I'm in Jefferson's program and was accepted to both. In the first semester, we took a class that had several kinds of physicians, nonprofit organizers, etc. present. Aside from hearing from some Temple physicians or affiliates, they also mentioned internships we can apply into for summer or part-time opportunities e.g. in labs there, which I appreciate having available for the summer or second year as a two-year student (rather than making that opportunity a gap year); the point being, I honestly don't think the divide between the schools is all that prominent. (I had been hoping that having a lot of schools in the area would facilitate a more Philadelphia-wide postbac culture of groupchats and study opportunities across schools, not just within whichever institution I chose, but (1) this may very well exist outside of what I've seen in only a few months thus far and (2) I do think there is good support within my own program for studying together, posting opportunities for volunteering or for free food or whatever, posting silly stuff, what have you, even a student posting about external gigs they produce as a local performer.)
I know an earlier reply had mentioned linkages, which I think I'd made a bigger deal of before starting the program. It's all about your own priorities. While I would like to find ways to explore more research in my second year or gap year, as someone who came from a research background and has thought of continuing along a research trajectory during/after med school, an otherwise large priority for me in choosing my program and during the program now has been the availability of a 1- or 2-year option that I don't recall seeing among other 1-year programs I'd interviewed with. I've witnessed at least one 1-year student leverage this to defer a class to a later semester for whichever personal or academic reasons those may be, so I suppose, on that front, it offers a bit more flexibility if you are shooting for 1-year; for myself, the overwhelming benefit of having a 2-year option available is that I've been able to work (remotely, WFH, and it's definitely had challenges to accommodate with school nonetheless) a fairly regular schedule of regular income while doing coursework (courses meet mostly in the mornings thus far aside from occasional lab sections, and I work for my company in another time zone that affords hours from early afternoon into the evening) and also continue to work out-of-state on the weekends at the hospital I had been full-time in prior to Philadelphia relocation.
But is that all good? That's up to you. I think it's been really great for people like myself working in the evenings in my existing career field, and for others in my two-year program who work as techs at the TJ hospital, have done EMT training in the first semester, work on ambulance services, or are parents. While I expected that all to have a "commuter" feel I would not enjoy as someone who has been on-campus or adjacent to campus at various universities non-stop since high school, the 2-year program is still quite close-knit per a small size, and I think the coexistence of a 1-year speedy cohort and a bunch of other med school, nursing, etc. students on this campus keeps it all feeling very alive; I, for one, am admittedly grateful to not feel like I'm in an undergrad environment still (which some people might desire in returning to studies), as I've felt at prior universities as a grad student, but to feel like I'm in a busy setting of healthcare students and professionals all around me, which is what I was reading of TJ before I came here. I actually rescinded a decision to go to a highly talked about program elsewhere for concern that the remote element was not really what I wanted for seeking healthcare realignment, as someone who had been in a notoriously remote setting while studying STEM, and I think that has been the right idea for me for multiple reasons insofar as my access to transportation for work/personal stuff/potential volunteering or site work, several hospitals around me now, access to Temple/Penn, non-academic surroundings and people, so forth. BUT: you may very well say you don't want the flexibility or distractions or whatever and want a cut-throat nose-to-the-grindstone place to "put up with" (I think both places are great) for a year. I come from those kinds of schools prior, and I get it. And the study culture here is no joke btw, the library and breakout rooms are always covered in dry-erase notes floor to ceiling. The point being, it's all about what feels right to you, and if you prioritize one thing over others in making that decision or surmizing that gut feeling, there is no "wrong" priority to have if it's max linkages or access to mentors or particular courses available or whatever else (unless it's "I don't want to have to take any exams prior to the MCAT" but...you know, whichever priorities within reason.)
tl;dr (edit: nevermind, this is the longest part) while there are things I still want to sort out and find some support for (which I only fault myself with so far since, for example, I have been assigned...two? three? med student mentors since starting in the fall and haven't approached them about much yet), I think my decision made sense for my own life circumstances as someone who really wanted to keep up some sort of work in my existing field, as someone who was able to commute to one state northbound on weekends to stay loyal to my hospital work and commute to another state southbound in the middle of the week for evening fire academy stuff while trying to recruit into another city's fire department, yet still pulling A's last semester and feeling cared for more by some of these professors than any prior -- I so far have been able to pursue exactly the life and the grades I want before, I'm sure, orgo has something to say about it, and I know I couldn't have made all this work so far as well as it has if I'd not done this sort of two-year program in this well-located place with the support of the professors and cohort. Is this the kind of chaos I can maintain in med school, no, but I still like having this chance to taper and balance things so that I don't end up going to med school constantly in Student Mode and not maintaining the "bigger picture" at that point of e.g. still wanting to account for family planning once I'm in. I think the two years now is giving me a chance to figure it all out. But maybe you say that's what your gap year after a one-year program is for, and that's valid, you know what's right for you. Personal life aside, when it comes to whether it has made sense as an actual pre-med student, I think both schools are indeed quite comparable and have windows of opportunity to synergize that we've seen so far with e.g. the visiting Temple docs and advertised opportunities that are campus-agnostic/town-wide or receptive to cross-contact. So if you're already narrowing down to wanting to go somewhere in this particular region, be that Temple, Penn, TJ like myself, or even in Hartford, CT, like someone I met on a dating app (I hope their MCAT grind is going well), then at least as far as Temple and TJ go as someone who explored both, I would say you can't make a wrong choice as a pre-med student and can only really make a wrong choice in betrayal of how this fits in with the rest of your year, two-year, three-year life plan and sense of self -- and I say this as someone who, having attended 5 universities and worked at 3 others, * distinctly* felt when the vibe was off at two of them and thought to myself "I would have hated being here in undergrad (instead of present for the particular role or in that particular period of study), despite what I used to think in high school -- not at any fault of the school, but for X and Y reasons of what I can tell off the bat would bother me then that has somehow changed for me now." Not trying to flex in any of that -- I'm exhausted, and I've made wrong turns here and there, but I've worked hard and found fulfillment in all of my choices thus far. And I think the school I chose really works for me in continuing to navigate all that I need to, but that I very well may have been doing well at Temple or the other school I mentioned, among others. LIkewise for you! Just listen to yourself, because while choosing the right place may seem formulaic to a T for optimal med school results, it's like I tell the high school students I mentor in college applications -- no matter the program content/structure, whatever weight you assign to the school name, etc., you won't study well if your holistic happiness isn't there to offer you reflective fulfillment and contentment in chasing exhaustion. That's a heavy ladle of word soup, but what that came down to post-undergrad was even as simple as realizing how much it lifted my spirits to have decent college teams to root for in prominent events, a car-building club, film-major friends in keeping me happy throughout an undergrad that was largely unrelated to those things in any direct sense of my studies/majors. I'm not saying to base your med school plan around having film-major friends, but to keep a pulse on how you really see your quality of life and according adjustments in giving 1-2+ years to the postbac program + potential gap stuff you choose -- yes, "anyone can do anything for a year," but consider how well you will study if fretting about things that are adjacent to the program, because if you have to go out of your way to visit your partner or you're consistently bummed not seeing them, or snowy weather convinces you to skip class, a lot of these things can have ripple effects.
Very long post. I just took two quizzes and wanted a break, I suppose. Good luck!
