As for rumor #2 about schools not allowing some students to take the boards, that's just not true in a
literal sense. Anyone who passes the basic sciences (1st and 2nd year) will be allowed to take the exam. The school has to give them a letter from the dean or registrar stating that they did pass 2 years of pod school and took the requisite classes before they can register with NBPME for the exam, but all schools have to give that letter if you do pass the first two years.
In a
figurative sense, it's entirely true that schools will prevent certain students from taking the board exam to protect the school's board pass rates. Those are simply the students who fail a course or two and flunk out of the programs entirely. The schools have deemed from their performance that they don't have the knowledge to move on, so they never make it through the basic sciences and couldn't sit for the boards anyways by NBPME standards. The same thing occurs at some Carribean MD schools: they might accept 450 students, but some students are weeded out and only about 150 or 200 of them are still around in the program to take the USMLE. Those schools, like the pod schools who admit too many students, know that they'd rapidly lose their accreditation if board pass rates were too low; they have to get the riff raff out of there and can't do a disservice to the profession by graduating unqualified doctors.
I think where this "the school won't let you take the boards" rumor got started is with comprehensive basic science exams which some schools administer towards the end of the second year spring when boards are a couple months away. I know Barry and OCPM do it, and other schools might also. The general stated reasoning behind the "comp exam" is to gauge the strength of the school's instruction in each of the sciences (a second obvious reasoning is to possibly scare students who bomb the comp exam to really kick into gear on studying for the NBPME part I). It has been rumored that "if you don't get a certain score on the comps, the school won't give you the letter to register for boards," but that has not actually been instituted at any school I know of - nor can it be even if faculty desired it (read bottom). If you ask me, it's probably just another student rumor and hearsay as the original post suggests. The podiatry school's options are basically to flunk you out before you complete the second year coursework, or you must otherwise be allowed to take the boards. If you pass your classes, they can't deny that you are registered and passed them:
"...A candidate is eligible for the examinations when certified as a second-year (Part I) or fourth-year (Part II) student by the dean or registrar of the candidate's college. The certification indicates that each candidate is enrolled in college at the time of the test administration. Second-year students must have passed the coursework related to the material in the Part I examinations..."
http://www.nbpme.org/PDFs/Bulletin2007final.pdf (page 5)
