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- Jun 18, 2015
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PLEASE DO NOT QUOTE
Very grateful to be accepted to both schools but struggling to choose between them. BU was originally much more expensive, but I was offered enough financial aid to make total COA essentially even. Both would be far from home (California) and my eventual goal would be to match back along the West Coast. Interested in anesthesiology or PM&R right now but this is subject to change. Any opinions would be greatly appreciated!
Boston University (COA ~270K)
Pros
- True P/F pre-clinical with no internal ranking
- Smaller quizzes every Friday instead of final exams. Can retake failed quizzes without it showing up on transcript
- Lots of emphasis on working with diverse and underserved populations at BMC which I like
- Boston seems like an fun city to spend your 20's with no need for a car during MS1/MS2 years.
- Access to lots of exciting opportunities with Boston being a center of medical/pharmaceutical/biotech research
- Potential for 3rd year clerkships at Kaiser San Jose / Santa Clara, which might help with matching back to CA.
- Will be the first cohort on a 1.5-yr systems-based curriculum. Not stoked to be the guinea pig year
- No home PM&R program and their gas program seems IMG heavy? Unsure how this reflects quality of rotations
- Generally older facilities. Students also seem somewhat less happy compared to OSU
Pros
- Higher overall PD ranking this year (#26 vs #40). Not sure how much weight to put into this
- Stronger home rotations in some specialties I MIGHT be interested in (PM&R, gas, ortho)
- More emphasis on mentored research opportunities
- Useful electives such as ultrasound education incorporated into the curriculum
- Higher total matches into competitive specialties (ortho, derm, etc.), but this may be partly due to larger class size
- Access to all the facilities of the massive undergrad campus. Students here generally seem chiller and more enthusiastic?
- Not true P/F (internally ranked by quartiles)
- Strict guidelines to qualify for IS tuition (no financial contribution from family, limited travel back home)
- Not quite as excited about living in Columbus (and would def need a car). Also seems to match more heavily in the Midwest
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