Hey Everyone,
I'm a Temple fourth year hear. So, I will try to answer as many of your questions as I can
1) yes, the neighborhood is really tough. Anyone who has interviewed there knows that its true. About half of the people live in center city. They take the subway line up to N. Philly, 15 min I think. You will pay a lot more in Center City, but most people that live there have roomates. The other half live in the surrounding areas, Germantown, East Falls, Roxborough, City Line Ave. Most of these students have a ten to twenty minute commute. Honestly, I've never heard of any student in my class having a problem around the campus. It is extremely well guarded by security. You wouldn't want to live around the hospital or medical school. However, it's this neighborhood that gives you so much exposure to so many different things.
2)curriculum, I would call their curriculum more traditional. Although, they are working to shift it to more modern. My first two years were basically lectures with some weekly small group work. Each of the subjects were taught separately. Now they are completely integrating the second year into organ based systems. So, you will cover the path, micro, and pathophys of the heart all at the same time. I think this will work well, and really help the student when taking the boards Step 1. Third year is required clerkships, surgery (12 weeks in a row, brutal if you aren't a surgeon) medicine (12 weeks in a row, brutal if you are going to be a surgeon), psych, peds, family, obgyn (all 6 weeks). Fourth year, required clerkships in Neuro and ER (4 weeks), 5 electives (each 4 weeks long) and SUB I (8 weeks). One thing that is important to know is that you won't be doing all of your rotations at Temple Hospital. There is a lottery system before third and fourth years and your lottery number for each clerkship determines the order that you get to pick you clerkship time and hospital. Some are in suburban medical centers around philly, some are up in allentown, scranton, reading. I had to do half of my med rotation in Pittsburgh. However, I think that you must declare if you are interested in doing clerkships in pittsburgh now when you apply, so, students not enrolled in that program won't have to go there.
Bottom Line, I was extremely happy at Temple. The students get along together well and seem to like each other. You do a tremendous amount on your clerkships. As the above poster said it is extremely hands on. You won't leave Temple without knowing how to draw blood, insert IVs, foleys. As far as matching, I think we do pretty well. I'm applying in IM and have interviews all over the country. Temple has a good reputation with PDs. We have people applying in all areas, most commonly IM, Ortho, Fam, Peds, Gen Surg. But also, Derm, Optho. I will say that our Dermatology training is severely lacking. If you really want to go for Derm I would suggest choosing somewhere else. People do match into Derm, but they have to use a lot of outside sources to get there. As long as you work hard, you can go anywhere you want from here.
I hope that this answered some of your questions. I know that the first years are finishing up their exams. They can probably give you a more recent impression of first year. If you have any other questions, I'll be happy to answer them. Good luck.
