I wanted to make this thread to give anyone thinking of coming to Marian's MBS program a chance to know the truth beforehand. Find my pros and cons below... and if you have any further questions please PM me!!
Overall: Would I recommend the program to anyone? No.
I attended Marian's BMS program, like many students in the class, to better prepare my application for medical school. I didn't do great in undergrad, ~3.0/~500, and I wanted a chance to redeem myself, particularly my GPA.... I applied pretty late in spring semester to many master's/post bacs and ultimately settled on Marian as it was the only program with direct linkage to accept me (I was devastated that LECOM's MMS didn't accept me). I choose Marian among other Master's programs without linkage because they at least guaranteed an interview for people who achieved a 3.5+ GPA the fall semester. I had spoke with a friend of a friend who attended their program when it was still a post-bacc, only certificate granting. Their results were impressive. Out of their less than 60 students, 24 interviewed and 21 were accepted. They went down to GPA’s as low as 3.22 for that semester, and as low as 495 MCAT. For ACCEPTED students!! I mean I was sold, I went in thinking I just had to be top 3rd of my class in order to get in. But there were so many changes for my incoming class that the program I had heard of was indeed not the one I attended. Marians BMS program is a chicken scratch make shift program only looking for your money. The education we are receiving is not worth it, and for an academic enhancing program, nearly half of the class shouldn’t be on academic probation.
First off, the class before me when it was still a post bac only had 3 classes. Fall = medical Microbiology, medical Biochemistry, and physio/pharm and for spring: medical immunology, molecular bio/genetics, and physio/pharm. Each class coming in at 4 credits. I’m not sure how much their tuition was but I imagine it was still relatively pricey. For the master’s now, we had 5 classes + seminar for a total of 16 credits each semester, and a capstone project for the summer which is basically a literature review. Tuition for fall and spring is 15k each, ( each credit hour is about 940$), summer is an additional ~6k. So we are already at ~36k just for tuition not including living expenses and such which easily adds to 50,000 dollars total. Considering Marian is a relatively new DO program, and thus considered “lower tier,” I would recommend taking your money elsewhere.
Anyways, the price isn’t even part of why I don’t recommend it. It’s what you get for the price. In order to make it the program a Master’s, (and thus take more of your money) they added in a seminar and an “Anatomy/Histology/Embryology”(I and II) and “Biostatistics” and “Epidemiology” classes. It is clear that the program doesn’t care about their students and just hired whatever professor was available. Anatomy class is canceled often or goes on for a short amount of time. Students are trying to learn new material, to expand our medical knowledge and have a real taste of what medical school is. We don’t have any assigned books for these classes and We have about 6 different professors for this class depending on material. Half are engaging, brilliant awesome professors. The other half talk so much nonsense and fast that its nearly impossible to pay attention in class. The slides are pointless…. Sporadic, filled with nothing but images and most that aren’t even covered or mentioned or acknowledged. In addition to his non teaching, the questions some professors put on the exam are completely medical school level without the medical school instruction. I know what you’re thinking. Maybe students aren’t studying or paying attention. Wrong. Considering most students this is their last final shot at medical school and have a hefty 50K loan taken out for this program, students are studying. Its the lack of organization and expectations in the class that make it impossible to do well. Granted they do curve, however, do we really want a grade based on how many people fail or what we earn? Or do we want to develop the critical thinking and study skills to do well in medical school in the future.
Next is biostatistics and epidemiology. These would be the “dumb” classes that would be easy As. But it’s anything but that. The professor doesn’t even teach, he just reads crap off his slides and does random “discussion active learning” sessions where no one pays attention and its not relevant to his exams what so ever. I wouldn’t have a problem if this was an easy class but the exams are ridiculous. They have so many grammar and spelling and contexts errors. Even math problems are wrong in answers and calculations. EXAMS. THAT THE PROFESSORS WRITES. Not to mention, his averages are below 60 and he curves 30 points. be prepared to learn absolutely nothing. This semester he decided not to curve, and the average was a 66%. Every class has a close to 80% average and if it doesn’t, the professor curves. It’s the biggest waste of life and attendance is mandatory for this class. If the professor I am learning from can’t even correctly make an answer key for specificity and sensitivity or at least spell “learned instead of learnt” then I’m not sure what program I’m attending.
Then there’s seminar, on a Friday afternoon. We have guest lecturers come in and I won’t lie, some are pretty captivating. However, the other 90% are people just talking about their research, or how to write a personal statement (months after we should have submitted), how to study effectively (in the second semester….), and other things that just aren’t worth spending an hour on. Be prepared to just doodle on your phone the entire time. In addition, lecturers often go way beyond over class time, I’m talking 10-20 minutes. It’s like whoever invited them can’t even respect our time and let them know when class ends.
The only good thing about this program would be their biochemistry/molecular bio professor and the physio/pharmacology professors. They actually care about our learning. They facilitate the complexity of the course, they have clear powerpoints, activities, no attendance required. Granted they do talk a little fast but most people don’t go to class and just watch panapto instead. But for these classes, if you study and know you’re stuff you will get an A. My favorite 2 courses probably all of my academic career, I have learned so much from them, so so so much.
For immunology/ microbiology, the only reason people passed microbiology was because of sketchy micro- a series of videos using mnemonics and pictures to help you remember different bacteria, viruses, fungi etc. The professor decided to do student presentations every lecture after the first exam, so we were basically being taught by ourselves. It was tragic. The book is so long and dense and boring and she only tested on sketchy micro (a resource she didn’t explicitly say to study until people caught on). For immunology, the material is fun, however she goes out of her way to make learning harder by cropping out images and captions on her powerpoints. Sure, it could be active learning by making us take notes but don’t block out half of pictures and words. In addition to going to class, now I have to spend another 2 hours going back and trying to write down everything you said.
Overall, this program is a hot mess. We only have a certain amount of time a week to study, and shower, sleep- you can forget about having a life. That’s fine though, as future physicians we signed up for that commitment. But go take your money elsewhere to a program thats well structured. We, the guinea pig class got screwed over. And for those who want to know about the stats so far, I think 17 people interviewed the first day, a few more throughout. I would say no more than 25 out of our starting class of about 70. Many people dropped out of the program either throughout fall semester and even more so spring semester. So far I think 7 got in?? not including some people who legit got 4.0 the fall semester. People who are brilliant, funny, accomplished, (they got waitlisted the year before and did this program to increase their chances). our idea is that they will likely accept a handful more so the stats are reasonable, because they know that no one will attend their program afterwards if no one gets in. The problem is that they are making it impossible for other students to attend different medical schools, if half the class is failing epidemiology and other easy classes (while Acing the hard sciences like biochem and immunology and pharmacology). This is supposed to be an academic enhancing program, and nearly half the class is on academic probation (below a 3.0).
So sorry this rant is sporadic and unorganized, but it really resembles the chicken scratch program Marian has going on. Seriously, save your money and go to a well established program.
ALSO they will claim other people’s success attributed to their program, like people who got interviews and accepted before the fall semester even ended, so whatever stats are posted online about students attending other medical schools, it was no thanks to them.
SO RUN. THE OTHER DIRECTION. AS FAST AS YOU CAN. WITH YOUR 50,000$$$$$$
