Penn Schedules

[CJLaw]

I know this forum is for med students only, but I need some practical information. I am considering PennMed for various reasons, but the major one is the schedule. On the website, it says that Penn breaks its schedule up into M W F morning sessions, and T R afternoon sessions. My questions are is this true, if so what are the actual times of the lectures, and does the schedule enable you to hold a part time job during your off hours? These questions are very important to me as I have two young children and would liked to have time to spend with them and to keep some money flowing into the household. Thanks.

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[Bonds756]

It is true that most of the first year and a half of the curriculum is set up so that there is class from 8am-1pm MWF and 8am-4 or 5pm on TR. There are sometimes reviews or optional recitations set up on M and W afternoons, and there are usually a number of activities or optional, for-interest classes, available on F afternoons.
So basically, Tuesday and Thursday is always a long day, while Monday and Wednesday often are shorter but may still be long, and Friday is always short.
There are a few people working part time jobs (mostly doing something like teaching MCATs), but not a ton. While there is time to do it, Penn, like every medical school, is a big time committment and it may be difficult to do well in school, have a job and spend time with your family. But I am sure you have done a great job of balancing time so far, so it is feasable. Good luck.

 

[Lt. Ub]

On the surface it looks like Tues and Thurs are the long days, but you should also know that the afternoon sessions vary greatly throughout the first 1.5 years. Often these afternoons are on Mon and Wed. And unless they've changed thing in the past 2 years, nearly one-third of the weeks will have 3 afternoons required - especially when they ramp up the clinical exposure. There's no way you can count on M, W, and F afternoons. Hope this helps, and good luck.

 

[CJLaw]

Thanks for the info guys!