I am a first year in the DPC program and if I had to make the decision again I would chose the lecture based program. The DPC program is extremely disorganized largely due to the administration of the program. They don;t give out schedules in a timely matter nor will they answer questions or help you with the process. In DPC you actually have less time to study than the lecture students because of all the required classes you have to attend. You are not required to ever go to lecture, so if you wanted you could stay home and just read the book or stream the lectures; you have more flexibility with your schedule. I also think it is a more difficult program because you and your group collectively decide on what your learning isues (i.e. what you will study) for the next class will be and they are all over the place. For any given case you can study the spinal cord tracts as well as immunology and respiration. I think this method is harder because you are not learning things as they relate to each other.
It is a very young program with a lot of problems that the admin are not in a hurry to fix. The big selling point of DPC is the clinical skills program, last year it was amazing and this year they have different faculty teaching it. From what I understand is not nearly as good as last year.
Some people love the program, I am not one of them, so you have to decide what is best for you. I just wish I had heard about the problems with the program before I signed up
Hey Class of 2011,
First off, congrats! You're gonna be doctors, how kick ass is that??
So I think you should do a fair amt of research on PBL before you get involved in it. It's an important decision. To that end, I posted some literature on PBL (abstracts only) in the pre-DO forum. Other things you could do include emailing current DPC ppl or seeking them out on here and PMing them. You'll get a variety of opinions, and you can do a search and find my opinions, + and -, about the prog. on this website. In addition to the poster above, I think theres a few other DPC people on this website. To help facilitate your decision, I have some hearsay that I'll post below. To preface, when I was making the decision, I emailed a then-1st yr and asked them some questions. Again, take it for what it's worth. In the end, its up to you, but I just want you to see all sides:
> > Hi -----,
> >
> > I obtained your email address from Barbara Salvesen, who said
> > you'd be willing to answer some questions I had as an incoming
> DPC
> > student. I was just wondering if I could have an idea of what
> to
> > expect? What is a typical day? Is it all self-directed
> learning?
> > How much free time do you have? Does the material parallel what
> > is learned in the lecture track, or would you be learning
> > something totally different from what they're doing? Also, do
> you
> > find yourself studying only among your fellow DPC-ers, or do you
> > get to know people outside of your track?
> >
> > So many questions! Sorry =) But I thank you in advance if you
> > have the chance to reply.
> >
> > Take care and thanks again,
> >
> > -----
> -----,
> I'm more than happy to answer any questions you may have about
> DPC. I can say with certainty that although it is a very difficult
> track, my personal decision to be in the PBL track was the right
> one. It was a tough year but well worth it. As far as scheduling
> goes, you will have a completely different schedule than the
> lecture based students (aside from anatomy and OMM labs which you
> will be together)in this respect you get to know many of the
> traditional students very well. Also the first 5 weeks of classes
> will be lecture as one big class called "fundamentals of medicine"
> so you will initially get to know most of them as well. YES it is
> definitely self directed learning but the cases are very specific
> and keep everyone on a similar track. Along with the three time
> per week 2 hour group sessions you will be responsible for
> attending various other scheduled curriculum like...clinical
> skills...problem sets...student hour...OMM lab/lectures...anatomy
> lab/lectures. So free time
> is definitely spent studying and preparing "learning issues" for
> the next meeting. You will pretty much be studying with your DPC
> classmates because you will be going over the cases. You will be
> learning some similar but some different material than the LB
> track, but rest assured, the DPC cases are designed to make you
> focus on certain topics... for example, certain organ systems such
> as a cardio case or a liver case or an immuno case will be
> presented and you will have to learn just about everything
> regarding that organ system such as biochem, histo, physio,pharm
> and pathology. so...its pretty thorough. The truth is NO medical
> school curriculum is perfect, either PBL or Lecture Based will
> have inconsistincies. It is what YOU make of it..remember your
> the one taking the boards so keep that in mind as you are coming
> up with learning issues for the cases. You will use a TON of
> resources and I'd b more than happy to help you pick which books
> to buy...the Lecture Based students
> do not really need books but DPC relies greatly on them... my
> library is HUGE! The faculty is VERY helpful, you will use them as
> a resource as well... dont hesitate to ask if you have any more
> questions. I start on the 14th so Im gettin' ready for another
> year after a looong restful summer! good luck..hope I helped
>
-----
> Hi -----,
>
> That's very helpful.. I suppose I'm just a little scared that I
> wouldn't be ready to be so self-directed day in and day out, you
> know? I mean what if one day I'm completely spent and I just want
> the material spoon fed to me?
> Also, do you know if the board exams are geared towards a problem
> based format?
>
> Thanks again, you're a huge help,
I hear ya...DPC keeps you on your toes all the time which is why most of us began to feel kind of "burnt out" about 3/4 through last year. You really have to pace yourself and get a good DPC group preparation strategy. We all wish we could get spoon fed some info sometimes but the truth is it's better this way in the long run because I was "spoon fed" all through undergrad and grad school and I dont remember much of it! When you pick something apart bit by bit on your own terms you REALLY get it...which in my opinion is great prep for the boards...there is very little memorization in DPC just deep understanding... again, this will help you CRUSH the boards. The tests for us were mostly essay, and were pretty tough but think about it...if you can write an essay on the regulation of glycolysis you can easily answer multiple choice board questions! So...for me i am very confident about the boards...The DPC isnt for everyone, there were a few last year that switched over to lectu
re...your not locked in until maybe the third week or so. As far as myself...you couldnt pay me to sit in lecture all day listening to a professor that is relaying info from a text that HE/SHE thinks is the best one! dont worry...it's a really cool experience! and when your a doc your gonna be awesome at allocating the proper resources to solve a case!
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