I need some advice...

[peace_puff]

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Okay, here's the deal:

I just got my first acceptance letter (from SLU), so, naturally, I will be reserving a place in the class. I have yet to hear from 3 other schools as far as accept/waitlist/reject goes. I have two more interviews scheduled for the first week of April, at Albany Med and at Drexel.

So the real question is: Should I cancel my interviews?? It seems fairly late in the game to go on more interviews, and I already have at least one acceptance. I haven't been to SLU because I interviewed with a rep locally, but right now I think I would go there before I went to Albany or Drexel. For those of you who have been to SLU or Albany or Drexel....What do you think about the schools, and what is your advice for my predicament?

 

[UCLAMAN]

I was just at drexel and wasn't impressed. The class is extremely large(250 students). The school is not connected to an undergrad campus. It borders Germantown which is extremely ghetto. Philly is the dirtiest city I've been to so far. Only 80% of the students place into their top 3 residencies(thats even after they are counseled. One would think that after having counseling that they would have a higher percentage.) Didn't hear too much about the faculty. Our tour was given by one of the student adcom members so it was hard to ask questions that discussed the negatives of the school. It is expensive. I didn't like the fact that their clinical experiences consisted of a lot of pimping. Our tourguide emphasized that there was a lot of it too. The affiliated hospitals are all over the places so you could be livin some place a ways from philly for certain periods of 3rd and 4th year. the PIL program seems to be a joke. Pure problem based learning I think would leave gaps in one's education. The IFM curriculum is an 8-2pm deal. The grading system is high honors, honors, pass, fail. Essentially its letter grades. So in a nutshell I didn't like the place at all. You will definitely become a physician if you go there. There is opportunity to place at great places like mass general or duke, etc. i'd imagine those are the best students. i guess theres also a broad range of specialties from derm to peds to anesthesiology that people match into. the people didn't seem too nice either. many medical students passed me by and even sat nearby on my shuttle ride to my interview at the hahnemann hospital. no one stopped to talk about how great the school was or how i should really really come there. they didn't seem all to excited about their school.

i just felt like it was a real cookie cutter type program. there didn't seem to be too much research or traveling abroad opportunities. Sure they had free clinic type stuff but nothing really seemed to stand out about drexel to me.

just my 2 pennies.

 

[peace_puff]

Thanks, uclaman. I agree with what you said about PIL leaving gaps in the education. I have my serious misgivings about the curriculum at Drexel, from what I've read. I've never been to Philly, so I definitely appreciate your insight there! And I think the kind of students and their attitudes really say a lot about the school they are attending. I'm sorry you had such a negative experience there, but thanks for sharing it!

 

[Joe Joe on da Radio]

save your money and stick with SLU. puff on, peace, puff on.

--joe joe

 

[doc2bee]

alright, my 2 pennies are a little different than uclaman's. i have been accepted to slu and drexel, and i'm pretty sure i'm going to chose drexel (anybody - feel free to offer advice). i visited both schools, and i found the students and faculty to be very friendly and positive at both. slu is in a more ghetto/unsafe area, although i did like st. louis and philly a lot. i stayed in philly for the weekend with a friend that goes to temple law and i thought the city was great. i'm sure there are dirty parts to it, but everywhere i visited was pretty cool. it was cultural and had a lot of character, not to mention great food and bars. the campus was pretty nice, good technology as i'm sure you've heard, and it's in a pretty nice area (although it's residential).
about the curriculums...i liked both too. i'm not really interested in the pil thing, but they offer a lot of personal assistance and flexibily at drexel and i think it's cool that you can choose pil or ifm. the pathways program at drexel offers a lot more choices than many other schools and although the class size is big, i think they do a good job of making it feel smaller.
and i don't really get joe joe's comment about saving your money cause slu's tuition is more than drexel's and it seems that you can get better financial packages at drexel.

anyway, i'm not really an expert on either school, but these are just my impressions. good luck!

 

[Moskeeto]

I was just at Drexel too and I would agree more with doc2bee on this one. I don't see anything wrong with philly except the weather. I'd heard alot of bad stuff about it, but I spent 4 days there and I didn't see anything that had me running for my life. As far as the school goes, all the students I talked to seemed to like it, I kept bringing up the large class size, but most that I talked to said it was not that big of a deal and it just gave you an opportunity to meet more people. I also stayed for the PIL program spill because I had doubts about it too, but it looks like it'd be a really good deal. they have the same pass rate on step 1 as ifm, ~91% last year. Most of the students I talked to were in IFM and most never really went to class anymore, so thats a cool option (don't know what it says about the faculty). You can watch the lectures online or via a live closed circuit camera. as far as the hospitals being all over the place, i don't think you'll get shipped off to Pitt unless thats what you want. Its more about offering flexibility than being a disadvantage. it seems like the students get along pretty well a bunch were gone because they'd been out a huge party the night before. and if you look at their yearbooks, a ton of pics are of them drinking. I have no idea what that has to do with med school, but just lets you know not everyone is studying 24 hrs/day. also, i'll mention again, they have a ping pong ball table, pool table and gym on campus. and you can study on campus or the hospitals 24 hrs a day which is cool. community service and volunteering is also really emphasized here, so thats cool too. overall Drexel was much more impressive than I thought it would be. I haven't been to SLU tho, so i can't comment on that. If it were me, just based on location, I'd pick Philly cause it seems there'd be alot more stuff around there, but thats just me.

 

[X]

If SLU is your first choice then go there. If not, I would go check Drexel out. I got in there, but also got in my top choice so I won't be going to Drexel. Here is the good and bad about Drexel.

First the bad:

I didn't like philly all that much.
Drexel is expensive.

Now the Good:

The school was nice, their facilities are excellent. They are very high tech (if that is important to you) also.
The curriculum is excellent. I applied into the PIL (got in). The PIL program probably has a bad rep because the students in it a couple of years ago did bad on the boards. That is because it was new back then. From speaking with lots of students...the kinks have been worked out. It actually prepares you pretty well, I doubt that leaves any gaps in education - I would say it is a better method.
Cost of living is cheap (but tuition is very expensive). But this means that you can live in a nice place at least. And housing is available right across the street (can't beat that).

Out of all the schools I visited I think Drexel was the one I liked the most. Students were happy, faculty was accessible, facilities were nice, etc. You should at least go check it out.

X

 

[moops]

SLU seems to have good residency placement, from what i've heard.. and i think they are better for 'non-rural' medicine as well... seem to be getting a better and better reputation... any other opinions?

 

[peace_puff]

Thanks for the input, guys.

I still can't quite decide what I should do, but you've all given me a lot to think about.

Does anyone have any opinions on Albany Medical College? I heard that their facilities are pretty shabby, but that's just heresay...

 

[Lab-Rat21]

If you have the $$$, you won't have any regrets later when you enroll at a med school. You won't think what if I had gone.

Always go, if given the opportunity and if you are considering the school, even a little bit. In your visit you may discover something that makes it your top choice, you never know...good luck