Brown or BU

[brucecat]

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Help me out here. What do you people think of these schools?? I posted an earlier thread on Brown vs. Jefferson and the general consensus was Brown, except for Shawty who made a very strong argument for Jefferson, including the very astute point that "Philly is the greatest city in America and Providence is whack." So true. But what about Brown and BU. Any thoughts??

 

[shawty ya'head]

hahaha

thanks for the shout out bruceCat.

i hope you know i stand by my words and my lack of eloquency.

i hope you see you at jefferson my man.

 

[brucecat]

Shawty, you seem like a true Philadelphian.. I don't believe you go to Penn with all these other poindexters.. Are you definitely going to Jeff??

 

[shawty ya'head]

born and raised in philadelphia, i guess you can't get any true-er..

i liked the school a lot, i'm still debating. the downfall is that i've ALWAYS been in philly, i went to high school and undergrad here.

i'd like to get out, but my options are some-what limited.
i've been accepted at jefferson, penn state, maryland and wake

i'm waiting to hear from yale (which i don't think i would want to go to anyway) and tufts.

i'm thinking you're down to brown and BU?

 

[brucecat]

yeah, i'm down to BU, Brown and Jeff... i actually thought i would do better in this process, but i didn't, so oh well, f@#$ it. it would be so much easier to stay in Philly, and i really dig jeff, but I also think this would be a good time to get out of town. i can always come back for residency, but it's going to be tough to leave man. i love philly.. good luck though; maybe i'll see you at jeff.. i'll probably go to that 2nd look thing either way.

 

[lightnk102]

why not jefferson and BU? Those are the two I'm trying to choose between. Both are in cities, whereas Brown is in Providence. What made you eliminate jefferson?

 

[lightnk102]

yeah, i'm down to BU, Brown and Jeff... i actually thought i would do better in this process, but i didn't, so oh well, f@#$ it. it would be so much easier to stay in Philly, and i really dig jeff, but I also think this would be a good time to get out of town. i can always come back for residency, but it's going to be tough to leave man. i love philly.. good luck though; maybe i'll see you at jeff.. i'll probably go to that 2nd look thing either way.

something to keep in mind. my friend at penn med told me that if i want to end up back in philadelphia for residency, i should go to jefferson. apparently, there's a very strong regional bias for matching, largely because they're likely to rank you higher since you're more likely to go if you're already in the area (because let's face it - moving is a pain). i went to undergrad in Philadelphia (and hs in the Philadelphia 'burbs), so I'm torn like you are about going somewhere different.

What's interesting is that I never really explored Center City when I was an undergrad here. And now that I'm getting a better look at it - I'm thinking I might like Philadelphia as a city more than Boston (very stodgy). What I don't liek about Jefferson is that its an isolated medical school. BU has a law school, an undergraduate, a business school, etc. Might be easier to meet people outside of your class that way. Good things about Philadelphia is that you'll have more of support system here if your family is nearby. Then again - if you have a lot of corporate friends like I do, you'll be more likely to see your friends in Boston since it's much more of an academic center.

Let me know what your thoughts are, as it may help me in my own decision process 🙂

 

[brucecat]

actually, i would say that BU is more isolated than Jeff. BU med isn't on the undergraduate campus so the only students around are really medical sciences people.. and jeff is in a more vibrant/busy part of the city than BU, so i wouldn't really be worried about meeting people--plus the class @ jeff is rather large. for me personally, if it was between BU and Jeff, I'd go to Jeff but only because it would be much easier. I think they're very similar schools, and Boston and philly are very similar, so for me the hassle of moving isn't worth it (plus my fiancee is a lawyer, so she would have to retake the bar and get a new job). However, I felt brown was a different type of school and environment, and providence is a different type of city, so it may be worth the move for a change in pace and lifestyle...

 

[shawty ya'head]

to us 3 who have been posting on this thread -

we all roam around the same campus, kind of weird huh. yet we're strangers on SDN.

ligntk, we're in the same building. its a trip.

 

[lightnk102]

to us 3 who have been posting on this thread -

we all roam around the same campus, kind of weird huh. yet we're strangers on SDN.

ligntk, we're in the same building. its a trip.

now i'm peeping out the window constantly. how do you know we're in the same building?

 

[shawty ya'head]

cause we're both engineers at penn.
towne, moore, pender...where are you? im watching....

 

[brucecat]

strange indeed shawty.. i'm at HUP but i'm on the 8th floor so I can see both of you right now.. creepy huh?? either of you in my classes? i'm only taking 2--orgo lab and painting 1... i know, it's probably a much tougher schedule than you slacker engineers.

 

[lightnk102]

I'm actually Penn alum (CO' 2001) 🙂 . So whereas I did used to live in Towne, I (thankfully) no longer do. I am still on campus though, as I work at CHOP (Abramson) at the moment.

Incidentally, I also did BU's SMP program (so I've taken half the first-year med classes at BU Med already). What I meant earlier about meeting more people in Boston was more a consequence of Boston being more of a college town. Boston's schools tend to have more interaction with each other (example: tufts med, bu med, and harvard med have social mixers with each other). Then there's all of Harvard's grad schools (public policy, law, business school, school of education), all the MIT grad programs, etc etc. etc. Everyone studies in the same places (Prudential Barnes&Noble, Boston Public Library, etc.) and I met a lot of grad students from other schools just by being around town. Granted, my experience with philadelphia is more limited, but i haven't seen the same level of interaction between Philadelphia schools here. They seem to operate much more independently of each other, and the students tend to stay on their own respective campuses.

I see Jefferson's large class as a positive thing - but I'm also worried about the rotations aspect of it. Will having a larger class mean more students per rotation? Does this translate to less personalized attention, and having to "wait your turn" to see/do a procedure?

edit: sorry for hijacking the thread.

In regards to Brown vs. BU, I'd probably go with BU, just due to its urban location. Most people I know at Brown got tired of Providence pretty quickly, especially if you're accustomed to a city environment. Of course, if you're going to have a car at your disposal, it may not be as much of a problem. On the flipside, Brown does have some interesting programs - like the space medicine program. Its match list is pretty impressive as well. Considering that BU and Jefferson are pretty much the same school (except in different cities), if you'd go to Brown over Jefferson, you'll probably want to go to Brown also over BU.