Brody ECU vs Colorado

[doctorwho1234]

Hi friends! Gotta make a decision this week and it's a tough one.

ECU Brody PROS:

• Cost: tuition is about 25k a year, which is insanely cheap, and much lower cost of living than the Denver area
• Close to family and friends
• Small class size, get to know your peers and more easily connect with professors
• Decent match list for its ranking, though heavily NC and fam med/IM focused (I am interested in an IM specialty or maybe OBGYN, but probably not straight primary care)

ECU Brody CONS:

• Relatively lower ranking (28 in Primary care and 93-123 in Research, according to USNWR). Worried about how this impacts prospects at competitive IM residencies, and how hard I will have to work to stand out on residency apps
• Location: Greenville is meh, small college town vibes with not much going on that I know of, in a more rural part of the state. I can see myself tolerating the location but not loving it
• Graded and not pass/fail

Colorado SOM PROS:

• Higher ranking (6 in Primary care and 27 in Research)- more prestige, connections/opportunities, esp given the more urban area, and easier time with residency apps
• Better location in terms of mix of urban and outdoors stuff, and would be a new adventure for me
• Good match list with matches all across the country
• Very innovative parts of its new curriculum like all LIC rotations, although the new curriculum could be a pro or con

Colorado SOM CONS:

• Cost: MUCH higher tuition, plus higher cost of living in Denver. Tuition is $68k a year. For perspective, the difference in tuition alone between the 2 schools over 4 years is about $180,000. (I don't have any grants or scholarship offers from either school, beyond loans)
• I would know a few people in the area, but Denver is very far from my family and friends, family especially being a big support for me
• New curriculum is very mandatory session heavy, and might have lots of bumps in the road as we all figure it out. Also, see CUSOM complaints on Reddit.

Bottom line: lower ranked but lower cost school VS higher ranked school in a desirable location but much more expensive and further from support system, with iffy curriculum.

I only have a few days to decide, any input or further questions are welcome!!!!

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[MEtoMD]

Where do you want to go to residency and practice medicine in the future? If you want to stay in NC, ECU can get you into great residencies at Carolinas medical center, UNC, Wake etc. If you don’t want to practice in NC or are unsure go to Colorado

 

[vitafusion]

Based on your specialty interests, I would go to ECU. The grading thing is stressful but so is having to pay back an additional 180k in loans plus interest.