I am an MS I PBL student at LECOM. Let me tell you that I LOVE the program.
Essentially after the first 12 weeks of anatomy, histology, and embryology, you only come to school for OMM and your PBL groups. There are a few minor exceptions, but they're not worth mentioning.
Each group has 8 people and 1 faculty facilitator. The facilitator can't teach, but they provide guidance to the group as needed. You meet 3x per week and work your way through a clinical case. After you complete the case, each group (there are 5 groups) picks 3 relevant chapters out of textbooks such as physiology, pathology, micro, biochem, immunology, pharmacology, etc. Since there is always overlap between groups, the tests usually have between 30-40 chapters on them. There are usually 5 or 6 weeks between tests. It is an incredible amount of work, and there are days when it is frustrating and overwhelming. However, I feel as though we are utilizing our time much more wisely than those who selected the LDP pathway. The PBL pathway also takes a shelf exam similar to the boards in late March. Last year, a number of PBL students passed before completing their first year of medical school.
The professors who run the PBL program - Drs. Krueger and Snow - are highly accessible and truly care about their 40 students. The stated goal of the PBL program is for all students to be in the top 50% of medical students who pass the boards. In addition, LECOM is opening a branch in Florida that will be exclusively PBL. This is a very public sign that PBL is a successful program.
My understanding is that there will be an upcoming on-campus day for accepted students during which you will be allowed to sit in on actual PBL group sessions. I highly recommend that you attend! (I wish they had done that for our class!)
Good luck with everything! Next year is going to be a busy year, so enjoy your summer! See you next year!!