Let me offer an informed (and maybe slightly biased) perspective on the St. Luke's campus, and feel free to message me.
If you want to live and work in an urban environment, apply to the Philly campus, Bethlehem is not for you. It's fairly small at 75k people, and neighboring Allentown is bigger at 125K people. For this reason St Luke's campus attracts a certain type of candidate and I would say 90% of the students are very happy with their choice. There are a lot of corn fields and Door Dash at 11 pm probably ain't happening. But in whatever limited free time you have there is a lot to do. The town has more festivals than anywhere I've ever been. Look into Musikfest which is happening right now it's pretty cool. If you're looking for concerts the local casino has a decent sized arena with some cool shows. Looking for sport events or other concerts on the weekend, Hershey and Philly are both under 90 minutes.
Regarding the hospital and neighboring facility I find it top notch. Yes I know what a big urban hospital looks like, I have a lot of clinical experience at one. There are almost no specialties or procedures here you would not be able to experience. I sat in on some really cool daVinci robotic procedures a few weeks ago. There's a level 1 trauma center. Any outpatient clinical rotations not at the hospital are just a few minutes away. As far as curriculum, you have access to the same material and lectures as the students in Philly as they're all recorded and no one goes to live lectures anyway. For fourth year the only rotation I wouldn't get to experience locally is opthamology, would have to do an away rotation for that.
As far as research goes, there are opportunities in almost every specialty. You are not going to get to do wet lab research, but if that's what you want to do then you should be at a different school and not even the Philly campus. You're going to be doing chart reviews, meta-analysis, systematic reviews, etc. No shortage of publication opportunities, the preceptors are super helpful in publication guidance.
I can't comment on the ratio of applicants per seat for the two campuses, not privvy.
(apologies in advance for my long post)
Thanks for sharing. As someone who attends the Philly campus at LKSOM, I definitely agree with Philly being favorable for people who like more urban environments, but there are also some things you said that are a bit misleading.
It’s not correct when you say no one goes to lecture in person. Since the majority of lectures are offered in person at the Philly campus, there are a considerable amount of students who go if that’s the learning style they prefer. If not, then the recorded option is also available. I think a benefit of the Philly campus is that you at least have the option to go in person or stream it virtually. St. Luke’s does have pre-clinical lectures held in person then streamed for the Philly students, but those are very uncommon (maybe a handful per block). My friends who go to St. Luke’s have said they like virtual learning, so I guess if that is something an applicant is already comfortable with, then that’s great since the majority of your classes will be streamed lectures from the Philly campus (so you get the same lecture based pre-clinical education). For people who want options or are unsure what kind of learning they prefer, the Philly campus can provide that freedom.
Also I think it’s misleading to dissuade applicants from going to the Philly campus if they want to do basic science/ wet lab research. There are PLENTY wet lab research opportunities at the Philly campus. The medical school building is actually home to several PhD programs that are apart of the school of medicine (the old medical school building next door also has additional research labs). Many of the PhD faculty lecturers at LKSOM are engaged in basic science research here. In addition to being a two mile drive (or 4 subway stops) away from Temple main campus, there are even more research opportunities at your disposal with MD and PhD faculty who do research in clinical medicine and basic science/wet lab research in partnership with physicians at Temple Health and other institutions. There also is the Fox Chase Cancer center which i yet another source of research in clinical medicine and basic science.
When it came time to look for research here, there was no shortage of positions and all of my classmates who wanted to do research and wanted to stay local had found paid positions here in their specialty/area of interest. The questions was more of “will I find the exact research I want” rather than “will I find research at all”. And that is true for wet lab and clinical research, some just required a bit more effort to find. Overall, there is no shortage of opportunity simply based off proximity to the PhD programs/labs, Temple Health, Temple main campus labs, Fox Chase Cancer Center and the many PhD and MD faculty affiliated with Temple Health, LKSOM and Temple undergrad and graduate schools nearby. I will also add by saying St. Luke’s students are also able to access these opportunities, however, some of them do require an in person attendance (especially with wet lab research).
I would also add that the demographics of the surrounding community in North Philly and Bethlehem are vastly different. Both campuses do share the same mission/ values, but the North Philly area is primarily made up of racial and ethnic minorities while Bethlehem is the opposite. This is a fact. If someone’s priority is to work and serve primarily medically underserved racial/ethnic minority communities during medical school, North Philly would be the place if you had to pick one campus over the other. I say that based on the demographic make up of the communities the campuses reside in.
I definitely recommend anyone who needs information about either campus to reach out or get it from someone who goes to that campus. I wouldn’t be able to speak to the experience at St. Luke’s, but would be happy to share any insight about the Philly campus!
