Best Urban Med Schools

sorry bro, LA sucks. it's just a bunch of sprawled out neighborhoods, not really a city so much as an amalgam of alternately uber-rich and ghetto-poor neighborhoods thrown together. it is however a terrific city if you want to become an actress-waitress or get hepatitis by going for a swim.

now chicago, that city ROCKS. in my not so humble opinion, it ranks up with nyc in the top tier.

I'm surprised you chose Keck over Boston U. & Tufts. And you neglected to include Penn on your list (but you did choose Pitt... at the bottom) & George Washington.
And what about the South? Let's get some Respect (yes, with a capital 'R'!) for the dirty dirty in here. Emory, Vandy, Baylor, UT - Southwestern are all in very metropolitan areas, despite your obvious slant to the 3 most expensive cities in the US.

vn2004 said:

sorry bro, LA sucks. it's just a bunch of sprawled out neighborhoods, not really a city so much as an amalgam of alternately uber-rich and ghetto-poor neighborhoods thrown together. it is however a terrific city if you want to become an actress-waitress or get hepatitis by going for a swim.

now chicago, that city ROCKS. in my not so humble opinion, it ranks up with nyc in the top tier.

Click to expand...

seriously. chicago is far more "urban" than sprawling l.a. using bestplaces.net, it has a higher pop. density (12,000 per square mile versus 8,000 per square mile) and a higher percentage of folks who use mass transit (28% versus 10%). there are plenty of immigrant groups (and neighborhoods) from all over the world. and its weather is colder than ny and boston, but not by a whole lot.

it seems chicago is always clumped in with "flyover" territory for those who don't know anything about it.

You all can have NY, LA, San Diego, Atlanta and Houston. Give me Chicago, Nashville or Pitt. San Francisco is one of the few cities in CA I would consider living in- at least that any of you probably have heard of. But I would move out of town as soon as I was done with school.

Your list sux, because you think everything in CA is awe(some. MOst of us are not from socali....

the best "Urban cities in US"

1) NYC....
2)Chicago
3)Boston
4)Philly +SF
5)Houston
6)LA

each city has sweet med schools, and it makes little difference if one attends Cornell vs Albert Einstein vs SUNY downstate because they are all excellent schools

whats up with all the hatred for cali, i love it, great weather, great diversity... whats not to love?la is great, its also near other great places such as san diego. even in northern cal, its great, some areas even get snow and we get to go snowboarding during the seasons. skate in the summer, and ski in the winter. i love cali. very laid back.

I love Cali too. And LA is a city. If downtown LA doesn't feel "urban" then I don't want to know what urban feels like.

UCDavisdude said:

whats up with all the hatred for cali, i love it, great weather, great diversity... whats not to love?la is great, its also near other great places such as san diego. even in northern cal, its great, some areas even get snow and we get to go snowboarding during the seasons. skate in the summer, and ski in the winter. i love cali. very laid back.

Click to expand...

i don't hate cali, but in a list of the most "urban" cities with l.a. at the top and chicago at the bottom a correction is in order.

i think sf is a fine city. i enjoyed my time there a lot. but there are so many wealthy folks there it gave me guilty feelings of being at a beach resort while blissfully ignoring the rest of the country.

chicago is the best city in america, hands down. More culture than LA, nicer people than NYC. And probably the best city in the world to spend your 20s in

SoCalRULES!!!!! said:

It has the wealth, the beaches, the freeways...but it has this also which I googled on google Images.

Was that NY? No it is Los Angeles.

Click to expand...

Your pic looks like any other urban center in the world. I just thought I would tell you if you want an urban lifestyle like that you can get it anywhere there are people.
I'm not hating on LA. I think it's an interesting place, but there are all sorts of interesting places.

letmein!please? said:

I love Cali too. And LA is a city. If downtown LA doesn't feel "urban" then I don't want to know what urban feels like.

Click to expand...

that you need to go "downtown" for the urban experience of l.a. says enough. the photo above could have been taken anywhere in 80% of chicago. except downtown, which is more dense with more skyscrapers.

as for l.a. being "one of America's only two premier megacities" give me a break. chicago is a global city.

How can you forget the U?!?! University of Miami! Come on now

No love for Baltimore?

SoCalRULES!!!!! said:

I never said LA was more urban than Chicago. I said LA, NY and SF are the US's three cosmopolitan world class urban cities.

Click to expand...

you wrote

"What are the best urban med schools in the best urban cities?"

and then you made a list with l.a. being one of the cities at #1 and chicago being one of the cities at the last number (6?)

SoCalRULES!!!!! said:

^Plus it is the most diverse city in the world and one of America's only two premier megacities. The two coastal powerhouses.

It has the wealth, the beaches, the freeways...but it has this also which I googled on google Images.

Was that NY? No it is Los Angeles.

Click to expand...

sweet jesus, is that a tall building in the background?!!! how wonderfully cosmopolitan!!!! please, condescend to the rest of the country some more!

the following is from Wikipedia. Hate to burst your bubble OP, but LA and Chicago are tied on the second tier as alpha world cities, and SF is on the third tier as a beta city. Here's a link to the website of the organization that ranked cities:

http://www.lboro.ac.uk/gawc/citylist.html


An influential attempt to define and categorise world cities, was made by the Globalization and World Cities Study Group & Network (GaWC), based primarily at Loughborough University in England. The roster was outlined in the GaWC Research Bulletin 5 [1] and ranked cities based on their provision of "advanced producer services" such as accountancy, advertising, finance and law. The Inventory identifies three levels of world cities and several sub-ranks.

Note that this roster is weighted toward financial criteria and generally denotes cities in which there are offices of certain multinational companies providing financial and consulting services rather than other cultural, political and economic centres.

Alpha World Cities

12 points: London, New York City, Paris, Tokyo
10 points: Chicago, Frankfurt, Hong Kong, Los Angeles, Milan, Singapore
Beta World Cities

9 points: San Francisco, Sydney, Toronto, Zürich
8 points: Brussels, Madrid, Mexico City, São Paulo
7 points: Moscow, Seoul
Gamma World Cities

6 points: Amsterdam, Boston, Caracas, Dallas, Düsseldorf, Geneva, Houston, Jakarta, Johannesburg, Melbourne, Osaka, Prague, Santiago, Taipei, Washington
5 points: Bangkok, Beijing, Montréal, Rome, Stockholm, Warsaw
4 points: Atlanta, Barcelona, Berlin, Buenos Aires, Budapest, Copenhagen, Hamburg, Istanbul, Kuala Lumpur, Manila, Miami, Minneapolis, Munich, Shanghai
Evidence of World City Formation

3 points: Athens, Auckland, Dublin, Helsinki, Luxembourg, Lyon, Mumbai, New Delhi, Philadelphia, Rio de Janeiro, Tel Aviv, Vienna
2 points: Abu Dhabi, Almaty, Birmingham (UK), Bogotá, Bratislava, Brisbane, Bucharest, Cairo, Cleveland, Cologne, Detroit, Dubai, Ho Chi Minh City, Kiev, Lima, Lisbon, Manchester, Montevideo, Oslo, Riyadh, Rotterdam, Seattle, Stuttgart, The Hague, Vancouver
1 point: Adelaide, Antwerp, Arhus, Baltimore, Bangalore, Bologna, Brasília, Calgary, Cape Town, Colombo, Columbus, Dresden, Edinburgh, Genoa, Glasgow, Gothenburg, Guangzhou, Hanoi, Kansas City, Leeds, Lille, Marseille, Richmond, St. Petersburg, Tashkent, Tehran, Tijuana, Turin, Utrecht, Wellington

Sanford, kansas city, tijuana, & detroit are above DC on that list. I'm not sure what those criteria measure, either. In any case, it's an interesting list. Thanks.

Baylor, though the Texas Medical Center is a completely different atmosphere from the rest of Houston (that's a good thing).

desiredusername said:

Sanford, kansas city, tijuana, & detroit are above DC on that list. I'm not sure what those criteria measure, either. In any case, it's an interesting list. Thanks.

Click to expand...

from the text, they used strictly financial measures. so no consideration of culture or politics was included. i don't know if any organization has tried to rank world cities on non-economic measures. it would be harder to find concrete measures on those dimensions.

[edit: more specifically, measures of international finance]

thinknofu3 said:

chicago is the best city in america, hands down. More culture than LA, nicer people than NYC. And probably the best city in the world to spend your 20s in

Click to expand...

chicago can't compare to nyc. it's a nice city, but nyc is in another league with london and paris.

sanford_w/o_son said:

from the text, they used strictly financial measures. so no consideration of culture or politics was included. i don't know if any organization has tried to rank world cities on non-economic measures. it would be harder to find concrete measures on those dimensions.

[edit: more specifically, measures of international finance]

Click to expand...

Ok, so that's what "advanced producer services" means. I guess DC the city is just too small. Thanks....

desiredusername said:

Sanford, kansas city, tijuana, & detroit are above DC on that list. I'm not sure what those criteria measure, either. In any case, it's an interesting list. Thanks.

Click to expand...

actually, i believe d.c. has six points as a gamma city, above those others. what is suprising to me is that vancouver and seattle is in the same category as detroit, but i'm biased to thinking of those cities in cultural terms.

sanford_w/o_son said:

actually, i believe d.c. has six points as a gamma city, above those others. what is suprising to me is that vancouver and seattle is in the same category as detroit, but i'm biased to thinking of those cities in cultural terms.

Click to expand...

It is washington! don't i feel silly....

but if ur like me and cant stand anything below 65 degrees in the winter, la is the best urban city to live in.
i just came back from chicago yesterday and i thought i was going to freeze there, it was 25 degrees

jtank said:

but if ur like me and cant stand anything below 65 degrees in the winter, la is the best urban city to live in.
i just came back from chicago yesterday and i thought i was going to freeze there, it was 25 degrees

Click to expand...

okay, now we're talking. i'm personally going to weigh the climate as well as the city when i apply. the cities in which i will be applying to more than one med school are nyc, chicago, and l.a. as far as cities go, i'd rather be in nyc or chicago, but if i re-ranked my list to be based on weather then l.a. is at the top.

"happening people", "urban mover and shakers", "straws that stir the drink", lol! maybe you'd be happiest moving to MTV. chicago is such a glaring exception to the "rustbelt" phenomenon, that it's clear you don't know anything about this city. and while i agree that on dimensions of culture and urban intensity chicago takes second place to nyc, sf and la have absolutely nothing on chicago.

SoCalRULES!!!!! said:

Chicago is the buckle of the rustbelt now

Click to expand...

That really shows your ignorance of one of the most beautiful cities in North America. Great architecture, the natural beauty of Lake Michigan, the engineering marvel of the largest number of movable bridges of any city in the world, World Championship baseball, plus other professional sports teams; a free ice-rink on Michigan Avenue (winter only), world-class symphony, opera, dance, theater, art museums, clubs & music venues, street musicians, fine dining, fabulous ethnic neighborhoods and any cuisine you can name. Two great airports make it possible to travel non-stop to almost anywhere. A great (cheap) public transportation system (elevated, subway and buses).

SoCalRULES!!!!! said:

^Whatever.

It is in the Midwest. Case Closed.

I'll take the coasts, thank you very much.

LA is America's second city in size and importance and influence. LA rivals London and Tokyo. It doesn't compete with Mid-American metropoli.

So let's get back on topic. Help fill in this list

Best Urban Medschools

Tier 1 UCSF, Columbia, Cornell, NYU, UCLA, Keck

Tier 2 Penn, HMS, Univ of Wash

Tier 3 UCSD, Oregon

Tier 4 JHU, Georgetown

Tier 5 Univ of Chi, Northwestern, Case, Wash U, Baylor, Univ of Colorado

Tier 6 Creighton

Click to expand...

wow. so many people/outside sources have pointed out how your list is misguided, and in your defense you just make the same claims about certain cities without support. there are good reasons why people use chicago as a stepping stone to nyc and not l.a., and why when me and a guy from l.a. were talking to some well-traveled europeans in a nyc hostel, they were much more interested in talking to me about their visit to chicago than the other guy about their visit to l.a. if you never find out what those good reasons are for yourself, it's your loss.

vn2004 said:

sorry bro, LA sucks. it's just a bunch of sprawled out neighborhoods, not really a city so much as an amalgam of alternately uber-rich and ghetto-poor neighborhoods thrown together. it is however a terrific city if you want to become an actress-waitress or get hepatitis by going for a swim.

now chicago, that city ROCKS. in my not so humble opinion, it ranks up with nyc in the top tier.

Click to expand...

hahaha Chi Town...a respectable city...hahaha

Chicago for the most part is full of ghetto's, tall & old buildings, and a wannabe beach. Did I mention no diversity in terrain. The sprawl of LA is so much better than being cramped up into small lots.

I think you are just mad b/c most people dont consider chicago as the ultimate destination. It's nothing more than a city surrounded by typical midwest scenery that is by a dirty arse lake!

SoCalRULES!!!!! said:

^Whatever.

It is in the Midwest. Case Closed.

I'll take the coasts, thank you very much.

LA is America's second city in size and importance and influence. LA rivals London and Tokyo. It doesn't compete with Mid-American metropoli.

So let's get back on topic. Help fill in this list

Best Urban Medschools

Tier 1 UCSF, Columbia, Cornell, NYU, UCLA, Keck

Tier 2 Penn, HMS, Univ of Wash

Tier 3 UCSD, Oregon

Tier 4 JHU, Georgetown

Tier 5 Univ of Chi, Northwestern, Case, Wash U, Baylor, Univ of Colorado

Tier 6 Creighton

Click to expand...

I am from LA and I would not even say Chi town is tier 5...neither is houston.
And why do you have Oregon in tier 3. Move that school down to 6

riceman04 said:

hahaha Chi Town...a respectable city...hahaha

Chicago ...a city surrounded by typical midwest scenery that is by a dirty arse lake!

Click to expand...

That lake is clean enough to drink and provides drinking water to millions of Americans every day.

If you've never visited Chicago, you shouldn't have a dog in this fight.

If your only visit to Chicago was to interview at U of C or UIC or Loyola or Franklin ( ) then you haven't really seen Chicago.

Over 50,000 physicians and ancillary staff are here enjoying Chicago this week for the annual meeting of the Radiological Society of North America. They come to Chicago every year during the week after Thanksgiving. What is it about Chi-town that draws them?

The AMA is located here. Likewise, the American College of Surgeons, the American Academy of Pediatrics, and a bunch more subspecialty societies. Must be something that attracts them & keeps them in Chi-town rather than on a coast.

riceman04 said:

hahaha Chi Town...a respectable city...hahaha

Chicago for the most part is full of ghetto's, tall & old buildings, and a wannabe beach. Did I mention no diversity in terrain. The sprawl of LA is so much better than being cramped up into small lots.

I think you are just mad b/c most people dont consider chicago as the ultimate destination. It's nothing more than a city surrounded by typical midwest scenery that is by a dirty arse lake!

Click to expand...

okay, so you support the notion of chicago as a prototypically more urban environment than la with its higher density and taller buildings. your negative statements concerning pollution and ghettos are also characteristic features of urban environments that la certainly has as well. i will agree, as i did on the weather, that la's beach and terrain are better than chicago's.

i'm getting the impression that folks who love l.a. just love suburbs.

riceman04 said:

hahaha Chi Town...a respectable city...hahaha

Chicago for the most part is full of ghetto's, tall & old buildings, and a wannabe beach. Did I mention no diversity in terrain. The sprawl of LA is so much better than being cramped up into small lots.

I think you are just mad b/c most people dont consider chicago as the ultimate destination. It's nothing more than a city surrounded by typical midwest scenery that is by a dirty arse lake!

Click to expand...

right. i'm not even from chicago, so i'm not mad that you're dissing my hometown or anything (which btw is NYC). LA can't hold a candle to the experience of living in NYC or chicago. of course if you love smog, insane traffic, fake tits, and a population with the average IQ of a chimp, then maybe it's the city for you.

Of course, of the 170-something medical schools in the country, we could divide those into "schools in urban areas" and "schools not in urban areas". What is urban? Location in a city of > 1 million? That would mean excluding some pretty urban cities including Boston and San Francisco and limiting ourselves to 9 cities (NYC, LA, Chi-town, Houston, Philly, Phoenix, San Diego, San Antonio, Dallas.) If we made the cut at 500,000 we'd leave out Atlanta and Miami.

What makes a location urban rather than suburban or rural? Mayo, located in a city of 93,000 & surrounded by farmland is rural. Yale, in a city of 125,000 is a college city with a dying industrial core and its share of ghettos.

It seems that the OP wanted to rank his top choices of schools in NYC & LA as if the rest of the country is chopped liver.

First of all click here and read: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global_cities

'nuff said.

Secondly, you gotta love guys like SoCalRules, because it's guys like that that when they actually visit a place like Chicago, they are completely blown away. It sure beats having high expectations and being totally dissapointed, doesn't it?

I mean, you can rip on Chicago all you want because it is expensive, cold in the winter, too crowded, has no mountains nearby, you know, whatever may not be your style… but if you think it's dirty, ghetto, the lake is not clean, or it's anything other than a 100% Tier 1, World-Class, Global, total urban orgasm, and yes, second only to New York in the U.S. in terms of complete, intense, bustling "urban experience"… well, then you lose credibility right away with those that know anything...

My buddy is an urban enthusiast and photographer so get ready for a crapload of pics I have saved on my computer that speak for themselves in terms of urbanity...

-------> SCROLL

THE Croupier said:

the best "Urban cities in US"

1) NYC....
2)Chicago
3)Boston
4)Philly +SF
5)Houston
6)LA

Click to expand...

This is the most accurate list I have seen, though I would switch Houston with LA.

Where are all the winter pics? Haha

I don't see why some of you are being so hostile about this. Just because you like Chicago doesn't make LA a crappy city, and vise versa, that's such an illogical way to get your point across.