Brown vs UC Davis

[fly_youfools]

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I'd pretty much given up any hope of a California school when every UC I interviewed at waitlisted me...and had my heart set on Brown but I received some unexpectedly positive news today and now I'm no longer so sure. I'm leaning towards primary care but do want to keep my options open in case I change my mind. I don't think there is a wrong choice to make and feel very fortunate I even have this dilemma to begin with...they are both amazing schools. Thoughts?

Brown

Pros
-close to a full-ride financial aid package; admittedly this is a huge selling point for me
-great match list (seems very New England focused but a good portion matches into California)
-true P/F preclinical year grading
-1.5 year preclinical curriculum
-a sweet master's program with primary care focus that can be completed in four years
-really friendly community; I went to Second Look and loved it
-exams on Fridays so students get weekends off (important if I wanted to hop back home to visit family)
-novelty of living in a new place, Providence seems like a really cool town; and there's Boston/NYC if I wanted something bigger city
-Ivy League prestige bonus I guess; though Brown is solidly a mid-tier school at best

Cons
-New England weather
-it's far from family and support system
-no university hospital (they are connected with all of the state's hospitals considering they're the only medical school in the state so this may not be an issue)
-bringing a car would be difficult and expensive; with how the clinical sites are spread out, a car would be necessary though

UC Davis

Pros
-true P/F preclinical year grading
-another friendly, laidback community
-top-ranked school for primary care
-in California, so I'd have a pretty good chance of matching into California for residency
-they have their own hospital right across the street so being without a car is doable
-I can drive my car and have it with me on campus easily

Cons
-financial aid is a mystery (I only have 48 hours to decide and won't receive my financial aid package until after I've accepted)
-not close enough; it's a California school but it's still far from family and support network in SoCal
-Sacramento...no matter how Davis tries to spin it is not a particularly exciting town to be in
-weaker(?) match list: I'm not sure if this is because Davis has such a strong emphasis on primary care

 

[byunprime2]

It's bonkers to me that they want you to decide without giving you financial aid info first. How can they expect you to turn down an almost-full-ride scholarship to another school? Because you're leaning towards primary care, I feel as though it would be unwise for you to turn down the scholarship offer from Brown. Are you interested in working with Spanish-speaking populations? Is coming back to California the long-term goal here? Along with being closer to family, these are factors that could potentially tip you over to UCD, but it's hard to estimate whether these will be worth the incurred financial burden...

 

[alexlex143]

Contact Dr. Sousa/admissions and let them know you need more time. That's what I did and I had enough to time to reach out to my other school to see if they could match finaid offers.

 

[trobinsonmd]

I'm also from SoCal and I was in a similar situation, deciding between a few UC schools and NYC schools... ended up picking NYU... When I was an MS1 three years ago, I thought I would visit home a lot (and I certainly had the time to, lots of 3 day weekends, even some 4 day weekends), but between MS1-3 (excluding summers), I was only able to visit 3 times over that 3 year span because of how tiring the trek is. wrt Brown, you're either flying out of Boston, or you're going to have to take a flight with a layover... either way, traveling back to the west coast is an 8 or 9 hour operation... you'll get tired of flying back and forth real quick... I mostly exclusively fly business class in jetblue with the lie flat seats, and even then, I would be exhausted...

What to do with this information: either pick Davis (as it's only an hour away from SoCal and flights are $49)... or go to Brown but accept the fact that you're likely not going to be able to visit back home a lot... just my $.02 based on my experiences

 

[Bryant088]

Brown is not "solidly a mid-tier school at best." It is way better than UC Davis. Considering the full-ride as well, this is an easy choice, unless you're absolutely dying to stay in CA.

 

[mj2760066]

I also agree with the above poster! Brown is true unranked P/F, has an amazing atmosphere and a match list that can go toe to toe with any other top 20 school, plus a full-ride is just amazing.

 

[fly_youfools]

Thank you all for the good feedback!