Curriculums at different pod schools

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JustMyLuck

SCPM 2009
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I am curious as to how the curriculums compare at different schools. I understand at DMU you take all the same courses as DOs 1st year and branch out and take more pod specific coursed 2nd and 3rd year.

Here is a question for all the pod schools. What courses to you take 1st year? 2nd year? Are there any pod schools that DON'T take classes 3rd year? I know that here at Scholl they are thinking of converting it to a 2yr/2yr program like the med students.

I think a comparison of curriculums might be of help for incoming students who are still deciding between schools.
 
The program at DMU is similar to a 2yr/2yr program. After you finish your second year you are in clinic and at local VA hospitals most of the time. We take a few classes during the third year such as surgical skills and lower extremity trauma, but we are still in seeing patients. Our fourth year is almost entirely spent at residency programs throughout the country. We each choose a four month core rotation and spend the rest of the year doing one month externships at residency programs that we choose. It's nice because you can spend a month at each of the hospitals that you think you might like to do your residency.
 
At AZPOD we take all of our core 1st and 2nd year medical school classes (Anatomy, Physiology, Biochem, Neuroscience, Micro, Pharm, Path etc.) with DOs and take podiatry classes at the same time the DOs take clinical medicine, OMM etc. The third year we have a 12 hour podiatry class load in the summer after boards. Then its clinical rotations for the rest of the 3rd and 4th years meeting periodically to take clinical completion exams.
 
Are there classes that are offered at some DPM schools that others don't include? Or are the classes similar at every pod school?

Thanks
 
doclm said:
Are there classes that are offered at some DPM schools that others don't include? Or are the classes similar at every pod school?

Thanks
I think that for the most part the classes are pretty similar, but there are some minor variations. For example we take some classes like geriatrics and physical diagnosis with the DO students that other schools don't take. Another example is that some schools have a sports medicine course and at DMU we do not.
 
I will be at AZPOD this coming fall! I am curious what the hours are like each day....classes, labs,etc. ?? Is there class M-F? How long are the breaks...ie, Thanksgiving, Christmas, etc...?? I am very excited and just trying to picture what the days will look like there!
thanks!


desertpod said:
At AZPOD we take all of our core 1st and 2nd year medical school classes (Anatomy, Physiology, Biochem, Neuroscience, Micro, Pharm, Path etc.) with DOs and take podiatry classes at the same time the DOs take clinical medicine, OMM etc. The third year we have a 12 hour podiatry class load in the summer after boards. Then its clinical rotations for the rest of the 3rd and 4th years meeting periodically to take clinical completion exams.
 
if anyone cares NYCPM has classes for 2 years then clinic in the 3rd with workshops and lectures in the mornings for 1.5 hours.

The clinic is in the same building as the school. We rotate thru nyc hospitals during the 3rd and 4th year for more clinical exposure and what DMU does as their core we do at differing nyc hospitals.

everything is assigned randomly in the 4th year except your externships. for example - as a 4th year the option for ER rotation is Lincoln, Harlem or metropolitan hospitals. But we do not get to choose, it is choosen for us and we cannot swap months or locations.
 
gustydoc said:
I think that for the most part the classes are pretty similar, but there are some minor variations. For example we take some classes like geriatrics and physical diagnosis with the DO students that other schools don't take. Another example is that some schools have a sports medicine course and at DMU we do not.


NYCPM has a sports medicine class!!!!!!

Point 1 for NYCPM :laugh:
 
krabmas said:
if anyone cares NYCPM has classes for 2 years then clinic in the 3rd with workshops and lectures in the mornings for 1.5 hours.

The clinic is in the same building as the school. We rotate thru nyc hospitals during the 3rd and 4th year for more clinical exposure and what DMU does as their core we do at differing nyc hospitals.

everything is assigned randomly in the 4th year except your externships. for example - as a 4th year the option for ER rotation is Lincoln, Harlem or metropolitan hospitals. But we do not get to choose, it is choosen for us and we cannot swap months or locations.

Sounds like a cool system in your third year but I don't like I'd like having to stick w/ these affiliated programs. I think that you should be able to choose where you want to go.

P.S. I wish we had a sports med class but I wouldn't want to get rid of physical diagnosis maybe we could get rid of biomechanics.
 
Dr_Feelgood said:
Sounds like a cool system in your third year but I don't like I'd like having to stick w/ these affiliated programs. I think that you should be able to choose where you want to go.

P.S. I wish we had a sports med class but I wouldn't want to get rid of physical diagnosis maybe we could get rid of biomechanics.

UM - OK - UGH???? Biomechanics? was that a joke? with out biomechanics we might as well be orthopods :laugh:

We have physical diagnosis also. they just stack us up with lectures... I'd rather stacks of pancakes.
 
If anyone was curious about TUSPM curriculum, TUSPM new curriculum involves finishing up all of the didactic classes by Thansgiving (1st Trimester) of the third year. The remainder of the third year and fourth year are devoted to clinical rotations, similar to the MD students, and podiatric rotations. Like NYCPM, TUSPM students do take Sports Medicine, Practice Management course, Community Health / Public Health course, Phys Diag course, etc...
 
IlizaRob said:
Dont you have a test tomorrow Dr. Feelmunchy? Its people like you that bring our board scores down.


you've got to be kidding me. one meesly person failed. get over it. 😀
 
Scholl has a sports med class too...

krabmas said:
NYCPM has a sports medicine class!!!!!!

Point 1 for NYCPM :laugh:
 
a little off topic.. are pod schools graded on honors, pass, or fail basis like allo?
 
littlephiLLy said:
a little off topic.. are pod schools graded on honors, pass, or fail basis like allo?

Scholl has a letter grade system for most courses
 
littlephiLLy said:
a little off topic.. are pod schools graded on honors, pass, or fail basis like allo?

TUSPM uses a numeric grading system (0-100) for grades. You need a 70 in the course to pass. In addition, the GPA for TUSPM is also based on numeric average (0-100) system and is NOT based on a scale out of 4.0.
 
littlephiLLy said:
a little off topic.. are pod schools graded on honors, pass, or fail basis like allo?

NYCPM has a letter grade system and a 4.0 system. a few classes are pass fail like medical ethics and art of doctoring.

Barry has a letter system as well but no pluses or minuses just straight A, B, C, F

also along these lines....

residency program interviews are more academic for podiatry because the boards are pass fail and the grades are letters. Grades vary from school to school and so does the curiculum, so it is hard to compare candidates based on grades from different schools.

MD interviews are more personal and less academic because the boards are numerical and the grades are pass fail. since the normalizing test has a number all the candidates are compared using the board scores for MDs. A program might only interview candidates with a minumum board score for MDs.
 
dpmgrad said:
TUSPM uses a numeric grading system (0-100) for grades. You need a 70 in the course to pass. In addition, the GPA for TUSPM is also based on numeric average (0-100) system and is NOT based on a scale out of 4.0.


Same system at DMU except some classes require a 75% to pass.
 
runnersfeet said:
I will be at AZPOD this coming fall! I am curious what the hours are like each day....classes, labs,etc. ?? Is there class M-F? How long are the breaks...ie, Thanksgiving, Christmas, etc...?? I am very excited and just trying to picture what the days will look like there!
thanks!

Runnersfeet, I'm sorry it took me so long to reply, I don't get on here that much.To answer your question, you will carry an average of 24 hours a quarter,the days (M-F) are very full, you start at 8:00 am and usually you are finished at 3:00 pm with an hour for lunch. On days you have anatomy lab which is two days a week you are there until 5:00 pm. We are on the quarter system, three 11 week quarters and a summer quarter. You get 2 weeks for Thanksgiving, 2 weeks for Christmas, 1 week for spring break and 2 weeks in May. in the summer you only carry 12 hours. I look forward to meeting you in the fall, feel free to ask me anything about MWU that you want.Your going to have a great experience here, you should be very excited!
 
Great, thanks for the info! The schedule sounds pretty decent. I am very excited to be there, I will PM you if I think of more questions...thanks again.


desertpod said:
Runnersfeet, I'm sorry it took me so long to reply, I don't get on here that much.To answer your question, you will carry an average of 24 hours a quarter,the days (M-F) are very full, you start at 8:00 am and usually you are finished at 3:00 pm with an hour for lunch. On days you have anatomy lab which is two days a week you are there until 5:00 pm. We are on the quarter system, three 11 week quarters and a summer quarter. You get 2 weeks for Thanksgiving, 2 weeks for Christmas, 1 week for spring break and 2 weeks in May. in the summer you only carry 12 hours. I look forward to meeting you in the fall, feel free to ask me anything about MWU that you want.Your going to have a great experience here, you should be very excited!
 
runnersfeet said:
Great, thanks for the info! The schedule sounds pretty decent. I am very excited to be there, I will PM you if I think of more questions...thanks again.

A lot of the students get to school early and stay late to study (say 6:30-7:00 am and don't leave until 5 or 6pm). Others get to school on time but end up leaving at 8-10pm. I know this because I'm often studying at 6:30am and don't get home until 10pm. This is usually due to procrastination and to make up for it, I spend a week doing this. I'm currently in two other degree programs at Midwestern.

One additional note: The previous admission might sound scary but you get used to it. In fact, it is scary! Most med students at Midwestern (DO or DPM) are concerned enough to study really hard. This isn't so they are at the top of the class. This is because if you get less than 70% in any class, you fail the class and have to retake the class either in the summer or, if it is not offered, you decelerate and end up staying at Midwestern for another year. To make matters worse, if you fail any other class (less than 70%), even if it is in the same quarter I believe, you are kicked out of school and are not able to return. So, be prepared to sacrifice for success!

LOL - The good news is that I'll be starting podiatry in your class with you and am looking for people to study with (I know several successful pod students this year who study permanently with each other). Maybe we could help each other to succeed.

AZPOD Rocks
 
Yes, I am a big fan of study partners/groups! I took all of the science pre-reqs for pod school in the last 12 months, and had never had any science before then...so this past year was all about the 14 hour days of class and then studying, trying to get used to all those science classes at one time...with close to no life outside of school🙂 Its fun being a dork! HA. Thankfully, I am done with those classes in a week and I will then get the summer to relax and re-energize! I definitely like the idea of forming study groups that we can get used to and count on...it helps keep me motivated. I can not believe you are doing 2 other degrees there...that is insane!


AZPOD Rocks said:
A lot of the students get to school early and stay late to study (say 6:30-7:00 am and don't leave until 5 or 6pm). Others get to school on time but end up leaving at 8-10pm. I know this because I'm often studying at 6:30am and don't get home until 10pm. This is usually due to procrastination and to make up for it, I spend a week doing this. I'm currently in two other degree programs at Midwestern.

One additional note: The previous admission might sound scary but you get used to it. In fact, it is scary! Most med students at Midwestern (DO or DPM) are concerned enough to study really hard. This isn't so they are at the top of the class. This is because if you get less than 70% in any class, you fail the class and have to retake the class either in the summer or, if it is not offered, you decelerate and end up staying at Midwestern for another year. To make matters worse, if you fail any other class (less than 70%), even if it is in the same quarter I believe, you are kicked out of school and are not able to return. So, be prepared to sacrifice for success!

LOL - The good news is that I'll be starting podiatry in your class with you and am looking for people to study with (I know several successful pod students this year who study permanently with each other). Maybe we could help each other to succeed.

AZPOD Rocks
 
runnersfeet said:
Yes, I am a big fan of study partners/groups! I took all of the science pre-reqs for pod school in the last 12 months, and had never had any science before then...so this past year was all about the 14 hour days of class and then studying, trying to get used to all those science classes at one time...with close to no life outside of school🙂 Its fun being a dork! HA. Thankfully, I am done with those classes in a week and I will then get the summer to relax and re-energize! I definitely like the idea of forming study groups that we can get used to and count on...it helps keep me motivated. I can not believe you are doing 2 other degrees there...that is insane!


With the commencement of podiatric medical school, I will be abandoning one degree and finishing my other degree during the first quarter of next year. This is going to be a blast!!! :laugh:
 
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