Opinions of LECOM-B's dental school?

[PAtoPharm]

I noticed that there hasn't been much discussion on the forums regarding LECOM's dental school, so I just wanted to get some opinions on LECOM-B's dental school (the one in Bradenton, FL). I understand that they use a PBL curriculum, which makes me apprehensive, but can any current students who attend LECOM-B provide any insight on how they like the program, what their daily/weekly schedule is like, etc.? Also, does the school have any sort of reputation in the dental community?

Thanks....

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[frozenicecreamDMD]

their first class (unofficial class) failed a pretty important part of the clinical board (which make them fail the entire board and have to retake).

that is some food for though for you to consider LECOM.

btw, you dont have to specify LECOM-B or LECOM-PA since LECOM only has one dental school.

 

[Mason91]

their first class (unofficial class) failed a pretty important part of the clinical board (which make them fail the entire board and have to retake).

that is some food for though for you to consider LECOM.

btw, you dont have to specify LECOM-B or LECOM-PA since LECOM only has one dental school.

Did their entire first class fail the board because of their curriculum? If that's the case, do they get a refund from school or what lol?

 

[frozenicecreamDMD]

Did their entire first class fail the board because of their curriculum? If that's the case, do they get a refund from school or what lol?

this is the clinical board (you do the procedures and let it be inspected by a group of scorer (committee of dental board examiners) so this has nothing to do with the dental curriculum (basic science curriculum). LECOM students passed the board first part because the school provides all the study resource and since it is a P/F, you can pass if you put in the time and effort to study.

not all students. 75% failed this pretty important part, which is very very disastrous. this shows
1. the clinical training these soon-to-be dentists are not up to par because when you take the clinical board, your skills should be way above the bar the standards set to pass.
2. lack of patients pool (which is very apparent). LECOM is struggling in getting patients to come to the school which is very easy to understand because it is located on the outside of a very rural town.

dental school tuitions are non refundable, non exchangeable, and non negotiable. They don't get a refund. They get a part 2 board retake instead.

 

[PAtoPharm]

their first class (unofficial class) failed a pretty important part of the clinical board (which make them fail the entire board and have to retake).

that is some food for though for you to consider LECOM.

btw, you dont have to specify LECOM-B or LECOM-PA since LECOM only has one dental school.

Wow, that is some scary news. Based on what I found via Google, it looks like the c/o 2016 is LECOM's first graduating dental school class, so I guess we won't know until next summer (when the c/o 2017 takes their boards) as to whether or not they've improved the clinical component of the curriculum.

I guess this would be an indication that LECOM is probably not too difficult to get accepted to, but just out of curiosity, do you know of any other so-called "safety schools" that less competitive applicants would stand a decent shot of being accepted to?

 

[frozenicecreamDMD]

Wow, that is some scary news. Based on what I found via Google, it looks like the c/o 2016 is LECOM's first graduating dental school class, so I guess we won't know until next summer (when the c/o 2017 takes their boards) as to whether or not they've improved the clinical component of the curriculum.

I guess this would be an indication that LECOM is probably not too difficult to get accepted to, but just out of curiosity, do you know of any other so-called "safety schools" that less competitive applicants would stand a decent shot of being accepted to?

theres no safety dental school but obviously the newest ones Lecom and touro r the less competitive. but lecom has rejected many students with stats above average thou due to probably yield protection ( i didnt get accepted to lecom)

 

[PAtoPharm]

theres no safety dental school but obviously the newest ones Lecom and touro r the less competitive. but lecom has rejected many students with stats above average thou due to probably yield protection ( i didnt get accepted to lecom)

It's surprising to hear you didn't get accepted to LECOM. Can I ask if you received an interview invitation?

Also, at risk of asking a dumb question, what's yield protection?

 

[Alpha Centauri]

It's surprising to hear you didn't get accepted to LECOM. Can I ask if you received an interview invitation?

Also, at risk of asking a dumb question, what's yield protection?

Some schools likely reject students with insanely high stats because they assume they won't be attending anyways. "Why would someone with a 3.9 and a 24AA/TS want to apply to OUR school with an average DAT of 19" etc. However I am sure if you lived nearby to LECOM and they rejected you, there would be a way to appeal the decision if you let them know you are serious about joining

 

[JLT223]

It's surprising to hear you didn't get accepted to LECOM. Can I ask if you received an interview invitation?

Also, at risk of asking a dumb question, what's yield protection?

I didn't receive a peep from LECOM last cycle. They reject over-qualified applicants.

 

[frozenicecreamDMD]

It's surprising to hear you didn't get accepted to LECOM. Can I ask if you received an interview invitation?

Also, at risk of asking a dumb question, what's yield protection?

received an interviewed and didnt hear a beep. LOL.

 

[dental_life17]

The 4th year of LECOM is in Erie, PA. After three years in FL, you transfer to PA to complete your final year. I was in touch to one of the students, who just transferred to PA. He was pretty happy with the school. He said they do see decent number of patients. However, since I've been in the field for a very long time, and worked with various dentists, all comes down to clinical experience. Some schools have a very strong clinical compared to others. You can be book-smart and all, but if you are bad at hands-on, that's the end.

 

[workofshart]

this is the clinical board (you do the procedures and let it be inspected by a group of scorer (committee of dental board examiners) so this has nothing to do with the dental curriculum (basic science curriculum). LECOM students passed the board first part because the school provides all the study resource and since it is a P/F, you can pass if you put in the time and effort to study.

not all students. 75% failed this pretty important part, which is very very disastrous. this shows
1. the clinical training these soon-to-be dentists are not up to par because when you take the clinical board, your skills should be way above the bar the standards set to pass.
2. lack of patients pool (which is very apparent). LECOM is struggling in getting patients to come to the school which is very easy to understand because it is located on the outside of a very rural town.

dental school tuitions are non refundable, non exchangeable, and non negotiable. They don't get a refund. They get a part 2 board retake instead.

I live somewhat near LECOM and just wanted to say that Bradenton is not a "very rural town" lol. It is just north of Sarasota and south of Tampa. I've heard a lot of their patients are old people which makes sense for the area. If they have patient problems I'd imagine it's because the school is right next to Lakewood Ranch (nice master planned community) and those people probably have good insurance and don't need to go to a school. It might be rural if you live in NYC but for me middle of nowhere Alabama with 300 people fits that description better.

 

[Scumbag_Steve]

[.

 

[PAtoPharm]

Haha I haven't heard back from them, thanks for making me feel better about this whole LECOM shebang....

Are your stats really competitive?

 

[PAtoPharm]

The 4th year of LECOM is in Erie, PA. After three years in FL, you transfer to PA to complete your final year. I was in touch to one of the students, who just transferred to PA. He was pretty happy with the school. He said they do see decent number of patients. However, since I've been in the field for a very long time, and worked with various dentists, all comes down to clinical experience. Some schools have a very strong clinical compared to others. You can be book-smart and all, but if you are bad at hands-on, that's the end.

Did the student you know pass the clinical board? I wonder if the reason so many students in LECOM's inaugural class failed the clinical boards is because the program didn't prepare them for it adequately, or because they are a low "caliber" of student in general (due to the lower admissions stats) and were more likely to fail.

BTW, what does he think about how the curriculum is organized? Doesn't seem like it would be very pleasant to have one super-long semester that lasts from May until December. :/

 

[Advance]

Did the student you know pass the clinical board? I wonder if the reason so many students in LECOM's inaugural class failed the clinical boards is because the program didn't prepare them for it adequately, or because they are a low "caliber" of student in general (due to the lower admissions stats) and were more likely to fail.

BTW, what does he think about how the curriculum is organized? Doesn't seem like it would be very pleasant to have one super-long semester that lasts from May until December. :/

Having low grades/ DAT in undergrad wouldn't correlate to doing poorly on a clinical board. If they made it through boards part 1 then they're clearly academically capable. Considering you get all of your clinical skills from the dental school itself it's pretty hard not to place blame on the program. Just my 2cents.

 

[frozenicecreamDMD]

Having low grades/ DAT in undergrad wouldn't correlate to doing poorly on a clinical board. If they made it through boards part 1 then they're clearly academically capable. Considering you get all of your clinical skills from the dental school itself it's pretty hard not to place blame on the program. Just my 2cents.

this. aka means the dental school has 1. not enough patients 2. weak clinical program.

the amount of patients the school needs per year to stay open for accreditation is very small compared to the amount of patients the school should have to provide the students with adequate clinical training.

 

[dental_life17]

Did the student you know pass the clinical board? I wonder if the reason so many students in LECOM's inaugural class failed the clinical boards is because the program didn't prepare them for it adequately, or because they are a low "caliber" of student in general (due to the lower admissions stats) and were more likely to fail.

BTW, what does he think about how the curriculum is organized? Doesn't seem like it would be very pleasant to have one super-long semester that lasts from May until December. :/

All he said was that he's happy with the school, and that he gets good hands-on practice. However, you can really rely solely on his opinion because he doesn't know how it is in other schools. He go in with 18 DAT and 3.3 GPA.

 

[Almerrick4718]

their first class (unofficial class) failed a pretty important part of the clinical board (which make them fail the entire board and have to retake).

that is some food for though for you to consider LECOM.

btw, you dont have to specify LECOM-B or LECOM-PA since LECOM only has one dental school.

This is not accurate. students that chose to sit for adex from the first class ('16) saw a higher than usual number have to re mediate the manikin portion (endo, crown preps etc.) i believe most failed for undercuts but everyone successfully passed the remediation. After that fiasco sim lab faculty had to become certified adex graders and classes since then have had way tougher grading for practicals. Furthermore they now require students to pass a school administered mock-adex and cannot sit for the actual exam until they pass.

as for the live patient exam (srp, class 2 etc) pass rates were high, something like 44/48 in fl and 47/49 in erie. as far as i know one student failed the live patient exam 3 times so now they have to redo the manikin portion as well as the live patient and pay the entire adex fee

clinic is what you make of it, demonstrate competence to preceptors and specialists and they'll let you do more challenging treatments

say what you will about PBL but clinic at lecom is definitely its saving grace

 

[PAtoPharm]

This is not accurate. students that chose to sit for adex from the first class ('16) saw a higher than usual number have to re mediate the manikin portion (endo, crown preps etc.) i believe most failed for undercuts but everyone successfully passed the remediation. After that fiasco sim lab faculty had to become certified adex graders and classes since then have had way tougher grading for practicals. Furthermore they now require students to pass a school administered mock-adex and cannot sit for the actual exam until they pass.

as for the live patient exam (srp, class 2 etc) pass rates were high, something like 44/48 in fl and 47/49 in erie. as far as i know one student failed the live patient exam 3 times so now they have to redo the manikin portion as well as the live patient and pay the entire adex fee

clinic is what you make of it, demonstrate competence to preceptors and specialists and they'll let you do more challenging treatments

say what you will about PBL but clinic at lecom is definitely its saving grace

Thanks for the additional information regarding the board exam pass rates. Are you a LECOM student? If so, what is your opinion of the PBL curriculum? What is the schedule like on a day to day basis?

Thanks....

 

[nebuchadnezzar90]

Thanks for the additional information regarding the board exam pass rates. Are you a LECOM student? If so, what is your opinion of the PBL curriculum? What is the schedule like on a day to day basis?

Thanks....

Why do you put the 4 periods after thanks?

 

[PAtoPharm]

Why do you put the 4 periods after thanks?

It's an ellipses (even though an ellipses technically has just three periods), which is used to convey the sense that something more is to come (in this case, a response -- hopefully -- to my questions).

 

[beezey]

this is the clinical board (you do the procedures and let it be inspected by a group of scorer (committee of dental board examiners) so this has nothing to do with the dental curriculum (basic science curriculum). LECOM students passed the board first part because the school provides all the study resource and since it is a P/F, you can pass if you put in the time and effort to study.

not all students. 75% failed this pretty important part, which is very very disastrous. this shows
1. the clinical training these soon-to-be dentists are not up to par because when you take the clinical board, your skills should be way above the bar the standards set to pass.
2. lack of patients pool (which is very apparent). LECOM is struggling in getting patients to come to the school which is very easy to understand because it is located on the outside of a very rural town.

dental school tuitions are non refundable, non exchangeable, and non negotiable. They don't get a refund. They get a part 2 board retake instead.

You sound very uninformed about the information that you are espousing. First of all, the Bradenton-Sarasota area has a population of 702,281 people. I'm not sure how that's considered a very rural town. St. Pete/Tampa/Clearwater metro is 35-45 minutes away and has 2.8 million people living there. You also seem confused about which board exam you are talking about because NBDE part 2 is a written exam at a prometric site just like part 1. I'm assuming that your "stats" are trying to refer to the regional board exam which has a manikin and patient portion to it, which are graded separately, so I still don't know which one of those you are getting at. As far as patient availability, the entire 3rd year is clinic seeing two patients a day ( most students are booked out at least 2 weeks right now) and 4th year is 3 patients a day. There are definitely things that LECOM can work on, but with 2 full years of seeing patients, clinical experience really isn't one of them.

You're probably a really smart guy/girl that will be a good dentist. In the future though I would warn against make claims about things that you don't really know about, it makes your credibility go down the tubes. Probably more of a real life lesson though, since on the internet no ones who you are so you're good.

 

[BobbyBeavis]

Why do you put the 4 periods after thanks?

Why didn't you spell out the number four?

 

[dyesht]

I didn't receive a peep from LECOM last cycle. They reject over-qualified applicants.

They were just trying to humble people that call themselves "over qualified"

 

[JLT223]

They were just trying to humble people that call themselves "over qualified"

Good one.

 

[amalgam2020]

There's a lot of misinformation on this thread. The problem that caused some students in the first class to fail part of the test has been fixed, and there hasn't been a problem since.

The LECOM 3rd year students are almost always booked a few weeks out. They don't have a patient pool problem. (We're in Bradenton, which has a massive underserved population).

Students at the 4th year clinics (which are remote locations: either Erie, PA or Defuniak Springs, FL) consistently have more than enough patients. They also don't have any specialist programs stealing their patients, which allows them to see and treat everything themselves. This comes from talking with students who are there currently and with those who have graduated. The amount of clinical experience you get at LECOM in four years exceeds most dental schools.

PBL (problem-based learning) is definitely different from undergrad. It's tough. You need to be a self-motivated learner for sure. If you need someone to hold your hand through learning the material, then this isn't the school for you.

As far as "yield protection" and LECOM supposedly turning down qualified students in favor of less qualified ones, I don't think that's true at all. My undergrad GPA was 3.8 with a 22 on the DAT, and LECOM was the first school to interview me. They were also the first to send me an acceptance letter. Honestly, I seriously doubt that having a good GPA is going to hurt your chances with any dental school. If you don't hear back from LECOM and you have good stats, it's likely that something else on your application wasn't what the school was looking for. They look at applications "holistically". Cliché, I know, but it is what it is.

LECOM is what you make of it. If you want to scrape by in school, no one is stopping you. But if you want to exceed academically and clinically, they provide the resources for you to do so.

 

[Frychicken]

The amount of clinical experience you get at LECOM in four years exceeds most dental schools.

That's quite a bold claim. Would you have any data to support this?

 

[amalgam2020]

That's quite a bold claim. Would you have any data to support this?

Not off the cuff. It's what I've heard from the older students, graduates and faculty. The amount of clinical experience at LECOM is definitely something the school takes a lot of pride in.

 

[Shifff based]

Not off the cuff. It's what I've heard from the older students, graduates and faculty. The amount of clinical experience at LECOM is definitely something the school takes a lot of pride in.

The school claims that students graduating from LECOM receive the experience equivalent to a traditional school + a one year GPR! Wowzers!

 

[Likkriue]

LECOM is an okay dental school. However I would take everything said here with a grain of salt. I highly doubt LECOM has the best clinical experience in the country.

I hate how most schools that DON'T have any specialty programs and are not known for placing students into specialties, their favorite line is "Well haha since we don't have any specialty programs so you can do anything you want :^)".

 

[amalgam2020]

LECOM is an okay dental school. However I would take everything said here with a grain of salt. I highly doubt LECOM has the best clinical experience in the country.

I hate how most schools that DON'T have any specialty programs and are not known for placing students into specialties, their favorite line is "Well haha since we don't have any specialty programs so you can do anything you want :^)".

I never said we had the best clinical experience in the country. It is great though.

You might hate it, but it's true. Specialty residents will always take the more complicated cases from a school's patient pool. That's how it works.

LECOM students who've wanted to specialize haven't had any problems doing so.

 

[Michael_Scott]

There's a lot of misinformation on this thread. The problem that caused some students in the first class to fail part of the test has been fixed, and there hasn't been a problem since.

The LECOM 3rd year students are almost always booked a few weeks out. They don't have a patient pool problem. (We're in Bradenton, which has a massive underserved population).

Students at the 4th year clinics (which are remote locations: either Erie, PA or Defuniak Springs, FL) consistently have more than enough patients. They also don't have any specialist programs stealing their patients, which allows them to see and treat everything themselves. This comes from talking with students who are there currently and with those who have graduated. The amount of clinical experience you get at LECOM in four years exceeds most dental schools.

PBL (problem-based learning) is definitely different from undergrad. It's tough. You need to be a self-motivated learner for sure. If you need someone to hold your hand through learning the material, then this isn't the school for you.

As far as "yield protection" and LECOM supposedly turning down qualified students in favor of less qualified ones, I don't think that's true at all. My undergrad GPA was 3.8 with a 22 on the DAT, and LECOM was the first school to interview me. They were also the first to send me an acceptance letter. Honestly, I seriously doubt that having a good GPA is going to hurt your chances with any dental school. If you don't hear back from LECOM and you have good stats, it's likely that something else on your application wasn't what the school was looking for. They look at applications "holistically". Cliché, I know, but it is what it is.

LECOM is what you make of it. If you want to scrape by in school, no one is stopping you. But if you want to exceed academically and clinically, they provide the resources for you to do so.

Truthfully, how do you know it is fixed if you have not gone through the ADEX yet ? Are the scores for the 2nd class out yet...

That's quite a bold claim. Would you have any data to support this?

They just go to school for more time and less breaks. SO that gives them "more" clinical experience.

 

[amalgam2020]

Truthfully, how do you know it is fixed if you have not gone through the ADEX yet ? Are the scores for the 2nd class out yet...

Almerrick4718's post above explains it pretty well.

They just go to school for more time and less breaks. SO that gives them "more" clinical experience.

Crazy how more time in the clinic adds up to more clinical experience 😉

 

[Alpha Centauri]

 

[Greyangel6]

I got into UFCD with 3.94 sGPA and 3.94 oGPA and 21AA. And LECOM waitlisted me. My parents' house is actually 20 min away from the school. But anyway, bygones ^^

 

[Hawkteeth]

4th year LECOM student here. 75% failure? I'm pretty sure that number is wrong, maybe 75% pass. I'm at the Erie 4th year clinic and we had 96% pass rate for the patient part of Adex up here, DeFuniak clinic goes this weekend.

 

[comitan21]

They make you move to Erie, PA for your fourth year???

 

[Michael_Scott]

They make you move to Erie, PA for your fourth year???

AH, this thread lives again!

have the "option" of staying in brandeton or going to erie,pa.

 

[Hawkteeth]

AH, this thread lives again!

have the "option" of staying in brandeton or going to erie,pa.

You actually go to Defuniak Springs, FL if you choose to do 4th year in Florida. You are only in Bradenton for 3 years. It actually worked out pretty well, that way the 3rd years have their own patient base. I got to see a more diverse patient base in Erie, not sure what Defuniak was like though.