Thank you very much for all the responses, friends. I really appreciate all the advice thus far. I'm sorry for the late update, I was at work for a majority of the day and spent the past few hours unwinding. I can see that tensions are rising in this thread and I hope that no one is upset because of it. It surely was not my intention to start any sort of debate/hostility in this discussion. That said, here are a few of my responses to what has been posted.
Yankees26, you're very correct in that depending on where in Jersey I live it could be one way or the other. To clear up some confusion I live just across the river from Columbia, so about 30-45mins by train/subway and around 1.5-2hours from Penn by car/bus. I'm a North Jerseyan 🙂
I have said that location isn't that big of a deal because I am fine with both Philly and NYC, although I prefer the NYC lifestyle/atmosphere a bit more. However, I attended college in a rural environment for the past 4 years and want to do my best to not return to that sort of atmosphere. I realize that others might love that kind of environment but I have learned through experience that I love urban/suburban life. That is the major reason that I am seeking out other options, I don't think that I could grow as a person and benefit as much in a rural area. However, if it comes down to the financials and the difference in debt is a lot to take on then of course location won't matter as much.
You don't need to apologize yankees26. I've never doubted your sources or any of your statements as they seem that they have been well supported from the start. I hope you aren't offended. I plan to reach out to the institutions regarding my situation and seeing what can be done. I think the smartest thing to do at this point would be to wait and see what the financials look like exactly before proceeding, thank you for the advice.
I still am curious, however, as to which school is stronger in which program? I understand that if I wanted to do neurosurgery I would go with Columbia, whereas if I wanted to do primary care I'd be more suited to Duke. So where does that leave the other specialties such as ENT, Anesthesiology? Does it even matter?
I just wanted to state a couple of things. I just started not to long at this school and I'm not an expert in the medical field or medical schools; therefore, all of my advice is from a very limited and subjective perspective. Secondly, I wanted to clarify what I was trying to state about specialties. Penn, Duke or Columbia will get you to any specialty at any program in the country that you want to go to. When people say that Columbia seems to match strongly in neurosurgery, that simply means that Columbia has a historical trend in matching at top programs and usually we have about 5 students going into these fields. In our curriculum we incorporate a week of nsu in our neurology block and Columbia tends to attract these types of individuals-therefore, it's more of a positive correlation or association rather than a predictive linear one.
What does this mean to you: don't worry about specialties. Both programs are so great at placing students where they want to go that you don't have to worry about either one. Now we do a lot of other hospitals (Mt. Sinai, Cornell, HSS, NYU, etc.) that are within close proximity which can be an advantage if you wanted to network at those places but if you didn't then it's of no benefit to you. For example, when I went to my interview at Cornell, they explicitly stated, as does HSS's website, that they get preference for summer opportunities in ortho and they also receive preference for research. Cornell has pretty much a 9-1 type of schedule which allows their students more time for research, studying, or pursuing other activities. This is something that really matters. These little nuances are what's going to distinguish one school from another. When you're looking at the differences between Columbia, Penn and Duke, you have to ask yourself which program will fit to your needs in a way that will allow you to explore your passions better?
-**First concern should always be money when schools are of equal footing and I would say that all three schools are pretty similar with Duke being a lot more diverse in terms of specialties that students choose to go into. A doctor is a doctor and you will most likely be teaching yourself much of the material at any school. How well you do depends on yourself not the school. That said, how much you owe in terms of loans will affect you throughout life and can even influence the specialty that you go into. Money is a very important topic which you should weight heavily.
-How much time do you have off?
-How are you tested and what is the frequency?
-What support do you receive from faculty and upper level students? (Columbia has like 3 advisors/student; 3/4th years put together review sessions before tests, teach at student led clinics, they also have voluntary classes a few times a month that are optional in which they go through a particular focus such as sepsis, pneumonia, etc. and they take us through how to perform a physical and hx/how to present to attendings/ and then we go to the hospital to see how they do it-they are pretty involved with us)
-What are the students main complaints? (If they say nothing then they are clearly lying. No school is perfect and can always be better; I would say the biggest complaint at Columbia is the IT department which has gotten remarkably better; we haven't really had any issues with recordings and they are usually up within a couple of hours after lecture. We are also building a huge center for CUMC which will change how things will flow for the incoming students. I think it's supposed to open in 2 yrs, so this would be more relevant for classes after you)
-More personal things
Options for dual degrees
Options for abroad rotations
Clinical experiences (we have a variety of hospitals and experiences)
Are there any particular faculty members that you wish to do research with? Or is there a particular type of research that you are interested in that the school has? (What kinds of clinical trials or basic research is going on?)
