The Jefferson Difference

Our committed and experienced faculty form individual relationships with students, thanks to small class sizes. These close relationships allows faculty to give students intuitive, personal guidance to a best-fit career, assist with extra tutoring to give students an academic advantage, and give professional advice on medical school applications.

Our outstanding biology and American Chemical Society accredited biochemistry and chemistry courses give students a solid foundation for medical study. Our students also take courses in histology and pathology, rare at the undergraduate level, to provide students with an integrated perspective of health and disease, as well as a competitive repertoire of medical knowledge.

Our students usually complete two preceptorships while in the program. These are off-campus, six-week positions in hospital or biomedical research institutes. These experiences usually lead students to a final professional choice.  The timing of preceptorships allows students to decide whether to take the MCAT/GRE/PCAT or other national exam ready to apply to schools before start of their senior year.

Take a look at individual accounts on EPortfolio.

This is a student run group designed to foster a sense of camaraderie between students, and promote empathy and generosity to the Philadelphia Community. Although focused primarily on Medicine, the Society also draws students interested in the Allied Health Professions including Veterinary Science and Dentistry as well as those pursuing careers in Medical Research. This group offers students an inside look at medical careers.  Invited speakers include graduates in medical practice, admissions directors from area medical schools, and MCAT course representatives, just to name a few.

Cognitive empathy is the skill set needed for healthcare professionals to provide effective treatment of patients. It improves patient recovery and provides higher job satisfaction. Unlike affective empathy, which is stimulated by volunteering and charitable activity, this skill is not typically emphasized during undergraduate education. We believe that like any language, cognitive empathy can be learned and, as such, have embedded it into our Pre-Medicine program in a core (Pathology) and elective (Histology) course. Through role-play exercises, class discussion and formalized lectures from both the Instructor and healthcare professionals, students learn that disease is more than a set of symptoms as well as developing the basic "dos and don'ts" of how to communicate.