emttomd123
Full Member
- Joined
- Sep 14, 2020
- Messages
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- 68
Hi everyone! This post is pretty late because I just got off OUWB's waitlist. I am a mid-twenties female from PA with interests in OB/Gyn, neonatology, and MFM as potential specialties and I would like to match on the east coast. Would love to hear what y'all have to say! Feel free to correct any misunderstandings/mistakes that you see.
Drexel
Pros:
Oakland University William Beaumont School of Medicine
Pros
Drexel
Pros:
- Location - Philadelphia
- A very medically populated city. Lots of resources.
- Close to home - 2 hours drive
- However, I do not love city/urban living. I know Drexel is pretty suburban, but the thought of living ~in~ Philly doesn't really appeal to me lol.
- Pass/fail without internal ranking during M1/M2
- Honors/high pass/pass/fail for M3/M4
- Students have expressed that they feel really supported by faculty and the college - assigned M2/3/4s to help you along with faculty and full time hired support people
- Many community engagement/EC opportunities built into curriculum
- Great national name recognition
- Sports, recreation, night life, etc all nearby. Have friends attending other Philly schools nearby.
- 2021 match list was pretty solid (despite their recent issues)
- Expensive COL
- No directly associated hospital/programs (besides Tower Health in Reading, PA) - but lots of affiliations. Lottery system for rotations (uncertainty) but most students end up pretty happy according to accepted students day
- Could end up moving around the state every month which is annoying
- Could also opt for a year long rotation schedule to avoid this
- The school is going through a lot - figuring out rotations/new campus etc after losing their main hospital. Reputation does not seem to be doing well?
- Medical education building/facilities are old - they’re building new buildings at a new campus location but my class would be one of the lasts to use the old building at the old campus location
- All online learning (which is why their learning was not impacted too much by covid)
- Doesn’t seem to be a top choice for a lot of applicants - interview 1600 for 800 acceptances for ~300 seats
- Giant class size (~260)
Oakland University William Beaumont School of Medicine
Pros
- Hospital system is incredible - largest hospital system in MI with 3 of MI’s top 4 hospitals (only 2nd to UMich)
- Large volume of patients and people are referenced here from all around the world for “zebra” cases
- More suburban campus location but close to underserved areas such as Detroit and Pontiac for more diverse clinical exposure and volunteer opportunities with medically underserved
- Campus and buildings are beautiful - anatomy lab coordinator bragged for like 5 minutes in online session about their state of the art anatomy lab with vented tables, excellent air recirculation, etc
- Students seem pretty happy and speak highly of the school and the support they receive. Big on community feel and support.
- 97% match rate and pretty good list, especially for being a newer school
- Cheaper COL than Drexel (and tuition is a bit less!)
- Far from home (~9 hour drive) and I’ve never been to MI. I went to undergrad 90 minutes from home and my parents visited a lot - might be a bit depressing to be so far from home and not have my support system close. I do not mind/actually kind of like cold weather so weather isn't a problem
- Newer school and not as well known (first class graduated in 2015)
- Attendance requirement for honors (70%)
- I think exams are on mondays which means no free weekends 🙁
- Honors/pass/pass with remediation/fail for preclinical and honors/high pass/pass /pass with remediation/fail for clinical. This model has pros and cons. I think it will add stress to my life that it’s not completely pass/fail but also the honors might help for residency applications.
