Made this for the name and shame, but your post is oddly applicable. Note: I know nothing about NYMC, but hopefully they're not as bad.
Avoid Drexel Med unless you're desperate to be a USMD and this is your only choice. At the end of the day it'll get the job done: it's a USMD and has an okay rep, I graduated with my degree and am happy with the overall outcome, as are most of my colleagues (some of whom matched into top 10 programs, with almost everyone I know matching into their top 3, though some people certainly matched very poorly or went unmatched altogether, that really comes down to individual effort and interviewing skills at a certain point).
That being said, the admin literally doesn't give a **** about its students, they will throw any of your complaints regarding grading, discrimination, abuse from seniority on rotations, financial matters, and everything else you can imagine (no matter how much merit they have) out the window without a second thought, they will make every decision with their best interest at heart. The school recently lost its flagship hospital (Hahnemann) and will be losing Mercy Catholic as well as Easton; this coming in the wake of the loss of full year sites at Abington and a couple hospitals in NJ (I can't even remember their names as this occurred in my pre-clinical years). Reading/Tower Health is cutting deals to bolster their practice on the grave of what was once Drexel medicine, headhunting the few worthwhile physicians that had remained at Drexel after the HUH collapse. Additionally, we will be losing Reading as a clinical site for rotations from the main medical school in Philadelphia, as Drexel is opening a ~200 student satellite campus at Reading. The rotations were already an absolute disaster during my third year and have sharply declined in educational quality, overall quantity, variety, and clinical exposure since then.
Speaking as someone who has just recently left the institution, I will lose no sleep over making the decision to attend DUCOM but am infinitely glad that this chapter of my life is over. As I said, it got the job done and I'm a physician now. However, it is still screwing over its graduates and students with regards to diplomas/licensing, financial issues such as redistribution of funds collected by our class for matters such as graduation/match ceremonies (which were obviously not spent), CARE act funds which many people from my class desperately need right now, as their SO/family members are out of work and we have not begun working to earn money (they told us "senior university leadership" excluded us with no reason given despite the fact that we meet all requirements laid out by the federal government). On top of all that, the building at Queen Lane has literally been falling apart over the last four years, thankfully they are creating a new building in West Philly by the undergrad, but the point here is that there have been leaks, roof damage, and even a couple ceiling collapses that would go without repair for extended periods of time and had caused disruptions during lectures and exams alike.
These things are just the tip of the iceberg but show issues of much larger magnitude underlying the mantra that guides DUCOM admin. That is, YOU DON'T MATTER, all that matters is the bottom line. I attempted to start/join several student-lead initiatives at the school and was met with resistance every step of the way. As a student rep., I was elected to a couple committees to discuss changes in the curriculum and it become immediately apparent that they did not want my opinion, or the opinion of the student body, unless it directly aligned with their own opinions. Perhaps I'm using hyperbole to some extent or I got dealt a bad hand (I know others who experienced virtually none of these issues or who simply kept their head down and went with the flow of things and could give you a completely different story), but this will be forced into your head from day 1 at DUCOM, whether or not you recognize it, and will not stop until the day you leave. Dealing with completely man-made issues at Drexel caused me more anxiety and stress than the actual work of medical school itself over the last four years. I wish all those preparing to enter medical school luck, as it can be an amazing and transformative experience, and can also be one of the most frustrating and soul-crushing periods of your life and I'm so glad I'm moving on to residency.
