LECOM-Bradenton

[Dr.12345]

Hello! I'm a current MMS student and most likely going to go the LECOM-B next year, because of the conditional acceptance that's tied into the masters. Just to clarify the 3rd year the school sets up your rotations for you and they are going to be your core rotations. 4th year you pick elective rotations, and those you have to schedule and contact on your own? Does this mean that you could potentially have rotations in different cities or are all of your rotations going to be at one hospital? Also, how do they decide who goes where, because I know a lot of the affiliated hospitals are outside or PA and FL, so how does that work?

Also, any other opinions about this particular program? I'm not too crazy about PBL, and the school really does lack resources. The administration seems very disconnected from students, and the teachers are really terrible. That being said, this is what I've experienced as a Masters student and have been told that our program is at the bottom of the totem pole. So I am wondering if the same issues arise for the medical school, or is there program a lot better.

Right now I'm in between just sucking it up and matriculating there, or taking a year off and applying to both MD/DO programs and hopefully getting into someplace better.

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[HaveAnOsteoblast]

Can you expand on your point about PBL?

 

[Dr.12345]

Problem Based Learning - there are no lectures except in for anatomy. The rest of the courses are integrated, so each PBL session you have to solve the case and then basically the corresponding material that you needed to solve the case is what you need to study. So like for one case you can have to study histology, biochem, etc. The tests won't just be one subject but a multiple of things.

 

[HaveAnOsteoblast]

Problem Based Learning - there are no lectures except in for anatomy. The rest of the courses are integrated, so each PBL session you have to solve the case and then basically the corresponding material that you needed to solve the case is what you need to study. So like for one case you can have to study histology, biochem, etc. The tests won't just be one subject but a multiple of things.

Yeah, I was wondering about what you didn't like about PBL at Bradenton

 

[PapaGuava]

Hopefully someone from the school can chime in on your specific questions, but as for deciding whether to go there or not, I would listen to your gut feeling. However, if you have a decent applications plus the addition of the masters program (assuming you do well), then I’m sure you would be fine in the following cycle.

 

[Geomamaearth]

Can you expand on your point about PBL?

Spoke to a physician who graduated LECOM - Bradenton, the only thing he really wished that PBL had was some sort of general outline/powerpoints to help guide your learning. Personally, when I spoke to the PBL director, he said the average grade for PBL is a high 70's (78-79%).

they emphasized that you must be capable of learning through reading and being very self directed. The doc I mentioned said that learning in residency and during rotation resembles PBL, which can be considered a plus since you have two years to refine your techniques.

 

[hungrydoc710]

I don't rate LECOM-B very highly, as most don't on this site, BUT I'd never walk away from an acceptance to a US med school.

Applying the general route is scary and an absolute crap shoot these days.
I know people with good stats straight out of college, not get in anywhere MD and DO during thier cycle.

 

[hungrydoc710]

Spoke to a physician who graduated LECOM - Bradenton, the only thing he really wished that PBL had was some sort of general outline/powerpoints to help guide your learning. Personally, when I spoke to the PBL director, he said the average grade for PBL is a high 70's (78-79%).

they emphasized that you must be capable of learning through reading and being very self directed. The doc I mentioned said that learning in residency and during rotation resembles PBL, which can be considered a plus since you have two years to refine your techniques.

But the entirety of pre-clinical doesn't need to be like that.
We have some lectures "PBL" (called SDL at my school for student directed learning).
Our entire Pathology course follows this PBL/SDL type course, where we have to synthesize hundreds of pages of PDF docs for each exam.

Rest of classes are taught to us by DOCTORS and EXPERTS in the fields. That's how it's supposed to be.

PBL is just a cheap way to save $ for low quality schools in my opinon.

 

[MedDoc305]

But the entirety of pre-clinical doesn't need to be like that.
We have some lectures "PBL" (called SDL at my school for student directed learning).
Our entire Pathology course follows this PBL/SDL type course, where we have to synthesize hundreds of pages of PDF docs for each exam.

Rest of classes are taught to us by DOCTORS and EXPERTS in the fields. That's how it's supposed to be.

PBL is just a cheap way to save $ for low quality schools in my opinon.

I agree that this is a way for schools to diminish their costs and make a bigger profit. However, the amount of students that actually attend lecture in schools with no mandatory attendance is very low (from what I've seen around the forum). This would in a way diminish the importance of having doctors/experts in the fields teaching the class. As we could all agree LECOM's pre-clinical years are not the issue. The main issue is with rotation sites (which from my understanding is not as doom and gloom as it is made out to be). The bright side of LECOM is that at least the cost is somewhat reflective of the service provided. They could easily charge 50k-60k tuition like many other DO schools who provide similar services and still fill their class year after year.