BU vs Case vs UCSD

[sunnysideup220]

Hello everyone!

I never thought I would be in the position of making one of these posts- truly ecstatic to have gotten into three schools that I love. Now for the hard but wonderful task of picking one!

As an introduction, I currently live in CA but do not want to stay here forever. Nothing against CA, I'm just an east coaster at heart and want to end up there for residency 🙂 I think I want to do academics/ education, and am somewhat interested in peds as a specialty.

Boston University
PROS
- Lots of connections/ friends in Boston
- Boston is my favorite city and I would LOVE to live there again
- BUMC is a wonderful hospital, I really vibe with w/ their mission
- Opportunity to do research at Boston Children's
- Crazy impressive match list
- Prosections in anatomy
- Medical Student Residence seems nice and would make cross-country move to Boston easy
- Boston has a lot of mental health resources

CONS:
- P/F curriculum but with internal ranking for AOA (would prefer true P/F for the sake of my mental health)
- I didn't feel like I "fit" with the students here.
- The administration seems pretty hands-off and this was confirmed by students I talked to
- Though affiliated with BMC, students said you couldn't do all rotations there. Students have limited control over rotation placements.
- I just felt like the students here seemed really stressed, but maybe it was an off day
- Boston as a city is oversaturated with medical students, meaning more stress/ competition?
- COST! I have a small scholarship to offset some of the cost, but would still probably be the most expensive school of all three.

Case Western
PROS:
- I really like the PBL curriculum and think I would do well in it
- Exams at end of every block mean lots of time between exams and less stress
- True P/F, no internal rankings
- Students here seemed really happy, stress-free, and all really loved Case
- Administration very receptive to student feedback
- Outstanding variety of clinical sites, students said you basically had your pick of where to do rotations.
- Lots of research opportunities, esp through Cleveland Clinic
- Got along well with students here, felt like I would really fit in and felt a strong sense of community
- School is opening gorgeous new Health Sciences building this year
- Cost of living in Cleveland is great
- Good reputation & match list, would probably be easy to match back to east coast

CONS
- School is rolling out new Hololens anatomy curriculum this year
- Cleveland is a decent city but it's no Boston
- Cost: probably less expensive that BU but still much more that UCSD
- Cleveland as a city has less mental health resources than Boston or San Diego

UCSD
PROS:
- Weather!
- Cheapest
- In terms of people, the other applicants I interviewed with were my favorite of the whole interview season
- Systems-based curriculum with a sprinkle of PBL
- Super cool Free Clinic
- True P/F with no AOA (no internal rankings)
- Cheap grad housing
- I already have a few friends here
- Wouldn't have to do a cross-country move
- Ability to surf
- San Diego has a lot of mental health resources
- Attractive people 😉

CONS
- No seasons 🙁
- Students were nice but many admitted that they don't hang out with classmates much outside of school.
- Exams ~every 2 weeks, usually on a Monday so students don't get any time off
- Might be harder for me to get back to east coast from CA?
- Full dissections in anatomy

For me I think the decision is really between Case and UCSD. I think I would be happiest at Case but UCSD would be perfectly fine and cheaper. Also, it just so happens that UCSD and Case's second look weekends are over the same days, so I kind of have to choose just one to go back to.

Tl;dr: My heart wants Case but my brain says UCSD. What do?

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[Gilakend]

Cost difference between UCSD and Case?

 

[cassyfrog]

Congrats on your acceptances! I interviewed at both Case and UCSD so hopefully, I can give some helpful insight. IIRC, lectures aren't recorded at Case and since the curriculum is PBL heavy, there's more mandatory class time. In theory PBL is a great way for some people to learn, but I preferred a more traditional lecture format. The students did seem happy but I was worried about living in Cleveland.

I also really liked UCSD when I interviewed. I have a few close friends there and haven't heard anything about students not hanging out with classmates much outside of school. If anything, it seems that UCSD students really embody the whole "work hard, play hard" mantra. Exams are more or less every 2 weeks but the school has a policy where midterms for a block are scheduled on Fridays, while final exams are usually on Mondays. In my opinion, it's much better to have tests more frequently within a block rather than one big test at the end of the block, since blocks can be up to 4 weeks long, and it's hard to have to study all 4 weeks worth of material for the block exam.

 

[sunnysideup220]

Cost difference between UCSD and Case?

Total COA at Case is $87,080 while UCSD is $61,132 (in-state).

 

[sunnysideup220]

Congrats on your acceptances! I interviewed at both Case and UCSD so hopefully, I can give some helpful insight. IIRC, lectures aren't recorded at Case and since the curriculum is PBL heavy, there's more mandatory class time. In theory PBL is a great way for some people to learn, but I preferred a more traditional lecture format. The students did seem happy but I was worried about living in Cleveland.

I also really liked UCSD when I interviewed. I have a few close friends there and haven't heard anything about students not hanging out with classmates much outside of school. If anything, it seems that UCSD students really embody the whole "work hard, play hard" mantra. Exams are more or less every 2 weeks but the school has a policy where midterms for a block are scheduled on Fridays, while final exams are usually on Mondays. In my opinion, it's much better to have tests more frequently within a block rather than one big test at the end of the block, since blocks can be up to 4 weeks long, and it's hard to have to study all 4 weeks worth of material for the block exam.

These are great points, thank you! Maybe the friends I happen to know at UCSD are just more of the "anti-social" type. Also you are correct that lectures aren't recorded at Case, and a handful of students I met said they just didn't go and instead studied on their own. The truly mandatory classes are PBL 3-4x a week.

 

[Gilakend]

Total COA at Case is $87,080 while UCSD is $61,132 (in-state).

For about ~100k difference in debt I'd probably go UCSD. However, if you'd really be THAT much happier then Case isn't a bad choice by any means. Hopefully you get some financial aid packages that make your choice easier!

 

[sunnysideup220]

For about ~100k difference in debt I'd probably go UCSD. However, if you'd really be THAT much happier then Case isn't a bad choice by any means. Hopefully you get some financial aid packages that make your choice easier!

Yes this is what I'm hoping as well! If cost wasn't an issue I think I might choose Case, but it's hard to say no to 100k less debt....