Bump.. would love to see Einstein, Jeff, Temple
I'm a 2nd year med student, any comments about the clinical years are not based on 1st hand experience.
Jefferson Medical College
Curriculum: We have a block system.
- M1 consists of Anatomy, then Biochem, then Systems/Physiology, and Systems/Neurology.
- M2 starts with a short Introduction to Path/Pharm, then Immunity/Infection (drugs and bugs), then "Foundation of Clinical Medicine", which is basically just the organ systems (Physio, Pharm, Path system by system) for the bulk of the year. FCM is basically prepping for the boards
- Additionally, there's Introduction to Clinical Medicine that runs throughout 1st and 2nd year. 1st years learn history taking on standardized patients, medical ethics, and behavioral science. 2nd years learn the physical exam and evidence based medicine
Location: Philadelphia, PA: Center City
Cost: ~$44-45k/yr for tuition, tack on about $15k/yr for all the other stuff. From what I know, the financial aid is almost exclusively need-based.
Faculty: The course directors are all great and willing to receive input from students. The professors are also very good about getting back to students about questions and concerns. Each class has course liaisons who act as a go between for the professors and students so that more concerns can be addressed quickly. Every month, all the course liaisons meet up with all the course directors and the dean in charge of curriculum to discuss any issues, or ways to make things better. For the most part, the course directors are very receptive to suggestions.
Reputation: Pretty solid school, tons of alumni due to a big class and being around for a really long time. Not specifically known for research, but there are great opportunities to do clinical research. Well known for its student-run clinics throughout the city (JeffHOPE, runs 5 clinics/week)
Clinical Rotations: Very little first-hand experience here. Most affiliated hospitals are within Philly, some are in Delaware, a couple are in South NJ, and a couple are scattered throughout PA (Latrobe, York, Reading). If it's far away, they'll put you up during the week.
Housing: A lot of on-campus housing...it's guaranteed for 1st year students. We have 3 buildings, 2 of which are apartment-style living, and one of which is dorm style. The apartment-style buildings are 20 and 10 stories respectively and have 1, 2, and 3-bedroom apartments. A good chunk of the class lives on-campus, but there are plenty of people who live "off-campus", which is really within 3-5 blocks of campus. There is plenty of housing around the area. On-campus housing has RAs who run Residence Life events, such as trips to local attractions at a solidly discounted price.
- Because Jefferson is in Center City, everything essential is within a 5 block radius ranging from supermarkets (SuperFresh and Whole Foods), farmers markets (Reading Terminal Market) and Chinatown, to a mall that includes Kmart, Radio Shack, Burlington Coat Factory and more.
Study areas: The library is kinda old, but certain floors are open 24/7. The other major area is the Hamilton building, where you can reserve rooms to study in (they're basically conference rooms with a whiteboard and blackboard in them). There are also tables and comfortable chairs scattered throughout Hamilton.
Social Scene:
- There are a ton of bars around Jefferson, the most popular one on Thursday nights is Marathon, which is pretty much on campus. They have $1 drinks for Jefferson students from 10-11PM then 12-1AM. There's always a post-exam party organized by the student council at one of the many local bars.
- Intramurals are pretty big at Jefferson
theres also an annual Powderpuff tournament between the med school years.
-Many people are involved with extracurriculars at Jefferson (there are over 100 organizations), the biggest organization is JeffHOPE, which requires about 45 2nd year students and 8 4th year students to keep everything afloat.
- If youre into history, were about 4 blocks away from Independence Hall, Liberty Bell etc
- If youre interested in the Arts, were in the theater district (and sometimes get free tickets to see orchestra concerts, and shows), and a bus right or long walk from the Art Museum.
- If you want to go up to NY, Boston, or down to DC, you can take a bus from Chinatown, or take the subway to 30th street station to catch Megabus/Boltbus or take Amtrak. All are very easy to access from Jefferson and are pretty cheap (except Amtrak).
Local Hospitals: A good mix of urban and suburban. In the city of Philadelphia, Jefferson Hospital is in Center City, while Methodist takes care of South Philly (lower socioeconomic area), and Einstein takes care of parts of North Philly. All the other local hospitals are in the suburbs of Philadelphia, so have a slightly different patient population
Board Prep: My personal opinion is that a lot of this depends on the student. But traditionally, students do well on the USMLE. The second year curriculum does a good job preparing students for the USMLE. We have 6.5 weeks from the end of 2nd year to the start of 3rd year to take the exam.
Specialty: Pretty much every specialty is represented in our match list. Theres a good mix of everything from primary care to plastics/rad-onc/anesthesiology.
Grades: During the 1st and 2nd year, were graded on an Honors/Pass/Fail system, while in the clinical years, its a combo of the clinical grade (5 divisions I think) and shelf exam score. Jefferson maintains a very collegiate and supportive environment. People post up their study guides and clutch study materials from previous years onto the discussion board for each block. A good majority of the class is in some type of study group.
Overall Grade: A. Im very happy to be here. Overall, Jefferson has a collaborative and friendly environment, which has helped tremendously. Even with a class of ~260, professors remember you and even the people in charge of admissions still remember you. Only real con is that the gym is on the small side (it gets really crowded around 5 PM), but thats being nitpicky.