I totally hear what you mean. I actually feel like at this point my decision is gonna come down to how well i 'gel' with the school but especially with the student body. I'm deciding between penn and UCSF. As a cali resident before penn preview i was heavily leaning towards SF. Penn did a truly AMAZING job of showing us why they're special and how we could get an phenomenal education at penn. There were two things that really wowwed me, the first being how fun, interesting, and diverse all the perspective students are. A lot of the people i met had done some pretty phenomenal things: rhodes scholars, fulbrighters, olympic qualifying athletes, and amazing researchers but everyone was really personable, normal, humble, and knew how to have a good time. Even the phD students were totally fun and had really great social skills. On saturday night penn reserved a rooftop bar for all the med students and perspectives. The place was packed! We closed the bar down at 2am! We interacted extensively with current students and they all seemed really happy at penn and had full lives outside the classroom which is really important to me. The second thing that really impressed me was the administration. Seriously this group of people is 100% dedicated to making sure students have all the resources they need to truly excel. The staff including most of the higher ups in the admission process knew our names, areas of interest and made a point of putting perspectives in contact with students and faculty that shared those interests. In comparison to other second looks I've been to it really seems the administration is here to help you pursue and cultivate any interest relating to your medical career. I don't think you see that everywhere....
It was just...great! really really great! I'm going to UCSF next week so that'll give me the chance to get a feel for the school and possible future classmates. at this point I'm 50:50..........
Wow. UCSF, Penn. That's an awesome choice to be making. Why did Stanford get thrown out? I remember you being interested there too.
Anyway, that's a tough decision as well. I'm waitlisted at Penn, so yes, I have a motive for you not to go there, but I'll give you my own thoughts trying to avoid bias or dirty tricks. Personally, I think I'd probably choose UCSF. It was my first choice/dream school going into this process, but I sadly didn't get even to the secondary phase (I wish I had learned about appealing your decision before it was really too late).
They have the same 1.5 year curriculum as Penn, it's located in SF (which, except for potentially cost of living, is probably a cooler city than Philadelphia), their hospital system is better than Penn's, the weather
, plus its cheaper....although, I guess with the UC system problems that is still up in the air at this point. You're going to find cool, accomplished people at either place. The two people I know from my college at UC-SF are pretty awesome. 1 is a theatre playwright and has had shows performed from her scripts off-broadway, the other is a MD/PhD and did a one year research fulbright at Max Planck in Germany before enrolling. You're going to meet awesome people everywhere, something you realize is apparent at all Top 10 schools.
Heck, I remember at my Stanford overnight stay, I met a Fulbright scholar who spent a year in Japan, a student who worked for 2 years post-grad in community health programs in Albania, and a kid with a PhD from MIT and multiple bioengineering patents. I think something along the lines of 1 in 5 HHMI fellowships offered each year to medical students goes to a Stanford student.
Again, moral of the story...you'll meet amazing people at any Top 10/20 med school. Penn/Philly are awesome as well.
