Hello!
I'm very lucky to have been accepted at these three great schools and I can't seem to make up my mind. Any advice would be much appreciated! I'm currently a senior at BU, grew up in NYC (originally from Brooklyn!), and have a number of scattered interests including biomedical research, public health, and emergency medicine.
Having been in Boston for the past 4 years I feel very comfortable here and all my friends (some are students at BUSM) and a few professional connections (at BUSM and around Boston) are here too. Boston is a really great city to live in as a student, has decent public transportation, and has all the other amenities a big city can offer! I really like BUSM because of the strong research (they went up in the US news ranking recently!), great public health school, and reputation for emergency medicine. I also thought the faculty were really passionate and supportive. Being affiliated with an undergrad institution is also a plus for me personally. BU is probably my most expensive option (although not by much), and I have started feeling like Boston was getting a little too familiar and safe for me. I would enjoy moving elsewhere, but going either back home where I grew up or to a city as small as Providence might not be the fix I'm looking for.
When I went to my interview day at AMS I was blown away. The faculty were incredibly friendly and engaging, and I clicked with many of the students there. I could tell that the community was really close knit and that the faculty really took care of the students. The new facilities they have were so nice! The school has been described by multiple people as "touchy feely" and it seems to me like they are best known for social medicine as opposed to biomedical research (although they are ranked pretty highly in research!) I know their emergency medicine program is also pretty strong, and they have their own school of public health. The school is pretty new, though, and I'm not sure how important it is to get public health training at a more reputable institution. My student interviewer told me that he's taking a year off to do the MPH program at Harvard rather than at Brown. Their match list is also the strongest overall in my opinion. And of the three it's the only one that offers an elective rotation in the third year (how important is this??) What worries me about going to AMS is that I would be separating myself from my friends and family and I'd have to "start over" building a social support system.
Having also lived in New York my whole life before coming to Boston, I already have a strong affinity for the NYC culture and have a strong support network (my entire family) and several professional connections. I see myself having a career here, and looking at Einstein's match list I could tell they place REALLY well in NY hospitals. Einstein is great because it also has a strong background in research and is probably my cheapest option (lowest base tuition plus 4 years of cheap on campus housing is soooo nice!) I've also heard stories of students having a really easy time getting funding for global health trips and research projects! And although Einstein doesn't have a school of public health or even offer an MPH, I imagine it would be easy to tap into the resources at other institutions in the area such as Columbia (can someone confirm this please?) One thing I'm concerned about with Einstein is that when I visited I did not get the feel that the advising was particularly strong. Maybe it was because they did not have a formal info session, but I didn't actually get to meet any faculty members besides my interviewer. And they don't have a second look day.
Sorry for the rant. Thanks for the help!
I'm very lucky to have been accepted at these three great schools and I can't seem to make up my mind. Any advice would be much appreciated! I'm currently a senior at BU, grew up in NYC (originally from Brooklyn!), and have a number of scattered interests including biomedical research, public health, and emergency medicine.
Having been in Boston for the past 4 years I feel very comfortable here and all my friends (some are students at BUSM) and a few professional connections (at BUSM and around Boston) are here too. Boston is a really great city to live in as a student, has decent public transportation, and has all the other amenities a big city can offer! I really like BUSM because of the strong research (they went up in the US news ranking recently!), great public health school, and reputation for emergency medicine. I also thought the faculty were really passionate and supportive. Being affiliated with an undergrad institution is also a plus for me personally. BU is probably my most expensive option (although not by much), and I have started feeling like Boston was getting a little too familiar and safe for me. I would enjoy moving elsewhere, but going either back home where I grew up or to a city as small as Providence might not be the fix I'm looking for.
When I went to my interview day at AMS I was blown away. The faculty were incredibly friendly and engaging, and I clicked with many of the students there. I could tell that the community was really close knit and that the faculty really took care of the students. The new facilities they have were so nice! The school has been described by multiple people as "touchy feely" and it seems to me like they are best known for social medicine as opposed to biomedical research (although they are ranked pretty highly in research!) I know their emergency medicine program is also pretty strong, and they have their own school of public health. The school is pretty new, though, and I'm not sure how important it is to get public health training at a more reputable institution. My student interviewer told me that he's taking a year off to do the MPH program at Harvard rather than at Brown. Their match list is also the strongest overall in my opinion. And of the three it's the only one that offers an elective rotation in the third year (how important is this??) What worries me about going to AMS is that I would be separating myself from my friends and family and I'd have to "start over" building a social support system.
Having also lived in New York my whole life before coming to Boston, I already have a strong affinity for the NYC culture and have a strong support network (my entire family) and several professional connections. I see myself having a career here, and looking at Einstein's match list I could tell they place REALLY well in NY hospitals. Einstein is great because it also has a strong background in research and is probably my cheapest option (lowest base tuition plus 4 years of cheap on campus housing is soooo nice!) I've also heard stories of students having a really easy time getting funding for global health trips and research projects! And although Einstein doesn't have a school of public health or even offer an MPH, I imagine it would be easy to tap into the resources at other institutions in the area such as Columbia (can someone confirm this please?) One thing I'm concerned about with Einstein is that when I visited I did not get the feel that the advising was particularly strong. Maybe it was because they did not have a formal info session, but I didn't actually get to meet any faculty members besides my interviewer. And they don't have a second look day.
Sorry for the rant. Thanks for the help!
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