UC Davis vs. USC

[trip]

Just wondering, if you had a choice between these two, which school would you pick?

For me, UCD has the upper hand since the tuition is much much cheaper, and the school is closer to home (I wouldn't need to fly).

And the reason I ask this question is because I recently got an acceptance to UCD, and have a USC interview in mid-March. I'm not sure if I should still go to the USC interview.

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[Scooby Doo]

congrats...I think USC will give you outstanding clinical exposure..I am not too sure about UCD but I would go check out USC since it's pretty close to you anyways

 

[Procrastinator]

Go UCD if you want to do primary care. If you want to specialize, USC is the wiser option (better specialty match rates). Congrats on UCD, though.

 

[UCMonkey]

I'd definitely take UCD! (Well, maybe I am a LITTLE biased, since I did my ugrad there and work for the university now). The tuition is cheaper, and you're not going to school in the ghetto. Lets face it; the area around USC SUCKS. Davis, on the other hand, is a very nice place to live. The only trick is FINDING housing, since the vacancy rate is less than 1%. Its completely doable, though.

If you have any questions about UCD or Davis that I can help with, just ask!

 

[Scooby Doo]

Well USC clinical is unmatched...Davis, care to fill us in if it has any? I mean, there are a lot of cows you can practice on...

<img border="0" alt="[Laughy]" title="" src="graemlins/laughy.gif" />

 

[DJ W.R.]

UC Davis has a huge medical center in Sacramento...it's about 20 minutes from the undergrad and medical school campuses. I would definitely take UC Davis over USC. When it comes to cost, there really is no comparison...and the clinical training that you'll receive at Davis is fantastic. It might still be a good idea to check USC out...you never know!

 

[altaskier]

Hey Runner, when did you interview at UCD? When did you get accepted? I interviewed on Jan 22 and wanted to see how long I'd have to wait. They said 6-8 weeks. But I wanted to see how long you waited.

BTW.....I'd probably pick UCD because of the cheaper tution and because I do believe it is ranked higher, and is overall a better school.

Thanks

 

[Darwin]

Davis is ranked higher than SC in primary care...SC higher overall.

On a side note,my interviewer at Davis got his MD from USC. I specifically asked him what his opinions on the differences between the two schools were, and which one was stronger, in his opinion. His reply was "Man...you're really looking for me to lose my job, huh?" We laughed and he just smiled...finished by stating "I'll just tell you that the clinical training at USC is second to none", then followed up with "But, you know Davis serves 37 counties...etc."

In the end, it's all a matter of preference. I though Davis' teaching (1st two years) facilities absolutely sucked! Who wants to sit in those tiny desks in that musky hall for 7 hours a day? Man, that would get tough. Both are great schools, though, and you would be priveleged to have the choice between the two. Take care.

 

[trip]

Thanx y'all for your comments! I probably will keep my USC interview so I can better formulate my impression of USC.

Altaskier: I interviewed on 11/19. They took a little over three months to get back to me. As you can imagine, the wait was quite unbearable, especially when they told me on the day of my interview that I could be hearing back as early as in three weeks! But I remember seeing there were a couple of SDN people who received their acceptance letter in about 6 weeks. Two months after my interview, I did write UCD a letter saying how I could contribute to their school... yadda, yadda. Perhaps that helped. Maybe you could write them a letter too. Good luck!

 

[Jalby]

Definately go to the USC interview. The location around SC isn't that great, but you don't have to live there. You can live in Pasadena which is 10 minutes away. And LA is SOOOOOOO much better to live in than Davis. But I'm not sure I would be willing to pay 80,000 more to go to SC. But you should still check it out.