Drexel v. GW

[muzikbuf]

i've been over the pros and cons out the wazoo, and still am no closer to making a decision. I know i have time, second look and all...

any thoughts?

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[C.P. Jones]

i've been over the pros and cons out the wazoo, and still am no closer to making a decision. I know i have time, second look and all...

any thoughts?

i would also like to know thoughts on this as i hope to have the same decision maybe next january or so

 

[jebus]

Well, what are you two looking for in a med school? What can we do to put you in a med school today?
Let's brainstorm (I'm in the same position as you, CP). Location? Curriculum? Cost? Sexy? (You can't deny the sexy.)
For me, I just really like DC. To me it is the most interesting city in the world. Sounds trite, doesn't it? But that sort of visceral response is my driving force and it's difficult to dissuade me.

 

[muzikbuf]

Well, what are you two looking for in a med school? What can we do to put you in a med school today?
Let's brainstorm (I'm in the same position as you, CP). Location? Curriculum? Cost? Sexy? (You can't deny the sexy.)
For me, I just really like DC. To me it is the most interesting city in the world. Sounds trite, doesn't it? But that sort of visceral response is my driving force and it's difficult to dissuade me.

i don't think it's trite to consider the town you'll be calling home for 4 years (or more)....

both philly and DC are outstanding 'east coast' cities (i'm in CA). philly is less expensive, but i wouldn't put it past me to live in VA if i choose GW and just take the metro in. the cost of living decreases dramatically.

GW is more expensive, but has more resources for funding (grands/scholarships).
Drexel has the 'new' curriculum and better online resources.
GW has the new(er) hospital right there.
Drexel's days are shorter, but jam packed straight through, no breaks for review or study.
Neither are ranked in Primary Care or otherwise, but Drexel is in Women's Health (16th? 19th?).

this is just the top of my head stuff. there are many other factors i have yet to specify, such as grades, match rank, board scores and prep time, etc.

 

[C.P. Jones]

i won't be much of a help yet since i'm really one of those "i won't look at the school until i get in" ppl.....but i'll try my best w/ what i know (very little)

i've never been to d.c., except for the time i accidently got off I-95 and ended u in rush hour traffic and somehow found my way back....but it SEEMS like a cool place to me, i guess i'll see what i think when i go to my interview

my interview was also my first time to philly, and i didn't get a chance to give it a fair shot, but i don't think i would mind it there at all....and i can run up the museum of art stairs EVERY MORNING

staff (as in professors) at drexel seem outstanding since they focus on the students instead of their research (no info on gw)

ummm...for what i am looking at in a school.....it may come down to tuition and cost of living if the schools seem evenly matched...i will also look at the curriculum to see which one suits me better...

now for sexy...that's an interesting point...no i cannot deny that it will be the final deciding factor

i think all of us who will have a decision b/w these two schools should meet up and go over it, and after taking 3 weeks to decide, we will send an acceptance and rejection letter, making sure not to mail that out for another 3 weeks.....and if the schools call telling us to make a decision, we can just tell them "you're being reviewed"

anyway, sry for not being much of a help, i'll learn more as we go along though....right now i just want one school

 

[ivan lewis]

Hey guys,

I'm a drexel med grad, currently a surg resident at another institution. The two schools that you're deciding between are pretty equal in terms of rep so I'd probably base my decision mostly on finances.
But let me say that I really enjoyed my time at Drexel. I thought that the faculty, esp in the clinical years, were top notch. You have a solid medicine/surg experience at Hahnemann and an excellent pediatrics experience at St. Chris'. The surg faculty is excellent, led by Bill Meyers who treats the whos who in the world of sports for their "sports hernia" (Nomar, Grant Hill, Donovan McNabb, etc, etc) - and this guy's actually a liver surgeon! Anyways, I digress.
We always do pretty well with the match. Off the top of my head, in my class, we had matches at MGH (Harvard), Brigham (Harvard), Hopkins, Duke, Penn, UCLA, UCSF, UW, etc in fields such as ortho, path, rads, anesthesia and medicine. I think we had 6 or 7 people go into derm, a couple in rad onc, and 15-20 in ortho - some of the most difficult fields to match into.
The biggest downside of being at Drexel is that often you're overshadowed by Penn. I assume this would be no different if you went to GW, being that it is near Georgetown and Hopkins.
One concern that people had (at least when I was interviewing prospective students) was Drexel's financial problems in the past. I can say that the financial problems never impacted my medical education (it did affect the people a couple of years ahead of me, however). Moreover, when Drexel was going through its financial problems, no less than 5 other medical schools in Boston, NYC, Philly and DC had similar financial problems.
Anyhoo, good luck with your decision and feel free to pm me with questions.

 

[jebus]

Hey, thanks for the info. Would you mind telling us where you're at now? And how you compare your experience there with Drexel? Or how you compare the experience of the students there with that at Drexel?
Enjoy the rest of your weekend. or something.

 

[tigress]

I don't know a thing about GW, but I second the mention of Drexel's curriculum -- it's awesome (I'm talking about IFM); I truly don't believe there's a better curriculum out there. The resources for the pre-clinical years are amazing and the professors are completely dedicated to helping the students learn.
Also their focus on women's health is pretty cool. And they have a neato humanities program for which you can get a special designation on your diploma. My husband's taken some really cool elective courses about literature and art in medicine, and gone to some great lectures (I've been to a bunch of them as well )

As far as the jam-packed nature of Drexel, I just wanted to point out they they always have a reading day, a day off before tests, and usually tests are a day apart (this week 2nd years have one Monday and one Wednesday) with the day in between unscheduled. They start class back right afterwards, though. They have to have 2 days of tests due to the nature of the curriculum (longer courses all together instead of the block system).

Anyway I'll actually be PMing ivan lewis about the clinical curriculum since I haven't experienced that part second hand yet I have seen the neurology rotation, since I work in the neuro clinic. I have to say I find it a bit lacking. Many of the attendings are great, but a few are...well, not so great. And all of the residents are FMGs (not that that's NECESSARILY bad, but it's hard to understand them sometimes). It's funny, there was recently a group of students rotating through who I was really unimpressed by, but it varies; some of the students have been awesome and smart and totally on top of things. I'm sure that's the case for most schools.


edit: Drexel is totally financially stable now. The name Alleghany (sp?) is a curse word in our clinic, though (they're the ones who bankrupted the hospital system because the CEO was stealing all the money). Drexel University has awesome resources and has really put money into the school. In fact, they're building a new building at the main med school campus, to house a new gym and some lecture halls and stuff. And Drexel U just announced a new law school (a stupid move in my opinion, but it shows they have the money to do it).

 

[Avenue Q]

Tigress, why do you think IFM is so unique? it seemed pretty similar to some other schools i have visited... what did i miss? (If i went there though, i would probably do PIL, unless you convince me otherwise ).

 

[medstylee]

IFM is cool because, even while there are separate "traditional" courses (anatomy, physio, etc), everything is tied together by the themes of the clinical-symptom modules. i think this is a great idea for two reasons, a) it allows you to attach some sort of clinical relevance to the basic science material and b) it provides means for you to interrelate topics from the different basic science courses. PIL seemed very interesting, but i just didn't think it was for me (it seemed like a bunch of type-A's trying to see who could yell out the answer first). if you want to do pbl, though, drexel does it really well (certainly differently than at other schools i've seen it at).

in terms of gw vs. drexel, i think it'd be a tough choice. i interviewed at both - waitlisted at gw, haven't yet heard from drexel. i think i'd choose gw because i'd rather live in dc than philadelphia. in terms of curricula, both schools have great ones (drexel for the above reason, gw because of their extensive clinical preparation). the facilities were great at both and the students also seemed very happy at both schools. in any case, i'd feel really lucky to attend either school. good luck.

 

[tigress]

Tigress, why do you think IFM is so unique? it seemed pretty similar to some other schools i have visited... what did i miss? (If i went there though, i would probably do PIL, unless you convince me otherwise ).

IFM is loosely symptom-based, which is pretty much systems-based but with a twist. Basically all of the courses are taught at the same time throughout the year (although some are shorter, like immunology, and only last part of the year). This differs from the block system used by many schools. Like medstylee said, the courses are tied together. So when you learn cardiovascular gross anatomy you'll also learn cardiovascular histology and genetic basis of cardiovascular development and defects, etc. This works better for some things than for others, but in general it really prepares students to think about the body in an integrated manner, rather than just biochemistry, just anatomy, and so on. Not to mention the absolute dedication of the teachers. Drexel was just re-accredited, and dedication of faculty was one thing the LCME specifically praised for Drexel.

I don't think PIL would work for me at all, but it's good to have the option for somebody who would learn well that way. I don't know much about their curriculum, though, because I've only talked to students about it for a little while.

edit: I didn't mention the resources. This is one of the main reasons I would want to go to Drexel. At the beginning of each module, or section (e.g. 1st year has the Chest Pain module, the Missed Menstrual Period module, etc. -- again, named for the symptom-based curriculum), the students are handed a huge stack of notes for the module. Most of them are actual typed notes, though some are just PowerPoint slides. A lot of the students actually learn mostly from the module notes themselves and use books only for supplement, and sometimes the notes are sufficient enough to not need the actual class. This is extremely convenient. And if you realize you really do need to understand something better, either after having gone to the class or after you missed it to study on your own, you can then go online and watch the video of the class. Everything is just set up to make it as easy to learn as possible.

 

[muzikbuf]

anyone swaying towards GW?

 

[Avenue Q]

IFM is loosely symptom-based, which is pretty much systems-based but with a twist. Basically all of the courses are taught at the same time throughout the year (although some are shorter, like immunology, and only last part of the year). This differs from the block system used by many schools. Like medstylee said, the courses are tied together. So when you learn cardiovascular gross anatomy you'll also learn cardiovascular histology and genetic basis of cardiovascular development and defects, etc. This works better for some things than for others, but in general it really prepares students to think about the body in an integrated manner, rather than just biochemistry, just anatomy, and so on. Not to mention the absolute dedication of the teachers. Drexel was just re-accredited, and dedication of faculty was one thing the LCME specifically praised for Drexel.

I don't think PIL would work for me at all, but it's good to have the option for somebody who would learn well that way. I don't know much about their curriculum, though, because I've only talked to students about it for a little while.

edit: I didn't mention the resources. This is one of the main reasons I would want to go to Drexel. At the beginning of each module, or section (e.g. 1st year has the Chest Pain module, the Missed Menstrual Period module, etc. -- again, named for the symptom-based curriculum), the students are handed a huge stack of notes for the module. Most of them are actual typed notes, though some are just PowerPoint slides. A lot of the students actually learn mostly from the module notes themselves and use books only for supplement, and sometimes the notes are sufficient enough to not need the actual class. This is extremely convenient. And if you realize you really do need to understand something better, either after having gone to the class or after you missed it to study on your own, you can then go online and watch the video of the class. Everything is just set up to make it as easy to learn as possible.

I guess I just have interviewed at schools that do it in a similar way (integrated and symptom/organ based) so far.

 

[beponychick]

anyone swaying towards GW?

I dont have this option (i was placed on hold at GW and dont have the decision from drexel) but i think it would be a very tough choice. I love DC and would love to live there, even over philly. I spent four years in philly for undergrad, and its a great place, but something about DC totally excites me. Both of the schools are great though. I was under the impression that GW had a better "name" than Drexel in the medical community. It seems to be more respected and has more of the "wow" factor than Drexel. I could be wrong though. You can't go wrong either way. good luck.