostly on you no matter what med school you go to.
- The student to professor/clinician ratio is embarrassing and the best clinical faculty that were at the school left this past year (also, virtually no specialized clinicians at the school)
Again, not sure how much of an impact this makes for years 1 and 2. I was never one to go and ask professors a ton of questions or for advice, so this wouldn't have affected me, but I guess I could see it affecting others. I'd actually think you'd get more out of other students.
- There is no hospital at the school so they ship the students out like pack rats to random community hospitals, several of which have no business being a teaching institute or they do not want students there (also, while you continue to pay the school top dollar for their "services" you are basically left to find yourself new housing, make your own schedule, in some instances find your own preceptors for "core" rotations, etc)
This is very common at most DO schools and even some few newer MD schools. Most schools have hospital affiliations though, but they tend to be primarily community hospitals. While its frustrating, choosing your own rotations and schedule can actually be a huge benefit if you are really proactive about it. You could end up doing amazing rotations. There are many times I wish there was more freedom to do this at my school
- The vast majority of second year "systems" courses are taught by family med docs (example, respiratory taught by FM doc rather than Pulmonologist. Cardiology taught by FM doc rather than Cardiologist. Renal taught by FM doc rather than Nephrologist. etc..)
While its nice getting lectures from specialists, pretty much any doc can teach about the pre-clinical aspects of these subjects. They all had to know it for boards. Again though, learning the material in med school is more on you than on your professors.
- Elaborating on the class size issue (translates = the money issue); the school has increased the class size to somewhere around 240 students, yet not nearly all of those students are equipped to succeed/get by in school. So to compensate and work with the students (translates = keep those students tuition money) the school will accept a huge number of masters students or let students repeat (several times) in an effort to help them get through (translates = money) the first two years. Example, student X does not meet requirements for acceptance into OMS1 class. LMU-DCOM offers student X a seat in the masters class. Student X accepts and pays for this seat. Student X makes it to OMS1 where they fail 2 classes during fall/spring semester. LMU-DCOM offers student X a repeat year of OMS1 with next years class. Student X repeats OMS1. Student X finally makes it to OMS2 where they either fail again and are excused from the school (left with MASSIVE debt and no job) or they make it to boards and are left searching for outside resources/classes/on-campus courses to help them try to pass. Students paying for 3-4 years of education to get through the first two years is Not an uncommon situation at LMU-DCOM, which can be looked past. The unacceptable part is the students that are left with MASSIVE debt and no way to repay it because the school strung them along as if they were going to get by eventually.
This is a ridiculous complaint. If attrition were really that large, it would be well known. AACOM publishes this type of info. The largest attrition rate at DO schools is 14% and the smallest is 4%. Attrition is normal, and many people might see DCOM's allowance of many chances to redeem poor performance as a plus. Now obviously you should aim for a place with low attrition, but most of what you described is only a problem depending on how big of a problem it is. If 90+% of students are graduating in 6 years, I wouldn't really think of this as a big deal.
- One of the largest locations the students are sent out to do their "clinical" rotations is a glorified high school shadowing experience. Students are not allowed to cut, sew, start IVs, intubate patients, act as first assist, deliver babies, administer shots, and by some accounts doing any sort of history or physical exam without their preceptor present. (all of which are things students are expected to learn as a third year medical student). When students have addressed these issues (extensively) with the faculty of LMU-DCOM, they are continually met with the response, "We still feel this is a good learning experience. Just stay positive."[/QUOTE]
This is by far the biggest problem. This really is a valid complaint that should be rectified. 3rd year is not for shadowing. I get annoyed when I get through a whole day (which is rare) where all I do is shadow, do H&P's by myself and write SOAPs. Not even getting to do H&P's by yourself is ridiculous, let alone not getting to do anything the whole rotation. If a place doesn't want students to do anything, they shouldn't be accepting students. This complaint needs to be brought to those in charge at your school and to AACOM and the AOA/COCA.
COCA isn't going to do anything because it would mean less DO spots available in the future.
Don't know until you try.
I was recently accepted here, and reading this kind of disheartened me. When I went to the interview, I really liked the school's atmosphere and family environment. The facilities seemed top notch and board pass rates were great. Along with their match rate. I guess 3rd and 4th years don't really matter as long as you become a physician in the end?
3rd and 4th year is kind of essential. Its really important. 1st and 2nd year is important to you as a student, because that's where your medical knowledge actually comes from, but you
could do that anywhere (e.g. in a library with a stack of books by yourself if you wanted to).
I pretty sure people there are people who enter MD schools don't even have a clue of the structure of rotations. They want to know that they are getting a quality clinical education, but they don't understand what that entails or the questions to ask. Even among MD schools there are school that don't have university hospitals and use community hospitals instead (so there will be differences seen there, but not bad in comparison to clinic and doctor office rotations). Schools like TCMC use a similar model as what DO schools do. I could imagine these students applying to such a school and not realizing that the school uses a more preceptor based model.
Sadly some applicants in general don't really know what they are getting themselves into no matter what schools they apply to. SDN is the best resource so far in understand the whole process of medical schooling. People should be using it more.
/end rant
I heard about MD students that didn't know you had to do clinicals in 3rd and 4th year of med schools. I've also heard of one who had no idea that you had to do an internship/residency after you graduate from medical school. I'm sure those are exceptions, but you'd be surprised how little the average pre-med actually knows about the schools they apply to or even the medical profession in general.
DCOM.
