BU vs Tufts vs Brown vs NYU

[dawoo1414]

Hi everyone! If you have a few minutes, I would very much appreciate some advice.

I am very fortunate to be able to choose between 4 great options: BU, Tufts, Brown, and NYU. However, I'm having a difficult time choosing a school - partially due to lack of exposure (second look days will be key) and partially due to a limited understanding of the northeast medical community. Here are some of the main things that matter to me:

Location:
My boyfriend and I live in Boston, and moving out the city would be disruptive (although not entirely unmanageable). His strong preference is to stay in Boston, whereas I am more flexible. My family is also from Boston.

Money:
Essentially a wash, since FA packages haven't come out yet. BU did offer me a 10k/yr merit scholarship.

Strength of program with respect to location of residency matches:
My ultimate goal is to land a residency in the northeast. I am not sure what specialty I want to enter, so the ability of a program to send graduates to competitive residencies across specialties in the northeast is essential. My gut feeling is that this capacity is the same for all of the aforementioned schools, but I figured I'd ask.

Hospitals:
BMC vs Tufts vs Langone/Bellevue vs Rhode Island Hospital for 3rd/4th year rotations. Given that rotations are often glorified shadowing, is there that much of a significant difference between these locations to warrant special consideration?

Prestige:
My view of these schools with respect to prestige is largely influenced by my knowledge of their undergrad reputations, given that I am not very familiar with the northeast medical community just yet. From what I've read, BU, NYU and Brown seem to be on a level slightly higher than Tufts; however, my college health professions advisor (who went to Harvard med) told me that Tufts is often viewed higher than Brown and BU. I ultimately only care about prestige when it comes to influencing getting a solid residency in the northeast.

Thanks for making it through the post haha. As of now, I think I am leaning toward staying in Boston, and within Boston towards Boston University. I am looking for assurance that this will set me up to go where I want to go (assuming I crush medical school, of course) and not hold me back from having success getting into the competitive residencies in new england (MGH, BWI, BID, etc).

Thanks! I'm very excited for next year!

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[piii]

Location: Anywhere from Boston to NYC won't be too far from your BF. But still, living in Boston would be the best if he stays there, and if you ultimately like the city and don't mind where you are. That supports choosing BU or Tufts.

Money: Tufts is more expensive, but when choosing between BU and Tufts, its only like a 4K difference a year. Given that BU is giving you an awesome scholarship, that gives points to BU.

Strength of program:
Honestly, all 4 are provide amazing residency prospects. Tufts matches many students into the partners system each year (MGH, Brigham). I know it is held with high regard in the northeast. So are all the schools.
They rank similar in residency director score

Tufts 3.5
BU 3.5
Brown 3.7
NYU 3.8

So I wouldn't let this necessarily drive your choice

Hospitals:
Can't speak too much about brown or NYU. But BMC is an amazing hospital where all uninsured and gen pop of boston feed into. Tufts is solid, but focuses more on the greater boston area and community medicine. I'd say BU has the edge over tufts, but you'll get a great experience at either program.

Prestige:
NYU is the best ranked school, I'd say all the others are similar (considering the ranking methods are questionable). All institutions are regarded highly in the northeast. Tufts as an institution (especially the undergrad) is more prestigious than BU, even if the med school is lower on the list.

Personal opinon, I think BU has better clinicals and is regarded slightly higher than Tufts across the country. I think Tufts has a more caring and personal close knit community. From my experience, and some of my friends, and my GF, most people liked BU for the clinical strength but always commended Tufts as full of happy students and a better school environment.

Overall, I'd go with BU and the scholarship if you are heavily swayed to stay in Boston. NYU would be a close second because of how highly regarded the school is. I'm sure there are other great reasons for NYU that I'm not aware of.

 

[mscs2014]

Great problem to have! I would lean towards BU even though NYU might have a slight "prestige" edge when it comes to residency. Looking at the match lists for these schools, it's highly possible to match in the northeast from any of them. It feels like you want to go to BU but are looking for others to agree with you. Go with what you feel, because you don't want that regret to eat at you every time something in school doesn't go how you'd like.

 

[sunset57]

Congrats!

As mscs2014 wrote, this is a nice problem to have.

Location: Even if family wasn't a consideration, I'd select Boston over Providence without a second thought. I'd chose Boston over NYC also, but that's a tougher call.

Strength of program: Agree with other posters. If you do well, you'll be fine coming from any of the programs.

Hospitals: Not a huge difference, but I'd place NYU and BU first, Tufts second, and Brown third.

Prestige: 100% speculative, but I'd guess that among the general public in the northeast, Brown and Tufts are seen as the most prestigious because of their undergraduate reputation. Among physicians, BU/NYU>Tufts>Brown.

Given the merit scholarship, BU would be my first choice.

Good luck.

 

[dawoo1414]

Thank you so much for all of the responses! Does anyone else have any more input?

 

[Officer Farva]

Hi everyone! If you have a few minutes, I would very much appreciate some advice.

I am very fortunate to be able to choose between 4 great options: BU, Tufts, Brown, and NYU. However, I'm having a difficult time choosing a school - partially due to lack of exposure (second look days will be key) and partially due to a limited understanding of the northeast medical community. Here are some of the main things that matter to me:

Location:
My boyfriend and I live in Boston, and moving out the city would be disruptive (although not entirely unmanageable). His strong preference is to stay in Boston, whereas I am more flexible. My family is also from Boston.

Money:
Essentially a wash, since FA packages haven't come out yet. BU did offer me a 10k/yr merit scholarship.

Strength of program with respect to location of residency matches:
My ultimate goal is to land a residency in the northeast. I am not sure what specialty I want to enter, so the ability of a program to send graduates to competitive residencies across specialties in the northeast is essential. My gut feeling is that this capacity is the same for all of the aforementioned schools, but I figured I'd ask.

Hospitals:
BMC vs Tufts vs Langone/Bellevue vs Rhode Island Hospital for 3rd/4th year rotations. Given that rotations are often glorified shadowing, is there that much of a significant difference between these locations to warrant special consideration?

Prestige:
My view of these schools with respect to prestige is largely influenced by my knowledge of their undergrad reputations, given that I am not very familiar with the northeast medical community just yet. From what I've read, BU, NYU and Brown seem to be on a level slightly higher than Tufts; however, my college health professions advisor (who went to Harvard med) told me that Tufts is often viewed higher than Brown and BU. I ultimately only care about prestige when it comes to influencing getting a solid residency in the northeast.

Thanks for making it through the post haha. As of now, I think I am leaning toward staying in Boston, and within Boston towards Boston University. I am looking for assurance that this will set me up to go where I want to go (assuming I crush medical school, of course) and not hold me back from having success getting into the competitive residencies in new england (MGH, BWI, BID, etc).

Thanks! I'm very excited for next year!

Given all the info, BU hands down would be a great choice. NYU is the highest ranked program and pretty awesome in its own way, but it isn't significantly more prestigious to lure you to NYC (unless you get into Columbia/Cornell). If you have your heart set on obtaining a harvard residency, you cannot beat the networking opportunities from going to school in Boston. My ranking for you: BU>>Tufts>>>>NYU>>>>>>>>Brown.

Also, don't underestimate the power of a support system in allowing you to do well in school. Given your strong network in Boston, you would absolutely crush it in med school if you go to BU or Tufts, preferably BU.

 

[Pastamahn]

I'm not sure how important it is in the long run (applying this year myself) but NYU Langone medical center is ranked 12th among US News Best Hospitals list. Not sure of the methodology, but I would say NYU has the prestige factor along with having an extremely strong clinical experience factor at a top hospital.

 

[CCMDOC9254]

I have a similar dilemma...Tufts vs BU. I know BU has much better clinical rotations and opportunities due to BMC, but from all the local doctors in Boston I have gotten the feeling that they regard Tufts with more prestige. Also not that match lists really matter, Tufts list was more impressive to my eye, placing many many people into MGH even for competitive residencies like ortho. Also I heard the students are much happier at Tufts.

With all this said I'm still leaning towards BU.

 

[occams_razor]

this is a great website for comparing schools:
http:// http://medical-schools.startclass.com/l/43/Boston-University-School-of-Medicine
http://medical-schools.startclass.com/l/43/Boston-University-School-of-Medicine

http://medical-schools.startclass.com/l/73/Tufts-University-School-of-Medicine

 

[dawoo1414]

I have a similar dilemma...Tufts vs BU. I know BU has much better clinical rotations and opportunities due to BMC, but from all the local doctors in Boston I have gotten the feeling that they regard Tufts with more prestige. Also not that match lists really matter, Tufts list was more impressive to my eye, placing many many people into MGH even for competitive residencies like ortho. Also I heard the students are much happier at Tufts.

With all this said I'm still leaning towards BU.

Yea I feel you about the Tufts vs BU match lists. Although the 2014 list for Tufts has a much smaller proportion of kids entering the harvard system (largely into diagnostic rads) when compared to BUSM, which makes sense since they fluctuate. Additionally, a ton of BU kids in 2015 matched into some fantastic systems all over the country.

And with respect to the whole Tufts vs BU prestige in Boston debate, it has very much varied based on the person I have asked. It seems like the prestige difference is moot and that how you perform at each school is 99% of the battle. Good luck with deciding! It would be awesome to see you in August, wherever we end up!

 

[FrenchT]

I'm also between Tufts and BU. Can't decide! My girlfriend is doing her PhD at Tufts and I know both the graduate and medical schools well since I've met many of the students and I visit the campus frequently. I do think I like BMC more than Tufts Medical because of the diverse patient pop. As mentioned before, I've heard Tufts has a stronger sense of community within the class. I'm trying to weight all the pros and cons but it's tough! It is a good problem to have though. Hopefully second look days will help us all out!