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which one should i choose? galveston has higher average board scores, but a&M has amazing facilities.... to be honest im torn, can anyone shed some light on my situation? thanks!
well here is the list of what i like about each school.
utmb
- really laid back students seemed very happy
- faculty is amazing, my interviewers were incredible
- class schedule/testing schedule is great
- board scores obviously
- close to houston
texas a&m
- amazing faculty as well
- nice facilities, relatively newer campus
- small class sizes
- scott & white!
wow well you pretty much hit it right on the nose.... i am leaning toward utmb but the biggest thing that makes a&m appealing the me is scott & white. i mean i work the best in groups and that is something that utmb is known for. problem based learning and the group learning thing. oh and you are right about utmb hanging in there. the biggest question for me about which one to choose is which school would provide me with better residency opportunities because i know its not always what you know, but who you know.
I would talk to some other students from UTMB. The school has had some major administrative issues recently and I am not sure their financial future is sound. The president is leaving, the dean of medical education left, 1000+ researchers have been fired. It really sounds like the school is imploding. I would stay far far away.
I would talk to some other students from UTMB. The school has had some major administrative issues recently and I am not sure their financial future is sound. The president is leaving, the dean of medical education left, 1000+ researchers have been fired. It really sounds like the school is imploding. I would stay far far away.
i've been hearing about that... and that really scares me all though i think im leaning evne more towards UTMB now... how doy ou think this would affect our medical education? do you think there is a possibility of the school shutting down entirely?
I would talk to some other students from UTMB. The school has had some major administrative issues recently and I am not sure their financial future is sound. The president is leaving, the dean of medical education left, 1000+ researchers have been fired. It really sounds like the school is imploding. I would stay far far away.
I just recently met a MS2 from UTMB at a research conference and he told me they have to learn renal on their own b/c they couldn't find anyone to teach it.
is there any school that teaches renal well. I had to learn it on my own as well...
Both UTMB and A&M have their plusses and minuses. I absolutely hated Galveston, and couldn't see myself living there for 4 years. Fortunately, you can do your 3rd and 4th years in Austin, so if it were the only school to which I was accepted, that's what I would do.
UTMB is in deep $hit financially, but don't take my word for it, do some research. I specifically asked my interviewer about this, and he seemed to think that there would be no effects felt by the Medical School, but a couple of days later, Dean Parisi resigned because one of the laid-off workers beat up her husband. I've heard from many people that UTMB is in the process of relocating its medical school to Austin (I think they are in about year 5 of a 12-year plan to move the Medical School to Austin) so I would think that things would be a little hectic as things were moving to Austin. Can any current students confirm that this is going on, and what, if any effects this move has?
If I were interested in a non-primary care specialty, I would definitely choose UTMB. UTMB has a much better name than A&M for residency programs, esp. non-primary care programs. A&M's primary mission is to train primary-care physicians for rural areas, and although A&M graduates obviously match into non-primary care programs, their mission remains. Of all the schools in TX, IIRC, A&M matched the fewest into competitive specialties (no Derm. matches last year, but a few sporadic Derm. matches in previous years, for example.) So, other than the location, and these administrative issues, I really liked UTMB.
I agree that Scott & White hospital is newer and more impressive looking than Sealy, but I don't think Scott & White gets the variety of pathology that Sealy does, since it is not in a major city. Sealy, however, is in flux because of its financial troubles, so I would definitely talk to people about this (i.e. are they turning away more indigent patients from all over the state than they were before?) Add to all this that at A&M, most students have to move (unless you do all 4 years in Temple) after year 2, and you get essentially no clinical exposure until year 3 (No teaching hospital in College Station,) and A&M just doesn't have the reputation that UTMB does, I think that UTMB beats A&M handily in the academic/clinical department.
For me, UTMB lost major points because of its horrible location (worse than Lubbock, IMHO,) but if you don't mind the location so much, I think you will get a better education there. Just make sure you will like PBL, as another poster said.
Hopefully those ramblings helped. I have been accepted to neither school, but I have thought a lot about how to rank schools for the match.
...A&M's primary mission is to train primary-care physicians for rural areas, and although A&M graduates obviously match into non-primary care programs, their mission remains.
...Of all the schools in TX, IIRC, A&M matched the fewest into competitive specialties (no Derm. matches last year, but a few sporadic Derm. matches in previous years, for example.)
I agree that Scott & White hospital is newer and more impressive looking than Sealy, but I don't think Scott & White gets the variety of pathology that Sealy does, since it is not in a major city.
... and you get essentially no clinical exposure until year 3 (No teaching hospital in College Station,) and A&M just doesn't have the reputation that UTMB does.