Choosing Schools: Top 5 vs State School - Thoughts/Dialogue

[CeilingLamps]

So I have been placed in the fortunate situation of dealing with the dilemma of choosing from two acceptances, one acceptance is at a top 5 school and the other at a mid range. As I go through and attempt to choose, I thought it would be interesting to get SDN's perspective in addition to opening a broader dialogue of people in similar situations.

Because I know I'll be asked, here is my general-ish situation: UCSF vs Colorado. Both big and objectively great schools, thought UCSF clearly edges out. Cost wise, both are state schools and with OOS tuition for the first year and living in UCSF (and travelling home) I estimate I would end up paying $80-$100k more final cost to attend UCSF. At the beginning of the cycle I thought UCSF would be a no brainer, now I'm not so sure. I would be leaving a close and disabled family member, who I sometimes assist, suffers form ongoing health difficulties, in addition to the rest of my family/friends/significant other. I truly enjoy the Cali location, but the ultimate financial cost and being so distant from home, requiring travel for holidays and being unable to help from a far, seems like it may be difficult in some ways. Attempting the seemingly impossible task of weighing tangibles and intangibles as to how such factors affect my future goals and happiness, and attempting to determine unkowns such as what specialty I'm interested in pursuing eventually, I'm curious what everybody here thinks.

In choosing a top 5 vs a middle of the road state school, what factors are important to you and why? At what point does $, location, family, etc. weigh over other factors for you? Anybody else have made or are in the midst of a similar decision?

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[CowboyNiceguy]

If I were in your situation and chose Colorado, it would be for the cost - not for familiarity or staying close to family.

I'm not in the same fortunate situation as you, but if my state school (Illinois) accepted me, I know that I would turn it down and go with my other acceptance at Einstein because I want to move to New York and it is a better school, although more expensive. My family would prefer that I stay in IL but it's not happening.

 

[JustAPhD]

I estimate I would end up paying $80-$100k more final cost to attend UCSF.

I would be leaving a close and disabled family member, who I sometimes assist, suffers form ongoing health difficulties, in addition to the rest of my family/friends/significant other.

I truly enjoy the Cali location, but the ultimate financial cost and being so distant from home, requiring travel for holidays and being unable to help from a far, seems like it may be difficult in some ways.

UCSF is an amazing school, but honestly it sounds like you will be much happier at Colorado. And happy students make the best students.

 

[Lost in Translation]

If I were in your situation and chose Colorado, it would be for the cost - not for familiarity or staying close to family.

I'm not in the same fortunate situation as you, but if my state school (Illinois) accepted me, I know that I would turn it down and go with my other acceptance at Einstein because I want to move to New York and it is a better school, although more expensive. My family would prefer that I stay in IL but it's not happening.

So... you tell him to pick the State school but if you were in the same position you would pick the better school?

 

[CowboyNiceguy]

So... you tell him to pick the State school but if you were in the same position you would pick the better school?

No. My choice would be UCSF. I said IF I chose the state school, the reason would be cost and not family/familiarity.

I'm not telling him what he should do. He asked what we would do in that situation, what our values are.

 

[DKMA]

I would say Colorado the money and being close to home.

I don't want to sound insensitive, but would the disabled family member end up distracting you or being a major responsibility if you were in Colorado? That would be my only concern. If you end up not doing as well as you could have because your attention is torn between too many things, then the saved money might not be worth it.

 

[Earl Simmons]

Tough choice. Here are some questions to get you thinking:
-what is the curriculum like at both (pass fail is huge, is there certain tracks like a global medicine track or things you want to pursue at one ex MD-MPH/MBA that is better at one place than the other?)
-what are you interested in going into? If you know, which school has the stronger department in that?
-where will you be happier? This was a no brainier for me I thought but when it came to making decisions the dust settled and I came to my senses
-what is your financial status? Does the $ matter? This is legitimate in that I know of people for whom it didn't and the cost difference didn't matter
-what's the culture at each school? This is overlooked at times. Some are more malignant/competitive whereas others are more collaborative
-what's the testing frequency like and which system do you thrive under (more frequent or less frequent tests?)
-take a glance at the match lists for what you are interested in just for the hell of it

Good luck. Hope these help. Think you should use these in conjunction with just cost and location. If you do so and things seem even, then go with the cheaper option. If UCSF definitely and substantially outweighs Colorado using these types of factors go with UCSF. Seems illogical to use more factors in deciding but it helped me because I could run down a list and tally which school offered a better experience in each of these (and other) categories and get a solid idea on if the cost was worth it.


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[WedgeDawg]

Moving to SSD

 

[AAATPase]

Usually I'm a proponent of saving money and fit when it comes to choosing schools. Colorado is a solid school. However, in my opinion UCSF is around ≈4 schools (JHU,HMS,Stanford) that I think trumps all except a HUGE money difference.

I imagine you had to be stellar in college to get the UCSF acceptance- I would run with it. I'm pretty sure Colorado has pseudogrades. If UCSF is like the other elite schools (other than Penn) I imagine they are true P/F.

Congrats

 

[CeilingLamps]

Usually I'm a proponent of saving money and fit when it comes to choosing schools. Colorado is a solid school. However, in my opinion UCSF is around ≈4 schools (JHU,HMS,Stanford) that I think trumps all except a HUGE money difference.

I imagine you had to be stellar in college to get the UCSF acceptance- I would run with it. I'm pretty sure Colorado has pseudogrades. If UCSF is like the other elite schools (other than Penn) I imagine they are true P/F.

Congrats

Out of curiousity, what do you consider a huge difference in $?

Curriculum wise I think I would be happy with the education at either school. Both seem low stress and non-competitive. Of course, UCSF has an awesome curriculum in addition to great step 1 scores and residency matching. Whether or not this is due to the school or selection bias in its matriculants is difficult to clarify. All in all, I think UCSF would clearly be the better school for my happiness given the great location and its status over UC. If I knew what specialty I wanted to pursue, this decision of course would be easier. Alas, I do not and further, cannot determine what the returns will be on the emotional cost of moving away, and the financial side of things. To me, 100k is a lot but I will regardless be in similar financial situations post medical school regarding final cost/debt load at either school. The only difference would be whether I have the saved tuition. As for the family member, I am not a caretaker and do not believe they would be a distraction. It is more that I would be available for them to talk and such. It is possible that traveling could be a distraction, though I'm unsure at this point.

 

[CeilingLamps]

FYI for everybody, including future premeds in similar situations, I also posted this on Reddit: https://redd.it/4eyued. The dialogue is a bit more expanded there currently and I hope others find this useful.

 

[Cognovi]

FYI for everybody, including future premeds in similar situations, I also posted this on Reddit: https://redd.it/4eyued. The dialogue is a bit more expanded there currently and I hope others find this useful.

Interesting reddit thread, which links to this re-ranking for academic physicians: "The University of California, San Francisco, School of Medicine (UCSF) was ranked fourth by USN&WR, in part because the faculty, not the graduates, excelled in securing NIH grants. Our evaluation of UCSF graduates, however, placed the school at 17 because its graduates achieved fewer and lower-impact publications and grants. This finding highlights the important point that the measurement of faculty grants may not reflect the quality of education provided by a given school."

 

[BabyDoctor26]

Advice I was given by a general surgeon who interviewed me: Medical education is fairly homogenous these days. Go where you will be happier with life outside med school.

 

[Duke1K]

If you're at all interested in doing academic medicine, or want to match in a competitive specialty (or even in a uncompetitive specialty but at a top residency - e.g. internal medicine @ UCSF, BWH, MGH, or Hopkins), going to UCSF will be a huge advantage.