My interview this week went very well. I was able to talk to a lot of people at LECOM and locals at Erie. My overall impression is LECOM is a decent school. It has good facilities, especially the nice size compounding lab. The new fitness center looks good in picture. The two faculty members were formal but friendly. Eire is nice with relatively low cost of living.
I asked about choices of rotation sites and was told that students might need to come back to Erie for a 5-6 week rotation with LECOM faculty. But those rotations tend to be filled out fast by students who choose to stay at Eire in their P3. I know there was a thread "LECOM Erie Warning" about this issue last year Dec.
The school is trying anyway it can to reduce cost which certainly reduces the tuition. For instance, comparing to another school I interviewed, at LECOM you need to fill out all the paper work yourself if you choose to go to other states for rotation. Plus, no food and drink policy. Plus they choose not print out anything whenever they can use digital versions. All these make sense to me. I'd rather pay less tuition and do a little paper work on my own.
About dress code, I was told that when students dress formally in class they tend to be ready to learn or they are serious about what they do. That I agree too just based on my own experience.
I hope I can get in, and then it will be a decision between LECOM Erie and my home state school.
Thank you, 2011bound, DPH38 and anyone who shared your thoughts on LECOM's program.
I hope you get in and my finger is crossed for you. I will be attending lecom-erie in august and lecom-erie is my first choice. I wanted a school that is cheap, accelerated and has a good reputation. LECOM-ERIE seems like a perfect match for me. I really liked the school when I interviewed there, everyone was so friendly to me and I loved the facility, the school has a big caferia unless other pharmacy schools, which some don't even have a caferia. It's great that they actually have a fitness center so i can go workout after classes to keep me fit.
people complain about their strict policies, but I actually like their dress code since I love to wear professional clothes anyways and assigned seating is ok and no food and drink policy, i will just eat and drink in the cafeteria for that cheap tuition.
I'm only worried about finding 750 hours on my own before taking the board. But i'm sure things will work out somehow.
I like the fact that they offer scholarship to second and third students if you do well in your first year, which will further reduce my tuition. No other 3 year programs i know offers academic or financial scholarships.
also, passing benchmarks, lecom-erie only require 70% to pass each class whereas some schools require 85 to 90 on exams to pass their classes.
I think the professors at LECOM-ERIE ACTUALLY care about you and know who you are unlike some schools where the professors don't know you at all.
LECOM-ERIE has very low attrition rate. Their goal is not help every student pass, not to weed out students like some other schools.
Every school has pros and cons, I know I can deal with LECOM-ERIE's minimal cons.
let me know what you think and good luck with your decision
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