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Tufts would be close to 92k accoring to MSAR, Keck would be close to 100k. Similar without any finaid, but again, it's likely that tufts would give me need-based.What’s the cost of tufts? I’m biased to Keck bc I think I’ll be choosing it but it seems like from your list you might be better off with tufts? Oh and is tufts p/f?
Id say tufts if they give you the need based aid.Tufts would be close to 92k accoring to MSAR, Keck would be close to 100k. Similar without any finaid, but again, it's likely that tufts would give me need-based.
And yes, they are true p/f I believe.
Thanks- appreciate the kind words 🙂 looks like you’re doing great this cycle as well, so congrats on all your acceptances as well 🙂Sorry I don't have an opinion, but I always see you around this forum and wanted to say congratulations on getting to choose between these awesome schools! Happy to see it
This was what I loved about USC lol. Just very family oriented community looking to help each other out ... a MS4 coming on here and taking the time to elaborate this much? Appreciate this!!Hey I'm a USC MS4 and I love my school. Best decision I've made was moving across the country to attend USC. I'll respond to some of the pros and cons you mentioned about USC:
USC
Pros:
Cons:
- Love California the few times I’ve been there and my interview day here… also, want to challenge myself with a new area.
- Guarantee you'll love LA. Beaches, sunshine, mountains, diversity, nightlife, national parks, casinos, most authentic Mexican food in the USA (maybe second to San Diego).
- Comparatively more diverse?
- LA is insanely diverse, as is our patient population. This is another strength of the clinical experience at USC. Nearly all patients at the LA county hospital are immigrants with low health literacy who are from less developed countries with lower access to healthcare. This means you'll see both very severe and very broad range of pathology.
- Great facilities
- The new LA County hospital was opened in 2008 or 2009 and the facilities are up to date and pretty good. ORs and the Resuscitation section of the ED are notable highlights. Nothing is run-down like you may expect at a County hospital. Not sure when the Keck hospital opened but it's even more up to date and luxurious.
- Happy students with good emphasis on social life outside of school... seems like faculty is very supportive
- We like to work hard play hard
- Clinical education fantastic - LAC, Keck Hospital .. also it’s own children’s hospital
- The clinical education at USC is unparalleled. Residents virtually run the services in the LA County hospital with minimal attending oversight, and this accelerated level of autonomy trickles down to the med students. There are high expectations for student involvement and performance on the team during clinical rotations. At USC you won't be standing over someone's shoulder shadowing them while they see patients. You will be an active participant in patient care and you will learn a tremendous amount in doing so. I don't know how they do things at Tufts, but at USC your clinical education will be excellent. This is the reason I picked USC over other schools, and as an MS4 that is about to graduate I am tremendously grateful for the wonderful education I had here.
- True P/F
- and you receive preclinical exam grades via email 5 min after finishing the exam. What more could you want?
- Great name, amazing alumni network from what I hear
- USC does have a strong reputation, but honestly I am not the type that values subjective "prestige" that much. Yes the alumni network is strong; they have a program that connects preclinical students to USC alumni in your intended specialty so that you can shadow/network with them.
- Potential switch to 1.5 preclinical
- Haven't heard of this but I don't stay up to date with changes in the preclinical curriculum. Sounds like a good switch.
- Anatomy is optional? Lol, I'm not sure if that's a good thing.
- Never heard of this, doubt it is true because gross anatomy education is fundamental for medical school.
- The anatomy staff at USC are superb and one of the strongest assets of the medical school. All the anatomy faculty are clearly dedicated and enjoy teaching students. The head of the anatomy courses is named Dr. Mikel Snow and he is a tremendous educator. He and his faculty go to great lengths to prepare students for our exams.
- I want to do residency closer to home on the east coast (NYC, NJ, Boston, Philly) … not sure if going to Keck puts me at disadvantage for this.
- attending USC will not put you at a disadvantage for matching in the east coast. You are an east coast native and your family lives there, that is an extremely strong connection to the geographic region and will facilitate you matching there no matter where you attend. Going to USC can only help you with matching somewhere; if you move to LA and discover you love California (like many people do) then you have an inroad to matching at a California program.
- Very expensive - COA estimates around $98k ($64k tuition) with average student debt of $218k.
- Tufts website reports total COA estimate as 94k for off campus students and 92k for dorm students. Minimal difference in COA of USC vs. Tufts. Link: https://medicine.tufts.edu/admissions-aid/tuition-fees/md-mdphd
- Far away from home and any potential support system
- far away from home = more freedom and new opportunities
- Not sure if I would miss having seasons or not
- you won't, once you're in sunny SoCal you won't wanna leave
- Will need a car ... I also hate traffic
- one of the few downsides of living in LA. Driving is necessary and traffic gets bad. Solution: live close to campus. City View Terrace is a great gated apartment complex 1 mile from school. Tons of med and pharmacy students live there. (http://cvtliving.com/) Most other students live in South Pasadena, Downtown, Silver Lake, or Los Feliz which are within a 15-30 min commute of school.
- A lot of recent scandals ... not sure if this matters at all since they are in the past?
- Full disclosure of recent scandals:
- Former Dean Puliafito resigned and lost his medical license after it was discovered he was doing meth and banging prostitutes.
- Replacement Dean Vharma resigned after it was revealed he was disciplined by USC 15 years prior for sexual harassment allegations against a subordinate.
- Cardiology fellowship lost ACGME accreditation because faculty ignored sexual harassment allegations against a former Cardio fellow.
- How they will affect you:
- They won't. The current dean is Dr. Laura Mosqueda. She is a family medicine doc and the most wholesome person you can imagine. She sends weekly feel good emails to the student body and is the last person to cause another scandal. She is respectful, insightful, and values student input in the future of the school. I fully trust her as the new leader of the school of medicine.
- Cardio fellowship was reorganized and is reapplying for fellowship accreditation this year and will likely get it. Doesn't really affect you as a student at all though.
- Just wanna add that there is a strong push from the administration (since even before these scandals) for students to anonymously report mistreatment, including sexual harassment. The anonymous reporting system has lead to former faculty to be fired/"resign".
This was what I loved about USC lol. Just very family oriented community looking to help each other out ... a MS4 coming on here and taking the time to elaborate this much? Appreciate this!!
mind if I DM you about some other stuff? Sounds like you’re an OOS student
Super informative post, and out of curiosity, how bad is LA traffic for USC students? If you live near the Medical Center do you essentially bypass all the the notorious "LA Traffic"? It's probably pricey to live that close, but seems totally worth it for a short commute. Oh, and do most people have to pay for parking at their apartments or does that tend to be a free perk that you get with your monthly rent?Hey I'm a USC MS4 and I love my school. Best decision I've made was moving across the country to attend USC. I'll respond to some of the pros and cons you mentioned about USC:
USC
Pros:
Cons:
- Love California the few times I’ve been there and my interview day here… also, want to challenge myself with a new area.
- Guarantee you'll love LA. Beaches, sunshine, mountains, diversity, nightlife, national parks, casinos, most authentic Mexican food in the USA (maybe second to San Diego).
- Comparatively more diverse?
- LA is insanely diverse, as is our patient population. This is another strength of the clinical experience at USC. Nearly all patients at the LA county hospital are immigrants with low health literacy who are from less developed countries with lower access to healthcare. This means you'll see both very severe and very broad range of pathology.
- Great facilities
- The new LA County hospital was opened in 2008 or 2009 and the facilities are up to date and pretty good. ORs and the Resuscitation section of the ED are notable highlights. Nothing is run-down like you may expect at a County hospital. Not sure when the Keck hospital opened but it's even more up to date and luxurious.
- Happy students with good emphasis on social life outside of school... seems like faculty is very supportive
- We like to work hard play hard
- Clinical education fantastic - LAC, Keck Hospital .. also it’s own children’s hospital
- The clinical education at USC is unparalleled. Residents virtually run the services in the LA County hospital with minimal attending oversight, and this accelerated level of autonomy trickles down to the med students. There are high expectations for student involvement and performance on the team during clinical rotations. At USC you won't be standing over someone's shoulder shadowing them while they see patients. You will be an active participant in patient care and you will learn a tremendous amount in doing so. I don't know how they do things at Tufts, but at USC your clinical education will be excellent. This is the reason I picked USC over other schools, and as an MS4 that is about to graduate I am tremendously grateful for the wonderful education I had here.
- True P/F
- and you receive preclinical exam grades via email 5 min after finishing the exam. What more could you want?
- Great name, amazing alumni network from what I hear
- USC does have a strong reputation, but honestly I am not the type that values subjective "prestige" that much. Yes the alumni network is strong; they have a program that connects preclinical students to USC alumni in your intended specialty so that you can shadow/network with them.
- Potential switch to 1.5 preclinical
- Haven't heard of this but I don't stay up to date with changes in the preclinical curriculum. Sounds like a good switch.
- Anatomy is optional? Lol, I'm not sure if that's a good thing.
- Never heard of this, doubt it is true because gross anatomy education is fundamental for medical school.
- The anatomy staff at USC are superb and one of the strongest assets of the medical school. All the anatomy faculty are clearly dedicated and enjoy teaching students. The head of the anatomy courses is named Dr. Mikel Snow and he is a tremendous educator. He and his faculty go to great lengths to prepare students for our exams.
- I want to do residency closer to home on the east coast (NYC, NJ, Boston, Philly) … not sure if going to Keck puts me at disadvantage for this.
- attending USC will not put you at a disadvantage for matching in the east coast. You are an east coast native and your family lives there, that is an extremely strong connection to the geographic region and will facilitate you matching there no matter where you attend. Going to USC can only help you with matching somewhere; if you move to LA and discover you love California (like many people do) then you have an inroad to matching at a California program.
- Very expensive - COA estimates around $98k ($64k tuition) with average student debt of $218k.
- Tufts website reports total COA estimate as 94k for off campus students and 92k for dorm students. Minimal difference in COA of USC vs. Tufts. Link: https://medicine.tufts.edu/admissions-aid/tuition-fees/md-mdphd
- Far away from home and any potential support system
- far away from home = more freedom and new opportunities
- Not sure if I would miss having seasons or not
- you won't, once you're in sunny SoCal you won't wanna leave
- Will need a car ... I also hate traffic
- one of the few downsides of living in LA. Driving is necessary and traffic gets bad. Solution: live close to campus. City View Terrace is a great gated apartment complex 1 mile from school. Tons of med and pharmacy students live there. (http://cvtliving.com/) Most other students live in South Pasadena, Downtown, Silver Lake, or Los Feliz which are within a 15-30 min commute of school.
- A lot of recent scandals ... not sure if this matters at all since they are in the past?
- Full disclosure of recent scandals:
- Former Dean Puliafito resigned and lost his medical license after it was discovered he was doing meth and banging prostitutes.
- Replacement Dean Vharma resigned after it was revealed he was disciplined by USC 15 years prior for sexual harassment allegations against a subordinate.
- Cardiology fellowship lost ACGME accreditation because faculty ignored sexual harassment allegations against a former Cardio fellow.
- How they will affect you:
- They won't. The current dean is Dr. Laura Mosqueda. She is a family medicine doc and the most wholesome person you can imagine. She sends weekly feel good emails to the student body and is the last person to cause another scandal. She is respectful, insightful, and values student input in the future of the school. I fully trust her as the new leader of the school of medicine.
- Cardio fellowship was reorganized and is reapplying for fellowship accreditation this year and will likely get it. Doesn't really affect you as a student at all though.
- Just wanna add that there is a strong push from the administration (since even before these scandals) for students to anonymously report mistreatment, including sexual harassment. The anonymous reporting system has lead to former faculty to be fired/"resign".
Currently MS3 here. You should be able to avoid a lot of traffic if you don’t have to get on a freeway to get to school. The only time you have to really deal with it in 3rd year is if you’re in CHLA for peds (which does suck) and if you have an OB or peds rotation in Long Beach. The parking situation will depend on which neighborhood you're at really. A lot of the apartments I've seen include a parking spot, but there are also places where you can only get street parking. It really depends on your situation.Super informative post, and out of curiosity, how bad is LA traffic for USC students? If you live near the Medical Center do you essentially bypass all the the notorious "LA Traffic"? It's probably pricey to live that close, but seems totally worth it for a short commute. Oh, and do most people have to pay for parking at their apartments or does that tend to be a free perk that you get with your monthly rent?
Thanks for this info!@Doctors' Docta I’ve recently called pertaining to the possibility of the pre-clinic curriculum being condensed to 1.5 years. I was told that it will not be implemented for our class. Hope this helps, and congrats!
Super informative post, and out of curiosity, how bad is LA traffic for USC students? If you live near the Medical Center do you essentially bypass all the the notorious "LA Traffic"? It's probably pricey to live that close, but seems totally worth it for a short commute. Oh, and do most people have to pay for parking at their apartments or does that tend to be a free perk that you get with your monthly rent?
Me as well, and you’re welcome!Thanks for this info!
slightly bummed it isn’t shortened though :/
@imbesrs - why the dissatisfaction with the match list post?
Isn’t it useful having it in this thread?
@imbesrs - why the dissatisfaction with the match list post?
Isn’t it useful having it in this thread?
This lol- completely clogged the thread visuallyI think links would have been better than copy/pasting....the post is yuge
Valid point, BUT if you look at the SDN Standard for showing Match Lists, this is how it is done (which is why I did it). Sorry you don’t care for the SDN Standard.I think links would have been better than copy/pasting....the post is yuge
I showed the link from Tufts Source. The PDF was three pages of two Columns. Not sure where there was fall out. There was more than 23 EMs shown? (2019match, but not sure if that is the Match date, or Start of Residency date)As a current residency applicant, I honestly don’t see the utility in comparing match lists for schools that aren’t super disparate in their rankings. Some of my top ranked programs are not the most prestigious of my interviews, but ones that matched fit, feel and location. Look at both lists and you’ll see that discrepancy as the majority of USC applicants stay west if the Rockies and the majority of Tufts are East of the Mississippi.
Also I know just looking at EM and surgery that this list is incomplete for Tufts so I’m not sure where this poster got their data.