1. How competitive do you feel your class is since the grading scale is H/HP/P/CP/F?
--some students are gunners, others just aim to pass, but most are somewhere in between. medical students are motivated wherever you go to school. but there are differences between schools in the academic atmosphere... and it's not necessarily related to the grading system. temple is not very cut-throat. even the students who aim to honor every class are generally humble and willing to share information... plus, i think students here realize that doing well in the residency match has more to do with board scores and third-year evaluations than grades in histology or pharmacology. (after all, if every school has a different grading system, isn't the board exam the best measure of a student's performance in the first two year? makes sense...)
2. Do you feel that going to Temple will still allow you to be competitive in residency matching outside of PA?
--yes. but don't trust me; look at residency match lists for the schools you are considering. (it's tough to know what are the most competitive programs in less competitive speicalities. but a rough way to gauge how "well" students from a school do in the match is to look for the number of students matching in the most competitive specialties--ophto, urology, ortho, ENT, derm.) temple has last year's match list posted on the admissions web site... keep in mind that many students at temple have roots in PA and choose to stay in state. those who wish to leave pennsylvania have no trouble doing so.
3. Where do you students study if they live throughout the city, is it hard to get together with other students?
--students study at school (library, 24-hour study space, student union), coffee shops, other libraries, temple main campus, home, etc... most students live within 5 miles of temple. those that don't live in center city usually have access to a car. so getting together isn't a problem... i personally like living a few miles from campus. it's nice to separate my home life from the world of medicine.
4. How often are you in class, do you have a significant amount of free time compared to students at MCP and Jefferson?
--there are never more than 5 hours of lecture in a day, and frequently fewer hours. with labs, problem-solving sessions, and clinical activities, most days last until 3 PM. A few days per week in first semester of first year, students get done by noon, which is nice.... from my conversations with friends at jefferson, i've gotten the impression that temple has slightly less class time than jefferson... i have no idea about MCP-H.
5. Which other schools were you considering before choosing Temple?
--my long-time girlfriend is in a 6- to 8-year doctoral program in philly, so i really wanted to be here. when i was accepted at temple, i withdrew my applications from most schools outside philly with the exceptions of rochester and pitt--both great schools in my opinion. i was accepted at rochester in june off the waitlist. i was attracted to rochester's progressive curriculum and curious if rochester's slightly better research reputation meant their students matched better. after comparing match lists and talking the situation over with physicians that i know and trust, i came to the conclusion that most of what you get out of med school is "what you put into it." (the exception to this is for students interested in getting into the world of high-powered research--then you should attend the school with the most NIH money.) the physicians i spoke with were universally skeptical of the new non-traditional curriculums and felt that i could do very well at temple. so at that point, the decision was easy. and in retrospect it was the right one.
good luck with your decision. my advice: decide what criteria are most important to you (location, cost of living, curriculum, research, whatever...); then examine those criteria thoroughly at each school. also, talk to doctors; they have better perspective than medical students.
