BU vs Emory [decided!]

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[BritainKittenMittens]

Sounds like BU might be more your scene. Boston (the city) is a research powerhouse, specifically for health sciences and medicine.

Also this is tongue and cheeky but I feel okay with it because you mentioned you have an obsession with HMS, but I've heard that BU is where most Ivy med school rejects end up, so you might feel at home there lol

 

[JohnJacobJingleheimer]

Well, your obsession with HMS would point to you wanting a prestigious name on your resume. Emory gives you that far more so than BU. It’s no HMS, obviously, but just a step down and still a T20. People will still be impressed that you went to Emory. Also, prestige aside, Emory is the better school.

You mention concern over money, so COL should be taken into account here. COL in ATL is far more affordable than Boston… not sure if this is already calculated into your numbers. The Emory name might also help you match into a competitive specialty that can help w paying back those substantial loans. I think the advantage in this regard would be marginal honestly, but would favor Emory if anything.

The only real pro you have for BU is proximity to HMS… would he somewhat silly to based your decision on such a lofty goal imo. Unless BU has far better research in your field of interest, I don’t think they have any real advantage to offer you careerwise. Prestige does matter in academia and Emory is the better name in that regard.

 

[JoyFairy]

Well, your obsession with HMS would point to you wanting a prestigious name on your resume. Emory gives you that far more so than BU. It’s no HMS, obviously, but just a step down and still a T20. People will still be impressed that you went to Emory. Also, prestige aside, Emory is the better school.

You mention concern over money, so COL should be taken into account here. COL in ATL is far more affordable than Boston… not sure if this is already calculated into your numbers. The Emory name might also help you match into a competitive specialty that can help w paying back those substantial loans. I think the advantage in this regard would be marginal honestly, but would favor Emory if anything.

The only real pro you have for BU is proximity to HMS… would he somewhat silly to based your decision on such a lofty goal imo. Unless BU has far better research in your field of interest, I don’t think they have any real advantage to offer you careerwise. Prestige does matter in academia and Emory is the better name in that regard.

I definitely agree with this. It seems like you're more excited about Boston than BU, and Emory does offer significant advantages for an aspiring academic physician (lower COL, existing research connections, and prestige).

There are definitely ways to network in Boston (i.e. summer research, conferences, away rotations, etc.) without being there. However, would you be okay doing distance with your SO?

 

[Banco]

"Honestly, I don't even know if going to medical school is a responsible decision."

Bruh yeah that's the first thing that crossed my mind lol. Those are steep prices my goodness.

That being said don't pick BU just because it's physically closer to HMS, come on now. If your SO is moving to Boston that makes it easier.

 

[voxveritatisetlucis]

If you want to pay off those loans, I would strongly advise against RadOnc…just head over to read their sub forum sometime. Seems like the golden days of radonc (once up there with any surgical sub speciality in terms of competitiveness) are over. I think radonc had the highest percentage unfilled this year

To your other point, a 400k private student loan is a financial albatross on a professor’s salary. Why not try getting a faculty position after a postdoc?

 

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[Goro]

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A q for the adcoms (@Faha @Goro @Fencer @LizzyM): are there any success stories from docs who went into private practice to pay off loans and transitioned back into academia? I know it's a common thing in business/law schools, but it's almost unheard of in Bio/Bio-adjacent fields. My end goal is either to run a computational medicine lab (like Gerber@HMS) or be in some lead data scientist role at a med school (like Payne@WUSM).

Why would a medical school give a faculty job to somebody who's coming out of Private Practice with no grants, no Publications, and no training in the specialty that the job requires???

Most of my experience as to what you're asking is in the opposite way around: I've seen a number of people who were running a lab and go back into private practice.

 

[srirachamayonnaise]

You can easily go back to academic medicine after private practice. In terms of prestige, Emory (right outside of t20)is a tad bit more than BU.

 

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[Goro]

I've seen people with nominal affiliations (like a $0 salary adjunct position) for Co-PI on grants & research continuity, although they were non-MD tenure-track & poached by industry. I've also seen MD's at nearby academic institutions with labs in our department. It doesn't seem that far off for me to affiliate & pursue research while in private practice and later apply for a moonshot K99 or BWF-CASI or some translational medicine grant that would facilitate going back into academia.

Yes, you can find MDs running research labs, that's not news.

But they didn't just walk off the street from private practice....they had a solid research background.