Drexel DPMS

The Drexel Pathway to Medical School (DPMS) Program is great for individuals who need to boost their credentials before going to medical school.

One of the most attractive points of the program is its status as early assurance, meaning if you satisfy the DPMS requirements you are automatically admitted into the College of Medicine.

Drexel's DPMS program has been around since 2003 and it has done an excellent job in allowing students to show they are competitive for medical school. This is possible because students will be enrolled in medical school courses and graded accordingly.

Focus

The Drexel Pathway to Medical School program is geared towards individuals who are from lower socioeconomic/disadvantaged backgrounds. If you are an underrepresented minority in medicine this program will be an excellent choice. I would strongly encourage you to apply because if you're accepted life becomes a lot more easier.

All you need to do is meet the program GPA for the certificate and once done you go straight to the medical school if you choose to do so.

Structure

The DPMS program requires that you participate in a 6-week Academic Assessment and Counseling Enrichment Session beginning the last week of June and concluding at the end of July.

During this time you will also take a 1 credit Medical Science Preparation course as Pass/Fail. This may come as a shocker, but you will not be charged tuition or fees during these six weeks.

Fall Semester

• Medical Physiology 1, 3.5cr
• Medical Biochemistry 1, 7.5cr
• Graduate Pharmacology 3.0cr
• MCAT Review

Spring Semester

• Medical Physiology II, 3.5cr
• Medical Biochemistry II, 0.5cr
• Medicine and Society II, 2.0cr
• Special Topics in Anatomy, 4.0cr
• MCAT Review

The above are the courses along with their credits for the certificate program. If you are interested in continuing on for a second year you can receive the Master of Biological Science (M.B.S.) degree. This requires completing the following courses:

Summer Research Project

• Research Project

Fall Semester

• Cell Biology and Microanatomy I, 5.0cr
• Medical Immunology, 3.0cr
• Medical Nutrition, 1.0cr
• Medicine and Society I, 2.0cr
• Lab Techn. in Biochemistry & Mol. Biology, 2.0cr

Spring Semester

• Cell Biology and Microanatomy II, 3.0cr
• Medical Neuroscience, 6.0cr
• Biostatistics I, 2.0cr

Eligibility

As mentioned you should be an underrepresented minority in medicine and this entails being socioeconomically and/or disadvantaged in some form.

There are some strict eligibility requirements which include completing one year of:

• biology
• chemistry
• organic chemistry
• physics
• English literature
• psychology, sociology, philosophy, etc

Since the program leads to a conditional acceptance into the medical school you will need to have a 2.90 undergraduate math/science GPA and a minimum MCAT score of 20 with no section below a 6.

To receive your certificate for participation you need a minimum 2.75 GPA, but to retain your medical school spot requires more. A GPA of 3.0 or better, a minimum of 8 on the Physical and Biological Sciences, 7 on the Verbal Reasoning and a score of "M" or better on the writing section of the MCAT.

Admissions

Getting admitted into DPMS will be very difficult considering only 25 students are accepted each year.

The upside to a limited enrollment allows for small group instruction during the summer and individual counseling with an advocate throughout the program.

The application deadline is the second week of May and their is an application fee of $65.00. You will also need to supply Official Transcripts and Letters of Recommendation.

If you meet the eligibility requirements for acceptance into DPMS, you may be offered an interview with the College of Medicine.