What are the benefits and disadvantages of attending certain programs in college?

What are the pros and cons of joining Drexel’s 7 year BS/MD Program, the Honors CLC, and the Drexel Pennoni Honors College?

While I’m not terribly familiar with the particular programs at Drexel, I think I can speak more generally to the types of programs you listed.

I think that Honors Colleges generally tend to provide certain benefits that enhance a student’s academic experience. Some of those benefits include priority registration, more individualized advising (both academic and career-wise,) smaller class sizes/more seminar style classes, the opportunity to compose an undergraduate thesis, and unique extracurricular opportunities. A disadvantage may be the additional degree requirements that are typically associated with honors programs (which may be particularly cumbersome or annoying for students who have a prerequisite heavy major, like engineering.) If an Honors College is poorly managed, its existence may elicit an “us/them” frame of mind within the larger campus community - I know that at my particular school, people outside of the Honors College often feel that “honors students” are insulated from the real problems facing the college at large - such as budget cuts (increased class sizes for everyone /except/ honors students, etc.)

Accelerated undergraduate/graduate degree programs usually remove some of the stress of graduate school applications by eliminating standardized exams (in some cases) - so, for instance, a student may dedicate more time to other pursuits outside of prepping for the LSAT/MCAT/GRE/etc since they have a definitive path to a graduate program already established. Such programs tend to be viewed as cost effective as they are accelerated so 1+ years of tuition are shaved off. However, some disadvantages I’ve read about include students feeling “trapped” or bound to a particular program when they felt that they had the credentials to be accepted to other (better) programs. This can have serious ramifications as a student may feel as though they could’ve been accepted to a better graduate/professional school, or they could’ve been accepted to a different school which would have provided lucrative scholarship/funding opportunities that their current program lacks. While there is certainly peace of mind with combined degree programs, it can also potentially close a lot of doors later on.

Learning communities can foster important social and academic relationships with other students - since you’re grouped with students who share your academic interests, it can be easier to make friends and potential networking contacts. But similar to Honors Colleges, it may be somewhat isolating - sure, it’s nice to be around the same ~30 Biology major pre-meds, but you may want to be exposed to students of other majors and of other career interests. Learning communities can also inhibit a student’s ability to choose certain classes, which some students dislike - maybe you’d prefer to take your Chemistry I lecture at 12:30 - but the advisor of your learning community might stick you into the 8AM section - you have no control over it.

I’ve heard that combination BS/MD programs are killer. You will need a laser focus for several years to get through. That’s just what i have heard. Not sure if it’s true.

No one said that becoming a doctor is easy, in any program if someone doesn’t have maturity they shouldn’t apply.

Also you generally don’t “join” a BS/MD program…they are very competitive to get in. You would need 750M 750 CR SAT scores, awesome GPA and have done much medical volunteering and/or research.