To be honest I had a lot more typed up but I am scared of retaliation if my identity is discovered. My account was made several days ago and since then I have typed and deleted multiple versions of what I wanted to post. Sorry if this post still seems vague but please understand posting at all is very dangerous.
Many of the issues present at PSCOM are not typical of most schools. I would say that the issues at PSCOM are similar to those which have been reported at Nova Southeastern. A reddit post about that school says "a big theme was awful admin, disorganization, etc... anyone succeeding there was doing so in spite of the school." I think this is an accurate way to describe PSCOM in 2024.
The first thing that I will say is that the attitude of the student body is not good. I would say it is wary, anxious and at times angry. The newer classes are not cooperative and friendly like you hear about many P/F schools. There are many good people too but the social climate will probably disappoint you if you come here. The Astro person is strange to me because they claim to be from the MS1 class but have been consistently positive about the school. In particular the comment "I know literally no one here who regrets coming here" makes me distrust them, because even those who have a more positive personal opinion of PSCOM will know multiple people who do not. I am not sure if they have ulterior motives or if they are ignorant of the people around them. But at least they were correct about the reddit post from last week, which claimed things that are not true.
It is difficult to discuss specific issues without putting myself or my friends at risk. I think that one of the biggest issues is that rules are applied unevenly. Favoritism is an element but I think it is truly unpredictable at all levels. I am not comfortable providing specific examples, but this is severe. Things that are minor and which would be resolved easily or simply ignored in any workplace can cause serious harm to you at PSCOM. At the same time, certain people get away with too much.
I had choices. I chose PSCOM and I regret it. I think that if you also have choices then you should go somewhere else. Including most DO schools.
Just got out of the renal exam so I'm tired, and if I fail to address something, lmk.
"
a big theme was awful admin, disorganization, etc... anyone succeeding there was doing so in spite of the school." This could be the tagline for any med school in the country lol. The school makes mistakes but they own up to them when they do. I'm thinking of how some students got screwed over with a demanding community hours schedule. They basically scarped the entire thing when students gave them valid criticism. Yes, there is disorganization and some of the admin is awful, but they fix it as best they can. From my understanding, Nova doesn't fix their problems.
Also, in that Reddit post, the OP stated they didn't even go to our school (and you skipped over like the five current students who go here that all debunked those claims line for line).
"
The newer classes are not cooperative and friendly like you hear about many P/F schools."
This is the big clue of how I know you don't go here. Have you seen our class drive? Groups of students work together to
condense every single LO from every single lecture and PBL case. Every class does it themselves as it would be academic dishonesty to share between classes, but every class doing it themselves proves how much collaboration is valued here. Another example is the anatomy anki decks for our AIGs so you know exactly what you need to study and when. A third example, M2s + M3s spend hours creating weekly practice questions for the M1s (shoutout to them) to let us know what's high yield for real life, step exams, and for the school. They don't have to do that (and they are unpaid btw) but they
want to do that. (Also, "newer classes": curriculum changed so the beef you might have as an M4/M3 would not apply to any premeds looking to go to the school now.)
I'll admit that as a class we are probs anxious at times, but who isn't? That's just life. We all worked our butts off to be where we are at and don't want to lose it. I have friends at Harvard Med who complain about their student body being anxious and I have friends at LECOM complaining about the same thing. This is a universal experience for med students because this is literally the hardest type of grad school you can do. It's inherently anxiety-provoking. While some people might be more susceptible to anxiety than others, but overall, everyone is stressed because what we are trying to achieve ain't easy.
Sure, maybe some people hate the school, and I am not aware of them. Super valid, I'll give you that. But at least in my immediate friend group, many of us turned down "higher" ranked schools to go here and we have no regrets. There are definitely people struggling mentally or academically, but that's med school unfortunately and maybe they hate the school for putting them through a rigorous curriculum. But you will find that everywhere. At least our student gov does a hell of a good job making sure everything we are anxious about is addressed (i.e., FPCC being added to our calendar last second this week due to an admin error, but they got it moved to Zoom).
"The Astro person is strange to me because they claim to be from the MS1 class" My identity is not a secret. If you go here, head to the school discord page (which can only be accessed by psh email btw) and find me. You will see this online nametag next to my real name. Feel free to say hi. (Also, who goes onto a med school forum and talks positively about a school they don't even go to? That doesn't make sense lol....)
"
It is difficult to discuss specific issues without putting myself or my friends at risk. I think that one of the biggest issues is that rules are applied unevenly. Favoritism is an element but I think it is truly unpredictable at all levels. I am not comfortable providing specific examples, but this is severe. Things that are minor and which would be resolved easily or simply ignored in any workplace can cause serious harm to you at PSCOM. At the same time, certain people get away with too much." I'm sorry you feel uncomfortable sharing specific details due to fear of retaliation against you. That's super valid. But you gotta understand you can't make big accusations without backing up your claims. Even though you won't/can't give specifics, I'll try my best to explain why I don't agree with that.
PSCOM
always gives us the benefit of the doubt. For example, with the EBM exam, some exam questions were in an old study guide from a previous iteration of the class. They gave everyone points for those questions because they knew it was an unfair advantage for those who did that random study guide. If there was favoritism for certain students or policies not being followed consistently, the EBM professor would have easily removed those questions or just let it be, but instead they gave everyone 11 free points on a 25 question exam.
If you are talking about the community hour placements, again, that was scraped because the admin realized it was a complete ****show from their end. That is the only other time I can think of favoritism being played. If there was favoritism, it was very temporary.
A lot of your criticisms come off as things premeds would worry about, people who don't go here think, and frankly, failures of broader med school.
As always, if you have questions/concerns, feel free to ask them!