I interviewed on 1/18 and was accepted, but I think I'm going to decline their offer. The program seems disorganized and I asked several current students what they would change about the program and they all said they wish it was more organized. That is a really bad sign to me because if the staff can't get the curriculum right or get quizzes/tests right then how does that make it easier for students to learn. Also, I'm a very organized person and if I was in that environment for 2 years then I think I would really hate it and feel stressed out to the max.
Even interview day was a little disorganized. Apparently there was a new schedule for each group of candidates + current student, but the current students leading each group weren't all given the new schedule.. So some groups had the new one and some had the old one. So for the first 20 minutes of the day, some groups were running around trying to catch up and figure out where they needed to go. It really wasn't a huge deal but I think that just shows the disorganization of the program.
I like that the program is 2 years, but I don't like a program that is full PBL for every course. I understand having a few courses in the curriculum PBL, but to just review material before class, then come to class and discuss/question each other seems sooooo exhausting. For me, I want a prof to teach me at least some of the material by lectures. I do like the group aspect of PBL and I think it works well for information retention.
The main thing that deterred me was the pass rate for the NPTE in 2011. It was something like 67% (if I remember correctly) and Dr. Ruby stated it was because the students graduated a few days before the exam and the faculty advised them to study for like 6 weeks, but they didn't so that's why the pass rate was low that year. That seemed odd to me. I wish we knew what the pass rate was in 2012.
