Colorado vs Jefferson (SKMC)

[SkierBoi81]

Please Do Not Quote

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Thanks in advance to everyone who helps out!

I’m very grateful to have multiple acceptances and I’ve narrowed down my choices to Colorado and Jefferson (SKMC). I really don’t have my sights set on any specific specialty yet, though I do think I would like to keep the door open to go into ortho if at all possible.



Colorado (my state school)

Pros

• Cheaper (by around $15k per year)
• Get to stay in Colorado
• Know a good amount of people who are there or have recently graduated and they all really liked it
• Ranked higher
• I’d like to eventually end up back in Colorado
• Only MD school in the state and thus there is access to a lot of good hospitals
• P/F preclinical

Cons

• Aurora isn’t great. Having grown up in the mountains, Aurora is more west Kansas than ‘Colorado’ to me…
• New curriculum for Class of 2025 (could be good, could be bad, not a ton of info on it)
• All of the recent stuff on reddit regarding Colorado (Name and Shame posts). I’m not sure how much weight to give to these. The people I know really liked it there, but there seemed to be a lot of agreement regarding CU being a crummy place

Jefferson

Pros

• Seems like a really good, supportive environment- seems that the school cares about students more (?)
• In a really good place in Philly
• JeffMD curriculum seems really impressive
• Seems to be a pretty good school for ortho (If I decide to try to go that route)
• Closer to some family than CU

Cons

• More expensive (though I haven’t received my aid package yet, not expecting anything significant)
• Larger class size (though this isn’t necessarily a bad thing)
• Haven’t been able to see the school. This isn’t a con about the school, but I find it somewhat hard to commit to a school on the other side of the country, especially one in a large city (I grew up in a really small town) without having seen it
• Seems as though clinical sites are spread throughout Philly and the surrounding region, which is the consequence of having so many med schools in Philly

I am leaning towards Colorado, mainly because it’s cheaper, and the people that I know who have gone there have really enjoyed it. Plus, I do want to end up back in Colorado eventually. However, SKMC seems like an awesome school and all of the negative posts (both here and reddit) have made me start to question CU.

Thanks!

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[Shunsui]

CU imo. Cheaper and you want end up in CO = no brainer

As for the name and shame, I'm sure you'd find a lot of anecdotal negatives for any school if you searched for them so I would factor it in, but not put too much weight on it. Congrats on your acceptances!

 

[Hotshy]

University of Colorado is a T50 school and is your state school. The cost of attendance will be less for you. 100% go with University of Colorado.

 

[SkierBoi81]

Thank you both!

 

[m1redsox]

I also vote CU! Money, prestige (and research), and location are big factors.

 

[Banco]

Colorado is cheaper, you want to end up in Colorado, and it's a highly regarded school. Decision seems to be clear.

Jeff is a great school in a great location, but unless you really want to be in Philly I don't know how to justify it based on what you've written.