Hey all,
SDN has been an invaluable resource throughout my pre-med journey and especially in my application cycle and thought I would call upon your guys' expertise one more time. At this point in the cycle, I am pretty much done.
I got several acceptances and have narrowed it down to two schools but am not sure what to prioritize in terms of selection factors. One of the schools is an unranked school in Texas where I got in as an OOS applicant and with scholarship that would bring the total cost of attendance for all four years to just under $100k.
The second school is my decently ranked, big, instate university. It has better residency placements, is closer to home, and on the whole I liked the curriculum a bit better than the TX school. The COA for all four years would be about $25ok. I also have four siblings either attending the same school for grad/undergrad or living in the same city, so that is definitely a draw for my instate school. I ultimately also want to practice in state relatively close to home, so that's another notch for the instate school.
Both schools were incredibly welcoming, had an awesome community feel, and I could see myself being happy at either institution.
I guess what I'm asking is what factors are you guys using to determine which school to attend if picking between multiples? Some people say that med school is med school, where you go doesn't matter a whole lot. You also hear that there is a regional bias (i.e. if you are from an area, attend school in the area, and do your rotations at the hospitals in the area, you have a better chance of getting a residency placement there). The instate school feels like a better fit, but when looking at the difference in debt load of $150k, I'm having a hard time choosing.
So what factors are all of you using in picking a school?
SDN has been an invaluable resource throughout my pre-med journey and especially in my application cycle and thought I would call upon your guys' expertise one more time. At this point in the cycle, I am pretty much done.
I got several acceptances and have narrowed it down to two schools but am not sure what to prioritize in terms of selection factors. One of the schools is an unranked school in Texas where I got in as an OOS applicant and with scholarship that would bring the total cost of attendance for all four years to just under $100k.
The second school is my decently ranked, big, instate university. It has better residency placements, is closer to home, and on the whole I liked the curriculum a bit better than the TX school. The COA for all four years would be about $25ok. I also have four siblings either attending the same school for grad/undergrad or living in the same city, so that is definitely a draw for my instate school. I ultimately also want to practice in state relatively close to home, so that's another notch for the instate school.
Both schools were incredibly welcoming, had an awesome community feel, and I could see myself being happy at either institution.
I guess what I'm asking is what factors are you guys using to determine which school to attend if picking between multiples? Some people say that med school is med school, where you go doesn't matter a whole lot. You also hear that there is a regional bias (i.e. if you are from an area, attend school in the area, and do your rotations at the hospitals in the area, you have a better chance of getting a residency placement there). The instate school feels like a better fit, but when looking at the difference in debt load of $150k, I'm having a hard time choosing.
So what factors are all of you using in picking a school?
