Columbia vs Yale vs Duke vs HMS

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Exact same choices and having difficulty teasing how much easier the "Yale system" is compared to a standard full p/f curriculum.
 
Couple of thoughts. (1) Columbia does not have any prestige edge over Yale and Duke within medicine. They're all seen as peers.

(2) Don't let Columbia's match list concern you. In general, match lists aren't very useful because they are almost entirely based on where people *want* to be. As you alluded to, a sizeable chunk of Columbia's students matching to NYC is due to them wanting to be there, not them having trouble matching elsewhere. NYC is one of the harder cities to match into, going to Columbia won't prevent you from matching at other Northeast hospitals.

(3) I had the same concern about the Yale system back when I was deciding where to go...but if you had the discipline to get into Yale, Columbia, and Duke, you'll absolutely have the discipline to continue learning with a more flexible curriculum.

(4) I think with your first Duke con, you've begun to realize that trying to analyze matchlists is a fool's task lol. Here are the facts about matchlists: going to a medical school will increase your ability to match there (for obv reasons), and people already in school there are more likely to want to stay in the area; match lists are very largely based on the desires of students, esp at top schools where you have resources to help you match anywhere; if you don't match into a particular specialty/location coming from Columbia, Duke, or Yale....it's you, not them lol.

You not wanting go be too close to family might be good reason to rule Duke out (unless they throw a huge scholarship at you, ofc). NYC is expensive but Columbia offers really good financial aid and that may even out living expenses a lot. But overall, it seems like your cons for Yale are the smallest. Also worth noting that New Haven isn't far from NYC, so you'll be able to weekend trips to the city whenever you're not studying. All things equal financially, it seems like Yale might be the spot for you.
 
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I had similar choices and chose Yale over Columbia (as did about 10+ of my other classmates, sure there are probably also probably at least a handful of people at Columbia that chose it over Yale).

Came down to quality of life and I feel strongly I made the right decision. Happy to dig into any of the specifics further for anyone making this choice. I hope Columbia's doing a proper second look this year for you guys.
 
Thank you for your replies, everyone! In an unexpected turn of events I was admitted to HMS this morning so it's in the mix. I'll update the above.

EDIT: I think I've ruled out Duke but Yale, HMS, Columbia are all still on the table and under strong consideration.
 
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For hotcrossbuns, I think now with HMS on the table, it seems like the clear choice (excluding consideration of financial factors).

Excluding HMS for others who are looking at this thread, there were also ~10+ who chose Columbia over Yale and I think either way, you can't make a bad choice. I would personally choose Columbia again, and tbh Columbia vs Yale isn't one of the school comparisons I think of where QOL is necessarily that far off. If you already have strong specialty preferences, and it's of course totally fine if you don't, I would recommend taking a look at departmental strength at both schools. For example, anecdotally, there may be an edge for surgical specialties at Columbia.

NYC is definitely a huge plus for Columbia. The Yale system is great and you will have a lot of free time, but how often will you really be able to make the 3-hour trip into NYC? Living in the city has enriched my time in medical school, and it really enables ppl to pursue life/interests outside of school. I also don't view Washington Heights as a point of concern. Have not personally had any safety issues while living here, and like in any big city, as long as you're alert/aware at night, you'll be fine. It's a bit quieter than other parts of Manhattan as well, so you have your own place away from the busiest parts of the city. The housing in Towers (apartment-style) is also pretty nice. Unsure if the incoming class will need to stay in 50 haven their first year, but the last 3 years have not. If anything, you'll be able to draw into Towers by at least M2 (if not M1), and a sizeable amount of the class also finds good housing off-campus.

The faculty and students have all been lovely. I would definitely describe my class as supportive and have made some amazing friends during my time here. TONS of sharing of resources and collaboration, personally have not felt any sort of sense of competition during preclinicals. Also had a really positive interview experience, and I feel that my interactions with faculty have lived up to those initial encounters. I don't want to discount anyone else's experiences, but competitive/cutthroat has been pretty far from my own experience.

Working with immigrant populations/global health/ethics/narrative medicine are all areas that are really strong at Columbia, and you'll find great opportunities to explore those interests. We're also a very musically talented group (the school actually has a piano owned by Rachmaninoff), and there are lots of ways to engage in music/dance through Coffeehouse, symphony orchestra, class bands, etc.

The Yale System is definitely cool, though I thought clinicals there were still tier graded but with a lot of Honors (may be wrong). I think ultimately it comes down to you and your preferences on where to live, what you want out of your medical education, and what vibe you get from revisit and the students. Columbia is doing in-person revisit this year.
 
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^ Just to help out as well for others - Yale is full P/F clerkships (voted this fall officially to keep it that way). We also have no shelf exams which is a big gamechanger. I've answered some of this in DMs already but will post publically for others to see as well:

Columbia definitely has the edge on location. For me personally, I knew the ~30-45ish minutes on the 1 train into downtown Manhattan was going to be the same barrier as the 122-135 minute Metro North train (that runs every 20 minutes! woo!) from New Haven. I made it into NYC every weekend in October just as an example!

I also knew that I needed to live off campus for a variety of reasons and COL was way lower for a safe, secure, and new apartment in New Haven versus Washington Heights (according to my searches on StreetEasy - I might have been looking in the wrong place). I really felt as though I would get all of the negative parts of NYC (for example: pollution, fear for my safety, increased cost for basic needs without getting to enjoy any of the fun parts (and with a ton of friends living in downtown NYC (huge pipeline from my undergrad in NorCal) I knew I would feel hella FOMO and distraction).

I've also heard that Columbia has the edge on surgical subspecialties but I'm not really sure why (maybe someone else can chime in because I'm not super sure about surgery personally). I will say that the surgical departments here are devoting a crap ton of money to student research/recruitment and Yale New Haven Health is a major surgical destination. Our hospital is technically the second largest in the nation by beds but I'm sure Columbia probably has more beds across all affiliate hospitals or at least comparable if you factor in all of YNHH's locations (all across Connecticut, I don't think students go to most of them).

Come to second looks and talk to as many students as possible! This goes for everyone!
 
One more thing that one of my peers pointed out (I didn't consider this in my decision but I realized retrospectively that it was majorly important to me) - Yale Med is colocated with it's undergrad and all other professional schools. I think it feeds into increased collaboration, resource sharing, and just generally ability to take advantage of all of the opportunities that Yale presents to its collective student body. I know Columbia has shuttles and isn't too far but I do think Yale is extra cool for this.
 
anon2000xyz said:
For hotcrossbuns, I think now with HMS on the table, it seems like the clear choice (excluding consideration of financial factors).

Excluding HMS for others who are looking at this thread, there were also ~10+ who chose Columbia over Yale and I think either way, you can't make a bad choice. I would personally choose Columbia again, and tbh Columbia vs Yale isn't one of the school comparisons I think of where QOL is necessarily that far off. If you already have strong specialty preferences, and it's of course totally fine if you don't, I would recommend taking a look at departmental strength at both schools. For example, anecdotally, there may be an edge for surgical specialties at Columbia.

NYC is definitely a huge plus for Columbia. The Yale system is great and you will have a lot of free time, but how often will you really be able to make the 3-hour trip into NYC? Living in the city has enriched my time in medical school, and it really enables ppl to pursue life/interests outside of school. I also don't view Washington Heights as a point of concern. Have not personally had any safety issues while living here, and like in any big city, as long as you're alert/aware at night, you'll be fine. It's a bit quieter than other parts of Manhattan as well, so you have your own place away from the busiest parts of the city. The housing in Towers (apartment-style) is also pretty nice. Unsure if the incoming class will need to stay in 50 haven their first year, but the last 3 years have not. If anything, you'll be able to draw into Towers by at least M2 (if not M1), and a sizeable amount of the class also finds good housing off-campus.

The faculty and students have all been lovely. I would definitely describe my class as supportive and have made some amazing friends during my time here. TONS of sharing of resources and collaboration, personally have not felt any sort of sense of competition during preclinicals. Also had a really positive interview experience, and I feel that my interactions with faculty have lived up to those initial encounters. I don't want to discount anyone else's experiences, but competitive/cutthroat has been pretty far from my own experience.

Working with immigrant populations/global health/ethics/narrative medicine are all areas that are really strong at Columbia, and you'll find great opportunities to explore those interests. We're also a very musically talented group (the school actually has a piano owned by Rachmaninoff), and there are lots of ways to engage in music/dance through Coffeehouse, symphony orchestra, class bands, etc.

The Yale System is definitely cool, though I thought clinicals there were still tier graded but with a lot of Honors (may be wrong). I think ultimately it comes down to you and your preferences on where to live, what you want out of your medical education, and what vibe you get from revisit and the students. Columbia is doing in-person revisit this year.
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Hello and thanks for your thoughts! Can I ask why you say HMS is the clear choice?
 
Hi, also in a similar situation. I’m looking at HMS vs Stanford vs Hopkins vs WashU vs Yale vs UPenn.

I’ve spoken with my research PI (very influential reconstructive plastic surgeon scientist), and his main advice is to go somewhere where I can find good professional mentorship. For example, Yale’s plastics chair is Dr P, who pioneered face transplantation and face/mandibular reconstruction. JHU’s is Dr B, who was part of the first penis/test transplants and is pushing regenerative medicine forward via the allograft vascularied composite institute, Stanford has Dr L, who is pioneering anti-scarring and regenerative grafting techniques for surgery. If I were you, I’d decide as soon as possible what kind of speciality and research you’re leaning towards and attend the school with the best mentors to foster that path. Research is super important to be competitive for competitive specialities (anything surgery, especially plastics).

From your list, I think it’s between Yale and HMS for that plastic surgery mentorship support.
 
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Also have spoken to Yale students, they report a very diverse patient pop. They are also a bit more supportive (financially and flexibility wise) of global electives/rotations/research if you’re interested in intermittent global surgery or humanitarian medical service in the future
 
But tbh also struggling to give up the Harvard name and doors it could open for me later in and outside Medicine, even tho a lot of drs are telling me it’s not as deep as I think it is lol
 
hotcrossbuns said:
Thank you for your replies, everyone! In an unexpected turn of events I was admitted to HMS this morning so it's in the mix. I'll update the above.

EDIT: I think I've ruled out Duke but Yale, HMS, Columbia are all still on the table and under strong consideration.
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How much do you care about name? Harvard is the most prestigious institution in the world, so no other school can compete with that. But functionally speaking, Harvard will not provide more resources than any of the other schools listed. In fact, HMS's funding/research is kinda mediocre compared to peer institutions. Their affiliated hospitals are who bring in all the money on the research/healthcare side.

You seem to want flexibility, and my friends at Harvard hate that they had to do so much mandatory class. If you want the option of flexibility, you completely lose that with Harvard.

Last thing I'll say is that people often speak about potential benefits that the Harvard name will give you, but these benefits are theoretical. If you go to Harvard and match well was it because you went to Harvard or because you worked hard? Or both? Can't really know. But what I can say is within medicine, Harvard's name isn't giving you any more opportunities than Yale's or Columbia's.

You literally can't go wrong with any if these choices based on what you've written, so I say choose the place where you'll be happiest and leave with the least debt.
 
I'mInDer! said:
How much do you care about name? Harvard is the most prestigious institution in the world, so no other school can compete with that. But functionally speaking, Harvard will not provide more resources than any of the other schools listed. In fact, HMS's funding/research is kinda mediocre compared to peer institutions. Their affiliated hospitals are who bring in all the money on the research/healthcare side.

You seem to want flexibility, and my friends at Harvard hate that they had to do so much mandatory class. If you want the option of flexibility, you completely lose that with Harvard.

Last thing I'll say is that people often speak about potential benefits that the Harvard name will give you, but these benefits are theoretical. If you go to Harvard and match well was it because you went to Harvard or because you worked hard? Or both? Can't really know. But what I can say is within medicine, Harvard's name isn't giving you any more opportunities than Yale's or Columbia's.

You literally can't go wrong with any if these choices based on what you've written, so I say choose the place where you'll be happiest and leave with the least debt.
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I won't lie, the prestige bump is nice but not enough to knock out either Columbia or Yale automatically. How exactly does research work at schools like HMS? My impression was that most students work under an attending at one of the affiliated hospitals, not necessarily the medical school itself.

Kind of a bummer to hear about the lack of flexibility though. The Pathways curriculum was always marketed as affording ppl a ton of leeway and free, unstructured time to shape their interests. The Yale System more clearly puts its money where its mouth is in this regard, so I suppose that's something for me to think about. But it's reassuring to hear that in terms of future career opportunities, all these options kinda blend together.
 
hotcrossbuns said:
I won't lie, the prestige bump is nice but not enough to knock out either Columbia or Yale automatically. How exactly does research work at schools like HMS? My impression was that most students work under an attending at one of the affiliated hospitals, not necessarily the medical school itself.

Kind of a bummer to hear about the lack of flexibility though. The Pathways curriculum was always marketed as affording ppl a ton of leeway and free, unstructured time to shape their interests. The Yale System more clearly puts its money where its mouth is in this regard, so I suppose that's something for me to think about. But it's reassuring to hear that in terms of future career opportunities, all these options kinda blend together.
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Yeah most would do research at an affiliate hospital, but it's important to keep in mind that HMS is still a distinct entity. Mass Gen funding and resources don't necessarily influence student resources at HMS. Research is also something to consider.

Since you're likely gonna take a research year, look into resources for students who choose to do that. Some schools have programs who provide funding for students. Would def look into that.
 
I'mInDer! said:
Yeah most would do research at an affiliate hospital, but it's important to keep in mind that HMS is still a distinct entity. Mass Gen funding and resources don't necessarily influence student resources at HMS. Research is also something to consider.

Since you're likely gonna take a research year, look into resources for students who choose to do that. Some schools have programs who provide funding for students. Would def look into that.
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Oof yeah that fully-funded fifth year at Yale, gah damn
 
Analyzing match lists is hard. Small sample sizes in most specialties. People only match at one place (so you can't see all the schools they were "qualified" to match at). And people have considerations other than the strength of the program (e.g. geographic preferences, partner's career)
It's also hard to judge the strongest programs. Rankings have limitations.

If you want to try (which may not really be worth it), you could pool match lists from the past 5-10 years (to get a large enough sample size and allow students' non-academic preferences to average out), and see what fraction of students in a given specialty match in one of the top 10 programs as ranked by Doximity. (The choice of 10 as a cutoff, and Doximity as a ranking provider are arbitrary of course) And you need to do this with each specialty. Be prepared to spend a few hours with Excel.
 
I think you’re over analyzing the match lists. From these four institutions you could match anywhere. The biggest determining factor on where students at Columbia Yale Duke HMS match is what places they put as their top three picks, and a lot of students are bound to preference places in the same general area if/since they know they like it. So imo you should not make match lists (when comparing these four) a deciding factor. I’m sure you’ll match at one of your top three choices for residency no matter which of these four you choose. Instead focus on the things that are going to make you happy and successful in med school!!
 
Off bat, I think it's quite clear you have a bias against Yale...seems like you may have gone there for undergrad and got rejected for med school. I'd probably have some beef too in your position, lol.

Whether you think proximity to NYC is a pro or con and how often you make the trip is entirely subjective and dependent on you, but I am friends with faculty and postdocs who live in NYC and make the commute to Yale for work, and vice versa. They all go out of their way to list it as a pro...as do many people who live there. It may not be a pro to you, but it's clearly a pro for many people. Thus, it's valid to mention.

If you think the name of Harvard is gonna make a meaningful difference in matching compared to Yale or Columbia, you are sadly mistaken. But I'm going to take it farther. Please prove to me how the Harvard name will provide opportunities that Columbia and Yale won't. Undergrads are truly the only ones with this weird obsession with trying to find meaningful differences between institutions such as Harvard, Yale, Columbia, and Duke.

It's honestly ridiculous, and you'll find that nobody cares once you start medical school. Where you go will guarantee 2 distinct advantages. (1) higher chance of matching at home/affiliate hospitals. (2) higher chance of matching at non-affiliate but local hospitals. Everything else is largely dependent on how much work you put in during medical school.

As somebody with a PhD, I can promise you a medical student will have just as much research support/funding at Yale, Columbia, or Duke as they'll have at Harvard. Depending on the program and medical school support, maybe even more. Furthermore, nobody is going to look at an applicant from Harvard and an applicant from Yale and automatically think "yeah, def leaning towards the Harvard kid". Name *can* matter, but not at this level. This is baseless hair splitting. Harvard vs ETSU, sure some people will have a bias for Harvard up front. Harvard vs Yale? Come on, now.
 
If you do well at any of these schools, you will match into the specialty of your choice. I'd personally go with Columbia. I am just not a Boston guy. Durham is one of the worst cities in which I've ever spent time and you know NC already and know that. Duke feels like a summer academic camp for adults. I lived in New Haven for a period of time when I did some clinical work at Yale and it is a very depressing place to live. Columbia is a win all around. Great school. Great city.
 
ssf20000 said:
"Seems?" I think I made it quite clear what my literal situation was in my opening sentence with HMS/Columbia/Duke waitlists and Yale post-II rejection 🙂—not really trying to hide anything and was just trying to put the information I had gathered to use since it is of none to me. Not really sure why you are trying to insinuate I have a "bias" against Yale when I openly stated that and frankly just feels like you're rubbing salt in the wound tbh lol. And with seemingly 2 Yale med students on this thread, I thought I'd chime in with a universal New Haven experience with the context of my position. Anyways, I would have gone there in a heartbeat if accepted, but definitely not over HMS. I don't think that is "biased" in any sense of the word and I did not state anything in absolutes, I simply opined on what I have experienced and heard from MD students there and told OP to investigate further if it is of importance to them.


I stated this in end of my post: "anyone suggesting that your career will be different depending on these 4 school choices is delusional" so I am not really in disagreement with you in any sense....I was just suggesting that the Harvard name does indeed have an allure to it that no other school does which may or may not carry additional weight in a personal decision or in other realms of life/academic pursuits beyond medicine. I know many peers both at the undergrad, med, law etc. realms who truly do care about these things; I am not sure if OP does, but all I was trying to say is that it's not childish or immature to care. It means a lot to some people and their families, whether it is rational or will affect your career (it won't) or not.
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Wasn't tryna rub it in, sorry about that lol. Just wanted to highlight the bias. I can see you didn't have the greatest experience at Yale/New Haven, and I respect that. But I also know that your experience isn't OP's experience.

I'm not arguing that Harvard's name isn't more prestigious. It's the most prestigious institution in the world. But that'd just be a silly reason for OP to prioritize Harvard over Yale when, if you look at what they wrote, it seems clear that they prefer Yale's medical school. And Yale is almost as prestigious as Harvard, so it's not like OP is going to a no-name school. Besides, I'd argue it's cooler to say you rejected Harvard anyway haha
 
ssf20000 said:
I interviewed at all these schools and was waitlisted at all except an R at Yale, but I'm URM and went to every URM zoom meet which is usually the best source (imo) for unfiltered info. Obviously, I'm just one person but I'd figure I can chime in with what I wrote down since there was a point in time when I was hypothesizing a decision between such schools lol so might as well put it to use somewhere.

Off the bat, Columbia was one of the only places where the students were unprompted in complaining about how stressful MCY was—mainly the fact that it had tiered grading and what comes with that. There also seemed to be a sense of general competition in the school and everyone said that students were vying strongly with the administration to remove this aspect of the curriculum with seemingly no avail. Housing also seemed to be in a pretty weird spot which has already been alluded to, but a lot of older students said that many people can/do live way off the vicinity of heights wash heights down the line and come in for mandatory activities.

I don't have anything else to add about Yale that hasn't been said. I will say as someone whose spent years in New Haven, it's definitely not for everyone. The whole "2 hours to NYC" is also pretty annoying to hear as a "positive" because realistically it's annoying to do that and it's just a drag in general; pretty sure this happened like once a semester during undergrad even then when the work load was nothing. I will also say Yale undergrad has a pretty stark mental health issue and the resources are completely awful, genuinely like nothing you'll see at peer undergrads. Not sure if this is prevalent in the med school or if it's just a product of new haven/gloom/seasonal depression/undergrad but I personally think it's worth looking into. Also, I think your cons about the yale system are sort of forced—clearly you're an incredible student and you'll easily find your path in this system...also if this WAS an issue, it would show in Yale's outcomes. I believe they do a good job in selecting students who would fit well with it.

HMS:
  • From my understanding the patient population is not immigrant/minority-heavy
I don't feel like this is particularly true. MGH and other affiliates definitely do not get the diverse/underserved patients that BUMC does, but there's an incredible amount of diversity in immigrant/minority populations in the Boston and surrounding Boston area and you can still easily find ways to get engaged with these populations if it is important to you. Also someone was talking about 5th years earlier—pretty sure something like 50% of the class at HMS takes 5th years either in research or dual degrees. Not sure if they're funded but if that many people do, I cant imagine it wouldn't be.

I have nothing to add about Duke other than I feel like the pros/cons you mentioned just immediately rule it out. Also imho, not to be blunt, the curriculum is very similar to Harvard but it's otherwise worse in every way (relative to Harvard)...just don't see a reason here tbh.

I vote HMS easily. If price is the same, there's no reason not to based on what you've said here. I will 100% bet that if you don't go, you'll be kicking yourself down the line for not taking up the Harvard name. I think everyone here and in general like to pretend like they're mature enough that nAmE DoeSNT maTTeR which is definitely true for your career prospects—anyone suggesting that your career will be different depending on these 4 school choices is delusional—but like come on haha.

I wont chime in on match lists or matching things since I'm clueless but those are my 2 cents.

Congrats btw, all wonderful choices. Good luck.
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I disagree with you your overrating the HMS name.Your too fixated on the “prestige of the HMS name. Each of these schools offer the same exact opportunities .

You saying Duke is worst in every way to Harvard is absurd . It offers P/F for clinical and preclinical years with a year built in for research to strengthen your residency application with zero competition and a small collaborative class size . Harvard like Columbia is competitive during clinical years and students feel stressed competing for resources too boost residency applications

Duke offers the same opportunities as Harvard but with a smaller less competitive class size and less stressful experience . OP should go where they feel like they would be most happy , location they enjoy , minimal stress , and have the least about of debt.


Anybody smart enough to get into these elite schools is smart enough to utilize their schools immense resources to shape their path in medicine and match at their top choice for residency in any field they choose .
 
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I should add that although I was miserable in New Haven, the medical students at Yale all seemed really happy, grounded, humble, and smart. They all went on to any specialty they desired.
 
I can provide some insight (yet this is one person's perspective) into HMS as a current Pathways student.

Regarding competition, our first year and clinical year are fully P/F (it really is more of a P now or P later). Regarding years 3 and 4, advanced clinical rotations do have honors/pass/fail grading but what I have heard is that they are very generous with their honors. As long as you show up prepared, have a good work ethic, and can be a good team member it isn't too difficult to get honors. There is, as far as I am aware, no limit to the number of students that can honor advanced clinical electives, so there really isn't any competition at all. No AOA, internal rankings, etc...

Year 1 at HMS (in Pathways) also gives you an opportunity to do research during your afternoons as M, Tu, Th, F classes go from 8/8:30 - 12/12:30 (with a once a week 1 and a half hour anatomy section in the afternoon). This leaves lots of "free" time to pursue research during first year. Still gotta prepare class material at home, but again the P/F systems lets you focus on just getting a general understanding and not spend your whole afternoon studying. I usually spent 2 to 2 and a half hours preparing for class next day's class material (sometimes as little as one hour depending on how difficult a class was). Year 2 gives you no time to do anything since you will be in clinics and the wards, however it being P/F does give you some breathing room to not have to study like a maniac to achieve that top grade in order to get honors (again, no honors for our core clinical year rotations). Shelf exams fall within this P/F guideline at the end of each rotation, with the passing grade usually being 65%. Our shelf exams are NBME.

Mandatory class attendance does get a little old after a while, fortunately it is only for one year. I will say, though, that they have eased on this "mandatory" aspect of attendance and seem to be going towards them not placing as much emphasis on attendance (comparing my year to the current year for example). I will also say flipped classroom is not for everyone, but it is much better (in my opinion) than sitting for hours in a lecture hall. We do have some lectures here and there, and to be honest, most of us dreaded having to have lectures.

Patient population wise, it really varies hospital to hospital. You definitely do get exposed to a diverse patient population here (we have a huge Brazilian immigrant population for example!). For example, Beth Israel sees the most diverse population out of the 3 main HMS hospitals, with the Brigham and MGH seeing fewer but still enough for you to have a diverse patient experience. If you really want to be immersed in a diverse patient population experience, you can opt in to be considered for the longitudinal clinical year program at the Cambridge Health Alliance (CHA). CHA sees an incredibly diverse patient population as it serves as a safety net hospital. Many of the CHA patients also get part of their care at Beth Israel, which is why it also has the presence of a diverse patient population. During years 3 and 4 you can also choose to do your advanced clinical rotations at any of the affiliated hospitals (Fenway Health included which sees a huge LGBTQ+ population), so if you would want a specific exposure (be it patients, specialty, facility, vibe, etc.) you have lots of options available (I have also heard it is easy to do rotations at Boston Medical Center if you wanted to explore there as well).

Finally, just want to add that having 4 (BI, BWH, MGH, CHA) affiliated hospitals does open a lot of doors for residency programs. In theory, for some programs you have up to 4 home residency programs you can have "home turf" advantage to match at. Some specialties (like dermatology or ophto) have only one program available (cross Harvard derm program or ophto program), but for the most part (surgery, medicine, anesthesia, etc.) you do have a unique residency program at each of the affiliated hospitals (CHA is the most limited one with only medicine and psych I believe).

Feel free to reach out if you have specific questions!
 
Really appreciate the responses everyone (and the wide variety of viewpoints)! I didn't know HMS was P/F during clerkships so I'd say that gives it a solid edge over Columbia's tiered MCY.

I think the idea of no shelf exams during clerkships @ Yale is good in theory, but am worried that this will set me back for Step 2 prep, which will only be more important now that Step 1 is P/F. So in my mind, P/F pre-clinical and P/F clinical w/ shelf exams to keep me on track is a plus in the HMS column.

Also good to hear that HMS is connected to diverse patient populations, even if it's not the bulk of what BWH/MGH see.

That said, I'm not dead-set on the Harvard home-court advantage for residency. Tbh I could see myself anywhere on the East Coast. Tricky tricky.
 
Making some of the same decisions and wondering where you are thinking/leaning a month later?
 
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