Texas A & M vs. UTMB

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UTlonghorn

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Hi everyone,
I have to rank these schools by January 15 for the match, and I like them both so I was wondering what your opinions are on them. I know a similar thread exists from a year or two ago but I'd like to bring it up again. I have some pros and cons to start off with, and hopefully you guys can add a few more. I'm interested in your opinions on the two schools and why you prefer one to the other. Thanks for your help!

Pros for A & M:
Scott & White Hospital (Ranked within top 10 teaching hospitals in nation)
Extensive hospital affiliations throughout Texas
Multiple campuses to choose from (College Station, Temple, Round Rock)
Small class size, lots of individual attention
Early clinical experience
Amazing facilities

Cons for A & M:
Small town location
Possibility of streaming lectures if located in Temple

Pros for UTMB:
Texas' oldest med school, well-known
High board scores
Global training opportunities
PBL (not sure if this is good or bad, depends on type of learner)
Early clinical experience
Great research

Cons for UTMB:
Still recovering from Hurricane Ike (when I interviewed there, the buildings were still very much affected by the storm) -- however they have huge grants to reconstruct everything
Galveston - small town without much to offer


All in all, I think both schools are really good and I would be happy to attend either. Unfortunately choosing between them is difficult. Thanks again for your help.

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In your shoes, based on what you listed as pros and cons, it seems you prefer A&M.

I say this because your cons for A&M seem relatively superficial, esp when compared with the chance that UTMB may again be horribly ravaged by another storm at anytime. I mean this in no way disparagingly to UTMB... but I live in Houston, and mother nature can be cruel... And I wouldn't want to buy a home down there and have it destroyed, only adding to my increasing med school debt.

Additionally, your pros UTMB are also kind of superficial in my eyes... (no offense, of course!), as you can make a high board score anywhere, and also UTMB has 230 students and boasts 99% pass rate and A&M has 150 and has ~96-97% I believe... each student at A&M who doesn't pass brings down the percent more than each student at UTMB who doesn't pass simply because there are less of them. Percents are tricky and can be misleading. :rolleyes:

Scott and White is also amazing, which is more important than your school being "well known"... how you perform is the deciding factor in where you do your residency... a nice name isn't going to get you too far. Again, this is IMO. :)

Also, a nice admissions lady at A&M explained the point of the 2-2 campus idea: it separates your basic science years from your clinical years, allowing you to really feel you've taken the next step in your medical career by moving and moving on to bigger and better things. I'd never thought of it that way, but it was helpful to hear.

So in conclusion, reading through the last of your pros for each list... you really just seem to prefer A&M by what you wrote (in my internet gut feeling on what you wrote)... and if you don't, I think by looking at what you listed as mattering to you, your A&M pros are stronger.

I hope that helps you in your choice, and I hope you get your choice on Feb 1!!!!! :D

PS- did you prematch anywhere?
 
Thanks a lot for the response! That was actually really helpful and I think you read into the internet lingo pretty well. I have been leaning a bit toward A & M, although I do like both schools very much. I prematched at A & M and Tech-El paso, although I withdrew my application from Tech because it's really far away from where I live (Houston area).

I think you are absolutely right about board scores not being a huge deciding factor, as it is a very individual effort and does not necessarily reflect on the school's ability to teach.

Also, very interesting point about the 2-2 campus program. In fact, if I ended up at A & M, I have already decided that I would do the 2-2 College station/Temple program. I've never really thought about how separating basic science from clinical location can be advantageous from a maturity standpoint. Thanks again for your input! Have you decided where you want to go to school yet?
 
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texas a&m - has a more rural, family medicine, primary medicine track. also i'm not sure if its guaranteed that you can get into scott & white, as certain amounts of ppl need to be in each program. a &m also has good research as well, the person i stayed with did some great research at scott & white during the summer (i think it just depends how much you want it).

also, utmb does have away rotations (i believe at austin for sure and also in random places in texas - houston maybe).
 
I agree, based on your pros and cons, you seem to be favoring Texas A&M at the moment. I would honestly not consider most of your pros for UTMB (oldest med. school, high board scores, global opportunities, early clinical experience, and great research) to be very relevant (no offense). The fact that it's the oldest medical school doesn't mean much, board scores depend on the individual student (there are students who earn 260+ at A&M, and students who do well below average/fail at Galveston, despite what the average statistics are), and research and clinical experience you will get at every medical school. The only PRO I would consider would be PBL, but as you mentioned, it depends on if you prefer that style of learning.

The Cons for UTMB seem major...not liking the city of galveston, and the fact that another hurricane could strike at any point in time and some what disrupt things.

Your Pros and Cons for A&M seem pretty legitimate...I would like to mention, however, that you will have streaming lectures no matter which campus you are placed into (College Station or Temple), you will just have more streaming lectures if you are at Temple, since a greater percentage of the faculty is in CS (80% CS, 20% Temple).

Also, keep in mind that for A&M you can rank your choices for what campus you want to be at, but you are in no way guaranteed your first or even your second choice. Only a certain amount of students can be placed into each campus. I'm not sure if that plays into your decision or not. However, I believe the majority of students did receive their first or second choice last year.

Good luck with making your decision! :thumbup:
 
Thanks for the responses!
Ya, I heard that some people only get their 2nd choice at A&M, and I'm hoping that won't happen to me. If it does, though, it's not a big enough issue to affect my rankings. I'm going to visit college station and utmb in the coming weeks and hopefully be able to figure out which is the best fit for me.

Also, the streaming lectures probably aren't that big of a deal. They have some great equipment to make the situation as comfortable as possible. You can ask questions through built-in microphones and it makes it feel like you're actually in the class. Again, I appreciate everybody's input! It's nice to get some more outside perspective.
 
Galveston - small town without much to offer

Wut? I keep hearing this, obviously you guys have never lived in a small town. lol

Galveston has a lot to offer not the least of which is a 30 minute drive into downtown Houston. Not trying to convince, just staing my opinions! :D

Not sure what El Paso, Lubbock, College Station, Temple have to offer above Galveston. :shrug:
 
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Galveston has a lot to offer not the least of which is a 30 minute drive into downtown Houston. Not trying to convince, just staing my opinions! :D


Yeah, you're not going to make downtown Houston, midtown, the Galleria, or anywhere fun in 30 minutes from the island or UTMB.

It's roughly 10-15 minutes to get from utmb down broadway. You might saved a few minutes taking harborside. Then, you're looking at another 40-45 minutes to get into downtown w/o traffic and no accidents. If there's a fatality accident anywhere on the gulf freeway, you might as well take 146 to 225 and then 610 up or down.

op - you're going to be in med school, I wouldn't plan on making downtown Houston that much. Plus, there's not really a whole lot to offer. I suppose that's subjective, though there's nothing there now that isn't going to be there in 4 years. I guess if you want to blow a sizable chunk on a hot date in Rice Village, Galveston is the way to go, but most of the really good restaurants in Houston don't have prices on their menus.
 
Starmantis, you're absolutely right about the other schools not offering anything over Galveston in terms of location. Really, the only school that I've interviewed at that has a pretty good location is UTSW but I won't hear back from them till the match. One of the things making the decision between A&M and UTMB difficult is that both school's are located in places that aren't ideal for my taste (that's just me though). Apart from that issue, I'm still having some trouble ranking the two schools. I will be visiting both of them before Jan 15 for second looks so maybe that will help.
 
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