my drexel interview

[kaos]

Thanks to everyone who contributed to my advice post about traveling to Philly. I made it to Philly safe and sound (drove there w/ a friend) and stayed @ the Sheraton University City hotel. Funny thing was, I saw the Divine Tracy hotel right next door to it, so apparently it ISN'T a shady digs. But I was really surprised about Drexel's location. I rode the regional rail there, and passed through some really gross parts of town. I mean, it was deserted and looked like a ghost city. But other than that, it was great! Oh, and the funny thing was that my interviewer seemed to really LOVE my black long-skirt, drapy suit!

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[Nefertari]

Congrats, kaos! What was your impression of Drexel? Are things getting better there? What @ the problems w/ their curriculum? Thanks!

 

[Adcadet]

yeah, what did you think of Drexel?

 

[WISC-ite]

The train ride to Drexel IS scarry. Many people don't know that Philadelphia was, at one time, a huge BOOMing city. During the 70's everyone left when the Naval base closed, the shipping industry dried up, and the mines weren't producing as much coal.

I move to Philadelphia last year and I just wanted to get the heck out of here...but it is really growing on me. There are many nice places in philly and the surrounding area, they just aren't very obvious to a newbee. It is very similar to Baltimore. The trains through Balitmore go through the GETT-OO.

Anyways, glad you enjoyed your trip. The only problem with their curriculum that I was aware of was their Problem Based Learning. However, I know that the last years group did well. I am currently taking their IFM curriculum (systems-based) and I like it.

Good luck
WISC-ite

 

[Random Access]

Any Philly people who can tell me where in Philly Drexel Med is? I sort of know my way around Philly, but no idea where Drexel is.

Isn't Drexel undergrad near Penn and Temple?

 

[DW]

Originally posted by Random Access
Any Philly people who can tell me where in Philly Drexel Med is? I sort of know my way around Philly, but no idea where Drexel is.

Isn't Drexel undergrad near Penn and Temple?

drexel med is in east falls, a little north of center city and the art museum. pretty quiet little area, and close to manayunk which is a fun area

the undergrad and rest of drexel is in west-ish philly, closer to upenn, not to temple

yeah, dont think all places in philly look like they do off the regional rail lines

 

[wholly]

First and foremost, the curriculum at ducom sucks!!! i mean that in the most sincerest regards. They have this module system going in which they try to correlate biochem, physio, micro, nutrition, gross, genetics all together...every other week we have a quiz...~5 questions on each subject. now what they have done is combine 2 modules, so we only have 3 blocks of test for the year....this, unfortunetly, means that there is a crap load of info to memorize for each test....they are not student oriented at all!!!! i suggest looking at other schools before ducom!!

 

[lola]

what's ducom? drexel??

 

[ucbdancn00]

i just had my interview with Drexel this past Thursday......the place is pretty sweet; granted the campus is somewhat small, but the people there are very nice....

that they have two curriculums faciliate multilple styles of learning and i think that's pretty important. The school is pretty off the hook in my opinion.

East falls, where the school is located, is about 20 minutes from Center City.. The area is not too ghetto, but it's fairly scenic in nature.

the one thing that stood out the most in my mind is how friendly and helpful the staff and students are. It definitely seems like a place where i could go to school at.

I hope they make my decision this Thursday!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I could find out by next week, theoretically!!!!!

Good luck everyone

 

[Mylaina]

Originally posted by wholly
First and foremost, the curriculum at ducom sucks!!! i mean that in the most sincerest regards. They have this module system going in which they try to correlate biochem, physio, micro, nutrition, gross, genetics all together...every other week we have a quiz...~5 questions on each subject. now what they have done is combine 2 modules, so we only have 3 blocks of test for the year....this, unfortunetly, means that there is a crap load of info to memorize for each test....they are not student oriented at all!!!! i suggest looking at other schools before ducom!!

Wholly is referring to the IFM curriculum. My experience at Drexel Med has been with the PIL curriculum and it is COMPLETELY the opposite. The faculty are so focused on our achievements, and they go out of their way to help us (i.e. coming in on Sunday afternoon and staying till midnight to help us the weekend before a big exam). In regards to having a ton to study for for each exam-- it really is getting us geared up for comprehensive end of the year finals (which we take in order to go onto next year) and also the boards! DrexelMed rocks.

Wholly, are you a first year? Are you considering transferring from our school?

 

[Moskeeto]

How difficult is it to get into the PIL? do you have any idea which track you'll be on before school starts? it'd be a big advantage on helping decide what school to go to.

 

[Joe Joe on da Radio]

Originally posted by Moskeeto
How difficult is it to get into the PIL? do you have any idea which track you'll be on before school starts? it'd be a big advantage on helping decide what school to go to.

at my interview, they told us this...

you have to be accepted first to the school, and then you apply to PIL. the dean personally reviews the applications and picks ~40 students for the PIL group. once you're in the PIL group, you can switch to IFM if you don't like it. if you're in the IFM group from the get-go, you can't switch into PIL.

--joe joe

 

[Moskeeto]

Wow, only 40 out of over 200 students?!?! that makes it seem a bit difficult. Well, i guess not every student wants to do the PIL. It sounds like something I'd like to do, but it sounds like a risk to go to the school hoping to get into that program. Anyone have any idea about what excatley they look for to accept people into the PIL. Grades, research/EC experience, a nice smile??

 

[Mylaina]

I don't think it's hard to get into PIL. I have yet talked to someone in IFM who wanted to be in PIL. Just put in some thought in your application (don't totally blow it off) and I'm sure you will be in! (heck, they let me in!)

 

[Mylaina]

There is another thread on here that is PIL vs. IFM. Check it out.

 

[Moskeeto]

Well, I just got off the phone scheduling my interview and the earliest date they had was May 5th. I can't beleive they interview that late. She said to call back at the end of the month to see if anything opened up, but man, I can't believe May 5th, thats crazy.