Help me decide between CMSRU and Netter. Currently living in MA and am interested in working in primary care likely in an urban/underserved setting.
CMSRU
General Notes
General Notes
Pros
Cons
CMSRU
General Notes
- Class size of 112
- Seems to be a larger emphasis on flipped/active/problem-based learning?
- Match
- About 20% match at Cooper University Health Care
- Others: NY, NY, PA, Some MA, CT, CA, and IL, handful in South
- About half match into primary care specialties (21/95, 8/95 FM)
- Research
- Summer Research in M1 Year
- Seems fairly accessible, high amount in community health and through the Cooper Rowan Clinic
- Scholarly Concentrations with a capstone
- USMLE Prep
- 4 weeks of STEP 1 prep course followed by 4 weeks of dedicated, several NBMEs
- 1 month or more of STEP 2 prep
- Free resources
- Location
- Urban/fun location, live in Philly area
- Very accessible by public transportation
- Affordable rent options for students ($900-$1500)
- Very racially and socioeconomically diverse area
- Emphasis service and community health
- All CMSRU students are required to engage in service each year and are very emphasized in mission, activities, and curriculum.
- Ambulatory Clerkship at the Cooper Rowan Clinic (free clinic for community)
- Home hospital: Cooper University Hospital and Cooper University Healthcare
- Early Clinical Immersion
- Cooper Rowan Clinic begins 5th week of M1 and is once per month
- Week on the Wards
- Inter-professional emphasis?
- Inter-professional Care of Patients With Chronic Conditions (4-week M4 Required Course)
- Cooper Rowan Clinic work with PharmD, MSW, and DPT students
- No other health professions directly on campus.
- Lots of opportunity for clinical exploration/flexibility?
- Selectives during pre-clinical
- Students have the opportunity to complete a total of four weeks of electives during the M3 year
- 16 weeks of electives in the M4 year, of which 12 weeks may be taken as visiting rotations
- Scholarly concentrations
- WOW/Week on the Wards 1 and 2
- Overall felt that I would vibe with the community here slightly less, less geographic/general diversity
- 2 to 2.5 hours from girlfriend, likely a flight from home
- Unsure about what my car situation would be/if it’s worth keeping a car
- COA with scholarship: $101k
- Seems to driven to foster students who are interested in serving the community in Camden/South Jersey -- love this but also not particularly interested in staying in the area
- Not a lot of geographic diversity in the match
- Cooper Residency programs takes ⅕ of medical students
- Not a lot of geographic diversity in the match
- So menial but I think I like their facilities slightly less, plenty of space/light to study but smaller overall, very small gym area and less substantial food options
General Notes
- Average class size of 90 students
- Although definitely diverse in instruction style (Weekly case/3x a week for M2, team-based, problem-based learning) seems that students have more flexibility (than CMSRU) with afternoons more free and asynchronous days mixed in the week
- Match
- Although no home hospital, it seems that this leads to more flexibility in the match than CMSRU
- A lot of tri-state area, MA, and CA, also a good amount of PA and some midwest
- Super primary care heavy/dedicated - 40ish% match into primary care specialties
- Seem to have some working relationships with hospital partners and frame these as ‘home residency’ options for students although doesn’t seem like more that 10% of class opts for these programs
- Cluster setup in M3
- Unsure my thoughts on this
- Pros
- Allows students a two-week dedicated period to study and prepare for shelf exams
- Allows students to organize their clinical understanding in a more interdisciplinary way
- Allows for some elective work and flexibility in M3
- Cons
- Is three shelf exams at once an insane task?
- Pros
- Unsure my thoughts on this
- Would need a vehicle–either keep my current car or find less expensive option
- Research?
- Summer Research in M1 Year
- Seems daily accessible although admittedly more difficult than other programs with home hospitals and professors engaging in research
- Seems to be a lot more cold emailing, but most students seemed involved to some capacity and more drawn to it because they wanted to be apart of it
- 10/90 students selected to do research at Yale
Pros
- SRCC (their concentration and capstone program) seems more established and substantial (than Scholarly Concentrations at Cooper)
- All students participate
- Very flexible/creative when it comes to their projects (very interdisciplinary, multimedia, community-based, etc.)
- Work with other graduate schools in some concentrations (i.e. Public Policy works with law professors at the law school)
- $2500 to complete capstone and present work
- USMLE Prep
- 8 weeks of dedicated for STEP 1
- Exams are mixed with NBME style questions and concentration of these questions increases throughout pre-clinical
- After exams students can review NBME style questions
- Community and learning environment
- Huge emphasis on learning/teaching, major point of pride for Netter
- Faculty of Medical Sciences dedicate the majority of time to teaching, education, and curricular development
- True/Pass Fail with no internal rankings, No AOA
- Seem to vibe the most with students at Netter
- Very MA/CT/NE/NY/PA/NJ/RI, some West Coast
- A lot of formative feedback and non-graded assessments
- No anatomy practicals, 6 formative OSCEs and only one graded OSCE
- Huge emphasis on learning/teaching, major point of pride for Netter
- Early clinical immersion and primary care emphasis
- Medical Student Home (MeSH)
- In order to match students with preceptors, both are surveyed to establish preferences and every effort is made to provide students with one of their top five choices.
- Travel time can be significant--up to 1 hour commute
- 1 per week for M1 and M2; get new clinical site each year
- Medical Student Home (MeSH)
- Inter-professional emphasis? Although in student interview day panel seemed a bit more inflated by school/adcom. seems more substantial than CMSRU though likely menial difference
- Inter-professional campus: education, health science (PT/OT/PA), nursing, and law
- Some ability to learn alongside other graduate students through SRCC and elective opportunities
- Inter-professional extracurricular opportunities
- Opportunity for clinical exploration/flexibility?
- Electives
- Selectives during pre-clinical based on SRCC
- Students have the opportunity to complete electives during the M3 year
- 28 weeks of electives in the M4 year, away rotations encouraged during M4
- Electives
- Closest school to my loved ones: Less than 1.5 hours from girlfriend, 1.5 hours from home, 2 hrs from Boston (where most of my friends are)
- Cheaper, even with no need-based scholarship COA is $94,923 (however appealing financial aid)
- I think I like their facilities slightly more, more substantial gym, food options, lots of space/natural light, and share facilities with their law school with nice amenities
Cons
- No home hospital
- Students may have to travel up to 60 minutes to clinical sites (however gas/housing can be compensated by Netter)
- Stresses me out when it comes to finding research although not looking to be a super research-heavy student anyways
- In a very suburban area, major cities (Boston and NYC) are roughly 1.5 hours away
- Still some opportunities for urban public/community health but need to seek these opportunities out (rather than them being embedded in my curriculum at CMSRU)
- Although in area of CT that can be very wealthy/predominately white I feel like there are a lot of opportunities to work with more diverse patient populations in places like Hartford and Bridgeport and school seems eager to work with students to accomplish this
- Still seems like a cute/nice area to live in, quiet may be better for being a student anyways - lots of outdoor activities and space, near the water, chiller going out vibes in New Haven
- Off-campus housing only (Not necessarily a con for the costs but rather inconvenience, however school provides a lot of support to secure housing)
- Most students rent in New Haven, Hamden, or North Haven, With roommates it seems like it could be anywhere from under $1000 to $1500 a month)
- Still some opportunities for urban public/community health but need to seek these opportunities out (rather than them being embedded in my curriculum at CMSRU)
- Less of an emphasis on service and community health
- Student service organizations exist but are limited and in high-demand (when compared to CMSRU)
- My biggest con! Seems there a lot of room for student leadership and growth/expansion but also wish there were more options to allow students flexibility and opportunities to explore more interests
