Advice Request

<p>Hey, I'm a new member i just created an account because i've been struggling with a college decision and i was hoping for some insight.</p>

<p>My decision is between</p>

<p>7 year program at Villanova/Drexel</p>

<p>versus</p>

<p>University of Pittsburgh Honors- regular pre med</p>

<p>The College of New Jersey Honors- regular pre med</p>

<p>I am very confident that I want to do medicine but I wasn't that interested in the seven-year programs at first, I only applied because my mom said it couldn't hurt.</p>

<p>Now having received an acceptance into the villanova drexel seven year program I'm confused as to what to do, because of what i've heard about the difficulties of getting into med school and how competitive it may be, and basically the possibility of not getting in after doing four years of undergraduate study somewhere else.</p>

<p>from what i've managed to gather Drexel Med School is a decent med school but on the very expensive end of the spectrum</p>

<p>My parents are very much into the seven year route because of the guaranteed acceptance and the lessened stress that they will have to deal with for the next 3/4 years. However, I wanted to do better than Drexel Medical School not that Drexel isn't a a solid med school but I think i can do better and basically am unsure of whether the risk of rejecting the guaranteed acceptance is worth the possibility of getting into a more prestigious medical school</p>

<p>Any advice or insight would be much appreciated.</p>

<p>Thanks</p>

<p>i would say if money isn’t an issue in the undergrad portion, go for villanova/drexel… the reason drexel is really expensive is because it’s a private med school… all private med schools are expensive give or take 5k in tuition… so unless you want to apply to a public school after undergrad, you’re not gonna find a significantly cheaper med school</p>

<p>well, drexel med school isn’t that great, but on the other hand it’s a guarantee. Personally, I think it’s a better deal long term than regular premed, but you are going to have to factor in the costs associated.</p>

<p>If your SAT scores were above average and you are confident of getting above average scores on MCAT then reject the combined program. If you have any doubts of fulfilling the requirement to get into Med School then take the combined program. Drexel COM is a good Medical school don’t reject that school. The tuition is high in Drexel compared to UMDNJ/NJMS (NJ Med schools), I am assuming you in NJ state. But in the long career span it will not matter. Hopefully you will earn decent Physician salary for the next 40 years hence a difference of Public vs Private school tuition should not matter.</p>

<p>Does Drexel program allow to apply out while retaining your spot at Drexel Med. School?
My D. has been in combined program that allowed her to do so. It is great to have a spot, it saves ton of stress and even helps to sit thru 5 hours of MCAT (her bs/md reguired MCAT, but much lower than one would need applying regular route). D. wsa the only one who applied out of her bs/md. This summer she is going to Med. School outside of her program.
Warning: there is absolutely no guarantee that if your SAT/ACT were stellar, you do well on MCAT. Yes, you can do well, but to do well you would need to study many hours every day for several weeks/months (depending on your time constraints), unless you are genius test taker (some are, but there are very few of them)</p>

<p>unfortunately drexel does not allow you to retain your spot and apply out, if i wanted to apply out of the program i would have to come back for my fourth year at villanova and relinquish my guaranteed acceptance to drexel COM.</p>

<p>i guess the only thing holding me back from accepting the program at this point is Drexel’s med school ranking which is 89, and am unsure if it will affect placement into the most competitive residencies like radiology or anesthesia etc, although i have no idea what specialization i want to go into at this point i don’t want to hinder my choices by not going to the best med school possible, which is why i’m hesitant to settle for drexel COM.</p>

<p>thanks for your replies tho i really appreciate it</p>

<p>^Where’d you get that rank? I’m just asking because I’m curious, I don’t think US News gives holistic ranks…</p>

<p>I took it off the research rankings list</p>

<p>I would recommend Villanova/Drexel as it is almost guaranteed admission into med school and it’s accelerated. Frankly, all medical schools are expensive so the guarantee is prob. more valuable. If you choose to do regular pre med, prepare for high school all over again. btw, could you post your stats? thanks</p>

<p>OP, I am deciding between Kean/Drexel and Pitt. I think that I will be taking the BS/MD. Despite my program being 8 years, I will have less loans coming from Kean and I will be able to work during my undergrad (thus being able to save up to offset the costs of DUCOM). Pitt is a very good school and I would recommend it to anyone, but I think that the guarantee to medical school is worth more. I know that I’m going to medical school no matter which route I take, but I think the cost of Kean and being able to save up is what is going to sway me to choose the BS/MD.</p>

<p>sure my stats weren’t that impressive</p>

<p>2250 SAT 1540 combined
4.45 weighted GPA
basic EC’s like hospital volunteering
math 2 800
bio 750
chem 780</p>

<p>Do all Drexel grads have fewer opportunities than graduates of the 88 ‘better’ medical schools? While it’s probably true that the bottom third of the Drexel class lands at less fashionable residencies than the bottom-dwellers at the ‘best’ med schools in the country, Drexel’s AOA students do grow up to be orthopedists, dermatologists, and internists at Hopkins and Harvard. Since the curriculum is essentially identical at every US med school, how much you know is more important (in the long run) than what school you attended. Might you have a chip on your shoulder your entire career because you didn’t graduate from Columbia P&S? Maybe, but there are plenty of physicians that have satisfying and admirable careers without the benefit of an Ivy league diploma.</p>

<p>from what i understand, med school ranking means little to nothings when it comes to landing a residency…if you push yourself to be at the top of the class, do well on the boards, and pursue research/community service outside of med school, you’re a competitive resident applicant… that being said, higher ranked med schools typically have better research opportunities that lower ranked ones since these rankings are based on research grants for the most part…BUT being at drexel, you’re right around the corner from great hospitals, and UPenn med school. These are all excellent opportunities to take advantage of since I’ve spoken to students who go to less than amazing med schools and have pursued research at nearby ivies or top-tier schools</p>

<p>My vote goes in favor of Villanova/Drexel unless you are talking about huge $ difference. Why stress yourself going to regular undergrad when you already got into a med program? My son chose a med program and is extremely happy with it. He currently has 3.9+ gpa and enjoys college life without stressing about wheather or not he will get into med school.</p>

<p>My D. was also very happy to be in a program. But I am not sure about her choice if she was not allowed to apply out. She likes to have choices. But as I have mentioned nobody else in her program has applied out, they did not want to bother with process, despite the fact that they had to take MCAT as program required it. Well, D. benefitted from experience greatly, expanded her horizon, drove to interviews by herself, met people from various places. She was excited about process, while most others would be stressed out. She enjoyed it because she had a spot in Med. School before applcation process began, so she had advantages of both sides. And she had great choices at the end.</p>

<p>^Please don’t assume that no one else wanted to “bother with the process” and your daughter was the only one who was willing to put the effort. People come from different situations, so don’t make it seem that your daughter was the only smart one in the program.</p>

<p>^I am sorry if it came out wrong. No, I did not say that she was the only smart one. I said that she wanted to apply out, while others did not want to do so. There is no assumtion here, these are the facts that were not hard to know. It was only 10 of them as freshmen in her program, some fell out along the way, so by “others” I meant very few people. With that few it was very well known what each one is doing. Smart or not have nothing to do with anything.</p>

<p>My Mom did a 6 year MedProgram. The Medschool was guaranteed (required). It wasn’t ranked high at all; in fact, it was even ranked a bit lower than the program you’ve been offered admissions at. But, she had a place in Medschool, so she never even opened the envelope with her MCAT score (I always ask why she wasn’t even curious. Lol. She says she was already in Med school so there was no point). Because she didn’t go to a top ranked med school, she ended up being able to shine and graduated as valedictorian. She even was matched and did her residency at Johns Hopkins, which many consider to be among the best if not the best place for med school/residency. Now she’s an extremely successful doctor who gets offers constantly to be work at or be the director of Peds Neurology at many different top ranked/amazing hospitals (though she hasn’t ever accepted because I guess she likes where she is now?). All of this was because she chose to go to a smaller program which gave her the opportunity to do really well and stand out.</p>

<p>Anyway, moral of the story: Personally, I think you may want to go with the Villanova/Drexel program. Going to a “not as good” Med program with guaranteed Med school admission offers you A) The ability to not be completely stressed out. B) The ability to do very well and stand out among your peers. C)You still have a chance to be considered for all of the top residencies/jobs later, especially if you were able to get better grades by being a big fish in a small pond.</p>

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<p>No, you said that no one else wanted to “bother” with the process, as if your daughter was the only one willing to put in the work. Watch what you say sir. </p>

<p>Regardless, I’m with born2dance here. I think you should go with the Villanova/Drexel program. A guarantee is, well, a guarantee.</p>

<p>^Agreed. It would be complete folly not to go for a guarantee.</p>