LECOM-Bradenton Discussion Thread 2009-2010

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Poop! I'm on hold here after being reviewed for approximately 2 weeks. There's always cold, snowy Erie to look forward to... Guess I'll know what that really means within 60 days. :scared:

Me too Scummie...I got put on a pre-interview hold here too. sucks I really wanted to check out Bradenton before going to my Erie interview on Nov 5th... Oh well.

I am guessing that Bradenton is more region selective than Erie?
 
Me too Scummie...I got put on a pre-interview hold here too. sucks I really wanted to check out Bradenton before going to my Erie interview on Nov 5th... Oh well.

I am guessing that Bradenton is more region selective than Erie?


not at all. I got into both
 
yea I quess....it just seems so weird to me.

It's definitely different. Very few schools really do PBL, so you're not likely to see things like this...

If you didn't like it, maybe it's not for you...I dunno
 
interview.....


i didnt like how empty the school looked....it looked like they just moved in and there were alot of stupid clone photos on the third floor

Absolutely. The school looks way to sterile.
 
the emptiness of the school is not an issue for me. They have a place for omm, an anatomy lab and a lecture hall. And since it's a PBL school, they have numerous rooms for that....and a library. I don't plan on spending long hours at the building...After the pbl session, i imagine i'd rather study in the comforts of my own place. It's going to be a nice change of pace for me coming from a large big10 school.
 
the emptiness of the school is not an issue for me. They have a place for omm, an anatomy lab and a lecture hall. And since it's a PBL school, they have numerous rooms for that....and a library. I don't plan on spending long hours at the building...After the pbl session, i imagine i'd rather study in the comforts of my own place. It's going to be a nice change of pace for me coming from a large big10 school.

Go Big 10 😀
 
the emptiness of the school is not an issue for me. They have a place for omm, an anatomy lab and a lecture hall. And since it's a PBL school, they have numerous rooms for that....and a library. I don't plan on spending long hours at the building...After the pbl session, i imagine i'd rather study in the comforts of my own place. It's going to be a nice change of pace for me coming from a large big10 school.

Yes, exactly. That's what most of us do. And it's not like it's empty all the time...depends on what's going on. Sometimes you can't find parking to save your life and both lectures halls are full and the halls are crowded. Every PBL room is full, as is the cafeteria.

Just depends on when you see it. But, I'd say the norm is relatively empty, sure. Besides, what's wrong with being clean?
 
It's definitely different. Very few schools really do PBL, so you're not likely to see things like this...

If you didn't like it, maybe it's not for you...I dunno


Ya know Erie was very similar in design and layout. I don't think this is a PBL thing, but rather a LECOM thing.
 
Hey all!

I just wanted to take a break from my Biochem book and wish you all good luck. I am a first year at LECOM-Bradenton and if anyone has any questions they don't feel like asking to the entire forum, you can feel free to PM me. I came from a rather large school, and spent some time away from school before deciding to apply to medical school. Good luck to everyone and I look forward to helping the other current LECOM students out with answering questions for you.
 
Guess there are no fellow SDN'ers interviewing this Friday 😛
 
The others already hit on the whole "empty" thing. I didn't mind it at all. I came from a huge state university where I would sometimes miss class because it'd take me an hour to park, so being able to pull in, park, go right to class and then be out 2 hrs later was awesome.

And it just depends when you were there. There are 2 med classes and 3 pharm classes so there are definitely times when there will be a lot of people on campus. Even last year when there were just 2 pharm classes the cafe would get fairly crowded with everyone there.

Only you can decided if that's a big issue for you. Some people really want that larger school feel, just up to you.

I enjoyed being done by 10am or noon, grabbing lunch with a few friends and then heading somewhere else to study the rest of the day without being stuck in one spot all day.
 
The others already hit on the whole "empty" thing. I didn't mind it at all. I came from a huge state university where I would sometimes miss class because it'd take me an hour to park, so being able to pull in, park, go right to class and then be out 2 hrs later was awesome.

And it just depends when you were there. There are 2 med classes and 3 pharm classes so there are definitely times when there will be a lot of people on campus. Even last year when there were just 2 pharm classes the cafe would get fairly crowded with everyone there.

Only you can decided if that's a big issue for you. Some people really want that larger school feel, just up to you.

I enjoyed being done by 10am or noon, grabbing lunch with a few friends and then heading somewhere else to study the rest of the day without being stuck in one spot all day.

Agreed on the parking/getting out at reasonable times! For me it would be such a nice change of pace... really excited to see the school in person this friday😳
 
I got what it seems like a last minute invite for this Friday. Very excited. Nervous too...first interview. See you there!

Yay finally someone else!! Sounds good, hope we have a great interview day!
 
the emptiness of the school is not an issue for me. They have a place for omm, an anatomy lab and a lecture hall. And since it's a PBL school, they have numerous rooms for that....and a library. I don't plan on spending long hours at the building...After the pbl session, i imagine i'd rather study in the comforts of my own place. It's going to be a nice change of pace for me coming from a large big10 school.

You should try coming from a gigantic school like a SEC school....LOL!!!!!!!
Go SEC!!!!!! It's hard being #1!!!!!! just kidding guys!!!! Good luck to everyone applying this year!!!
 
Only having to spend two hours a day in lecture sounds like a freakin' dream to me! I am so fit for PBL it's not even funny. It's probably my own fault, but I pretty much just waste time away during lectures because I know how much more productive I will be studying the material on my own. Sitting in class just doesn't benefit me. I hope I get an interview here soon!
 
Only having to spend two hours a day in lecture sounds like a freakin' dream to me! I am so fit for PBL it's not even funny. It's probably my own fault, but I pretty much just waste time away during lectures because I know how much more productive I will be studying the material on my own. Sitting in class just doesn't benefit me. I hope I get an interview here soon!

After anatomy is over (1st 11 weeks), we only spend 2 hours A WEEK in lecture...that's on Tuesday. 2 hours in OMM lab on Thursday.

MWF we have PBL for 2 hours. Meet in a small group and work up a case and figure out what relevant chapters we're going to read before the next time we meet to try and figure out what's going on with our patient. It's kinda like House, only WE have to learn the basic science mechanisms involved in the case.
 
After anatomy is over (1st 11 weeks), we only spend 2 hours A WEEK in lecture...that's on Tuesday. 2 hours in OMM lab on Thursday.

MWF we have PBL for 2 hours. Meet in a small group and work up a case and figure out what relevant chapters we're going to read before the next time we meet to try and figure out what's going on with our patient. It's kinda like House, only WE have to learn the basic science mechanisms involved in the case.

Dreamy. Truly dreamy. I always found PBL tempting, but after observing my friends in med school this year try to scrounge up energy to study after having been in class from 8 to 5 each day, I don't see how I can do anything other than PBL. I just always feel like lecture time is just spent trying to keep your head above the water and follow what the profs are saying. You get so bogged down in trying to keep up and get down any important information that you don't actually retain it. At least that's how I am. I learn so much more when I can just sit down with the material myself and learn it at my own pace.

How do you guys sufficiently cover all of the basic science stuff learned in cell/molecular or biochem? Obviously these topics have clinical relevance, but some topics can get to be a stretch (and IMO are irrelevant if that's the case anyway).
 
Coming from a first year, I can tell you that it has been a little bit of a challenge. In the beginning you tend to want to skip over stuff because you don't see how it specifically relates to the case. Many times only a few paragraphs in a chapter will pertain to your case, but this is not the point. The cases are there to give you a clinical context for your basic sciences. For example, in the beginning you'll be seeing some CBCs and Chem 7s (lab tests) and you should start reading about cellular metabolism (biochem, physiology) even though it may not necessarily have much to do with the case. The great thing about PBL is that it allows for self discovery and gives you the clinical context. It's pretty cool when you can start to see a completely normal lab and realize all the different things that it rules out based on your outside reading. I'm not sure I've got it figured out yet, but I can tell you that our PBL sessions FLY by. They are actually a lot of fun.
 
Do you guys really get to know anyone in your class other than your small group members? With anatomy being only 11 weeks long, it seems like you might get somewhat cut off from the rest of the class pretty quickly? Just wondering what your thoughts might be on that...
 
Well, I moved down a month before classes started and met a lot of people in our class so that certainly helped. During anatomy, everyone is pretty much feeling the pain. Our class "gets along" really well. I definitely don't know everybody, but I would not feel uncomfortable approaching anyone in our class if I heard them talking about the next patient encounter or the OMM pop quiz. Nobody is really a "gunner", we are all in the same boat trying to struggle through and do as best we can. I would definitely recommend moving down at least 2 weeks before classes start so you can meet some people.
 
Do you guys really get to know anyone in your class other than your small group members? With anatomy being only 11 weeks long, it seems like you might get somewhat cut off from the rest of the class pretty quickly? Just wondering what your thoughts might be on that...

The whole class is still together for the anatomy, OMM, and clinical exam lectures in the lecture hall. And for the labs half the class is in lab together, and then each semester the PBL groups get switched up.

So you'll get plenty of interaction with those outside your small group. At least on a general level I think most people in each class gets to know everyone else. There is probably a few that I just never really got to talk to at all but with only 150 kids in your class you get to know a fair bit about most others..... And sometimes more than you want to know.

But you'll probably fairly quickly find a few others that you click with who kind of become your core study group. The few that I regularly studied with weren't even in my PBL groups.
 
How do you guys sufficiently cover all of the basic science stuff learned in cell/molecular or biochem? Obviously these topics have clinical relevance, but some topics can get to be a stretch (and IMO are irrelevant if that's the case anyway).

Somehow it just works. 🙂 But yeah, one of the tricky parts of PBL is that beyond the actual case there really is no outline pointing out what is truly important which can be frustruating when you're slowly chugging through a meaty path chapter, but there are plenty of review books, online reviews, etc, that can help with that.

Point is that you just have to get through the material and the curriculum is setup in such a way where you cover a good bit of the material more than once. So in second year you'll have different cases but will also be reviewing and repicking some of the same chapters you did first year so the element of repetition helps somewhat.

In the end you have to be efficient. It's a lot of material and your main resource will be all the large textbooks. That's where it helps to at least have some sort of more concise review book that you can use to help narrow your focus for when you read the actual textbook.
 
How do you guys sufficiently cover all of the basic science stuff learned in cell/molecular or biochem? Obviously these topics have clinical relevance, but some topics can get to be a stretch (and IMO are irrelevant if that's the case anyway).

Agree with what nlax said. It starts kinda slow in first year, but by 2nd year you're covering MUCH more information than you ever could in first year.

I will say that it helps to have a good SOLID background in certain topics. For example, I've never had Micro before, and it's killing me right now when we're doing alot of micro. Many of my classmates already know the basics and are adding to that knowledge, whereas I'm playing catchup.

Not that you'll fail if you haven't had advanced bio, biochem, micro, embryo, histo, phys, etc. Far from it. But it certainly doesn't hurt to have a head start so to speak.

Ultimately though, it's up to you to cover what you need to cover. If you have a case about, say, a genetic enzyme deficiency, you're expected to cover the biochem of those enzymes, genetics, path, phys of that system, maybe anatomy, embryo if it applies, etc. If you don't understand basic biochem then YOU will have to read that stuff first so you understand what Chapter 36 biochem is talking about. But honestly, if you've made it through gen chem and orgo, you should be fine.

You will cover a crapload of material and you will read ALOT. Make no mistake, it is alot of work...but it's certainly better than lecture IMO.
 
Thanks for all that great info. guys...Do you recommend purchasing board review books before school starts and using those as a guideline to see if we are missing important learning issues for a certain pbl case?
 
Thanks for all that great info. guys...Do you recommend purchasing board review books before school starts and using those as a guideline to see if we are missing important learning issues for a certain pbl case?

I like having review books, but be careful not to fall into the seductive trap of reading ONLY your review books and not the texts. As far as review books go, I'd recommend:

BRS Anatomy
BRS Embryo
Guyton mini phys
Guyton phys review question book
Lippincott Biochem
Rapid Review Path (spectacular book)
Goljan MP3 Lectures (not available legally for sale. google or your friends will work wonders here)
Robbin's Path Question Book
Rubin's (Lippincott) Path Question Book
Katzung Pharm mini-book
Appleton and Lange Pharm question book
Savarese (sp?) Green OMM review book for OMM
Microcards
Micro Made Rediculously Simple
Nath Micro (which is currently a required book, but if it's not in the future, I'd still get it)
and...First Aid.

That should just about do it. Sometimes I like to skim a big complex chapter in the review books first. If you understand the main points it can make the reading in the big textbook go faster. Other times I like to start with the text book. Just depends. Just don't make the mistake of reading ONLY the review books. It likely won't be enough.
 
When you guys read for PBL, do students typically take notes and outline as well?
 
The clown pictures there are UBER CREEPY. Just a weird thing to put in a medical/pharm school even if the town has ringling brothers history in it.
 
When you guys read for PBL, do students typically take notes and outline as well?

I started taking notes but now i've just been highlighting. I dont see how you'd have time to take notes or outline all the stuff you'll read.
 
When you guys read for PBL, do students typically take notes and outline as well?

I used to take some notes (not many, there's not time) but I stopped.

Basically anything that you would take notes on already exists in note form. My path notes looked identical to Rapid Review, just read that instead. Anatomy notes look like BRS...and so on.

Sometimes I'll still write down one or two things, or I'll add a couple things to the review books...
 
Notes and highlighting should never be done when you first read a chapter in the textbook. Why? Because you really have no idea of what is important. About 75% of what is in the text is really fluff and filler. You will find this happen if you are a highlighter person:

You will be reading the same chapter during second year (because you go over most material more than once) and you'll wonder to yourself,"WTF? Why did I highlight that stuff? It isn't even important!" But you don't realize that it's not important until you learn the basics.

You need to get in the habit of reading things several times and picking out the major concepts AFTER you have read the whole thing. Read it, them try to summarize what you read. Read it again and look up all the words you didn't understand. Then, read it again and look for details that skipped past you the first couple of times. The way you learn medicine is by repetition. The more times you read it, the better you will understand it. And, understanding the overal concepts is more important in the long run than memorizing the minutia. Yes, there are certain things that you are just going to have to memorize, but the more times you cover them the better off you will be.

Case in point: You can memorize the chart on acidosis/alkalosis-respiratory/metabolic in any physiology book. But, you'll forget about it a week after the test, and you'll probably be confused during the test as well. You'll memorize it over and over.... OR, you can just learn the basics and figure it out on your own. It's sooooo much simpler that way.
 
Just got my acceptance letter in the mail! Can't wait to be a part of c/o 2014!
 
Interviewed today and we can call wednesday for our decisions...yay! Felt nervous during my interview and thought some of my answers could've been better, but this is my top choice school so here's hoping for wednesday!:xf::xf:
 
Hey Yall, i know some of you who have been accepted and are planning on attending have been asking about a facebook group. there wasnt one out there yet so i went ahead and created one so that we can start to get to know each other. i know its still pretty early but its never too soon to start 🙂

anyways here is the link feel free to pass it on

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=177476724344
 
I don't usually post on here, but I always like to hear news about acceptances so... I'm in as of today! I got the letter in the mail. I interviewed on 10/13/09 and everybody was very nice and helpful. I really liked the school, but still plan on going to a few more interviews just to make sure I've considered all my options. Good luck to all!
 
Hey guys! It's my first time on here and I was hoping to get some feedback!

I would really really love to go to LECOM-Bradenton, it's my FIRST choice school, but I'm a little worried because I'm not sure what my chances are.

I graduated from a top 30 nationally ranked undergraduate university with no grade inflation. My science gpa was 3.0, non-science 3.2, overall 3.1. My MCAT score is 26 (PS 6, VR 11, and BS 9). GPA and MCAT are my biggest problems.

My undergraduate school was a co-curriculum, with PBL and traditional, and I have no hesitation that PBL is the right track for me.

I'm Asian and I'm a Florida Resident. I'm currently attending a post-bacc program at another D.O. school and doing well. I have shadowed both an M.D. and a D.O. physician and has experience volunteering at a nursing home and the ER.

My application was complete early September, and I got a call a week later for an interview at the end of October. I know I'm competing with a lot of competitive students with better stats, so I was just wondering what my fighting chance is.

Thank you.

If you have received an interview invitation then you definitely have a fighting chance. Let LECOM-B know how much you love their school and that you would be a wonderful fit for them. If you have gotten an interview then your stats are deemed to be competitive enough for them. Best of luck. PS I'm interviewing there on the 30th. Maybe I'll see ya.
 
Hey thanks so much! That lifted up my spirits a great deal! Good luck to you too! I guess Hope to see you around on the 30th 🙂
 
I interviewed on Oct 19 and got my acceptance letter in the mail yesterday. LECOM-B is my second choice, but my first acceptance. Regardless... I'm going to medical school!
 
I sent in my LECOM Bradenton secondary two weeks ago, but am still waiting for my LOR from my committee to get there. I've been wait :xf:listed there twice.... here's hoping third time is the charm!

I'm almost done finishing my secondary for this year, but I'm hung up on filling out the fields for the LORs. I have a committee letter which, on prior applications, has been the only letter I have had to enter. As far as I understand, my committee letters is a composite of all my letters. I have 5 LORs: 2 from science professors, 1 from an M.D., 1 from a D.O., and 1 from a non-science professor.

It seems that LECOM would like me to enter my D.O. letter separately, but I'm unsure if that will create a problem since my D.O. letter was sent directly to my Pre-Health Professions Advisement Office for the composite evaluation package.

Ha...does my question even make sense? I just need to know if I have to enter additional letters, especially my D.O. letter, directly onto the online application if I have already entered info for my committee letter.

Thank you!
 
I'm almost done finishing my secondary for this year, but I'm hung up on filling out the fields for the LORs. I have a committee letter which, on prior applications, has been the only letter I have had to enter. As far as I understand, my committee letters is a composite of all my letters. I have 5 LORs: 2 from science professors, 1 from an M.D., 1 from a D.O., and 1 from a non-science professor.

It seems that LECOM would like me to enter my D.O. letter separately, but I'm unsure if that will create a problem since my D.O. letter was sent directly to my Pre-Health Professions Advisement Office for the composite evaluation package.

Ha...does my question even make sense? I just need to know if I have to enter additional letters, especially my D.O. letter, directly onto the online application if I have already entered info for my committee letter.

Thank you!

My undergrad advising office also handled all my LORs, even my DO letter. I still listed everything. LECOM understood the whole thing, and my file went under review just fine. You are over-analyzing things, you need a take a chill pill!😀
...even if they were to misunderstand your situation, you could always call them up and explain to them.
 
So my interview is this Friday (Oct. 30th). However, for some reason all my email (any one previous to Oct. 1st) got deleted. This included the email Heather sends out to you when you confirm an interview date (the email telling you about the school, potential hotels to stay at, etc).

Can someone be generous enough to send that email to me? I'm sure it's a generic email for everyone. I would greatly appreciate it 🙂
 
So my interview is this Friday (Oct. 30th). However, for some reason all my email (any one previous to Oct. 1st) got deleted. This included the email Heather sends out to you when you confirm an interview date (the email telling you about the school, potential hotels to stay at, etc).

Can someone be generous enough to send that email to me? I'm sure it's a generic email for everyone. I would greatly appreciate it 🙂

Hey...what is your email address? I'll send it to you.
 
i interviewed on oct 19 and got my acceptance letter in the mail yesterday. Lecom-b is my second choice, but my first acceptance. Regardless... I'm going to medical school!

congratulations! 🙂
 
I was wondering if any present students know of other students doing international rotations?
 
Does anyone have any photos of the campus or anything else taken during interviews/visiting??
 
I can do that with my phone (3.0 MP) this friday if you want some really bad 😛
 
I can do that with my phone (3.0 MP) this friday if you want some really bad 😛

If you were talking about my pictures, don't sweat it. I was just curious if there were any already floating around SDN. I actually saw the website of the firm that designed/built the building ... it looked beautiful.
 
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