Ask a Drexel BS/MD Student!

<p>BS/MD interview invites are sent via email.</p>

<p>@mrinformed: have interview notifications for drexel/drexel already been sent out? and are you supposed to be accepted in to the ug and honors college before you get the interview notification? because i haven’t received emails about anything after i forwarded my app to ducom :(</p>

<p>For interview notifications, do different people at drexel medical review your file for different undergrads. Last year people were rejected by drexel/drexel pre-interview but were invited for nova/drexel or lehigh/drexel. Drexel/drexel takes more people than the other programs, how can they reject more pre-interview. Is drexel/drexel more selective while calling for interviews? Does that mean nova/drexel invites a lot more people per seat making it harder to get through interview?</p>

<p>Honors acceptances and what not are totally separate for Villanova and I believe also for Drexel. I know kids in my program who weren’t accepted into the honors program even though they are in the bs/md program and are overqualified applicants while weaker applicants are accepted into the honors program. So don’t base anything off of whether or not you get into the honors program because honors program selection can be very fickle.</p>

<p>@retro22, it’s very fickle at times. Applicants who get into Drexel are rejected from Villanova and Lehigh and vice versa. There is a human factor in admissions decisions and the admissions committee for all 3 undergrads vary in ideology.</p>

<p>@MrInformed, thanks for your response. So the admission committee for the three programs is different at drexel med? They look at the same drexel med application and make different decisions. But there is only one interview. After the interview, if you make into one, do you automatically make into the others? This is assuming you were called for interview by them. Or does the three admission committees have a say again?</p>

<p>The undergrads determine whether or not to forward your application. The med school determines which schools to invite you to interview for. If you applied to all 3 (Nova, Drexel, Lehigh) and they only invited you to interview for Drexel and Lehigh, and you are only accepted into Drexel, you will not receive BS/MD acceptances into Villanova or Lehigh. Doesn’t make much sense, but it’s their policy.</p>

<p>And yes, they look at your application and make different decisions on which undergrad. However, Lehigh and Villanova tend to be more" competitive" to get into because the undergrads are harder to get into than Drexel Undergrad.</p>

<p>Also, this is random, but ACADEMICS is not the sole measure in determining an acceptance. They determine applicants holistically. Some applicants get in because of their academics while some are accepted because of medical experience and athleticism. In short, they try to evaluate and accept applicants as if the applicants were traditional medical school applicants with SAT scores in place of the MCATs.</p>

<p>So, do you have an idea of what I should expect for the interview?</p>

<p>Breakfast
introductions/info about the program/questions
Interviews/Tours/Free time
Lunch/Free to leave whenever</p>

<p>Thanks. Are there a lot of people going to the interview?</p>

<p>What types of questions should we expect at the interview?</p>

<p>@MrInformed, this year there are atleast 4 interview dates. 2/2, 2/16, 2/18 and 2/21. Based on last year’s thread, there were 50+ students per interview day. So about 200+ interviewed?
1.How long is the interview? Looks like 50+ students interviewed in a 2 hour (10 AM to 12 AM?) window? There must be a number of interviewers.
2. Are the following numbers right? There are may be 45? seats in the program. Drexel 30-35? , Villanova 10? Lehigh 5?
3.How may are offered admission? 200+ interviewed-> 70-90 offered?
4. Is the interviewer a faculty member? Is there only one interviewer?
Thanks for your time.</p>

<ol>
<li>interviews are scheduled to be around 30 minutes long, but sometimes faculty make it longer or shorter.</li>
<li><p>~40 or so students who matriculate. The number of acceptances from last year–i’m not sure if this is just drexel undergrad, or all the undergrad programs combined—is 68 or so. The numbers per undergrad varry , but drexel undergrad usually has the most which has been around 25-35. Villanova and lehigh have varied over the years. There were times when Lehigh had around 10 and Villanova had 0 and vice versa. Right now, Villanova has around 10 per year and Lehigh has under 5 (There are no current sophomores in the program at lehigh though).</p></li>
<li><p>Around half of them make it. 2 years ago, for Villanova, 460 applied, 141 applications were forwarded to the med school, 54 were asked to interview, 26 acceptances, and 11 matriculated to Villanova (Note: some of the other accepted students chose different undergrads w/ drexel so the overall yield rate for the Drexel program is higher than simply the matriculated over the acceptances for Villanova).</p></li>
<li><p>The interviewer should be a faculty member. There should be only 1 interviewer. </p></li>
</ol>

<p>As a side note, if you applied to the Villanova program and get accepted into it, I highly highly recommend coming here. Nova is a happy place to spend 3 years before med school. Don’t forget to visit Early Action Candidates day!</p>

<p>@Mr. Informed- I recently found out that I was admitted to the Villanova/Drexel med program. I know you are at Nova, but if you had to choose between Temple Med Scholars Program vs Villanova/Drexel program, which one would you choose? The main pro that I see from Temple is the new facility of the med school, which is spectacular, but I know Nova is in such a better area for undergrad (esp with safety). </p>

<p>And what are your thoughts about the Drexel med school? B/c from the interview, my dad told me that he was unimpressed by the Drexel med school, quoting that the gross lab looked like a morgue (even though that is basically what it is haha). I’m really torn between these two schools, and I have no clue what I should pick. </p>

<p>Thanks!</p>

<p>Congratz on your acceptance. One of my friends in my program was also accepted into the temple med scholars program, but chose Nova’s program. </p>

<p>It depends on what type of experience you want. For me, I wanted to attend a good undergrad, just in case I changed my mind or decide to apply to another med school, and a good med school. Temple has a decent med school, but the undergrad and med school are not located in the best part of Philly. Since the program is 8 years long and you need to spend 4 years at temple, you need to make sure that you can see yourself being happy at temple undergrad. Smart BS/MD kids may have some difficulty fitting in with the typical temple student and if you’re spending 4 years of your life there, it might not be worth it. Nova’s a 7 year program with incredibly nice kids. The non bs/md kids here at Nova are generally good students so if you need to work on a project or a group activity, you won’t be pulling the entire weight of the group.</p>

<p>Drexel med school is also a good med school with lots of opportunities to get involved in with. I’m obviously not in the med school yet, but it’s my understanding that BS/MD kids do really well in getting residency spots.</p>

<p>I recommend that you visit Villanova for candidates day. It’s a great school. </p>

<p>If you want to talk to me more, feel free to send me a msg.</p>

<p>Dear MrInformed,
Your post is very helpful. My daughter is interested in the Drexel BS/MD program and we live around the area. She is a Jr now. Per you post, if she applies Lehigh, Nova, Drexel ug, the Drexel Med decides which ug school she can go, right? Because we’ll not be qualified for any need based financial aid and very likely she can go Drexel ug for free (NMS Finalist if Drexel doesn’t change its policy next year). So it’s a little bit tricky here. Not sure of Lehigh/Nova’s merit scholarship (at least no official post on school’s website). But if she doesn’t get much merit money from Lehigh/Nova, Drexel (free ug) will be very appealing. Will she just apply Drexel/Drexel BS/MD or there is any other better ways to do this? Just like you said, Lehigh/Nova ug are better than Drexel. Did you know anyone get into Drexel BS/MD with a free ug?</p>

<p>@mrinformed I have my interview for Drexel/Drexel next week… what do I wear? do I need like a pantsuit/skirtsuit or just “business casual” and if so what is business casual for a girl?</p>

<p>DO NOT WEAR BUSINESS CASUAL. Men: Wear the suit. Everyone there will be wearing a suit. I don’t remember what the females dressed up like, but imagine dressing up for an executive level position at a corporation. Look sharp, but conservative.</p>

<p>I really wanted to wear this</p>

<p><a href=“http://cdn.triangleoffense.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/westbrook_russell17.jpg”>http://cdn.triangleoffense.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/westbrook_russell17.jpg&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>no.</p>

<p>Should I apply to all the undergraduate schools associated with Drexel or would that be useless?</p>