I literally see no reason to choose Cinn over UIC. I feel like people are voting without even knowing either school.
There's nothing about Cinn that's significantly better than UIC, like literally nothing.
1) UIC is
true P/F. No sane individual will ever be able to legitimately argue that TRUE P/F is not better than any other sort of curriculum in medical school. There's a reason why 2/3 of medical schools currently have switched to some sort of P/F and many more are following suit. I, and many others, can tell you firsthand how beautiful true P/F is. The magnitude of decreased stress is something many of these older medical school students, residents, and attendings will never be able to comprehend. Those who say "it doesn't matter" are literally those who have never experienced it in the first place.
2) Cinn is 44/56 in regards to ranking and UIC is 52/67. The "difference" in both categories is negligible therefore it's literally a non-factor. Also, since research ranking is, well, partly based on funding then the fact that both schools are so close to each other obviously means there isn't a significant difference in research opportunities. This is honestly the case when it comes to all mid-tier schools. If you want to do research you will have zero troubles at either school.
3) Supportive environment is very subjective. The only quantifiable part of that is how many people actually graduate and ultimately match. The match rate at UIC is ~95% with a Chicago-campus population of 190 students (just above the national average of ~94%). I'm sure Cinn is basically the same. Therefore, another non-factor.
4) Chicago is a much better place to live in hands down. Let's see: Relocating next to the downtown area of the third largest city in the country that's beside Lake Michigan and is home to an incredibly diverse patient population, enormous variety of hospitals/clinics, wide array of different foods/social activities or.....Cincinnati. Speaks for itself. You're not going to be studying 24/7 in medical school. Also, Chicago costs more to live in but in the grand scheme of things a couple hundred dollars a month is not going to make any sort of discernible difference when you're already shelling out
six figures for COA over 4-years. Choose your mental health and sanity over saving "pennies" especially since you literally said tuition costs would be
similar for both schools in your case.
4.5) In case anyone tries to bring up some BS "safety" argument here are two sources about how Cinn and Chicago stack up to each other.
Crime Rate Comparison: Cincinnati Vs. Chicago &
Comparison: Cincinnati, Ohio - Chicago, Illinois. Additionally, as a medical student you will literally not even be in the vicinity of where the vast majority of crimes occur.
5) UIC's step 1 scores last year were 233 (average of all 3 campuses) so unless Cinn is pulling like a 240+ this is also a non-factor. To be honest, board scores should never be a top factor for deciding between schools unless there's a big discrepancy. In which case you would need to take a better look at the lower school's curriculum and whatnot. Ultimately, you determine how well you do on Step 1 not the school. Most people don't even utilize their school material over B&B, Pathoma, First Aid, UWorld, Rx, Kaplan, Sketchy, Physeo, and Osmosis.
There's literally <10 spots difference in ranking lol so using that as a factor is irrelevant.
