I think the pay for co-op depends on the major and so it may be unpaid too from what I read but still gain some real work experience
Thanks for your response. The less stress about medical school is what’s appealing to my daughter. She is going to a very competitive, highly ranked public high school currently and thriving well. She says that if she can save some stress of medical school application process by going to a BSMD program, she prefers that. If she gets a higher MCAT score and meets all med school requirements, she will think of applying to other med schools at that point. She is aware that she will have to let go of the current assurance but she will be in a better position to see where she fits by then. Of course, we are going to do a thorough research of what we are signing up for (based on some of the great suggestions in this thread) and possibly let go if we really hit a deal breaker.
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That’s why I’m ranking Drexel’s BS/MD program higher than Case and UMD. I believe your daughter has won a lottery by being selected out of the thousands who applied to Drexel’s BA/BS + MD program. It’s a wise investment if cost is not a concern, as she can focus on a structured pre-med program, and the best part is, she’s guaranteed a seat at a well-respected medical school.
My daughter will be applying to medical school in the upcoming cycle. Even with great stats but average extracurriculars, she will face the uncertainty and stress of the process. It’s also time-consuming and expensive, and for many, applicants have to apply several times before getting accepted.
I’ve included a snapshot of Drexel’s matriculation data from MSAR below to show the holistic process to apply to Drexel - out of 15,847 applicants only 304 matriculated.
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Drexel is a fine enough college. Re: medical school…if this student really wants to do dermatology, they will need to hustle a derm elective rotation or two, because they won’t get that from Drexel med school.
@WayOutWestMom im pretty sure I’m right!
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^ I understood the same thing: Drexel only offers rotations in community hospitals and is fine for less competitive specialties but the problems they’re having could impact a choice like dermatology.
On the other hand, this is 8-9 years in the future…
Also, OP should clarify whether applying to other med schools voids the BS/MD conditions.
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Your child’s conditional admission to Drexel COM is voided if she applies to any other medical school.
https://drexel.edu/~/media/Files/undergrad/pdf/BABSMD-early-assurance.ashx
Drexel gets more than the typical number of applications because its median stats are on the more modest side and it has a big program in the NE/ mid Atlantic part of the country which is highly populated from students who live on the East Coast and want to stay there.
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Drexel is trying to make Tower Health into it main teaching hospital, but for many reasons, it’s unlikely that Tower will ever evolve into a major academic hospital. (The biggest is the lack of a sufficient population base in the area → not enough patients, plus the lack of funds to develop Tower into a major research center.)
And it’s unlikely that Drexel will be able to develop another teaching hospital in Philadelphia. There are 3 other medical schools in Philadelphia (Temple–which is a big program and partially state supported, Penn which is wealthy and prestigious with massive amounts of research funding, and Thomas Jefferson which is long established and also a huge program) Those hospitals can accommodate most of the complex (and well insured) patient population in Philadelphia.
Drexel COM was only acquired by Drexel in the 1996. Prior to that, the med school was actually two different med schools that merged because they were failing financially. Both were osteopathic medical schools (which typically don’t have home research hospitals since that isn’t a requirement for accreditation by COCA.)
So Drexel had a med school, but no associated hospital. Drexel contracted with Hahnemann Hospital (which was a large privately owned hospital in Philadelphia) to rotate its student at their hospital. (Rotation sites for med student are in short supply nationally and are often the subject of fierce bidding wars between medical schools. For example, recently Yale outbid UCSF for a number of clinical rotation sites in NoCal.)
Hahnemann Hospital was bought by a private PE group in the early 2010s. Hahnemann was a financial mess and was hemorrhaging money, largely because it didn’t have the private insurance patient population to bring in cash. (Those patients usually went to Penn, Temple or Jefferson) Most of Hahnemann’s patients were Medicare/Medicaid which does not reimburse at the same rate as private insurance. After trying for several years to make Hahnemann profitable, the PE group decided Hahnemann’s most valuable assets was its location and decided to close the hospital in order to sell the property’s location as office/residential/hotel space. (The PE group also tried to auction off the rights to Hahnemann’s residency programs. CMS and LCME and the PE group spent several month in litigation over that. CMS & LCME eventually prevailed and residency sites were reassigned to other hospitals In other states. The big losers in the Hahnemann closure were all the medical residents training there who over the course of 6 weeks had their training site closed and they were dumped out of residency. Not all of them found other programs who could accommodate them. )
With the closure of Hahnemann, about 2/3rd of Drexel’s clinical staff also lost their jobs. Only a small number were offered positions at Tower. And most of those rejected the offer because it would require relocating their families. The loss of experienced clinical staff is a major blow that’s not easy to recover from. Also, since the residency slots were reassigned, Tower/Drxel would need to start new programs–which is a complex tand expensive task.
So no new academic teaching hospital likely in the next 4 years. There are just too many financial and programmatic issues to resolve.
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Another note re Case… they run their health services through University Hospital. My son needs medication and its pharmacy is in the main hospital in the middle of campus. Because of this, my guess is the student health services at Case are better than many schools.
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And Tower Health will unfortunately be bankrupt or if they can stave it off, won’t be investing in much. They had one solid hospital (Reading) and the rest are in the toilet. Unfortunately, I own their municipal bonds.
Tower Health gets another credit rating downgrade from Fitch, to CCC (msn.com)
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Medicine ≠ the study of biology and anatomy.
Medicine is a service profession that involves dealing with people (and their relatives) on what is often one of the worst days of their life.
Physicians will be dealing with the elderly demented, the physically disabled, the mentally ill, the chronically sick, the critically injured and the dying. It’s an emotionally demanding profession—and something not everyone is cut out for. Patients are often rude, entitled, dishonest, emotionally distraught and are frequently non-compliant (meaning they won’t follow medical advice). Medicine has fallen in prestige and nowadays anyone with two thumbs and a smart phone thinks they know as much or more than a doctor.
Medicine is not about biology and anatomy—it’s about dealing with people on a very intense level.
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I agree with your points. I put it out there for saying if something changes in future, she will at least be studying what she loves in undergrad major. I was not trying to trivialize the profession in any way and I do agree that it needs a complete different mindset, passion and dedication to be committed to becoming a doctor. From her personality traits and her own journey, I can see that she really has a genuine desire of caring for people. As a family, we’ve gone over these scenarios multiple times with her as well to ensure it is not impulsive and she is well aware of what it entails and still continues to remain motivated to do this. Of course we can only speak about what we know as of today.
That’s good to know and something to check when we visit schools. Thanks.
Drexel for sure, 3 attempts for the MCAT for a student of that caliber should not be a deterring factor. Guaranteed med is unbeatable.
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