CMSRU vs. Netter

[snoopy777]

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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

• 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

Pros

• 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

Cons

• 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
• 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

Quinnipiac/Netter:
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?
• 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
• 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
• 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
• 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)
• 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