u/PerspectiveIll788

Posting here as well in case this gets deleted from the LECOM subreddit.

Everyone hears horror stories about LECOM, but they're usually centered around the Erie campus. Before enrolling at the Seton Hill campus, I heard it was more relaxed but that's definitely not the case anymore. The current dean, who is new this year, has significantly worsened the environment here. He's repeatedly invoked the hierarchy to remind everyone that he's in charge, and frequently tells students that because they aren't 25 their brains aren't fully developed yet. This is his most popular reason for justifying the insane rules on campus. He spent an entire 10 minutes of an admin meeting talking about students sticking gum under desks, and saying that if gum can't be trusted, neither can drinks. They (admin) also threatened punishment for gum found under desks despite the fact that people share desks.

Speaking up essentially impossible, because doing so will probably get you written up for "professionalism" violations. Formal complaints require students to attach their name, and retaliation is a very real fear. The admin preaches professionalism constantly while never adhering to the same standards. They're constantly late to meetings and change student schedules with little notice. The dean belittles students and tries to dictates how they behave even off campus, citing community trust. Accountability is a one-way street here. When 2nd year students were told about a comprehensive exam on a Sunday (two days before it was scheduled) and pushed back saying they hadn't been warned, admin just insisted they had been notified in advance, even though there no Canvas messages or emails to back that claim up. Professionalism is used as a fear tactic, not as an actual standard.

The PBL program is also misrepresented during admissions. Prospective students are told they'll only be on campus a few hours a week and can study independently. The reality is that you're expected to be available Monday-Friday, 8am to 5pm, regardless of whether or not you have scheduled classes in case a faculty member might want to meet. Even appointments that don't conflict with class require an excused absence form. Students who fail an exam are placed into a mandatory study hall that's a minimum of eight hours on campus per day. None of this is disclosed upfront. The program is marketed as flexible to prospective students, but it clearly is not.

The curriculum itself is poorly structured and subject to mid-semester changes at admin's discretion. Anatomy is a reasonable class, but there is no cadaver lab at Seton Hill. Instead, students learn through digital labs consisting of PowerPoints made by classmates. So basically students are teaching other students on material they themselves are still learning. In PBL, students are handed 50 to 60 chapters with no learning objectives or study guides and are expected to master all of it by exams. Applicants are told they'll have access to recordings from Erie lectures, but since the Erie curriculum doesn't align with PBL, these recordings are not particularly helpful for studying. Previous classes received a 20–30% curve on exams. That curve no longer exists. As a result, nearly 1/3 of 1st year students failed their most recent exam. Raw exam scores are no longer shared, and when questions are challenged and removed, students aren't told which ones or how many. They are also not allowing students to review their individual exams anymore to see what they got wrong and right, it is a group review session with just the correct answers. This is another way that student learning is negatively impacted, people can't see their own answers to exam questions to see if it was a misunderstood concept or a test taking error. About 10% of the first-year class has already dropped out for various reasons, and the year isn't even over. The 2nd year class is now below 75% of its original size. They've also masked the attrition rate by combining Erie, Elmira, and Seton Hill as a single campus, so no one really knows just how bad it is here. But instead of examining why students are struggling and offering meaningful support, admin simply blames students for not understanding the material.

This pattern extends to board exam prep. There's no dedicated board study period! Instead, 2nd year students have a course called Convergence (see: https://www.reddit.com/r/Osteopathic/comments/1kt44mu/updates_on_the_lecom_drama/). This was never disclosed during admissions. Convergence is essentially busywork consisting of TrueLearn quizzes that students must complete on campus and it actively interferes with actual board studying. It's now a graded course with oral exams added in, with no clear explanation of how any of that prepares students for boards. A ton of students would not have chosen LECOM had they known there was no real board prep period. Students were also told that all the issues that occurred with Convergence last year would be fixed for this year, but nothing changed, and the course was made worse. There are still a lot of 2nd year students getting screwed over by this "course."

There are also no breaks between blocks throughout the academic year. So no spring break, no downtime at all. Classes resume the day after unit exams. And this has lead to severe burnout and basically means that remediation for all courses are stacked at the end of the year rather than following individual units.

2nd year students were also not told until after submitting their location preference list that a GPA under 2.7 would result in being assigned to a clinical rotation site near Erie or Elmira which effectively nullifies the entire reason that many students choose the Seton Hill campus in the first place. On top of that, students were essentially told in a meeting that a poor match outcome would be their own fault.

During a meeting, the dean used part of that time to brag about the campus's match rate without mentioning how many students matched into their preferred specialty, only highlighting a few ortho matches. And then he went on to praise the education students receive here (what education?? we just read textbooks with very little course instruction). At the same time he criticized duty hour restrictions during residency saying that limiting the number of hours worked per week reduced the amount of training doctors receive.

LECOM does not care about you as a student or as a person. They only care about their statistics, meaning that you pass boards and that you match. Your aspirations do not matter to them. Within your first few months during first year, they tell you to be realistic with your expectations (in terms of speciality and location of matching). They do not allow research years to help bolster your application. They believe their responsibility to you is to make sure you match somewhere, even if it's not what you want. That is the bare minimum expectation from a medical school, not a standard that should be normalized.

This school is much worse than the dress code, no food or drinks in classrooms, and mandatory lectures. Those are the most manageable parts of this place. LECOM deliberately withholds important information from prospective students, and once enrolled, students have no real recourse. Admin's priorities are board pass rates and match statistics, not student wellbeing. Rather than supporting struggling students, they strongly "recommend" leaves of absence to avoid dealing with the problem. There is absolutely no transparency from administration about changes that are made, and when feedback is provided, students are told that their perspective is wrong. Feedback (even when they solicit it) is used as a way for them to justify their actions, not to actually listen to students. It's a genuinely terrible situation, because there are faculty here who are talented, caring, and invested in student success, but the admin is malignant. If you're considering a Northern LECOM campus, the Elmira location has a better reputation than either Erie or Seton Hill. Bradenton is also considered a better option.

Just as a note: This is being posted as a warning for prospective students. I don't expect any change to come from this, but I wish I had heeded the prior warnings posted before attending here. Hopefully this helps someone make an informed decision about coming here.

Everyone hears horror stories about LECOM, but they're usually centered around the Erie campus. Before enrolling at the Seton Hill campus, I heard it was more relaxed but that's definitely not the case anymore. The current dean, who is new this year, has significantly worsened the environment here. He's repeatedly invoked the hierarchy to remind everyone that he's in charge, and frequently tells students that because they aren't 25 their brains aren't fully developed yet. This is his most popular reason for justifying the insane rules on campus. He spent an entire 10 minutes of an admin meeting talking about students sticking gum under desks, and saying that if gum can't be trusted, neither can drinks. They (admin) also threatened punishment for gum found under desks despite the fact that people share desks.

Speaking up essentially impossible, because doing so will probably get you written up for "professionalism" violations. Formal complaints require students to attach their name, and retaliation is a very real fear. The admin preaches professionalism constantly while never adhering to the same standards. They're constantly late to meetings and change student schedules with little notice. The dean belittles students and tries to dictates how they behave even off campus, citing community trust. Accountability is a one-way street here. When 2nd year students were told about a comprehensive exam on a Sunday (two days before it was scheduled) and pushed back saying they hadn't been warned, admin just insisted they had been notified in advance, even though there no Canvas messages or emails to back that claim up. Professionalism is used as a fear tactic, not as an actual standard.

The PBL program is also misrepresented during admissions. Prospective students are told they'll only be on campus a few hours a week and can study independently. The reality is that you're expected to be available Monday-Friday, 8am to 5pm, regardless of whether or not you have scheduled classes in case a faculty member might want to meet. Even appointments that don't conflict with class require an excused absence form. Students who fail an exam are placed into a mandatory study hall that's a minimum of eight hours on campus per day. None of this is disclosed upfront. The program is marketed as flexible to prospective students, but it clearly is not.

The curriculum itself is poorly structured and subject to mid-semester changes at admin's discretion. Anatomy is a reasonable class, but there is no cadaver lab at Seton Hill. Instead, students learn through digital labs consisting of PowerPoints made by classmates. So basically students are teaching other students on material they themselves are still learning. In PBL, students are handed 50 to 60 chapters with no learning objectives or study guides and are expected to master all of it by exams. Applicants are told they'll have access to recordings from Erie lectures, but since the Erie curriculum doesn't align with PBL, these recordings are not particularly helpful for studying. Previous classes received a 20–30% curve on exams. That curve no longer exists. As a result, nearly 1/3 of 1st year students failed their most recent exam. Raw exam scores are no longer shared, and when questions are challenged and removed, students aren't told which ones or how many. They are also not allowing students to review their individual exams anymore to see what they got wrong and right, it is a group review session with just the correct answers. This is another way that student learning is negatively impacted, people can't see their own answers to exam questions to see if it was a misunderstood concept or a test taking error. About 10% of the first-year class has already dropped out for various reasons, and the year isn't even over. The 2nd year class is now below 75% of its original size. They've also masked the attrition rate by combining Erie, Elmira, and Seton Hill as a single campus, so no one really knows just how bad it is here. But instead of examining why students are struggling and offering meaningful support, admin simply blames students for not understanding the material.

This pattern extends to board exam prep. There's no dedicated board study period! Instead, 2nd year students have a course called Convergence (see: https://www.reddit.com/r/Osteopathic/comments/1kt44mu/updates_on_the_lecom_drama/). This was never disclosed during admissions. Convergence is essentially busywork consisting of TrueLearn quizzes that students must complete on campus and it actively interferes with actual board studying. It's now a graded course with oral exams added in, with no clear explanation of how any of that prepares students for boards. A ton of students would not have chosen LECOM had they known there was no real board prep period. Students were also told that all the issues that occurred with Convergence last year would be fixed for this year, but nothing changed, and the course was made worse. There are still a lot of 2nd year students getting screwed over by this "course."

There are also no breaks between blocks throughout the academic year. So no spring break, no downtime at all. Classes resume the day after unit exams. And this has lead to severe burnout and basically means that remediation for all courses are stacked at the end of the year rather than following individual units.

2nd year students were also not told until after submitting their location preference list that a GPA under 2.7 would result in being assigned to a clinical rotation site near Erie or Elmira which effectively nullifies the entire reason that many students choose the Seton Hill campus in the first place. On top of that, students were essentially told in a meeting that a poor match outcome would be their own fault.

During a meeting, the dean used part of that time to brag about the campus's match rate without mentioning how many students matched into their preferred specialty, only highlighting a few ortho matches. And then he went on to praise the education students receive here (what education?? we just read textbooks with very little course instruction). At the same time he criticized duty hour restrictions during residency saying that limiting the number of hours worked per week reduced the amount of training doctors receive.

LECOM does not care about you as a student or as a person. They only care about their statistics, meaning that you pass boards and that you match. Your aspirations do not matter to them. Within your first few months during first year, they tell you to be realistic with your expectations (in terms of speciality and location of matching). They do not allow research years to help bolster your application. They believe their responsibility to you is to make sure you match somewhere, even if it's not what you want. That is the bare minimum expectation from a medical school, not a standard that should be normalized.

This school is much worse than the dress code, no food or drinks in classrooms, and mandatory lectures. Those are the most manageable parts of this place. LECOM deliberately withholds important information from prospective students, and once enrolled, students have no real recourse. Admin's priorities are board pass rates and match statistics, not student wellbeing. Rather than supporting struggling students, they strongly "recommend" leaves of absence to avoid dealing with the problem. There is absolutely no transparency from administration about changes that are made, and when feedback is provided, students are told that their perspective is wrong. Feedback (even when they solicit it) is used as a way for them to justify their actions, not to actually listen to students. It's a genuinely terrible situation, because there are faculty here who are talented, caring, and invested in student success, but the admin is malignant. If you're considering a Northern LECOM campus, the Elmira location has a better reputation than either Erie or Seton Hill. Bradenton is also considered a better option.

Just as a note: This is being posted as a warning for prospective students. I don't expect any change to come from this, but I wish I had heeded the prior warnings posted before attending here. Hopefully this helps someone make an informed decision about coming here.

Everyone hears horror stories about LECOM, but they're usually centered around the Erie campus. Before enrolling at the Seton Hill campus, I heard it was more relaxed but that's definitely not the case anymore. The current dean, who is new this year, has significantly worsened the environment here. He's repeatedly invoked the hierarchy to remind everyone that he's in charge, and frequently tells students that because they aren't 25 their brains aren't fully developed yet. This is his most popular reason for justifying the insane rules on campus. He spent an entire 10 minutes of an admin meeting talking about students sticking gum under desks, and saying that if gum can't be trusted, neither can drinks. They (admin) also threatened punishment for gum found under desks despite the fact that people share desks.

Speaking up essentially impossible, because doing so will probably get you written up for "professionalism" violations. Formal complaints require students to attach their name, and retaliation is a very real fear. The admin preaches professionalism constantly while never adhering to the same standards. They're constantly late to meetings and change student schedules with little notice. The dean belittles students and tries to dictates how they behave even off campus, citing community trust. Accountability is a one-way street here. When 2nd year students were told about a comprehensive exam on a Sunday (two days before it was scheduled) and pushed back saying they hadn't been warned, admin just insisted they had been notified in advance, even though there no Canvas messages or emails to back that claim up. Professionalism is used as a fear tactic, not as an actual standard.

The PBL program is also misrepresented during admissions. Prospective students are told they'll only be on campus a few hours a week and can study independently. The reality is that you're expected to be available Monday-Friday, 8am to 5pm, regardless of whether or not you have scheduled classes in case a faculty member might want to meet. Even appointments that don't conflict with class require an excused absence form. Students who fail an exam are placed into a mandatory study hall that's a minimum of eight hours on campus per day. None of this is disclosed upfront. The program is marketed as flexible to prospective students, but it clearly is not.

The curriculum itself is poorly structured and subject to mid-semester changes at admin's discretion. Anatomy is a reasonable class, but there is no cadaver lab at Seton Hill. Instead, students learn through digital labs consisting of PowerPoints made by classmates. So basically students are teaching other students on material they themselves are still learning. In PBL, students are handed 50 to 60 chapters with no learning objectives or study guides and are expected to master all of it by exams. Applicants are told they'll have access to recordings from Erie lectures, but since the Erie curriculum doesn't align with PBL, these recordings are not particularly helpful for studying. Previous classes received a 20–30% curve on exams. That curve no longer exists. As a result, nearly 1/3 of 1st year students failed their most recent exam. Raw exam scores are no longer shared, and when questions are challenged and removed, students aren't told which ones or how many. They are also not allowing students to review their individual exams anymore to see what they got wrong and right, it is a group review session with just the correct answers. This is another way that student learning is negatively impacted, people can't see their own answers to exam questions to see if it was a misunderstood concept or a test taking error. About 10% of the first-year class has already dropped out for various reasons, and the year isn't even over. The 2nd year class is now below 75% of its original size. They've also masked the attrition rate by combining Erie, Elmira, and Seton Hill as a single campus, so no one really knows just how bad it is here. But instead of examining why students are struggling and offering meaningful support, admin simply blames students for not understanding the material.

This pattern extends to board exam prep. There's no dedicated board study period! Instead, 2nd year students have a course called Convergence (see: https://www.reddit.com/r/Osteopathic/comments/1kt44mu/updates_on_the_lecom_drama/). This was never disclosed during admissions. Convergence is essentially busywork consisting of TrueLearn quizzes that students must complete on campus and it actively interferes with actual board studying. It's now a graded course with oral exams added in, with no clear explanation of how any of that prepares students for boards. A ton of students would not have chosen LECOM had they known there was no real board prep period. Students were also told that all the issues that occurred with Convergence last year would be fixed for this year, but nothing changed, and the course was made worse. There are still a lot of 2nd year students getting screwed over by this "course."

There are also no breaks between blocks throughout the academic year. So no spring break, no downtime at all. Classes resume the day after unit exams. And this has lead to severe burnout and basically means that remediation for all courses are stacked at the end of the year rather than following individual units.

2nd year students were also not told until after submitting their location preference list that a GPA under 2.7 would result in being assigned to a clinical rotation site near Erie or Elmira which effectively nullifies the entire reason that many students choose the Seton Hill campus in the first place. On top of that, students were essentially told in a meeting that a poor match outcome would be their own fault.

During a meeting, the dean used part of that time to brag about the campus's match rate without mentioning how many students matched into their preferred specialty, only highlighting a few ortho matches. And then he went on to praise the education students receive here (what education?? we just read textbooks with very little course instruction). At the same time he criticized duty hour restrictions during residency saying that limiting the number of hours worked per week reduced the amount of training doctors receive.

LECOM does not care about you as a student or as a person. They only care about their statistics, meaning that you pass boards and that you match. Your aspirations do not matter to them. Within your first few months during first year, they tell you to be realistic with your expectations (in terms of speciality and location of matching). They do not allow research years to help bolster your application. They believe their responsibility to you is to make sure you match somewhere, even if it's not what you want. That is the bare minimum expectation from a medical school, not a standard that should be normalized.

This school is much worse than the dress code, no food or drinks in classrooms, and mandatory lectures. Those are the most manageable parts of this place. LECOM deliberately withholds important information from prospective students, and once enrolled, students have no real recourse. Admin's priorities are board pass rates and match statistics, not student wellbeing. Rather than supporting struggling students, they strongly "recommend" leaves of absence to avoid dealing with the problem. There is absolutely no transparency from administration about changes that are made, and when feedback is provided, students are told that their perspective is wrong. Feedback (even when they solicit it) is used as a way for them to justify their actions, not to actually listen to students. It's a genuinely terrible situation, because there are faculty here who are talented, caring, and invested in student success, but the admin is malignant. If you're considering a Northern LECOM campus, the Elmira location has a better reputation than either Erie or Seton Hill. Bradenton is also considered a better option.

Just as a note: This is being posted as a warning for prospective students. I don't expect any change to come from this, but I wish I had heeded the prior warnings posted before attending here. Hopefully this helps someone make an informed decision about coming here.