Baylor vs ut Southwestern

[UTpremed97]

Baylor vs ut Southwestern

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[UTpremed97]

I was set on Southwestern until yesterday when Baylor called. Can’t decide!

 

[UTpremed97]

Both schools are fantastic. I had to make the same decision and here are some of my pros and cons

UTSW
+ Protected research time
+ longer summer break
+ cheap parking

- preclinical grades matter for AOA
- curriculum not geared for step
- Texas focused match list

Baylor
+ stronger medical school reputation
+ more national match list
+ excellent step 1 scores

- only 1 month M1 summer
- no protected research time
- expensive parking

Bottom line: both schools are great. Consider if you have family in either city, and which one would generally be a better environment. I chose Baylor. Best of luck!

That helps a lot! One more question.
I’m going to visit Baylor now.
Do you live close to Baylor & is it a problem taking the train at crazy hours?
Would you mind if I texted you?

 

[UTpremed97]

That helps a lot! One more question.
I’m going to visit Baylor now.
Do you live close to Baylor & is it a problem taking the train at crazy hours?
Would you mind if I texted you?

 

[UTpremed97]

Do you take the bus to get to class?

 

[Asdfghjkl123456789q]

Hey, just wanted to give you the POV of someone who had to make the same decision and chose UTSW. I was pre-matched to UTSW, accepted to Baylor on 4/22 and only had until 4/30 to make my decision. For me, I leaned towards Baylor after initial interviews, but really grew to prefer UTSW after the second look weekend. I'm not sure if I would have made a different decision if I had been accepted to Baylor earlier and would have been able to attend their second look but I am definitely happy with the decision I've made. I did go through a bit of a crisis (like I'm sure you are) when I was I first accepted to Baylor because I didn't want to make my decision just because I knew a lot more about UTSW at that point. All that being said, here are my personal pros/cons (obviously some people would see some of my cons as pros and vice versa).

Baylor
+TMC is very impressive
+Seems to look more prestige to out of state residencies
+Higher STEP scores (although both very high, so not much of a difference imo)
+Students seemed nice
+Take STEP later
+Smaller class size

-Parking
-Houston weather
-No protected research
-Shorter summer
-No housing set up already
-Compete with McGovern to volunteer at one free clinic

UTSW
+Already met friends, found roommate, have housing set up
+Easy parking
+Very receptive administration
+Updated me more during the admission process
+Felt more wanted here
+Longer summer
+Protected research time
+Multiple free clinics that I could volunteer at every week and have leadership positions in
+Multiple top residency programs
+Better weather

-Slightly lower STEP
-Lower rank (not as important if you want to stay in Texas like I do because still 2nd in TX)
-Likely more accelerated program because semester is shorter (starts later and longer summer)
-Larger class size

Essentially, I felt like the statistics of the two schools were close enough to not be a deciding factor, then I personally felt more comfortable at UTSW due to the reasons above. Hope this helped make your decision that's best for you!

P.S. Honestly, don't care that much about why the rest of us chose what we did. We all have our own personal reasons depending on where we see our careers/lives going. Just go with the school that feels like the right choice to you and don't make a decison based on "what you think you should do".

 

[cheese puff]

I’m sorry to revive an old thread! I wanted to ask about clinical rotation sites at Baylor vs UTSW if that’s ok.

I know Parkland is supposedly a really unique place to train; UTSW is super proud of it and bragged about it several times on interview day. I was wondering if Baylor has anything comparable or is it really unique to UTSW? What makes Parkland such a great place to learn?

 

[Skittsie13]

I’m sorry to revive an old thread! I wanted to ask about clinical rotation sites at Baylor vs UTSW if that’s ok.

I know Parkland is supposedly a really unique place to train; UTSW is super proud of it and bragged about it several times on interview day. I was wondering if Baylor has anything comparable or is it really unique to UTSW? What makes Parkland such a great place to learn?

Parkland is the Dallas County safety net hospital so you see a very wide range of pathology because it serves anyone who can't get care elsewhere. Baylor has Ben Taub, which is the Harris County equivalent. I don't know if you toured it on your interview day, but it's a very old facility -- new Parkland opened in 2015, so it's much more aesthetically pleasing. At UTSW we do the majority of our rotations at Parkland, but you also can/will do some at Children's, the VA, Clements/Zale (our private university hospitals), and some other affiliates like Presbyterian or Methodist. Baylor students I believe primarily rotate at Ben Taub as well as Texas Children's, the VA, and St. Luke's, but a current student there can correct me on that. I would say both schools have a similar variety of clinical rotation sites, both schools have their sites mostly close by (ours are a little more spread out with the VA being about 20 minutes away, but you can avoid going there if you want), but Parkland > Ben Taub IMO from the look of the hospitals and the size (one of the top 10 hospitals for babies delivered every year, for example, and about 300 beds bigger than Ben Taub). That being said, I don't think your clinical experiences will be that different between the two schools.

 

[cheese puff]

@Skittsie13 @Kracin Thank you for the detailed responses, it’s such a huge help! ❤️