Rush Medical College vs Loyola Stritch School of Medicine

[kirbydoughball]

(not planning on gunning for competitive specialties)

Rush Medical College
Pros

• Rotations at Rush Hospital (#2 hospital in Chicago) and guaranteed Stroger Cook County rotations (one of the largest safety-net hospitals in US), unlike other Chicago schools that may or may not get rotations there
• True P/F M1 and M2
• Since last year, no more internal rankings (instead will have a “focus” narrative description on dean’s letter where you choose a focus like service and I guess they write about the work you have done in service)
• Want to practice in Chicago area, and generally Rush Medical College has more name recognition and respect
• Great experience to live in Chicago, culturally speaking
• Systems based curriculum
• Organized shadowing program (helpful for making mentors and career choices)
• Greater funding for research but still solid output, nothing crazy like some other Chicago schools
• Low-stake quizzes throughout block but final exam at end of block 90% of your grade (allows more time to get concepts down)
• Ranks 58 on residency director scores

Cons

• Huge con for me: Flipped classroom, between 8-10 hours of mandatory group discussions that go over the information you teach yourself. I like teaching myself concepts but usually through lectures but I heard that sometimes professors provide sometimes up to 300 pages of cases to read before a session and I also dislike the huge time commitment, which doesn’t even include lab sessions and other mandatory sessions
• Living in downtown Chicago will come with its inconveniences for me: I don’t enjoy driving in the city, living expenses are greater here, a little more dangerous than the maywood area

Stritch School of Medicine
Pros

• P/F preclinical
• Internal rankings with only 30% on preclinical (still can distinguish yourself in rotations and not have too much pressure on your preclinical grades)
• Lecture-based curriculum where most is asynchronous
• The people are extremely nice. I’ve been on campus on multiple occasions. Interviewers were genuinely so kind, I had a residency director from IM call me personally after I emailed the academic director about the internal ranking basically telling me how beneficial it was and gave a whole spiel about how much she loves the school, a non-ambassador student here is inviting me to come to campus and shadow her which no other school has done, other non-ambassador students voluntarily call me when I ask them any questions about the school. My aunt works at the hospital (and has worked at many other Chicago hospitals) and she echoes this sentiment- people at Loyola are a different breed of nice.
• I graduated from Loyola undergrad, so very familiar with the mission of the school\
• More likely to get a merit scholarship (I had an M1 tell me to email the dean to ask about merit scholarships, which are often given to students that fit the mission/graduated from Loyola undergrad and have multiple acceptances which I do, still no response yet)
• More suburban than Rush, feels more comfortable to me (less traffic, less hassle, but still close enough to the city for fun thins on weekends)

Cons

• Traditional curriculum (makes less sense to me to learn normal state and then abnormal state 1 year later)
• Supposedly subpar research output
• Exams every other week or every week (I guess it makes you more accountable and grade value is spread out but to me more exams ultimately mean more stress lol)
• Ranks 69 on residency director scores
• #6 hospital in Chicago
• A little less name recognition

Both

• H/HP/P/F clinical
• COA is a wash… both about $85,000 for cost of attendance. Rush tuition is cheaper while cost of living is higher there.
• Non-NBME exams (professor-written)
• About 50 minutes from home (nice to visit family on breaks, etc.)
• Very close proximity to their hospitals (Stritch’s is connected to hospital but tunnel, Rush’s hospital is across the street from the medical school)

Summary: Ultimately, I feel Rush is the better choice clinically speaking because of the great rotation sites but the flipped classroom idea and time commitment scares me a lot. Pre-clinically, I like Loyola’s approach better and I know I would do well with studying lectures asynchronously as I am more of an independent learner. If I get a scholarship at any school it would sway me for sure and second look visits will help.

Thank you so much in advance! I’ve done so much research over 2 months and now I just need input from others.

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[Putkernerinthehall]

Suggest you talk / correspond with current Rush students about the flipped classroom approach. It may not be as much of a negative as you think. Some probably have positive things to say about it. I agree, if it were me, I'd choose Rush.

 

[kirbydoughball]

Suggest you talk / correspond with current Rush students about the flipped classroom approach. It may not be as much of a negative as you think. Some probably have positive things to say about it. I agree, if it were me, I'd choose Rush.

thank you for the help! i will continue speaking w students.