Baylor College of Medicine vs. Southwestern

[footballyus]

I just wanted to gauge everyone's opinions and thoughts. Which Texas school would you go to? Baylor is having financial troubles, has a shorter curriculum, and is in the Texas Medical Center. Southwestern has longer days but maybe more research dollars???

Thoughts?

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[torshi]

I just wanted to gauge everyone's opinions and thoughts. Which Texas school would you go to? Baylor is having financial troubles, has a shorter curriculum, and is in the Texas Medical Center. Southwestern has longer days but maybe more research dollars???

Thoughts?

If i had to choose...UTSW,

But, i need to get out of Dallas, and I'm really not fond of Baylor either.

 

[CougarMD]

Moving to School Specific Discussions

 

[texahn]

torshi havey ou applied to medical school and interviewed at baylor or utsw?

 

[NickNaylor]

Both would be great IMO. I'm from Dallas, so for that reason alone I would choose Baylor. I don't think you could go wrong either way though.

 

[footballyus]

anything besides location?

 

[GoSpursGo]

but maybe more research dollars???

To the best of my knowledge, this is not a correct statement. Plus, once you reach an arbitrarily high number of research dollars, it doesn't really matter how much exactly there is at either school; the fact is that the number of research mentors who could take on a medical student researcher far outnumbers the number of medical students interested in research at both schools, so if research is something you want to do, you can.

I really can't sing the praises of the 1.5 year preclinical curriculum enough. If you aren't sure what you want to do, it gives you another 6 months of electives to figure out exactly what you want to do with the rest of your life. If you DO know what you want to do, it gives you another 6 months to take specialized electives within your field of interest and really build a report with people within your field so that you can get good letters of rec. In either case, it gives you the chance to take a couple of months off to really cram for Step 1, and by the time you take it you will have an entire year of clinical rotations, which also helps your Step score. And of course, you wind up with some time that you can take off to go get married, take one last chance to go traveling, go on interviews, etc.

I've tried explaining that the "money problems" are not affecting the medical student education until I've been blue in the face at this point. Please go see what I've said in the Baylor application thread on the topic; if still you don't believe what you've been hearing, I don't think you're going to change your mind now.

The bottom line is that both schools are excellent. While I obviously have my favorite, UTSW is a wonderful school, and really if you get into either school you will receive excellent training.

 

[dekiru]

I recently asked a Baylor graduate who is currently doing a radiology residency in CA about this and he said he'd recommend UTSW.

 

[NickNaylor]

I recently asked a Baylor graduate who is currently doing a radiology residency in CA about this and he said he'd recommend UTSW.

This comment is absolutely meaningless without any context.

 

[XCTF518]

Does UTSW not have an MD only program.. on the AMCAS application it appears that there's only an MD/PhD option..

 

[NickNaylor]

Does UTSW not have an MD only program.. on the AMCAS application it appears that there's only an MD/PhD option..

Nice bump.

 

[TheCatalyst]

The UTSW MD application is done through a system called TMDSAS.

http://www.utsystem.edu/tmdsas/homepage.html

 

[The Dr T]

Bump

 

[jturkel]

Bump

why the bump?

 

[The Dr T]

I want more information on the current situation at both schools. I read the old forums but I want something that is more recent.

I've been accepted to both and I am trying to decide now.

Baylor: love the curriculum, the TMC, the students, the location, top board scores
- worried about not having own teaching hospital, financial situation (yes I know this has been talked of a lot and it doesn't seem to impact the students much, but I still want an update), if they are teaming up with Rice

UTSW: great reputation, Parkland is awesome - making a new hospital, promising future
- worried about the student-body and the reputation they carry, also not a pass fail system.

 

[texasgal87]

I want more information on the current situation at both schools. I read the old forums but I want something that is more recent.

I've been accepted to both and I am trying to decide now.

Baylor: love the curriculum, the TMC, the students, the location, top board scores
- worried about not having own teaching hospital, financial situation (yes I know this has been talked of a lot and it doesn't seem to impact the students much, but I still want an update), if they are teaming up with Rice

UTSW: great reputation, Parkland is awesome - making a new hospital, promising future
- worried about the student-body and the reputation they carry, also not a pass fail system.

Baylor and Rice will only "team up" in research collaborations for the time being. They were planning on teaming up as a medical school but that plan did not work out. The president of Rice had a lengthy explanation that he sent out to Rice about it

 

[Coug42]

- worried about not having own teaching hospital, financial situation (yes I know this has been talked of a lot and it doesn't seem to impact the students much, but I still want an update), if they are teaming up with Rice

Okay, this is really getting ridiculous. No offense, but if you actually interviewed and were accepted here (BCM) and you still think that Baylor does not have it's own teaching hospital, then maybe you should lean more towards UTSW.

Ben Taub General Hospital is BCM's main teaching Hospital. It is a Harris County Hospital, just like Parkland is a County Hospital and UTSW's main teaching hospital. One of the extra perks is that Baylor students also rotate heavily through St. Lukes, TCH, Methodist, and can do some elective rotations at MDACC and other places in the med center. The schedule is awesome here (4 hours of lecture/day including labs), and the resources are great. Just for Example, I'm a first year and I regularly work/hang out with residents at BTGH in the specialty that I most see myself going into. I've gotten lots of hands on experience and even had the opportunity to scrub-in and close (suture) up a couple of times in pretty cool surgeries. I'm also involved in research in that same specialty field with BCM faculty at Methodist hospital. The resources seem to be endless here.

As far as financial problems, Dr. Klotman the new CEO and President has been doing an excellent job since he took over this last September. The financial problems are not an issue at all as far as medical students go, and Baylor actually has a very favorable financial status as of recent.
Link:
http://www.bcm.edu/news/item.cfm?newsID=3967

All in all, financial problems and the whole Methodist stuff seems to not be well understood by many outside of BCM. In my mind they should play a very small role in your ultimate decision on choosing to come to BCM. I chose BCM because I wanted to start Rotations halfway through my MS2 year and I also wanted more time to prepare to take the Step 1. Currently I'm planning to take it in January of my MS3 year, when I have finished most if not all of my core rotations and have more to the Basic Sciences and their application to medicine cemented in my brain. I have absolutely no regrets about choosing BCM. I cannot compare because I have no experience with UTSW other than my interview experience, but I also have some good friends who attend Southwestern and seem to like it. Congratulations and good luck with your decision.