which of these schools in philly is the "easiest" to get into?

[chos]

Just wondering which of these schools might be considered the easiest to get into--

Drexel
Temple
Jefferson

TIA!

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[Overlap12]

I applied to all 3.....I have an acceptance from Temple, and completed secondaries at Jefferson and Drexel but am still waiting to hear. Temple has the rep for being the easiest but it is an EXCELLENT school with a fabulous clinical reputation and I know other applicants who were very well qualified (Above 3.5 GPA and above 30 MCAT) who were wait-listed or rejected.

I hear Temple is a great, cooperative place to be so your personality is looked at a lot more than your numbers. Jefferson is said to be cutthroat and not that inviting (I talked to some students when I was in Philly at Temple). I haven't heard much about Drexel from an actual student so I'm not sure there.

Anyway, I think all three are about equal so just hope that you do well in the decision making rooms of all three! Good luck!

 

[tigress]

I applied to all 3 and got acceptances from Drexel and Jefferson but didn't hear at all from Temple. lol

I would think Temple or Drexel would be the "easiest" to get into, based on stats. They're all good schools. Jefferson may have a somewhat better reputation than the others (as well as being ranked by USNews, if that even matters to you), but, like Overlap12 said, it does also have a reputation for being cold, competitive, and arrogant. Drexel is warm and inviting and has a great curriculum, although the reputation isn't too great and the main hospital isn't the best in the world. I really don't know which school I would choose between Jefferson and Drexel.

 

[Law2Doc]

I applied to all 3 and got acceptances from Drexel and Jefferson but didn't hear at all from Temple. lol

I would think Temple or Drexel would be the "easiest" to get into, based on stats. They're all good schools. Jefferson may have a somewhat better reputation than the others (as well as being ranked by USNews, if that even matters to you), but, like Overlap12 said, it does also have a reputation for being cold, competitive, and arrogant. Drexel is warm and inviting and has a great curriculum, although the reputation isn't too great and the main hospital isn't the best in the world. I really don't know which school I would choose between Jefferson and Drexel.

Yes - the Jeff has a ranking and a beautiful center city location, so it will tend to have the biggest draw of the three. Probably a toss up between the other two -- both are in very different neighborhoods (temple in a very poor urban area and drexel I think is someplace in the suburban outskirts), which may skew applications one way or another. All three are in the shadows of Penn in terms of competitiveness.

 

[Overlap12]

Yeah definitely, Penn is not too far and the best school in the area. Temple's neighborhood isn't the best but I come from a not too much better area in California and have been in and out of LA all my life so I am used to city sights that scared the other sheltered peeps in my interview group (i.e. bums talking crazy and asking for money, traffic and its noises, street vending, etc.).

How weird tigress that you didn't hear from Temple! I guess it goes to show all of us that this process is often totally arbitrary. I swear, it's like up to if the school's admissions committee all had their Starbucks that morning as to whether you get anywhere or not! Good luck to all of you!

 

[frankrizzo18]

Jefferson is ranked? I do not see it in any of the US NEWS rankings. I have the 2005 and 2006 versions. Perhaps you are confusing Jefferson with Penn? Keep in mind Jefferson is the largest medical school in the country and is not able to be that selective because they need to fill their class. But, it may still be more selective than Drexel and Temple.

Yes - the Jeff has a ranking and a beautiful center city location, so it will tend to have the biggest draw of the three. Probably a toss up between the other two -- both are in very different neighborhoods (temple in a very poor urban area and drexel I think is someplace in the suburban outskirts), which may skew applications one way or another. All three are in the shadows of Penn in terms of competitiveness.

 

[drmota]

Jefferson is ranked? I do not see it in any of the US NEWS rankings. I have the 2005 and 2006 versions. Perhaps you are confusing Jefferson with Penn? Keep in mind Jefferson is the largest medical school in the country and is not able to be that selective because they need to fill their class. But, it may still be more selective than Drexel and Temple.

jefferson's almost always consistently ranked at or around 50th.
-mota

 

[tigress]

Jefferson is ranked? I do not see it in any of the US NEWS rankings. I have the 2005 and 2006 versions. Perhaps you are confusing Jefferson with Penn? Keep in mind Jefferson is the largest medical school in the country and is not able to be that selective because they need to fill their class. But, it may still be more selective than Drexel and Temple.

I think it's ranked 52 or 53 this year. The full version of USNews ranks to 65 or something.

edit: also, they call themselves the largest private med school. Is there a larger public school?

 

[Ron Mexico]

does anyone know people that have gotten into temple or drexel...and if so what kind of grades did they havve?

 

[jebus]

does anyone know people that have gotten into temple or drexel...and if so what kind of grades did they havve?

I know a girl who got into Drexel a couple of years ago. 3.4 and 36 from UCLA. Of course, she had no intention of matriculating and only applied because her parents made her....
I don't know what she's doing now, but I know it's not medicine.

 

[rush2]

I think it's ranked 52 or 53 this year. The full version of USNews ranks to 65 or something.

edit: also, they call themselves the largest private med school. Is there a larger public school?

wayne state is fairly huge

 

[Orthodoc40]

Jefferson is ranked? I do not see it in any of the US NEWS rankings. I have the 2005 and 2006 versions. Perhaps you are confusing Jefferson with Penn? Keep in mind Jefferson is the largest medical school in the country and is not able to be that selective because they need to fill their class. But, it may still be more selective than Drexel and Temple.

Umm - Jefferson is fairly selective. More so than Drexel & Temple, anyway. (Just in terms of numbers, I mean.)

 

[Doko]

You can look at my numbers on my profile. I got accepted to Drexel a few months ago.

 

[isobel]

does anyone know people that have gotten into temple or drexel...and if so what kind of grades did they havve?

i'm in at temple. got waitlisted post interview at drexel but i declined since i liked temple better. drexel was a bit too suburban for me and separate from its hospital. i don't mind temple's location because i'm not as sheltered as some other applicants. i feel that the schools attracted different crowds and temple was more my style. don't get me wrong tho, i did like drexel when i visited (especially since lectures are available online), but not as much as temple.

3.3 GPA and 40 MCAT

 

[DolfinGrl11]

I got in at Temple - 3.4 GPA, 30 MCAT

It did seem though that they were really looking at people for who they were at the interview day - there were a huge range of MCATs and GPAs in the room just in the group I interviewed with (MCATs from 25 to 42 and GPAs from 3.2 to 4.0).

 

[afr0dite01]

I would love to know where everyone hears that Jefferson is cut throat....it is definitely far from it! I love it there and so does everyone in my class that I know of. Some people are more intense than others but everyone is willing to share anything they made to study for tests. If you wanna hear any specifics Ill be glad to elaborate. For those of us who arent so intense, we probably party too much (well within reason I guess...we're all still there). I hope people dont get the wrong idea about Jeff because it is truly an awesome family environment and a great place to be. And for those of you concerned with numbers, we're not concerned with our ranking because we would be ranked higher if we relied more on NIH to fund us...but we're a clinical school. Hope that helps any of your trying to decide. Feel free to PM me with any questions! I would love to talk to perspectives...especially now that I'm on break!

 

[newdude]

JEFFERSON
positive
-large class
-highly ranked (compared to others)



negative



TEMPLE
positive



negative
-bad neighbourhood

DREXEL
positive



negative

 

[NapeSpikes]

Just wondering which of these schools might be considered the easiest to get into--

Drexel
Temple
Jefferson

TIA!

I'd have to say TIA! is the easiest med school for gaining acceptance. It must be one of those fly-by-night joints because I never even heard of it before.

 

[snobored18]

also, they call themselves the largest private med school. Is there a larger public school?

Illinois is the largest med school by far...but it is spread out over four campuses (Rockford, Peoria, Urbana and Chicago) so its really not like its one school but by the numbers...

 

[anon-y-mouse]

Wouldn't Jefferson be the hardest to get into? I got into the 6 year Penn State program in high school, which is 2 years PState+4 years Jefferson, and I would think many of the people in the Jefferson class are from the combined program?

Drexel, I've heard, accepts a ton of people... a lot of people I know applied there as a safety, and don't actually end up matriculating there. Perhaps it's the 'easiest' to get into?

 

[silas2642]

Wouldn't Jefferson be the hardest to get into? I got into the 6 year Penn State program in high school, which is 2 years PState+4 years Jefferson, and I would think many of the people in the Jefferson class are from the combined program?

Drexel, I've heard, accepts a ton of people... a lot of people I know applied there as a safety, and don't actually end up matriculating there. Perhaps it's the 'easiest' to get into?

Yeah, I know... they were even willing to give me an interview. As to which is easiest to get into, I would say it depends. I know that Temple accepts half its class from the wonderful state of Pennsylvania, so if you're a Penn resident, then Temple may be easier for you to get into. I don't think Drexel has this kind of preference to in-state applicants, but I'm not totally sure.

 

[jebus]

edit: also, they call themselves the largest private med school. Is there a larger public school?

According to USNews, Jefferson has 925 students; Drexel has 1007.
Jefferson is apparently the most homogenous of these 3 Philly schools: 25.4% of their student body are members of a minority group, while Drexel and Temple have 42.9% and 39.7%, respectively.

 

[Mixtli]

I interviewed at Temple. Temple has a smaller class size, a hospital close by, and has great clinical training.

 

[novawildcat]

Jefferson is officially the medical school of Delaware, so if you are a PA resident don't expect it to help you at all.

 

[Hausdaddy24]

I'm surprised no one has referred the OP to the MSAR yet... I actually have a question about the MSAR (sorry, kinda off topic but I don't wanna open a new thread for one Q). A new copy is published every year, right? Anyone know what time of the year it comes out? I'll be applying for a spot in c/o 2011 should I get the 2005-2006 copy or is a 2006-2007 copy coming out soon? Thanks

 

[tigress]

According to USNews, Jefferson has 925 students; Drexel has 1007.
Jefferson is apparently the most homogenous of these 3 Philly schools: 25.4% of their student body are members of a minority group, while Drexel and Temple have 42.9% and 39.7%, respectively.

Jefferson is definitely bigger than Drexel, though. I don't know about specific numbers, but the class size is bigger. Not by a huge amount. Jefferson is really quite proud of being "the largest private medical school in the country," judging from my interview day.

As far as where my perception of Jefferson comes from, partially I'm not at all sure because I started out with it, but also partially because out of all of the Jeff students I've met since living in Philadelphia (probably 20-30), all but about 2 were complete arrogant jerks. I may just be meeting a non-representative sample, though! I hope to go back for a second look to get a better feel for the school and the students.

As far as stats for acceptances, you can check my mdapps link for my stats and ECs and all that, though I'm not sure what it will tell you. My husband had a 3.6 and a 36 and he is a student at Drexel. I think the MCAT range in his class is quite large, from low-20s to above 40. I don't know about the GPAs though. You can always find their averages. According to the data they handed out at interviews, for the incoming class of 2005 the average GPA was 3.44 and average MCAT was 31. Class size was 231. Incoming class of 2004 had an average GPA of 3.49 and MCAT of 30, with a class size of 225.

In any case one thing I particularly like about Drexel is the diversity, which the poster I quoted mentioned. There are all kinds of people there. Oh, and I think the understanding that they accept a huge number of people who use it as a safety may be a myth; I posted that exact thing on a different thread and somebody pointed out that their waitlist actually doesn't move much. I do know that Jefferson told us that fully 1/4-1/3 of their class comes off the waitlist.

Right now I don't know where I'd pick when choosing between Jefferson and Drexel. And I have nothing to say about Temple

 

[silas2642]

Right now I don't know where I'd pick when choosing between Jefferson and Drexel. And I have nothing to say about Temple

I agree with you that Drexel is a good school; I would have loved to have gone there but it's kinda far from home. I too have nothing to say about Temple except that their admissions staff is rude, they suck, and they can take the rejection letter I wrote them and shove it up their ass.

 

[tigress]

I too have nothing to say about Temple except that their admissions staff is rude, they suck, and they can take the rejection letter I wrote them and shove it up their ass.

lol, ditto...and it was a mighty fine letter I wrote, too -- I even mentioned their rude admissions staff

 

[thegenius]

Just wondering which of these schools might be considered the easiest to get into--

Drexel
Temple
Jefferson

TIA!

Drexel > Temple > Jefferson.

 

[nutmegs]

interesting perspective as I am a temple student who recently worked closely with an attending who just changed jobs from jefferson to temple... he was totally taken aback by the concept that the residents, attendings, and students at temple are all human and work together as TEAMS. I think it was hard for him not to have his *ss kissed all day long. I told him that's why I chose temple, thanks, and he said "well, the personalities are different. I guess people self-select." so no offense to the fine students at jefferson but I wouldn't expect y'all to see it, when that's all you've known...

 

[badlydrawnvik]

Drexel > Temple > Jefferson.

you have that completely backwards if you are ranking how good they are. jefferson is by far the best in my opinion. i was accepted there this year and accepted to drexel out of high school in 7 yr program that i left because i did not feel it had the opportunities many other schools have.

 

[jebus]

You have that completely backwards if you are ranking how good they are.

I think he was ranking them by ease of admission - with Drexel being the easiest and Jefferson the hardest.
So, what opportunities do you feel you'd miss at Drexel compared with other schools?

 

[tacrum43]

I'm surprised no one has referred the OP to the MSAR yet... I actually have a question about the MSAR (sorry, kinda off topic but I don't wanna open a new thread for one Q). A new copy is published every year, right? Anyone know what time of the year it comes out? I'll be applying for a spot in c/o 2011 should I get the 2005-2006 copy or is a 2006-2007 copy coming out soon? Thanks

The 2006-2007 has been out for months. It's based on the academic year that you would be matriculating in. So, for those who are current applicants, that would be the 06-07 year. The new one comes out in March or April, and that will be the 2007-2008 edition. Hope that helps.

 

[silas2642]

you have that completely backwards if you are ranking how good they are. jefferson is by far the best in my opinion. i was accepted there this year and accepted to drexel out of high school in 7 yr program that i left because i did not feel it had the opportunities many other schools have.

Do you guys really feel that Temple is a better school than Drexel? Given the choice between the two, I would choose Drexel over Temple.

 

[.edu-MD]

.

 

[eb007]

Drexel > Temple > Jefferson.

this is true. i live in philly, work at jeff, and applied to jeff, temple and penn. i have interviews at all 3. i didn't even apply to drexel. they almost lost their accredation a couple of years ago because tenet (an HMO) owns the hospital, and could decide to close it down as soon as it starts losing money for them, leaving the med students with no place to rotate. AMCAS made them sign a contract, promising to not close the hospital so the med students wouldn't be screwed in the end. drexel used to be the largest medical school until jeff passed them with 255 1st years. drexel has a class of 250, i think.

both jeff and temple favor PA applicants because they both receive state funding. if you take the august MCAT your application year and you're not from PA, you won't be able to get into jeff, regardless of how amazing your scores are. this has to do with the minimum # of PA residents they must accept. drexel doesn't have this requirement. they accept something like 800 people for their class of 250 because it's a back-up school for a lot of people.

hope this helps.

 

[Hausdaddy24]

The 2006-2007 has been out for months. It's based on the academic year that you would be matriculating in. So, for those who are current applicants, that would be the 06-07 year. The new one comes out in March or April, and that will be the 2007-2008 edition. Hope that helps.

Thank you thats exactly what i was looking for.

 

[tigress]

this is true. i live in philly, work at jeff, and applied to jeff, temple and penn. i have interviews at all 3. i didn't even apply to drexel. they almost lost their accredation a couple of years ago because tenet (an HMO) owns the hospital, and could decide to close it down as soon as it starts losing money for them, leaving the med students with no place to rotate. AMCAS made them sign a contract, promising to not close the hospital so the med students wouldn't be screwed in the end. drexel used to be the largest medical school until jeff passed them with 255 1st years. drexel has a class of 250, i think.

both jeff and temple favor PA applicants because they both receive state funding. if you take the august MCAT your application year and you're not from PA, you won't be able to get into jeff, regardless of how amazing your scores are. this has to do with the minimum # of PA residents they must accept. drexel doesn't have this requirement. they accept something like 800 people for their class of 250 because it's a back-up school for a lot of people.

hope this helps.

I'm sorry, but this post is full of misinformation. The smallest bit is that Drexel's class size is 230. No biggie. All that nonsense about accredidation is, though. Tenet didn't even own Hahnemann University Hospital until a few years ago. The school itself was called Alleghany for a little while. Yes, Alleghany Health Systems (or whatever) had a ton of financial problems because the CEO was embezzling money. Right now Drexel is incredibly financially stable due to its association with Drexel University, a very stable institution. And while Tenet, a for-profit company, owns Hahnemann, Drexel students rotate in about 25 different hospitals. Even if Hahnemann were closed (which is incredibly unlikely; believe me, I work there), Drexel would be able to find space for its students to rotate. Drexel is also gradually lowering its class size, I believe in an effort to be more competitive. Also, I'm not sure you know what you're talking about; AMCAS made them sign a contract? lol...do you mean the AAMC? LCME? In any case, take a look at Drexel's match list. It isn't shoddy. They have an awesome curriculum, and no student or resident who came from there that I"ve spoken to has felt that their education was anything other than excellent.

Okay, now on to the nonsense about Jefferson (the most glaring misinformation in your post). Jefferson is a private school. Actually it's officially the state school for Delaware, but that's just weird. Anyway, they have NO preference for PA residents. In addition, they have a very long time period for acceptances. In fact, they told us on interview day that fully 1/3 of the class comes off the waitlist. So obviously you can get in if you took the August MCAT

Temple does have a preference for PA residents. You're right about that much.

 

[C.P. Jones]

I'm sorry, but this post is full of misinformation. The smallest bit is that Drexel's class size is 230. No biggie. All that nonsense about accredidation is, though. Tenet didn't even own Hahnemann University Hospital until a few years ago. The school itself was called Alleghany for a little while. Yes, Alleghany Health Systems (or whatever) had a ton of financial problems because the CEO was embezzling money. Right now Drexel is incredibly financially stable due to its association with Drexel University, a very stable institution. And while Tenet, a for-profit company, owns Hahnemann, Drexel students rotate in about 25 different hospitals. Even if Hahnemann were closed (which is incredibly unlikely; believe me, I work there), Drexel would be able to find space for its students to rotate. Drexel is also gradually lowering its class size, I believe in an effort to be more competitive. Also, I'm not sure you know what you're talking about; AMCAS made them sign a contract? lol...do you mean the AAMC? LCME? In any case, take a look at Drexel's match list. It isn't shoddy. They have an awesome curriculum, and no student or resident who came from there that I"ve spoken to has felt that their education was anything other than excellent.

Okay, now on to the nonsense about Jefferson (the most glaring misinformation in your post). Jefferson is a private school. Actually it's officially the state school for Delaware, but that's just weird. Anyway, they have NO preference for PA residents. In addition, they have a very long time period for acceptances. In fact, they told us on interview day that fully 1/3 of the class comes off the waitlist. So obviously you can get in if you took the August MCAT

Temple does have a preference for PA residents. You're right about that much.

however, drexel did not accept me. they're missing out! suckas! (please take me in drexel, please, in my slim slim chance i still have)

 

[tigress]

however, drexel did not accept me. they're missing out! suckas! (please take me in drexel, please, in my slim slim chance i still have)

Yeah, take C.P. Jones!! Goodness gracious, what silly people. They should know better! They need to spend some time on sdn

Nas23, that's interesting about Temple. I know they are state-related, and they say that 53% of their first year class is from PA. But that may be just because of application bias (probably the majority of applicants are from PA). You don't really see that at Drexel as much, but to a certain degree. Actually, a ton of the Drexel students I meet are from California This year's first class apparently has 64 people from PA and 52 from CA, with 22 from NY and 16 from MA. So I guess they're sort of from all over.

What is sort of interesting is that Penn explicitly states that they have a slight preference for PA residents. You'd never think that. Of course I think the preference is incredibly small, sort of on the level of choosing between two approximately equal candidates.

Hmm, now I don't feel as weird about Temple not contacting me. I thought they had a preference for in-state. Since they don't, it makes a little more sense. They do have a lower tuition for in-state, but it's not even so much lower to be a huge deal ($33,730 vs. $41,310 this year; a chunk of money but not too extreme).

 

[bgabes]

h

 

[LionKing]

Tigress,

I called Temple to ask if they care about PA residents at all, and the lady said no. I don't think any school in PA cares about their own residents. We only have one 'state' school, being PSU. They, charge the same as for in-states, as they do for OOS, and then they said that about 35-40% of the ppl applying across the country apply to PSU. There is no incentive for them to pick their own. Penn and Pitt are in a different league, as those are very exceptional schools.

As a PA resident, it just sucks living in this state for this reason. I got no chance applyign to a lot of schools in other states, bc they accept mostly from their own residents. Some schools have told me they won't look at OOS apps till March until they pick their home grown for acceptances.

Haha- Im a little behind the times, but this post also has some misinformation. Its correct that Pennsylvania does not have a "state" school. Most of the schools are "state affiliated". Of the 6 medical schools, Penn State actually receives the least amount of money appropriated from the state (behind even the supposedly private schools). Penn State does not charge the same amount for in state vs OOS (its about $10,000 less a year.) and the class breakdown is appprox 50% Penn residents.

 

[DNAroolez]

if you take the august MCAT your application year and you're not from PA, you won't be able to get into jeff, regardless of how amazing your scores are. this has to do with the minimum # of PA residents they must accept. drexel doesn't have this requirement. they accept something like 800 people for their class of 250 because it's a back-up school for a lot of people.

hope this helps.

I beg to differ... I took the August MCAT and I am from NJ, and I got into Jeff straight away... it's hard not to make generalizations, but when it boils down to it, if you are a good fit you will get in

 

[bgabes]

h