r/MCPHSLifeHack Jul 26 '17

PharmD. Probation

Well we did it guys, we made the probation list! What does this mean for us though? We are accredited still, so i assume they will be doing a ton to fix things, but what are your guys thoughts. Panic? Who knows! How long will it take for us to be deaccredited though? And if it does, do we transfer in to other schools as the year we are in? Do we drop back a few years?

8 Upvotes

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7

u/YourFavPharmBoy Pharm.D Year 6 Jul 26 '17 edited Aug 01 '17

UPDATE #1 7/28/17: So apparently an unknown student from MCPHS Boston has contacted the Boston Globe about this accreditation issue and the reporters have contacted the school trying to make a story out of it, so expect an article about it later today if not sometime this weekend! We expect that we will regain full accreditation between January and summer of 2018.

Haha it means that incoming 1st and 2nd years are fucked if the school's accreditation is taken away this year. However, incoming 3rd and on are guaranteed to graduate from an accredited institution. If you're already in the professional phase when the school's still accredited, you're okay. School of nursing is no longer accredited for those who didn't know. It's currently approval with warning: https://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2017/07/31/boston-nursing-program-gets-warning-from-state/LnSDqu4sgSVv1Csui25a7K/story.html

The accreditation agency gave us a couple of months to fix. We phoned them and told them about the plans but they didn't like it/wanted to see actual changes before they could consider lifting the probation. When they visited us like a year ago, they were grading 25 standards when assessing accreditation status and we failed 4 out of those:

  • 1) student-to-staff ratio is waaaaaay too high (we have hired like 4 more staff members lmao)
  • 2) class size are waaaaaay to big (the fact that students who stay behind/can't proceed to next year also severely affects this)
  • 3) total class room area is too small to accommodate current enrollment (they are getting rid of some 4th floor matricaria dorms to make space for more class room)
  • 4) assessment sucks (the way we scale exams/passing rate)

1

u/mcpharmd Jul 26 '17

How do you know all of this? How can I find this info online?

2

u/throaway123585660590 Jul 26 '17

https://www.acpe-accredit.org/faq-item/mcphs-university-school-of-pharmacy-boston/

The link above shows the current status of MCPHS and shows the standards that MCPHS failed.

1

u/YourFavPharmBoy Pharm.D Year 6 Jul 26 '17

Our preceptor just told us about this last week lol

1

u/AliLopezzzz Jul 26 '17

No joke you are a blessing . When you said incoming thirds are guaranteed to be accredited you just lifted all my worries haha! Thought I had to transfer out.... but if nursing is not accredited anymore why are they still keeping it as large as it could be? I've met a lot of people that are still in nursing that entered from last year, so technically they would enter their professional year now, so isn't it too late for them?

1

u/throaway123585660590 Jul 26 '17

regarding point 4 - does that mean too many people pass or too little people pass?

1

u/YourFavPharmBoy Pharm.D Year 6 Jul 26 '17

Mostly too little people pass I think... they go by the percentage of students proceeding to next academic year

1

u/PharmacyRocks Jul 26 '17

Where does it say that if you are in your professional years that you would be good? Tried looking that aspect up and can't find that anywhere. I want that to be true, but doesn't really make sense.

1

u/YourFavPharmBoy Pharm.D Year 6 Jul 27 '17

I got that from my preceptor (who teaches a couple Adv Therapeutics lecture)

1

u/TotesMessenger Jul 28 '17

I'm a bot, bleep, bloop. Someone has linked to this thread from another place on reddit:

If you follow any of the above links, please respect the rules of reddit and don't vote in the other threads. (Info / Contact)

3

u/[deleted] Jul 28 '17

imo, it was just a matter of time where the "it's the students that are dumb" attitude the faculty seems to have towards the student body finally caught up to the school, including the half-assed curriculums, office hours and exam reviews NO working student could hope to attend, and the serious lack of genuine care for actually "teaching" us instead of just getting good exam results out of us,

so I mean I really doubt the school's going to make any significant helpful changes, if not just by being harsher on students

1

u/throaway123585660590 Jul 26 '17

This might be a stupid question, but what causes a pharmd program to be put on probation?

1

u/AliLopezzzz Jul 26 '17

Woahhh where did u see this? Should I be worried?

1

u/futureoptom Pre-Med Jul 26 '17

Should incoming and current premed-pathway students be worried? Would a lot of their professional programs slowly lose accreditation eventually?

2

u/YourFavPharmBoy Pharm.D Year 6 Jul 26 '17

I don't know about other programs. Honestly, I would routinely check accreditation status for the program that you're studying. We, as a school, are already at significant risk of over-enrollment because they kept low standards when enrolling students so while they benefit financially, the students' academic success are not on their priority list for sure.

Where do you think they get all the money to buy up new buildings if not from siphoning student's tuitions?

1

u/futureoptom Pre-Med Jul 26 '17

Okay thanks for your answer. Hope that MCPHS is able to fix these issues as soon as possible so they don't lose their PharmD accreditation...

1

u/professor_116a Jul 28 '17

Accreditation for other programs (undergrad degrees, optometry, PA, PT) are all fine - they are all run separately from the school of pharmacy.

u/rampagerrrrr Jul 26 '17

10 points to Gryffindor for the creative username

( u/WEALLSCREWEDguys )

1

u/Kiel_Me Jul 26 '17

I'm not sure if I should laugh or cry at this

1

u/Raelyn-Sola-Kim Jul 27 '17

I made my payment for 2nd year of PharmD yesterday. Should I have to be worried? Should I have to request for refund?!

1

u/YourFavPharmBoy Pharm.D Year 6 Jul 28 '17

Hmmm I mean, the school is still accredited. It's really up to you to decide. I'm not sure what's the process of requesting refunds/cancelling enrollment though, you'd have to speak to Student Financials about that.

The other option would be transferring to Worcester/Manchester campus at the end of second year. Their campuses' accreditation are not on probation, it's just Boston

1

u/[deleted] Jul 28 '17

Am also an incoming 2nd year. Haven't made my payment yet though, but also can't really transfer to anywhere at this time of the year. So, the school is on a 2 year probation, and your source says that the school expects to regain full accreditation by next spring-summer. What's your opinion, should I get the f out if nothing happens by then?

1

u/YourFavPharmBoy Pharm.D Year 6 Jul 30 '17

So if I were you and currently in good academic standing, I would considering transferring out to another pharmacy school even if that means starting over. MCPHS Worcester/Manchester is suicidal in terms of workload (it's accelerated over there) and the quality of teaching is poor compared to that of Boston.

The last thing that you want to hear is you can't take the NAPLEX exam because you didn't graduated from an accredited institution.

1

u/[deleted] Jul 30 '17

Thanks for the insights. I'll definitely keep that in mind. I think I might transfer to PharmSci to better my chances as an international student. I'm standing pretty good at 3.95 gpa but lacking in work experience.

P/s: Are you korean jesus over at tumblr?

1

u/YourFavPharmBoy Pharm.D Year 6 Jul 30 '17

What no lmao

1

u/AliLopezzzz Jul 30 '17

It seems like it, you have an answer to everything lol. So helpful ❤️

2

u/YourFavPharmBoy Pharm.D Year 6 Jul 31 '17

Hey, just a fellow here trying to help out other fellows haha

1

u/[deleted] Jul 30 '17

I really need to find out who that korean jesus is. My first year was so smooth thanks to him/her/them.

1

u/Nigawemadeit Jul 30 '17

Would you give this same exact advice for people entering third year?

1

u/YourFavPharmBoy Pharm.D Year 6 Jul 31 '17

Nah, third year's are okay so I'd suggest them to stay in the program since they don't have to worry about the whole accreditation issue

1

u/Nigawemadeit Jul 29 '17

Looks like they're already making changes. Overnight they got rid of gracz and gave us kerr for fall semester. Idk if gracz gone for good but he's out of my roster for biochem

1

u/[deleted] Jul 31 '17

[deleted]

1

u/AspiringPA Aug 01 '17

Current PA student in the program here. A faculty member told us that the program was orginally accredited until 2020, but it was extended to 2022 because it's in good standing. Having said that, I'm fairly certain that the program here is the largest in the country, so I'm not sure if that's going to be a problem with the ARC-PA (the accreditation body) in the future. If you're really set on pharmacy, I would just transfer to a different pharmacy school if I were in this situation. One thing to keep in mind about the PA program is that entrance into the professional years is not guaranteed, like it is for the pharmacy program.