Southern Illinois University (SIU) vs Rosalind Franklin University (RFU) (vs Drexel)

[jaesengowo]

Hey guys, I'm currently on a waitlist for my top school, but in the meantime, I have to choose between SIU and Drexel. I've listed a few pros and cons, according to a thread on reddit with Residency Director scoring, SIU and Drexel are literally next to each other, if that matters at all (both pretty low).

SIU
Pros

• Close to home
• Lower tuition (~60k per year)
• Dedicated teaching hospital
• Smaller classes (argument for being easier to stand out)

Cons

• Name not that big
• Competitive match depends on personal performance (people do match really great every year, but those are probably the rare cases, most people match IM at SIU or nearby institutions (also with smaller names))

Drexel
Pros

• Comparatively bigger name (probably not by much) given location in Philadelphia
• Arguably has more chances for opportunities being in the East Coast/larger city
• More people match to great institutions in the area, such as JHU, MGH, NYU, UPitt, etc.
• (Something to consider though is that the class size is huge, so the percentage of people matching very competitively is probably relatively small)

Cons

• Higher cost (~90-100k per year)
• HUGE class size (300+), arguably harder to stand out in class rank and etc.
• No dedicated teaching hospital in the Philadelphia campus (which is where I would be)
• (Recent hospital bankruptcy, probably doesn't 'kill' the institution but something to consider)

The schools I feel are decently different, but part of me wants to stay at SIU for the comfort of knowing it's a well-established institution. However, part of me wants to go to Drexel since it's a bigger city and a new experience with proximity and connections to great institutions for residency match. Lots of uncertainty with Drexel, though. Thanks in advance.

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[deleted1158770]

SIU. Imo Drexel wouldn’t be worth that extra cost. You will likely be able to match well if you excel at either school.

 

[deleted1065184]

Is your goal to match at a big East Coast institution? What specialties are you interested in? Due to its proximity to so many big name schools and more recognizable name, Drexel may provide you an advantage in specialties in the East. But if that's not *your* personal goal, paying $30-40k/year more probably isn't worth it.

 

[TheDataKing]

SIU

 

[jaesengowo]

Is your goal to match at a big East Coast institution? What specialties are you interested in? Due to its proximity to so many big name schools and more recognizable name, Drexel may provide you an advantage in specialties in the East. But if that's not *your* personal goal, paying $30-40k/year more probably isn't worth it.

Not necessarily big East Coast institutions. I'm shooting for something like derm or IR, so definitely on the more competitive side of things. I'd be happy with any great institution, it doesn't necessarily have to be in the East Coast. I do think that living on the East Coast would be cool though, I liked living there a lot more than where I live now (Midwest). However, I realize that it's important to be smart about things when committing to a school, location definitely shouldn't be the greatest factor, all things considered.

 

[deleted1065184]

Not necessarily big East Coast institutions. I'm shooting for something like derm or IR, so definitely on the more competitive side of things. I'd be happy with any great institution, it doesn't necessarily have to be in the East Coast. I do think that living on the East Coast would be cool though, I liked living there a lot more than where I live now (Midwest). However, I realize that it's important to be smart about things when committing to a school, location definitely shouldn't be the greatest factor, all things considered.

Do both of these schools have home programs in derm and IR?

 

[jaesengowo]

Do both of these schools have home programs in derm and IR?

SIU has a derm and radiology-diagnostic program. Drexel is kinda hard to answer since they don't exactly have their own dedicated hospital. So I wouldn't necessarily say Drexel has home programs in derm or IR. I know I'm being picky here, but if I do go down the derm path, I'm really hoping to match outside of the home institution, just because I've always wanted to branch out and explore new areas and environments (something that I couldn't do in college and now medical school). But at the same time, I'm assuming that having a home program (even if it isn't my top choice) is always a good thing.

 

[deleted1158770]

SIU has a derm and radiology-diagnostic program. Drexel is kinda hard to answer since they don't exactly have their own dedicated hospital. So I wouldn't necessarily say Drexel has home programs in derm or IR. I know I'm being picky here, but if I do go down the derm path, I'm really hoping to match outside of the home institution, just because I've always wanted to branch out and explore new areas and environments (something that I couldn't do in college and now medical school). But at the same time, I'm assuming that having a home program (even if it isn't my top choice) is always a good thing.

Yes, especially for ultra competitive specialties like derm

 

[deleted1065184]

I know I'm being picky here, but if I do go down the derm path, I'm really hoping to match outside of the home institution, just because I've always wanted to branch out and explore new areas and environments (something that I couldn't do in college and now medical school). But at the same time, I'm assuming that having a home program (even if it isn't my top choice) is always a good thing.

It's fine that you want to match out of your home program, but the reality is that you don't have full control over where you match. And this is especially true for very competitive residencies like derm. Having a home program not only gets your foot in the door of one school, but those derm faculty letters will have more weight at other schools. Since Drexel doesn't have their own hospital and SIU does PLUS home programs in your specialties of interest, you should definitely go to SIU.

 

[jaesengowo]

It's fine that you want to match out of your home program, but the reality is that you don't have full control over where you match. And this is especially true for very competitive residencies like derm. Having a home program not only gets your foot in the door of one school, but those derm faculty letters will have more weight at other schools. Since Drexel doesn't have their own hospital and SIU does PLUS home programs in your specialties of interest, you should definitely go to SIU.

A fair point. I'll just make up for the 'not a big city' part with traveling, research, and/or away rotations, down the road things. So then I'll just stick with SIU then and just make sure to do well. Thanks for the advice.

 

[deleted1065184]

Yeah, also you're reasonably close to STL, Chicago, and Indianapolis. And you can always go to a big city for residency if you REALLY want that.

 

[jaesengowo]

Yeah, also you're reasonably close to STL, Chicago, and Indianapolis. And you can always go to a big city for residency if you REALLY want that.

Definitely true, I have some family acquaintances that ended up at Barnes Jewish, UChicago, etc. from SIU, so I'll use that as hope.

 

[jaesengowo]

Hey all, I recently made a post about Southern Illinois University (SIU) and Drexel. I received some really great advice that led me to choose SIU over Drexel, but now Rosalind Franklin University (RFU) is on my list, so I wanted to make a new post about that. I'll re-list the SIU and Drexel pros/cons and then add new information for RFU. Thanks in advance.

SIU
Pros

• Close to home
• Lower tuition (~60k per year)
• Dedicated teaching hospital
• Smaller classes (argument for being easier to stand out)

Cons

• Name not that big
• Competitive match depends on personal performance (people do match really great every year, but those are probably the rare cases, most people match IM at SIU or nearby institutions (also with smaller names))

Drexel
Pros

• Comparatively bigger name (probably not by much) given location in Philadelphia
• Arguably has more chances for opportunities being in the East Coast/larger city
• More people match to great institutions in the area, such as JHU, MGH, NYU, UPitt, etc.
• (Something to consider though is that the class size is huge, so the percentage of people matching very competitively is probably relatively small)

Cons

• Higher cost (~90-100k per year)
• HUGE class size (300+), arguably harder to stand out in class rank and etc.
• No dedicated teaching hospital in the Philadelphia campus (which is where I would be)
• (Recent hospital bankruptcy, probably doesn't 'kill' the institution but something to consider)

RFU
Pros

• Somewhat decent match list (?? - there are people who match well to some really great institutions)
• A little more known than SIU (probably comparable to Drexel) since it's pretty much in Chicago (North Chicago)
• Mid-sized class (~180 or so), which I would say is a good size imo, as opposed to super small or super large)

Cons

• Name isn't that great (I've heard a lot of complaints about the program, but not sure how true they are, stuff about racism (?) and etc.)
• Cost (not a huge con, ~70k vs ~60k for SIU and ~100k for Drexel)
• No dedicated teaching hospital (I hear it's not the greatest having to compete with other students at other medical schools in Chicago?)
• Not sure how well-established this institution is, also Residency Director rankings (on reddit, July 2022) had RFU really low on the list, even under some DO schools, but I realize rankings aren't always accurate; for example, Carle (MD) is very low on the list, even lower than RFU, but almost all ~20 of their students had pretty insane matches)

If anyone has additional insight into any of these places, especially RFU (which I would say is the school I know the least well), please feel free to share!

 

[mdog31415]

Current RFU M1, but I did apply Drexel and visit the Philly campus so I see where you are coming from. Name brand between the three is not a big thing at all. The racism stuff at RFU is not a problem from what I have seen- seems there were multiple sides of the story in 2020, but the mood here is that the campus has moved on from it. As for the hospitals, yeah I don't know how the competition gig works when it comes to research and clinicals, but I do want to note that RFU has like 14+ different affiliated hospitals. Stroger, Lutheran, Condell, Masonic, Christ, ect. Phenomenal institutions. Research is present here, but not as emphasized vs your research heavy institutions like Northwestern, U Illinois, or U Chicago. I was able to do research throughout my M1 year and am doing paid summer research, so definitely do-able. My opinion: if you are considering a competitive specialty, it sounds like it's down to RFU vs Drexel. Both schools have their pro's and cons. I'll give Drexel the tip for match rates, but RFU is better for clinicals because for the most part clinical sites are within the Greater Chicago area (Drexel's are a tad bit spread out through DE and PA). Can't compare the two on research.

 

[chilly_md]

Hey all, I recently made a post about Southern Illinois University (SIU) and Drexel. I received some really great advice that led me to choose SIU over Drexel, but now Rosalind Franklin University (RFU) is on my list, so I wanted to make a new post about that. I'll re-list the SIU and Drexel pros/cons and then add new information for RFU. Thanks in advance.

I have merged your threads together to maintain the discussion that was had about Drexel and SIU. Rosalind Franklin is not too much more than SIU from a tuition perspective if you really want to live closer to Chicago. The home program situation at SIU might be really nice though since it is a smaller school than most and only a few other students might be interested in the same specialties as you.

 

[jaesengowo]

Current RFU M1, but I did apply Drexel and visit the Philly campus so I see where you are coming from. Name brand between the three is not a big thing at all. The racism stuff at RFU is not a problem from what I have seen- seems there were multiple sides of the story in 2020, but the mood here is that the campus has moved on from it. As for the hospitals, yeah I don't know how the competition gig works when it comes to research and clinicals, but I do want to note that RFU has like 14+ different affiliated hospitals. Stroger, Lutheran, Condell, Masonic, Christ, ect. Phenomenal institutions. Research is present here, but not as emphasized vs your research heavy institutions like Northwestern, U Illinois, or U Chicago. I was able to do research throughout my M1 year and am doing paid summer research, so definitely do-able. My opinion: if you are considering a competitive specialty, it sounds like it's down to RFU vs Drexel. Both schools have their pro's and cons. I'll give Drexel the tip for match rates, but RFU is better for clinicals because for the most part clinical sites are within the Greater Chicago area (Drexel's are a tad bit spread out through DE and PA). Can't compare the two on research.

I appreciate the advice. I'm definitely going to be doing a lot of research just because I enjoy it and it's probably more important since Step 1 went P/F. I'll look a little more into the research side of things, such as research summer programs, etc., but I'll definitely take into account the clinical advantage of RFU compared to Drexel.

 

[jaesengowo]

I have merged your threads together to maintain the discussion that was had about Drexel and SIU. Rosalind Franklin is not too much more than SIU from a tuition perspective if you really want to live closer to Chicago. The home program situation at SIU might be really nice though since it is a smaller school than most and only a few other students might be interested in the same specialties as you.

Thanks for the merge. I'd say I don't need to live in Chicago or a bigger city, but that'd be nice. I'm willing to go wherever is best for training and then hope to explore elsewhere for residency or something. Your point about the smaller class size is definitely true, I've talked to some people from SIU who matched into competitive specialties, and I asked them why there weren't any more like them. They usually said that most people who go there want to stay close to home and do rural medicine or IM or FM or something like that, so that might be less competition and more resources.

 

[gavinupwht]

Drexel is now a R1 (highest research activity) Institution, so definitely provides more research opportunities compared to other two institutions. You can also tell that from NIH fundings. In terms of clinical experience, we can choose to rotate at Kaiser Permanente in California or UPMC at Harrisburg, which are both great clinical sites!

ps: forgot to mention that our new medical school campus is 5 mins' walk away from Penn, and a lot of us do research at Penn...

 

[jaesengowo]

Drexel is now a R1 (highest research activity) Institution, so definitely provides more research opportunities compared to other two institutions. You can also tell that from NIH fundings. In terms of clinical experience, we can choose to rotate at Kaiser Permanente in California or UPMC at Harrisburg, which are both great clinical sites!

ps: forgot to mention that our new medical school campus is 5 mins' walk away from Penn, and a lot of us do research at Penn...

The research is definitely a plus at Drexel. I was trying to find online something about the funding, did you hear about it from someone directly or is that available online? Also, correct me if I'm wrong, but aren't the rotations lottery-based? So there's no guarantee you can rotate at Kaiser, for example?

 

[ciestar]

The research is definitely a plus at Drexel. I was trying to find online something about the funding, did you hear about it from someone directly or is that available online? Also, correct me if I'm wrong, but aren't the rotations lottery-based? So there's no guarantee you can rotate at Kaiser, for example?

Yup. Granted I graduated 3 years ago, but EVERYTHING is lottery-based.