What is it like as a student at Western University College of Podiatric Medicine?
Hey Pre-Podiatry Students, I am a first year podiatry student at Western University and I thought I would give you my honest opinion of what I think about my school including the good and the bad.
Location: Western University is located Pomona, Ca. The weather is amazing with the temperature being 75-80s with no humidity. It rains maybe twice a month but it is usually a dry area. The city of Pomona itself is located in an area mostly with Hispanics in the lower income bracket. I live a mile away from school and havent had a problem other than my neighbors throwing fiestas on the weekends. The city of Pomona is surround by very nice areas like Chino Hills, Claremont, Diamond Bar, Rancho Cucamonga. Pomona is 30 minutes away from Orange County and 45 minutes from downtown L.A. I dont suggest living too far away from campus because traffic could get really bad at times.
Overview of the University and all of its colleges: WesternU probably has almost every healthcare profession known. The programs that are offered here are Osteopathic Medicine (DO), Podiatry (DPM), Dental Medicine (DMD), Optometry (OD), Pharmacy (PharmD), Nursing, Veterinary (DVM), Physical Therpy (DPT), Physician Assistant (MSPA), and other Masters programs. We have a class called Inter Professional Approach (IPE) where a member from every college sits down together in a small room with a facilitator to discuss cases. Sometimes its very interesting and sometimes I dont want to be there because I have to catch up on other classes. But its a great way to meet people from other colleges and know what their profession is all about. The University just built the HEC and the Patient Care Center (PCC). All of our classes are in the HEC and it has about 40 study rooms with 42 plasma TVs in every room. There is always a security presence so I have never felt unsafe on campus.
Our Curriculum: At WesternU, we live and breathe Vision 2015 and our curriculum proves it. We take EVERY science class the medical students take with the EXACT same exam. Our curriculum is VERY intense because we have to take everything the medical students take plus our podiatry classes on top of that. All our podiatry classes are condense into one class called Principles of Podiatric Medicine (PMP). We first went through lower extremity anatomy, biomechanics, and radiology. After that, we broke out into small groups with a facilitator and work-up REAL cases that the faculty had. But before we go into small group discussions, the faculty writes a primer for us to read so we have background knowledge. For the cases, we have to work-up the cases by ourselves and the faculty will only guide us. For every case, we are expected to know what the patients presents clinically, describe the x-ray using medical terminology, what are the possible differentials for this patients, diagnostic tests to rule in or out certain differentials, risk factors, conservative treatment, surgical treatment, and any complications for the treatment we decide to do. They do really good job painting an overall big picture on what to expect on these cases they present. Our faculty just doesnt lecture us and expect us to memorize it and spit it back out. They want us to think and also understand what anatomic structures are involved, how it affects biomechanics, and what it looks like radio-graphically.
Our facultys main goal is to really prepare us for residency and be one step ahead. Some of our faculty used to be residency directors and they know what to expect during residency. That is why after every PMP exam we have to give oral presentations in front of the class for a grade that are pertinent on the things we were just tested on. For our final cumulative PMP exam, it was broken down into two parts: a written section and an oral section. For the oral section, we had to sit down one-on-one with a faculty and they present us two cases where we have to work-up a patient from the start to end.
For our clinical rotations during our 3rd and 4th year, we are about to have our first class in the clinics next year. The core rotations are almost identical to the medical curriculum but we dont take OB/GYN and Psychiatry. But we get 5 months of clerkships in podiatry. I believe most of our rotations are along with medical students. Here is a link about our curriculum. As you can see it is ALMOST IDENTICAL to the medical school but we still also have our podiatry classes.
Podiatry Curriculum:
http://prospective.westernu.edu/podiatry/curriculum
D.O. Curriculum:
http://prospective.westernu.edu/osteopathic/welcome
Just keep in mind the main goal for Vision 2015 is to have parity with MD/DO colleagues. Here at Western we take everything medical students take and therefore have EARNED the respect of the medical students here. At first it was kind of though earning the respect of our D.O. colleagues because they didnt know anything about podiatry. But once they found that we take everything they take with the same exam they consider us as EQUALS.
Negative: The only thing bad thing about this school is that it is a new school and it isnt accredited yet. But we recently had the accreditation committee visit our school and our clinical rotation sites and they were very pleased. Since it is a new school, there were initially kinks that had to be fixed. Most of it has been fixed but not all of it. I truly believe accreditation wont be an issue. Western is too good to fail.
If you have any questions, you can PM me.
Timmy T.
Hey Pre-Podiatry Students, I am a first year podiatry student at Western University and I thought I would give you my honest opinion of what I think about my school including the good and the bad.
Location: Western University is located Pomona, Ca. The weather is amazing with the temperature being 75-80s with no humidity. It rains maybe twice a month but it is usually a dry area. The city of Pomona itself is located in an area mostly with Hispanics in the lower income bracket. I live a mile away from school and havent had a problem other than my neighbors throwing fiestas on the weekends. The city of Pomona is surround by very nice areas like Chino Hills, Claremont, Diamond Bar, Rancho Cucamonga. Pomona is 30 minutes away from Orange County and 45 minutes from downtown L.A. I dont suggest living too far away from campus because traffic could get really bad at times.
Overview of the University and all of its colleges: WesternU probably has almost every healthcare profession known. The programs that are offered here are Osteopathic Medicine (DO), Podiatry (DPM), Dental Medicine (DMD), Optometry (OD), Pharmacy (PharmD), Nursing, Veterinary (DVM), Physical Therpy (DPT), Physician Assistant (MSPA), and other Masters programs. We have a class called Inter Professional Approach (IPE) where a member from every college sits down together in a small room with a facilitator to discuss cases. Sometimes its very interesting and sometimes I dont want to be there because I have to catch up on other classes. But its a great way to meet people from other colleges and know what their profession is all about. The University just built the HEC and the Patient Care Center (PCC). All of our classes are in the HEC and it has about 40 study rooms with 42 plasma TVs in every room. There is always a security presence so I have never felt unsafe on campus.
Our Curriculum: At WesternU, we live and breathe Vision 2015 and our curriculum proves it. We take EVERY science class the medical students take with the EXACT same exam. Our curriculum is VERY intense because we have to take everything the medical students take plus our podiatry classes on top of that. All our podiatry classes are condense into one class called Principles of Podiatric Medicine (PMP). We first went through lower extremity anatomy, biomechanics, and radiology. After that, we broke out into small groups with a facilitator and work-up REAL cases that the faculty had. But before we go into small group discussions, the faculty writes a primer for us to read so we have background knowledge. For the cases, we have to work-up the cases by ourselves and the faculty will only guide us. For every case, we are expected to know what the patients presents clinically, describe the x-ray using medical terminology, what are the possible differentials for this patients, diagnostic tests to rule in or out certain differentials, risk factors, conservative treatment, surgical treatment, and any complications for the treatment we decide to do. They do really good job painting an overall big picture on what to expect on these cases they present. Our faculty just doesnt lecture us and expect us to memorize it and spit it back out. They want us to think and also understand what anatomic structures are involved, how it affects biomechanics, and what it looks like radio-graphically.
Our facultys main goal is to really prepare us for residency and be one step ahead. Some of our faculty used to be residency directors and they know what to expect during residency. That is why after every PMP exam we have to give oral presentations in front of the class for a grade that are pertinent on the things we were just tested on. For our final cumulative PMP exam, it was broken down into two parts: a written section and an oral section. For the oral section, we had to sit down one-on-one with a faculty and they present us two cases where we have to work-up a patient from the start to end.
For our clinical rotations during our 3rd and 4th year, we are about to have our first class in the clinics next year. The core rotations are almost identical to the medical curriculum but we dont take OB/GYN and Psychiatry. But we get 5 months of clerkships in podiatry. I believe most of our rotations are along with medical students. Here is a link about our curriculum. As you can see it is ALMOST IDENTICAL to the medical school but we still also have our podiatry classes.
Podiatry Curriculum:
http://prospective.westernu.edu/podiatry/curriculum
D.O. Curriculum:
http://prospective.westernu.edu/osteopathic/welcome
Just keep in mind the main goal for Vision 2015 is to have parity with MD/DO colleagues. Here at Western we take everything medical students take and therefore have EARNED the respect of the medical students here. At first it was kind of though earning the respect of our D.O. colleagues because they didnt know anything about podiatry. But once they found that we take everything they take with the same exam they consider us as EQUALS.
Negative: The only thing bad thing about this school is that it is a new school and it isnt accredited yet. But we recently had the accreditation committee visit our school and our clinical rotation sites and they were very pleased. Since it is a new school, there were initially kinks that had to be fixed. Most of it has been fixed but not all of it. I truly believe accreditation wont be an issue. Western is too good to fail.
If you have any questions, you can PM me.
Timmy T.
im kinda nervous about school. I have question about class schedule? Could you please post how it look like for the first semester? Thanks.
