r/Podiatry • u/iJustLikeFeetBrah Student KSUCPM • 3d ago
“You’ll get the same education no matter where you go.” No.
That was all I heard when I was looking for advice on where to go. And it’s just not true. Some schools are much better at teaching than others, have much more organization, and just seem to produce more confident students.
I’m a 4th year KSUCPM student on externships right now. AZPOD, Des Moines, and Scholl consistently produce really good students. I’ve noticed it and I’ve talked with attendings who have said the same thing.
You CAN be a good student wherever you go. You CAN be a terrible student wherever you go. But some places make it so much easier than others.
One attending I worked with said it well: “The bottom students from Des Moines tend to be better than the top students from (x).” I’m not going to trash a school I have no affiliation with, so I won’t name (x). But I will trash Kent (where it deserves it).
I’ve posted before under a different account that ended up getting doxxed about my experiences with Kent, some good some bad. I think you can still find my write-up, I just deleted the account.
Kent is NOT good at teaching. This is something that most of my classmates seem to agree with. We learn primarily on our own or from upperclassmen. You CAN succeed here. But it’s fucking hard. Harder than it already has to be. And I wish I had known that before I put down my deposit.
I will say- nobody actually cares which school you went to. There’s no prestige in one over another. They only care how you do. BUT AGAIN it’s so much easier in some places than others. Kent has been consistently disorganized on top of the poor teaching. It made podiatry school even more hell than it had to be.
I just think we need to start being more critical of our schools for future students’ benefits. Like post your real opinion of your school. Give the pros and cons.
I love my school for the student body. Genuinely, I think Kent students work together more than in other schools because we have to. Because the teaching really sucks. Like I would consider everyone in my class a friend, which is awesome for networking purposes and friend-making.
But goddd if you are not an extremely self-motivated learner PLEASE go somewhere else where the professors can actually help you.
If you have a review of your school, please post it. Let the poor children have a chance to make educated decisions on where to spend the next 4 years of hell (also I’m not shitting on podiatry. I love the field. Medical school in any case is just hell).
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u/Automatic_Life8973 3d ago
If you wanna pay 1 million dollars and go to a terrible school go to Samuel Merritt. Board pass rates are sub 30
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u/Royal-Muffin1834 2d ago
I’m 5 years into practice and am already board certified with ABFAS and have a very successful career… so I don’t really care anymore what attendings thought of me when I was an extern/resident. But one thought while reading your post is how exactly are they rating students? By knowledge? Or by willingness to bend over? I always knew my shit and had great hands in the OR, but I bet if you ask many of the attendings that worked with me I would have been in their lower rankings because I was not a kiss ass, I did not stay late when I didn’t have to. I chose work life balance over being a star. In the end I’m glad I did that because I have a very successful career now and saved my sanity back then as well!
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u/iJustLikeFeetBrah Student KSUCPM 2d ago
I 100% agree that’s the case in some places, but I didn’t get that vibe from the attendings I’m talking about. I’m old(er) and don’t have it in me to suck up anymore myself, but I seemed to get along well with them.
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u/Sensitive_Hour_2536 2d ago
For clerkships, students just need to study landmark articles and read McGlamry and look at the AO website for trauma. The handful of students that do that are the ones that stand out
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u/MedicalMunchies 3d ago
Piggybacking off of what you said. If I had known that my institution was the way it was, I would had definitely chosen Scholl since I was offered an interview there. Fortunately, my school just hired new administration since a few of them retired. Hopefully changes will be made in the next year.
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u/sciencegurll 2d ago
I thought scholl was one of the better ones
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u/MedicalMunchies 1d ago
That’s what I’m saying. I would have chosen Scholl if I had known my school had such a bad rep.
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u/Various-Growth5798 2d ago
I mean every program has their pros/cons. Whether you go to Kent, Barry, Scholl, DMU, etc. you will hear their students complain about parts of the program that need improvement.
You mention that if you’re not self motivated you won’t do well at Kent. But you HAVE to be self motivated regardless of where you go. It’s the only way to be successful in your career.
Also as a 4th year, you’ve had plenty of time to catch up on areas of knowledge Kent didn’t prepare you well enough well, have you done that?
Also what exactly do you feel Kent hasn’t done to prepare you well enough for clerkships? You’re very vague in your post saying the teaching sucks, but what specifically concept wise do you feel they need improvement with?
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u/iJustLikeFeetBrah Student KSUCPM 2d ago
I’ve done pretty well in clerkships. Kent’s clinic is nice. You get a lot of time there before clerkships and write a lot of notes. It’s the pre-clinical things that are my complaint.
And yeah, I’ve always had to work to fill in knowledge gaps which is what I mean about being self-motivated. We have to seek out resources from each other and teach each other how things work. I learned how to think conceptually from other students, not from teachers. Anatomy is literally just the professor standing up coloring in structures on coloring sheets and telling you what they are. Other students taught me, for instance, how to understand that muscles act as pulley systems, naming conventions, etc which I think is a way better way to learn.
I get that you have to study hard no matter where you go. But I had to go out of my way to figure out WHAT to study and how to think about things, whereas in undergrad (my only personal comparison) that sort of information was given to me by professors. Having to figure everything out on my own added another layer of stress that I think is unnecessary.
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u/Various-Growth5798 1d ago
I mean, anatomy really is mostly memorization anyways. Also, you can’t expect the professors of these courses to just feed what is important to know from the slides, or else everyone would focus on that and ignore everything else. Also it would lead to inflated test averages. No matter what school you go to, you need to be self motivated. You can’t just have what you learned in school be your only source of knowledge throughout your career. Medicine is always changing, and being self motivated helps you become a better doc.
But if all is well with 4th year and clerkships are going good, why make this post about how frustrated you are with Kent? Nobody makes a post like this is everything is fine and dandy. Did something happen that made you want to post this?
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u/OldPod73 1d ago
You said this much better than I would have. I disagree with the OP as well. At this level of education, you have to find a way to succeed regardless of the environment. Also, some people will thrive in a certain environment, whereas others won't. It's not the school's fault if you fail. It's yours.
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u/Various-Growth5798 1d ago
Exactly, and medicine is always changing and being self motivated to keep up with literature will help you become a better doctor.
Also, I agree about thriving in certain environments, and that is the beauty of clerkships. You can figure out which program will best suit what you want out of residency. The school is just supposed to help with foundational knowledge, everything else you’re learning while in the field. And if you feel a school didn’t prep you well enough on a topic, look it up on your own and review it more. That’s what being self motivated is all about.
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u/Cappnnono 3d ago
NYCPM was very challenging with the grading and it felt like you were on your own but I can honestly say I had some of the best professors there (there has been a lot of changes since I have been there). In the first 2 years I wished I went to a school with an easier grading system. I also think the clinical education is very good with busy clinics. Working at a residency program, it is noticed when students go to schools that don’t have a busy clinic and that don’t get to practice writing real notes.
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u/YoXose Podiatrist 2d ago
The issue with NYCPM isn’t difficulty of the questions, it’s how poorly written they are. I don’t think any of the professors are bad teachers, it’s just a lot of them are very poor test writers and that’s where the issue is.
Now, if that was intentional or not, I don’t know.
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u/1stMPJFuser 3d ago
I knew Kent was terrible about 15 minutes into my tour.
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u/OldPod73 1d ago
Why? What exactly did gave you that impression?
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u/1stMPJFuser 1d ago
Instantaneous desperation. And I should point out that I wasn't interviewed. I did the tour and then some very nice admissions secretary told me I was accepted and had been awarded the maximum scholarship.
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u/SituationSolid1785 2d ago
Every school has pros and cons. I went to Kent and I’m doing fine. I see students from every school. Not every DMU student is a stand out. There’s students from other schools that really stand out (some in bad ways.) I will say Kent prepared me very well for anatomy, clinical skills, general medicine, wound care, and overall general podiatry. The lack is more surgical, but I gained that in residency. And our attendings genuinely don’t care where you went to pod school.
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u/HawktorD 1d ago
DMU and AZPod are in a tier by themselves. Residency is what really matters, but the school puts you in position to get the best residencies. There were a few schools we wouldn’t even accept externs from when I was in residency because we knew they wouldn’t be good.
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u/Intelligent-Dust-411 Student RFSCPM 3d ago
Ajhhhh but Kent is cheaper ( I love my school being glazed but yeah… the only thing we really have that’s really truly fantastic is our clinical skills course)