pre-spring
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- Jan 11, 2022
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Deciding between these two schools. Interested in either thoracic or orthopedic surgery, I know interest change but mostly leaning towards a surgical sub speciality.
VTC:
Pros
pros:
1) New city, opportunity to branch out
Research and mentorship opportunities
2) better ranked and more prestige. With step 1 being P/F, don’t know if the Georgetown name recognition is going to help for competitive surgical residencies.
3) pass/fail all four years including clinicals
4) Match list seems really good for surgery and they have home residencies in basically all fields, although they don’t seem to have a thoracic residency as well.
cons:
1) Larger class size
2) more service focused and to be honest, I’m not really that into service
3) less research focused than VTC and might have to compete with other students for research opportunities.
At the end of the day I essentially want to go to the school that will set me up better for surgical residencies. Georgetown is higher ranked and is more prestigious, but VTC with the small class size seems to provide a lot of opportunities, so not sure what to choose.
Thanks
VTC:
Pros
- Small class size so better faculty relationships - LOR, etc.
- NBME exam format
- P/F grading first two years (I don't know if this is good or bad for competitive apps so if someone can tell me)
- A lot of emphasis on research.
- Research might also help with matching
- Really good fit with all my interests in research and other stuff.
- Match list for surgery looks to be great
- Don't like living in a small town.
- Don't have home residencies in some surgical specialties. Have plastic and Neurosurgery but not orthopedic and thoracic surgery
- Have a research institute next to them, but a lot of it is bench lab research that I might not do anyways, clinical research seems to be on the lower side, but still has the best research opportunities among the three schools I think.
- Don't like the PBL structure. I prefer having online classes that I can watch and learn by myself, and VTC has mandatory PBL classes 3 days a week and their curriculum is structured around that.
pros:
1) New city, opportunity to branch out
Research and mentorship opportunities
2) better ranked and more prestige. With step 1 being P/F, don’t know if the Georgetown name recognition is going to help for competitive surgical residencies.
3) pass/fail all four years including clinicals
4) Match list seems really good for surgery and they have home residencies in basically all fields, although they don’t seem to have a thoracic residency as well.
cons:
1) Larger class size
2) more service focused and to be honest, I’m not really that into service
3) less research focused than VTC and might have to compete with other students for research opportunities.
At the end of the day I essentially want to go to the school that will set me up better for surgical residencies. Georgetown is higher ranked and is more prestigious, but VTC with the small class size seems to provide a lot of opportunities, so not sure what to choose.
Thanks