Baylor College of Medicine vs UT Southwestern

[TheGranolaKing]

Hey guys! I wanted to go ahead and make a BCM vs UTSW post for this cycle as I know that things can change year-to-year and I also have some specific goals/factors that are affecting my decision. I’ve pre-matched at UTSW already and I’m still waiting to hear back from BCM post-interview (seems like they’ve sent very few prematches thus far) but will have to rank the schools regardless of if I prematch or not.

About Me:

• I want to maximize chances of matching in a competitive specialty in California/Oregon/Washington/Hawaii. I went to undergrad in CA and also spent six months living on O'ahu–I just love the people/weather/outdoors/food/culture out west. Location >>> prestige for residency.
• Currently thinking ortho but also interested in ENT, derm, ophtho, urology, plastics. I recognize these are very challenging fields to match into, but I want to keep all my doors open assuming I can do well on Step 2. Not sure if this matters but I'm very open to taking a research year away from my home institution if it'll helps my odds (unsure if this would be necessary).
• Don’t really have a strong preference between Houston and Dallas, but will be visiting Houston and touring UTSW in the next few weeks; I'll update this post with my thoughts after.
• Cost of attendance is not a concern whatsoever since both are super cheap. Both schools' curriculums seem nearly identical as well.

Baylor

• Pros
  
  • TMC is very impressive and the location seems nice (proximity to parks, Rice, Rice Village)
  • Recent match lists seem better in my goal specialties, especially for matching outside of TX
  • AOA criteria doesn’t include preclinical grades (and BCM is pass/fail for preclinicals)
  • My significant other (WA resident, will be a strong applicant) will be applying soon and Baylor seems more OOS-friendly than UTSW
  • I already have a handful of MS1 and MS2 friends at Baylor who seem to enjoy it
  • Honestly don’t mind taking public transportation, would love to not have to drive a lot
• Cons
  
  • Seems like BCM has to share TMC with a bunch of different schools/programs and has lost some of its affiliations in recent years
  • In-house residencies for competitive specialties don’t seem to be amazing → not as well-regarded of faculty as UTSW?
  • I feel like this school has a vibe that you’d be ‘lucky to get accepted’. Have heard others mention this as well
  • Traffic is bad and some rotations are pretty far away, weather isn’t great either
  • If I don’t pre-match at Baylor, it’ll be tough to rank Baylor above UTSW since UTSW is a known entity to me and already checks most of my boxes. The fact that BCM hasn’t had any events/info sessions/etc for interviewed students is frustrating given the small number of prematches sent this cycle so far

UT Southwestern (prematch)

• Pros
  
  • In-house residencies are fantastic for surgical subspecialties
  • All of the admitted students, current students, and faculty that I’ve met seem SO nice and welcoming; I feel like I would really enjoy the vibe here
  • Parkland and Clements are both beautiful and seem like fantastic clinical training sites
  • Weather & traffic are better than Houston
  • It seems like this school is actively improving, while Baylor is stagnating/declining
  • Communication throughout the cycle (and especially after acceptance) has been amazing
  • Facilities and hospitals seem nicer than Baylor's at first glance
• Cons
  
  • AOA criteria includes preclinical grades
  • A bit more competitive for OOS applicants, no nearby schools
  • Match list is a little weaker than Baylor’s
  • Historically has seemed to always fall second to Baylor: of the people I know that got into both, all but one chose BCM over UTSW
  • Have heard that you will have to work harder here than at BCM

My specific questions/concerns:

1. Does Baylor or UTSW have a stronger reputation outside of Texas? How significant is the difference (if any exists)?
2. How annoying would preclinical grades factoring into AOA be? How crucial is AOA for competitive specialties if coming from a well-regarded med school?
3. Are there any other factors that I should be considering as part of my decision which I’m leaving out?

Thanks in advance! Would especially love to hear from the TX experts like @wysdoc and @Kracin

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[agdoc22]

Congrats on your acceptance at UTSW! I recently prematched at both UTSW and Baylor and have ended up choosing UTSW (now you can say you know two people that chose UTSW).

For me, I know I want to pursue a surgical subspecialty as well. Getting AOA seems fairly important, and I actually liked that grades were factored into that decision. UTSW lays out all their criteria online for AOA selection, and I felt like Baylor's was much more nebulous and subjective which I tend to not be a fan of.

Another important thing for me was academic time not related to classes. I loved that UTSW gives TONS of time to do research, global health, or any other academic pursuit not directly related to the classroom without having to take a year off of school. I may end up still taking a year off to do research, but I like that I won't have to if I choose not to.

I thought a lot about what you said about OOS matches as well. I've lived my whole life in Texas and would like to get out for a few years during residency to see another part of the country. I think that since UTSW is a state school and most students are from Texas that go there, most are going to want to match back in Texas. Although Baylor is obviously still in Texas, there is a higher population of OOS students that attend since it is the cheapest private school in the country. What I've heard from most students is that residency placement is very individual. If you seek out the opportunities and mentorship, you'll have a good shot at matching where you want. For instance, UTSW had someone match at UCSF for neurosurgery this past year.

One downside about UTSW I found was the enormous class size. I'd prefer to get to know everyone in the class, but with ~250 it seems that probably won't be possible.

You definitely can't go wrong with either choice! I hope you get into Baylor and can make the best decision for yourself.

 

[throwaway01564]

I also prematched into both, UTSW with a CoA scholarship and Baylor with a full tuition scholarship. Of the two, I also prefer UTSW for a few reasons.

• I'm interested in derm or uro and UTSW has better programs for both.
• Baylor is stingier with aid and doesn't seem likely they will match, so cost goes to UTSW. I talked to someone who had the same choice a few years back and they seem to somewhat regret taking the debt for Baylor.
• I actually like bigger class sizes since I think it'd be easier to find your "group" of people if there's more to choose from.

Overall, if I stay in TX instead of going OOS, I personally will probably choose UTSW.

 

[TheGranolaKing]

Update: 99% sure I'll be ranking UTSW over Baylor! Will be attending barring somehow getting scholarship money from Baylor (if I prematch) or my OOS acceptance. If anyone else is in a similar position, here's my reasoning:

1. UTSW has significantly more protected time for research and its residency programs are stronger than BCM in basically every field I'm interested in. These seem to be two of the most important factors (research, strong recommendations) for matching into competitive specialties, especially now that Step 1 is P/F.

2. Dallas > Houston imo. Houston weather is a bit worse (the humidity is brutal) and my family is from the DFW area. I also really like UTSW's proximity to love field, uptown, deep ellum, and white rock lake.

3. After thinking about it more, I agree with @agdoc22 that UTSW's clear definition of AOA criteria is preferable to how cryptic BCM's seems to be.

4. While TMC is generally considered BCM's biggest pro, I do think that the combo of Parkland + Children's + Clements is still amazing and previous match lists make it clear that both schools can absolutely get me where I want to go: in the last few years UTSW has matched UW plastics, UCSF neurosurg, harbor-UCLA ortho, OHSU derm, stanford ortho, etc so clearly UTSW will not hold me back from making my west coast return happen.

Thanks for the responses everyone!