Can Any LECOM-B Students please pitch into this question.
How is LECOM-B in terms of student integration? When I interviewed, I felt that many of the students had a repetitive schedule of going to PBL, going to a lab and then going home to study. Then repeat again and again. Do students get to know each other by after hours group studying, hanging out? Does the offer of student affairs promote student unity in any way?
The school schedule is somewhat repetitive, basically 2 hours a class each day, either PBL (MWF) or Clinical/OMM lecture (Tuesday) or OMM lab (Thursday). Despite this, you'll make a good sized group of friends and be well acquainted with much of the rest of the class.
I, for example, have a close group of about 12 friends and they're some of the best friends I've ever had. You add to this another 30-50 people that you know kinda well and like and would hang out with but don't have time, and another 50 that you barely know but are friendly with and there you have it.
There are numerous school/club sponsored activities as well, such as the soccer games or various medical projects. Many of the students also live in the same neighborhoods/apartments (Yacht Club or Colonial Grand being the most popular, I think), so that helps.
Also, How is the town of Bradenton? Since I only had two days, I didn't get a chance to explore much. I tried looking for restaurants (like outback, chilis, etc.) and ended up with BK. Are there movie theaters? Night life?
Bradenton-Sarasota should be thought of as one metro area. They're not separated by anything but a line on a map. There are plenty of bars, some in the Lakewood Ranch area near LECOM, some in Downtown Sarasota, and some out at the beaches (St. Armand's or Siesta Key). If you're looking for a place to go throw back a couple cold ones after a test with some friends, you won't have any trouble finding a place. There are a couple of places with a world class beer selection (World of Beer and Cock & Bull, which is world famous, despite being the definition of "dive"). McAllister's in LWR has an excellent selection of nice irish whiskys. Other places you can google: Linkster's, Horse Feathers, Cevice, Gilligan's, Beach Club, Daiquiri Deck, Siesta Key Oyster Bar, Urban Flats, umm...that's enough to start with.
If you're looking for a place to go out and pick up girls/boys, you might have a bit more trouble. Many of my younger/single friends complained that the singles scene here in town was lacking and would often go to Tampa for that. There are certainly some fun bars to go dancing at, but there's not a ton of younger people at them usually...they did base that show Cougartown on Sarasota, you know
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There are TONS of movie theaters. There is a 16 or so screen near school, on SR 70 up by WalMart, and another 20 screen in downtown Sarasota. There's also an excellent theater in Lakewood Ranch Main Street that has a few screens, and sells beer. Those were my favorites. There are a zillion others, and a discount theater with older movies, but I never went there.
The highlight of the area is, of course, the beaches. Siesta Key beach is nothing short of the greatest beach in the known universe (#1 in the USA this year, woot!). It has spoiled me for all other beaches forever, and this will be my family's beach vacation spot for the rest of our lives. I spent a good amount of time there, because there is nothing better than heading down there with some friends and a good medical textbook, besides not having the textbook, which is what I'm hoping to do this week! eek!
There's a thriving theater scene here in Bradenton/Sarasota, both community (which is one of the best in the country, they've won awards) and professional touring shows come to the Van Wezel all the time. There's also excellent Symphony, Opera, and Ballet companies, and a cool art museum (Ringling).
Tampa is very close, and has tons of sports (Rays baseball, Lightning hockey, Bucs football). USF football and basketball is there too. Tons of concerts there too. Busch Gardens is a popular day trip to Tampa, and the nightlife in Tampa is pretty rocking. Disney World and/or Universal in Orlando is 2 hours away but is a popular weekend trip. My family (and many of our friends) got year long, Florida resident discount passes to Disney and used the hell out of them. It was a blast! Never too old. Harder to study there though, but it's worth doing first year, after anatomy, IMO. We went around once every 4-6 weeks or so, depending on the test schedule, for the weekend. Sometimes we'd just drive up for a day, but more rarely. We often went for holidays: Thanksgiving, XMas, 4th of July, New year's, Easter, etc. There are many special events going on at these times that are tons of fun!
Anyways...unless you're used to NYC or Chicago sized places, you shouldn't have any excuse to be bored. It is suburbia, but you're within a 20 minute drive of a TON of awesome things, an hour drive of a major US city, and a 2 hour drive of one of the most popular vacation destinations in the world. Plenty to do, and you're supposed to be studying anyways!
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