Dangerous Medical Schools

Started by Eric Lindros
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Eric Lindros said:
Nowhere in my original post did I mention that I was chosing a medical school based on crime, despite what some people have mentioned. I am simply curious and concerend - that's all.
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hey I don't know why people are giving you such a hard time. Your reasoning is totally valid. Why would someone choose a med school, college, professional school, apartment in a crime-ridden neighborhood if they had a choice? Now crimes can happen anywhere but I'd choose not to hang out in areas where they are more prevalent and unprovoked.
 
BarrySanders said:
I was born and raised in the inner city of Detroit, a "Top 5 most dangerous city." Not once in my life have I been robbed, raped, physically assaulted, shot, stabbed, and obviously murdered, and I do not feel the need to walk around armed. These "ghettos" that many of you are referring to are homes to real people who are trying to earn honest livings in places where crime rates just so happen to be high. Most of the violent crimes occur between individuals who participate in illegal activity. Although crimes are much smaller in quantity, some of the most heinous and viscious crimes occur in suburban areas. Please do not let the media fool you. So unless you plan on seeking out your local weed salesman or are just careless with no street smarts, you will be fine.
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Yea, perhaps, but how many innocent bystanders (including innocent children) get killed by a stray bullet?
 
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riceman04 said:
Penn and Temple are in a crazier areas than PCOM.
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I remember visiting my aunt a few years ago when she started residencey at UPenn/HUP. First couple of days I was there, a researcher got stabbed on the UPenn campus and eventually died from the wounds. A few days later my aunt took me along to a social for new residents. It so happened that one the people I met was an ER resident on call on the evening the researcher got stabbed. I also met an undergrad that got mugged at gunpoint as he was taking money out from the ATM in the middle of the day. Same thing occurred to a Chem grad student who was one of my aunt's collaborators. Yeesh, I was glad to leave Philadelphia during my week long visit.
 
Just so everyone knows, the rankings posted earlier are last year's data.

Here is this year's ranking: http://morganquitno.com/cit07pop.htm#25

As you can see, Richmond has moved from #5 to #15.

  1. St. Louis, MO
  2. Detroit, MI
  3. Flint, MI
  4. Compton, CA
  5. Camden, NJ
  6. Birmingham, AL
  7. Cleveland, OH
  8. Oakland, CA
  9. Youngstown, OH
  10. Gary, IN
  11. Richmond, CA
  12. Baltimore, MD
  13. Memphis, TN
  14. Trenton, NJ
  15. Richmond, VA
  16. Kansas City, MO
  17. Atlanta, GA
  18. Cincinnati, OH
  19. Washington, DC
  20. North Charleston, SC
  21. Reading, PA
  22. Newark, NJ
  23. Little Rock, AR
  24. San Bernardino, CA
  25. Orland, FL

Where is Flint, MI?
 
interesting, new york is considered the 4th safest with a population 500k or more. i didn't know it was that safe
 
Rudy Giuliani did a pretty good job of cleaning up house and bloomberg maintaining it. Rememeber in home alone 2, when kevin is out near central park or in other scenes in NYC it was filled with porn shops and hookers and bums and whatnot, thats pretty much what it was like around the Gerald Ford days when NYC filed for bankruptcy. After Giuliani cleaned up and made sex shops illegal, and cracked down, the city became alot safer and to this day. I can honestly only think of a very few places where you may be in trouble if you're walking there late home one night, but even then in comparison to other places, it may be safe. You'll have to actively look for trouble to find it in NYC rather than it finding you.
 
TSK said:
Agreed, threads like these make me gag. Heaven forbid we should receive our education in the same area as poor people. In case you all haven't noticed, many of the best schools are in urban areas that often have excellent hospitals/opportunities for students...and no one can seem to understand why there's a shortage of docs in urban/rural areas
👎
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Totally agree. most of these people have never beenexposed to urban poor. I live in Buffalo NY and people are always whining about how dangerous it is and all the "ghettoness" and hwo scared they are. All these people are white/asian previously sheltered from suburbs. My car has b een broken into but thats it, it's called you don't walk around by yourself at night or do stupid things as you woudn't anywhere. God I hate middle/upper class whities.
 
chad5871 said:
  1. St. Louis, MO
  2. Detroit, MI
  3. Flint, MI
  4. Compton, CA
  5. Camden, NJ
  6. Birmingham, AL
  7. Cleveland, OH
  8. Oakland, CA
  9. Youngstown, OH
  10. Gary, IN
  11. Richmond, CA
  12. Baltimore, MD
  13. Memphis, TN
  14. Trenton, NJ
  15. Richmond, VA
  16. Kansas City, MO
  17. Atlanta, GA
  18. Cincinnati, OH
  19. Washington, DC
  20. North Charleston, SC
  21. Reading, PA
  22. Newark, NJ
  23. Little Rock, AR
  24. San Bernardino, CA
  25. Orland, FL

Where is Flint, MI?
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Flint is about 70 miles north of Detroit but its much smaller (only around 100K people as I recall).

Its long had a crime problem, so I'm never suprised to find it near the top of the list. Used to be home of GM, and you can see parts of it in Roger & Me, the documentary by Michael Moore about the former CEO of General Motors. Economically depressed, even went into receivership with state of Michigan.
 
braluk said:
Rudy Giuliani did a pretty good job of cleaning up house and bloomberg maintaining it. Rememeber in home alone 2, when kevin is out near central park or in other scenes in NYC it was filled with porn shops and hookers and bums and whatnot, thats pretty much what it was like around the Gerald Ford days when NYC filed for bankruptcy. After Giuliani cleaned up and made sex shops illegal, and cracked down, the city became alot safer and to this day. I can honestly only think of a very few places where you may be in trouble if you're walking there late home one night, but even then in comparison to other places, it may be safe. You'll have to actively look for trouble to find it in NYC rather than it finding you.
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Guliani shipped all of the criminals to city # 21 on that list

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/29/r...tml?ex=1171774800&en=426d30130b6f491f&ei=5070
 
EMDream said:
Totally agree. most of these people have never beenexposed to urban poor. I live in Buffalo NY and people are always whining about how dangerous it is and all the "ghettoness" and hwo scared they are. All these people are white/asian previously sheltered from suburbs. My car has b een broken into but thats it, it's called you don't walk around by yourself at night or do stupid things as you woudn't anywhere. God I hate middle/upper class whities.
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👍
 
EMDream said:
Totally agree. most of these people have never beenexposed to urban poor. I live in Buffalo NY and people are always whining about how dangerous it is and all the "ghettoness" and hwo scared they are. All these people are white/asian previously sheltered from suburbs. My car has b een broken into but thats it, it's called you don't walk around by yourself at night or do stupid things as you woudn't anywhere. God I hate middle/upper class whities.
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Oh yeah, I love it when my car gets broken into. 🙄 You know what, sorry but I would rather not be exposed to crime. Sorry if that sounds so bizarre to you.
 
chad5871 said:
Just so everyone knows, the rankings posted earlier are last year's data.

Here is this year's ranking: http://morganquitno.com/cit07pop.htm#25

As you can see, Richmond has moved from #5 to #15.

  1. St. Louis, MO
  2. Detroit, MI
  3. Flint, MI
  4. Compton, CA
  5. Camden, NJ
  6. Birmingham, AL
  7. Cleveland, OH
  8. Oakland, CA
  9. Youngstown, OH
  10. Gary, IN
  11. Richmond, CA
  12. Baltimore, MD
  13. Memphis, TN
  14. Trenton, NJ
  15. Richmond, VA
  16. Kansas City, MO
  17. Atlanta, GA
  18. Cincinnati, OH
  19. Washington, DC
  20. North Charleston, SC
  21. Reading, PA
  22. Newark, NJ
  23. Little Rock, AR
  24. San Bernardino, CA
  25. Orland, FL

Where is Flint, MI?
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i'm surprised at number 21.
reading, pa??

that's like, in the middle of nowhere!!!
 
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EMDream said:
My car has b een broken into but thats it, it's called you don't walk around by yourself at night or do stupid things as you woudn't anywhere. God I hate middle/upper class whities.
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I grew up urban poor. I still live in the city. The problem is you all act like there's some magical things you can do that will stop you from being a victim. There's only things you can do to reduce your risk. I know people here in Philly that have been robbed in all parts of town, all times of day, doing all sorts of things. In groups, alone, looking vulnerable, not looking vulnerable, in the ghetto, not in the ghetto. My upstairs neighbor's apartment got broken into one morning, everything stolen except her piano. My beat up old POS car got vandalized parked on the street with every other car on that block.

Some of you act like nothing's going to happen to you if you live in the bad part of the city. That's total BS. People do get hit and killed by stray bullets. It happens a few times a year here in Philly. People do get raped and murdered jogging in the park during daylight. Groups of people get robbed by bigger groups of people with weapons in daylight or twilight all the time. Apartments get broken into whether they look like targets or not.

It's just a part of being alive. You probably run a higher risk in certain parts of town vs. certain other parts of town or in the country vs. in the city. The fact of the matter is still that the odds are you won't be victimized. But, there's nothing you can do to prevent it.

So I'm sick of both groups of arguers on this thread.
I'm sick of:
1) OMG I CAN'T BE IN A BAD PART OF THE CITY! Yeah, sure, as if things don't happen to people in the good parts.
2) IF YOU DO/DON'T DO X NOTHING WILL HAPPEN TO YOU! Yeah right.

My take on this thread is: you don't want to go to med school in a bad area simply because there'll be nothing to do around your apartment and you'll probably worry more about your surroundings. It's all about the illusion of safety. Otherwise you'll have to commute and who wants to commute? I think everyone in this argument needs to think about what they're saying.
 
crazy_cavalier said:
Cities are dirty and can be dangerous. The air is polluted and unhealthy. Crime rates are high. If you like living in a city, good for you... but if you got mugged or if your car/apartment was broken into, you'd be pretty pissed off. I'll take my chances living in suburbia when I'm done with my medical training.

I sympathize with the OP and feel his concerns are valid.
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His concerns _are_ valid: If you feel you can't handle the risks of urban life you shouldn't live in a city. You'll stress way too much over it and ultimately that's not what you need to be worrying about while going to school.

I'm not advocating getting an apartment in the worst part of the city you can find. I live in a very nice part of NYC. There are nice parts of even the crappiest cities ever. DC, Baltimore, and Philadelphia - all pretty high on that dangerous cities list - have their nice areas to live. Put in the legwork and find them. It took me 2 months to find my apartment. I checked with police precincts that cover smaller areas than the entire city to see where more of the violent crime occurs and positioned myself further away from that.

Oh, and just a note: My car _has_ been broken into... In the tiny town in Delaware where I grew up, not in New York or any other major east coast city. :laugh: I get lots of dents and dings in the cities, though - that's why I started travelling by bus. Driving is just a pain. I'm actually considering selling my car.

But come on, "the air is polluted and unhealthy"? This is America. The entire country is polluted and unhealthy. I breathe easier in city air than surrounded by the constant smell of chicken **** back home. :laugh: I spent a lot of my teen years hanging out in southern New Jersey; I imagine that increases my risk factor for developing cancer as an adult exponentially. :laugh: I also drink diet soda and chew sugarless gum.
 
Kimberli Cox said:
Flint is about 70 miles north of Detroit but its much smaller (only around 100K people as I recall).

Its long had a crime problem, so I'm never suprised to find it near the top of the list. Used to be home of GM, and you can see parts of it in Roger & Me, the documentary by Michael Moore about the former CEO of General Motors. Economically depressed, even went into receivership with state of Michigan.
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I went to HS on Flint's north side, which was about a block away from the first grade school shooting scene from "bowling for columbine," and students never had problems, yet now I go to a school in a town with only 9k people, and we've had long string of muggings that only ended when it became too cold to go outside.

Honestly, the suburban pussyism on this thread is a little disturbing considering the fact that the majority of american med schools are basically "urban". If you have small children, that's one thing, but for the rest of you, this is pretty pathetic. Sure places like Flint and Detroit have high crime rates, but for the most part the issues are domestic. People have this impression of the "high crime areas" that the locals are sitting on street corners ready to shoot at the first suburban white kid they see.
 
maestro1625 said:
Honestly, the suburban pussyism on this thread is a little disturbing considering the fact that the majority of american med schools are basically "urban". If you have small children, that's one thing, but for the rest of you, this is pretty pathetic. Sure places like Flint and Detroit have high crime rates, but for the most part the issues are domestic. People have this impression of the "high crime areas" that the locals are sitting on street corners ready to shoot at the first suburban white kid they see.
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Delightful.

notdeadyet said:
Why are folks so hung up on the neighborhood a medical school is in?

If you don't like the neighborhood, don't go clubbing there. Don't skateboard in the park. Don't buy real estate.

The nice thing about bad neighborhoods is that they tend to be located in cities. The nice thing about cities is that they have many neighborhoods.
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They also have suburbs, if "suburban pussyism" is the affliction.
 
Neuronix said:
I grew up urban poor. I still live in the city. The problem is you all act like there's some magical things you can do that will stop you from being a victim. There's only things you can do to reduce your risk. I know people here in Philly that have been robbed in all parts of town, all times of day, doing all sorts of things. In groups, alone, looking vulnerable, not looking vulnerable, in the ghetto, not in the ghetto. My upstairs neighbor's apartment got broken into one morning, everything stolen except her piano. My beat up old POS car got vandalized parked on the street with every other car on that block.

Some of you act like nothing's going to happen to you if you live in the bad part of the city. That's total BS. People do get hit and killed by stray bullets. It happens a few times a year here in Philly. People do get raped and murdered jogging in the park during daylight. Groups of people get robbed by bigger groups of people with weapons in daylight or twilight all the time. Apartments get broken into whether they look like targets or not.

It's just a part of being alive. You probably run a higher risk in certain parts of town vs. certain other parts of town or in the country vs. in the city. The fact of the matter is still that the odds are you won't be victimized. But, there's nothing you can do to prevent it.

So I'm sick of both groups of arguers on this thread.
I'm sick of:
1) OMG I CAN'T BE IN A BAD PART OF THE CITY! Yeah, sure, as if things don't happen to people in the good parts.
2) IF YOU DO/DON'T DO X NOTHING WILL HAPPEN TO YOU! Yeah right.

My take on this thread is: you don't want to go to med school in a bad area simply because there'll be nothing to do around your apartment and you'll probably worry more about your surroundings. It's all about the illusion of safety. Otherwise you'll have to commute and who wants to commute? I think everyone in this argument needs to think about what they're saying.
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the biggest news in this area {buffalo ny} was the bike trail murderer which was in a quiet "safe" suburb outside of buffalo.
i think its probably unwise to live in the area where you KNOW there is gang turf wars and a lot of drugs. i am not saying you should go move into the worst part of compton because nothing will happen. but people flip out because they are in a bad area which often to them means a area with a high minority population (usually hispanic or black) even if it's not. i think it's usually barely concealed racism. there. i said it.
 
EMDream you seem to be chomping at the bit to drag race into this discussion. You claim that you're tired of upper/middle class people acting scared when they have to live in an urban environment.

Admittedly, I'm from a middle class upbringing and lived in a suburb. Now I live in Houston for school. So when we got a class email about a 4th year getting mugged in the parking garage by some dude with a shotgun, should I not be worried when I'm going to my car at 3am in that same garage?

Or do I accept the fact that I live in a big city and stroll around, all blase and que sera sera like?
 
Strongbow said:
St. Louis is one of the most dangerous cities also.
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<Izzy>Seriously?</Izzy>

This so totally a stupid thing to say. If you're referring to that study that says so? Yeah, that's totally dumb.

That survey only measures factors within St. Louis City, because it is its own county division, whereas St. Louis County, where most people live, is not included. So, the crime rates reported in the survey are artificially high and not at all representative of the St. Louis area as a whole.

It's a big city. There are neighborhoods that tend to have more crime, and there are others that are perfectly benign. Medical students live everywhere. It's like any other place, where if you're smart about where you are, there's nothing to worry about.😎
 
I grew up around Yale and I currently attend a school in a crime ridden city, and I have to say that in both situations it has never really impacted my life in any way. In New Haven I had a friend who got mugged after following some guy into an alley to buy pot . . . so yeah cause that wasn't completely glarringly obviously a horrible idea. In New Orleans my husbands bike was stolen when it was chained up outside, but other than that not much. I don't leave my front door open for fresh air, and I don't chill out on my porch alone at night, and I don't walk around by myself at night but beyond that I don't really have to alter my behavior in any way. Almost all of the murders are amongst gangs or involve drug deals so they are pretty easy scenarios for a medstudent to avoid. And as far as the random psycho killer they don't really just hang in cities so its a chance you take just being alive that you may run into a psycho killer someday, so I don't get all rilled up about that one. My school has tons of security for us, we have our own police force that are at every entrance to the school and we have above ground walkways between all the buildings with emergency call boxes like every 20 feet and security cameras etc. Anyways, most good medical schools are in urban centers because thats where the populations that will let you train on them are so they pretty much go hand in hand.
 
mave said:
That survey only measures factors within St. Louis City, because it is its own county division, whereas St. Louis County, where most people live, is not included. So, the crime rates reported in the survey are artificially high and not at all representative of the St. Louis area as a whole.

It's a big city. There are neighborhoods that tend to have more crime, and there are others that are perfectly benign. Medical students live everywhere. It's like any other place, where if you're smart about where you are, there's nothing to worry about.😎
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And you're saying that other cities aren't this way? I can tell you that the surrounding areas of Richmond have very little crime - yet we're always near the top of the list because the crime rates are extremely high in certain areas of the city. The survey is not biased against St. Louis because the same factors are applied to every other city.
 
DocFunk said:
interesting, new york is considered the 4th safest with a population 500k or more. i didn't know it was that safe
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NY is very safe nowadays. Although some would argue that it's not so much the increased police prescence (trust me, compared to how it was in the 80's there's like SWARMS of police nowadays) but simply the fact that the city has recovered from the near-bankruptcy days of the 70's, when the economy of the city was just crap.

Now NYC is a super popular city with people just raving to get in, and jobs are plentiful. Things that just happen to mean that people don't really have to be criminals anymore, so...less crime.

Of course it's not going to be anything like Amhearst, NY, but the only people who are convinced NYC is a crime ridden crazyland are people who don't actually live in NYC lol.

Have a good car alarm with an engine cut, and take all your valuables out of your car when you leave, and you'll probably manage to survive without anything happening to you, other than maybe a pervert on the subway flashing you (if you're a female this is far more likely, since apparently perverts worry that men will beat the crap out of them).

Now, back in the 70's and 80's...you'd get carjacked at gunpoint (happened to my dad), you'd get your apartment broken into (happened to my family), and...well ok that's actually all that happened to us lol. But thankfully it's not those crappy old days anymore.

Oh you'll probably still get your bicycle stolen or vandalized if you're not ultra paranoid or leave it around for more than a day though. lol
 
Eric Lindros said:
Oh yeah, I love it when my car gets broken into. 🙄 You know what, sorry but I would rather not be exposed to crime. Sorry if that sounds so bizarre to you.
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lol, I won't say that it was fun to have my car broken into, but that happened to my friend at college too, and he was just parked on the campus lot. Just don't buy fancy head units (or take the faceplate with you if you do-they're removable for a reason), and don't leave anything around.

And if I had to choose between having my car broken into once in a while and having to live in the middle of nowhere forever, I'd think I'd choose the broken window I can get fixed in a day.
 
NYC is safe because I nicknamed my right and left fist Law and Order. :laugh: seriously folks get off each others' backs, its gotten to the point where people are arguing for the sake of arguing
 
BTW, I'm all for NYC scaring off more people, since it'd make my day to get into Downstate or AECOM lol.

Flatbush is pretty scary guys, you need to run. Run now and withdraw your application ASAP. Seriously, look at the metal guards on all the windows in the neighborhood, do you want to worry about crackheads trying to break into your home? I think not, I think you should withdraw. As soon as you can.
 
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braluk said:
\its gotten to the point where people are arguing for the sake of arguing
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I'm fully admitting to being guilty of that...

but seriously... the street smarts thing again... Don't want your car broken into? take your XM/Mp3 player out of your car, take any visible audio equipment out or stash it in the glove compartment at least... dont leave any gym bags in the car... dont leave any towels in the car that might make it look like you're covering up something valuable.

Honestly, your anecdotal evidence about people being assaulted/robbed/whatever can be appled to ANY part of the country, no matter how rich, white, upper class...
 
Cirrus83 said:
BTW, I'm all for NYC scaring off more people, since it'd make my day to get into Downstate or AECOM lol.

Flatbush is pretty scary guys, you need to run. Run now and withdraw your application ASAP. Seriously, look at the metal guards on all the windows in the neighborhood, do you want to worry about crackheads trying to break into your home? I think not, I think you should withdraw. As soon as you can.
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nyc is a pretty big place. are we talking about manhattan(the city) or brooklyn? or the bronx? (ok nobody really cares about staten island and nobody talks about queens even though the majority of the population in nyc lives in queens)
 
chad5871 said:
And you're saying that other cities aren't this way? I can tell you that the surrounding areas of Richmond have very little crime - yet we're always near the top of the list because the crime rates are extremely high in certain areas of the city. The survey is not biased against St. Louis because the same factors are applied to every other city.
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Exactly. Certain areas of the city. St. Louis is a unique case because of the way that the statistics are measured, and because people associate St. Louis County with St. Louis City. By the way, St. Louis County was rated 128th most dangerous, per police data, which is probably a much more reliable index of safety.

Beyond that, the rankings just aren't very reliable. They fail to weight the severity of crimes compared to one another, and there are a lot of denominator problems. The way crime rates are calculated in this city is to take the number of crimes and divide by the number of potential victims. This would be fine, except that plenty of crimes are committed upon people who live outside the city (which is most of them). So, you have disparities between the ratios: it's a much greater ratio if you're just counting city population (30/333,000) than if you're also counting people in the surrounding metro area (30/2,000,000).

I'm just saying, is all. Don't just believe every statistic the news throws at you. I lived in STL my whole life, and I'd have a hard time believing that even the worst areas are harder than say, Compton.
 
whenever I see "Newark" i think: "Hey check that out. Those guys totally look like a lame version of us.... Holy ****!"
 
DocFunk said:
nyc is a pretty big place. are we talking about manhattan(the city) or brooklyn? or the bronx? (ok nobody really cares about staten island and nobody talks about queens even though the majority of the population in nyc lives in queens)
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Well, for what it's worth the post you quoted mentioned Flatbush which is where Downstate is.
And Flatbush is actually pretty crappy as you can get as far as NYC neighborhoods go.

Of course the reality is again that if you keep a low profile you probably won't randomly be killed for no reason, lol. If you go out trying to buy crack every other day, then it's a different story.

Too bad that I love crack so much then lol.
 
I lived in west philly all of my life and the city overall has really taken a turn for the worst. We had the most murders in 2006 in over 10 years. It is also getting worse because the big schools, Penn, Drexel (where I go), and Temple are all expanding into neighboorhoods where to most "at risk" population lives, which tends to have negative results.

PCOM is by far in the nicer neighboorhood (Bala Cynwood) and the student that went there that was killed lived (or at least was killed in) west philadelphia, not near the school. Penn has improved recently (becuase a lot of their students were getting assulted/robbed) so there is more security on the streets at night. Drexel med is in a lower middle class suberb of philly but has it fair share of crime, but much less then Temple.

With that said, you will run into saftey issues wherever you go, but some places are surely safer than philly. Just do your homework before you move to the city and dont do anything stupid (ie: walk around a dimly light neighboorhood with expensive items at 2am).

Just my 2 cents...
 
I am a little surprised Chicago is not one of the 25 unsafe cities...that makes me feel better
 
Please pay no attention to that so-called ranking list because if you for one second think that orlando, florida is more dangerous than chicago, illinois then... i dont know what to say.
 
according to the ranking methodology, chicago was excluded from the sample due to missing rape data:

"Chicago and Other Illinois Cities: For several years, rape numbers submitted by cities in the state of Illinois have not met the FBI's Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) guidelines. This remains the case with 2004 crime data. According to state statisticians, the state of Illinois tracks "sexual assault," which includes not only female rapes, but also offenses such as male rape, sodomy, etc. For these reasons, Chicago and other Illinois cities once again are not found in this year's Safest City rankings. However, Chicago and other Illinois cities are included in our book City Crime Rankings for all of the other crimes."
 
I've never been one to flame anyone on this forum but...

If you want to live your life being separated from the poor, underprivileged societies of this country, then what kind of doctor are you going to become?
 
samgeez said:
I lived in west philly all of my life and the city overall has really taken a turn for the worst. We had the most murders in 2006 in over 10 years. It is also getting worse because the big schools, Penn, Drexel (where I go), and Temple are all expanding into neighboorhoods where to most "at risk" population lives, which tends to have negative results.

PCOM is by far in the nicer neighboorhood (Bala Cynwood) and the student that went there that was killed lived (or at least was killed in) west philadelphia, not near the school. Penn has improved recently (becuase a lot of their students were getting assulted/robbed) so there is more security on the streets at night. Drexel med is in a lower middle class suberb of philly but has it fair share of crime, but much less then Temple.

With that said, you will run into saftey issues wherever you go, but some places are surely safer than philly. Just do your homework before you move to the city and dont do anything stupid (ie: walk around a dimly light neighboorhood with expensive items at 2am).

Just my 2 cents...
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I go to school right down the street from PCOM, and I agree that West Philadelphia is not the safest place to live. Nonetheless, my friends and I have not had any problems in this part of the city. Really, just as everyone else has said, you need to exercise common sense -- just walk around in a large group of people, stay alert, use your gut, try to stay near crowded and well-lit areas, etc. I love my school, and even though I'm only an undergrad, I would not have chosen differently had I known about the high crime rate of this city.
 
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One common mistake people generally do when walking in the street of sketchy neighborhoods is keeping their headphones blaring while walking alone. A big no no if you want to hear whats going on around you
 
Garrison1 said:
I've never been one to flame anyone on this forum but...

If you want to live your life being separated from the poor, underprivileged societies of this country, then what kind of doctor are you going to become?
Click to expand...

If "poor, underpriveleged" = "Give me your money, bich!", then yeah, I'll become whatever bad doctor you presume I will be.

Listen, it's simple. The thread was begun because many urban medical centers happen to be in high-crime areas. Luckily, mine is not. Except for a few prostitution issues, my school is associated with the county hospital, which happens to be located in the nice area of town. So, you telling me that because I can walk across the street to Starbucks at 3 a.m. to grab a double to make it throught the night, without fearing my life, somehow I am not getting the same clinical experiences as the D-T Philly students?

p.s. where I'm at, a bucket of chicken gets you sexual favors in the parking lot. No ****!
 
I would be scared to walk at night anywhere near Princeton Plainsboro hosptial. Crazy s... goes on around there...😱
 
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