Case Western vs. Cincinnati

[Shine Dalgarno]

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[mariagefreres]

cincinnati... 125k cheaper + support + your learning style
the cons are way too small to choose case western even if it's ranked higher imo. as long as you do well, you'll get into a good residency.

if you really like case, try to find a way to negotiate the financial aid if they gave you any...maybe you can lower the cost

 

[peridotthecat]

oh hey, I'm making this same decision rn!

 

[Shine Dalgarno]

oh hey, I'm making this same decision rn!

Congrats! Let me know which one you choose.

 

[deev04]

Cincinnati. 125k (+interest) is a lot of money and 300k is getting up into the range where your debt burden might weigh heavily on decisions regarding specialty, where you live, when to have kids, QOL, etc., and that's no fun.

The specialties you listed (derm, optho, urology) are some of the most competitive specialties. No matter the school you will need great step scores, grades, LORs and research to match. The CW name will not save you from low steps/grades. CW has better research, but Cinci has all the research opps that you need. Research years are becoming increasingly common (sometimes necessary) to match into these specialties and these years can be done at any institution in the county. You will also have to do multiple sub-Is/away rotations, so you will not necessarily be limited by Cinci's relatively weaker home programs since you can just get great letters from programs of interest.

CW name will probably carry more weight for top academic residencies, if all else is equal. If academic medicine is your goal this might be something to consider. But, top tier academia is extremely competitive and there are no guarantees (unless maybe you're at HMS/UCSF/JHU/etc) even coming from CW. Doing well at Cinci can get you into a nice academic residency and a match in any specialty. If top tier academic medicine/research is not your long term goal, I don't know that risking $125k for the slightly higher chance at top tier academia is worth it. Prestige matters significantly less outside of the very top rung of academia.

You also might fall in love with peds/IM/FM and be glad you don't have such a high debt burden.

 

[shna2326]

Haha I'm actually making the same decision as well! It's tough but I think I am going to choose Case. It is very expensive so that's definitely on my mind, but I think it's the better school for me. I think I'm well-suited for the IQ learning style and like that there's so much free time to study on our own. I think the protected research time is a huge plus for me, since I am thinking about doing ortho or another surgical subspecialty and don't want to take a research year since I have already taken a gap year and don't want to take any more time off. I'm also considering academic medicine, so I think the prestige of Case is worth the additional cost personally. (Also I'd be out of state at Cinci the first year, so the difference in cost isn't quite as high).

However, if I were you, Cincinnati would be a much stronger draw. I think it's a huge plus that you can be closer to family and have that support. I think both are great schools and you'll be fine either way. I love both programs, and it's a hard decision for me as well!

 

[peridotthecat]

Haha I'm actually making the same decision as well! It's tough but I think I am going to choose Case. It is very expensive so that's definitely on my mind, but I think it's the better school for me. I think I'm well-suited for the IQ learning style and like that there's so much free time to study on our own. I think the protected research time is a huge plus for me, since I am thinking about doing ortho or another surgical subspecialty and don't want to take a research year since I have already taken a gap year and don't want to take any more time off. I'm also considering academic medicine, so I think the prestige of Case is worth the additional cost personally. (Also I'd be out of state at Cinci the first year, so the difference in cost isn't quite as high).

However, if I were you, Cincinnati would be a much stronger draw. I think it's a huge plus that you can be closer to family and have that support. I think both are great schools and you'll be fine either way. I love both programs, and it's a hard decision for me as well!

I'm in a similar boat. I'm maybe interested in something like uro and in academic medicine, but I don't know how much to factor in the cost. Case, why so expensive??

 

[Shine Dalgarno]

I'm in a similar boat. I'm maybe interested in something like uro and in academic medicine, but I don't know how much to factor in the cost. Case, why so expensive??

It's such a difficult choice! I have changed my mind so many times already.

 

[Shine Dalgarno]

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[GnomeBeGone]

Cincinnati in a heartbeat--- they're very good about letting students rank their reaches, but making sure they don't fall lower than a UC residency program if they don't match those.

Also, CCHMC and UCCOM are basically affiliated in every way but name, so if you were to take their funding into account UC's rank would jump way up.

There will be those that will be obsessive about their internal rank, but I wouldn't let that deter you. I think it's more important to compare what Case's examination format/in-block grading vs. UC's is--that's what's going to stress you out during preclinical years, not rank.

 

[Shine Dalgarno]

Cincinnati in a heartbeat--- they're very good about letting students rank their reaches, but making sure they don't fall lower than a UC residency program if they don't match those.

Also, CCHMC and UCCOM are basically affiliated in every way but name, so if you were to take their funding into account UC's rank would jump way up.

There will be those that will be obsessive about their internal rank, but I wouldn't let that deter you. I think it's more important to compare what Case's examination format/in-block grading vs. UC's is--that's what's going to stress you out during preclinical years, not rank.

This is really helpful. Thank you!

 

[LizzyM]

@LizzyM @gyngyn @gonnif Would you be willing to give your opinion on if the extra prestige of Case would be worth the extra money if my goal is a competitive specialty? Thank you.

I have zero knowledge of how prestige works in matching competitive specialties.