Dartmouth vs. Georgetown vs. Pitt

[tmk]

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Relative costs of each for me: Dartmouth the cheapest, Georgetown ~8k more a year, and pitt ~20k more a year. I'm interested in specializing, ortho in particular. I'm thinking georgetown atm, beacuse of location and ortho residency success. Is it really foolish to turn down pitt for georgetown due to cost and location? I also get the feeling from my interview at pitt that most of the ppl who go there were rejected from top10 schools and decided to go to the "next best" school. Dartmouth seems great aside from being rural (I'm looking for more urban) and less specialization. Any thoughts or advice?

 

[19nbj58]

Relative costs of each for me: Dartmouth the cheapest, Georgetown ~8k more a year, and pitt ~20k more a year. I'm interested in specializing, ortho in particular. I'm thinking georgetown atm, beacuse of location and ortho residency success. Is it really foolish to turn down pitt for georgetown due to cost and location? I also get the feeling from my interview at pitt that most of the ppl who go there were rejected from top10 schools and decided to go to the "next best" school. Dartmouth seems great aside from being rural (I'm looking for more urban) and less specialization. Any thoughts or advice?

lol and what about georgetown and dartmouth students?

 

[blackbird11384]

All the points you made seem to point you towards Georgetown (more urban setting, cheaper than Pitt, ortho interest). The price difference between Dartmouth and Georgetown are pretty minimal, and especially so if you like the more urban setting. Come become a Hoya. Private Message me if you have any questions about Georgetown (currently finishing up my first year here).

To add a bit about the top-tier envy. At least at Georgetown, there is no prominent sense of top-tier envy. Georgetown is solidly in the upper mid-tier of great medical schools, and we have pride for our school.

 

[WashMe]

Relative costs of each for me: Dartmouth the cheapest, Georgetown ~8k more a year, and pitt ~20k more a year. I'm interested in specializing, ortho in particular. I'm thinking georgetown atm, beacuse of location and ortho residency success. Is it really foolish to turn down pitt for georgetown due to cost and location? I also get the feeling from my interview at pitt that most of the ppl who go there were rejected from top10 schools and decided to go to the "next best" school. Dartmouth seems great aside from being rural (I'm looking for more urban) and less specialization. Any thoughts or advice?

I vote for Pitt. If you want to do something competitive, go to the "best" school you can get into. I'm sure some people go to Pitt b/c they were turned down by top 10's, but so what? I'm sure many people also got in even though they were not really competitive enough per se, so those people are stoked about it. I will say, however, that (money aside) you should go wherever you think you'll be able to get the best grades/step scores/experience; only you can determine which school that is.

 

[sunset823]

I would say (IMHO) Pitt has the best reputation among the three, then Dartmouth, then Georgetown. Though Pitt may be more expensive than the others, the cost of living would be the lowest among the three, I presume, so you may want to take that into account in the financial calculations.

It also depends what you want out of a city what the "best location" is. I love DC, but I wouldn't want to go to school there, because GTown does have the problem of not really having hospitals associated with it, I think this was an issue some time ago. Also in med school you don't really get to enjoy the city that much. Pittsburgh is a nice place to study, I think, and I'm partial to the Midwest, but the school also has an excellent reputation.

Dartmouth may be rural, but it seems like you'd get good clinical experience because you would be getting cases from a tri-state area (really the only competition outside Boston in the region is UVM). I have a friend who applied there and loved it, though she decided on an NYC school for personal reasons.

I would say, based on cost and reputation, go with Dartmouth, but Pitt should definitely be in consideration as well. I wouldn't do Georgetown, too pricey and the clinicals are kinda iffy.

 

[mymembernames]

I say Gtown b/c you want to do Ortho.

 

[blackbird11384]

I would say (IMHO) Pitt has the best reputation among the three, then Dartmouth, then Georgetown. Though Pitt may be more expensive than the others, the cost of living would be the lowest among the three, I presume, so you may want to take that into account in the financial calculations.

You can live in a house with other medical students for around 800-900/month. Not as much as people think based on the COL estimates given by Georgetown (which assumes you are looking into buying a single bedroom).

It also depends what you want out of a city what the "best location" is. I love DC, but I wouldn't want to go to school there, because GTown does have the problem of not really having hospitals associated with it, I think this was an issue some time ago. Also in med school you don't really get to enjoy the city that much.

Now these statements are just wrong. In addition to having its own >600 bed hospital, Georgetown also has its major association with MedStar health's very large hospital system. Part of the MedStar Health System is the Washington Hospital Center, the largest hospital in the DC metro area, which sees the majority of cases in the DC area. We also rotate through National Children's Medical Center, one of the best children's hospitals in the nation. So we have our own academic center for niche surgeries and clinical trials, WHC in a very urban setting that sees the best and worst of DC, a top children's hospital to rotate through, and many smaller suburban hospitals that see lots of bread and butter cases.

Here is list of all of MedStar's hospitals. We rotate through more hospitals than just these I believe.
http://www.medstarhealth.org/body.cfm?id=28

As for not having time to do anything outside of medical school, you are a pre-med so you can't really give much of an opinion on this. I can't speak for everyone in my class at Georgetown, but from how my first year went and how my friend's first years went, we had lots and lots of extra time to take advantage of all the things DC has to offer. Georgetown's new curriculum cuts down on lecture time so we get out most days by 1PM. Second Year may be a little different, but I can assure you that your medical school's setting should play a very important part of your decision process.

I would say, based on cost and reputation, go with Dartmouth, but Pitt should definitely be in consideration as well. I wouldn't do Georgetown, too pricey and the clinicals are kinda iffy.

I agree that Pitt has the better reputation in medicine, but Georgetown has the better reputation as a whole university across the nation. Dartmouth's and Georgetown's medical reputation are probably equal. I think Georgetown's cost in this case is a nice happy medium between the more expensive Pitt, and the less desirable Dartmouth. I think Georgetown and Pitt should be the main contenders in the OP's decision (because Georgetown has the ideal location, better price, and big ortho placement, and because Pitt has the better medical reputation).

 

[blackbird11384]

Here is a short snippet on Georgetown's affiliated hospitals straight from their website. Also remember that we can do rotations at the Children's National Medical Center. So clearly we have a variety of medical centers including academic, general city hospital, veterans hospital, suburban hospital, and pediatric hospital.

"Clinical facilities for student teaching include a complex of affiliated institutions totaling approximately 3,000 beds. Total outpatient visits in these institutions number well over 1,500 a day. Affiliated hospitals afford excellent clinical teaching facilities and are staffed by Georgetown faculty and house staff. All affiliated hospitals are in the Washington metropolitan area and provide students with opportunities to experience a diverse patient population. Affiliated hospitals include Arlington Hospital, D.C. General Hospital, Fairfax Hospital, National Naval Medical Center, Sibley Hospital, Walter Reed Army Medical Center, and the Washington Veterans Affairs Medical Center. Special programs of instruction, including selected clerkships and electives, are conducted at Providence Hospital and other area hospitals and ambulatory care sites.

The Medstar partnership includes the Washington Hospital Center- home of the premier Shock-Trauma center, the only Burn unit in the region, and the National Rehabilitational Hospital in our Washington region- and five hospitals in Baltimore."

 

[RL536]

It seemed clear from your original post that you were leaning toward Georgetown. Follow your gut. As far as reputation is concerned, it's not like you're comparing apples and oranges when you talk about Georgetown v Pittsburgh v Dartmouth. These are all great schools with great medical reputations, period. If you think your quality of life will be better at Georgetown, then go there. Now, if hypothetically you were deciding between Pitt and, I don't know, some obviously less reputable school (unranked, unheard of, but in a good location, etc), then I think that it would definitely be more reasonable to debate about the significance of reputation/ranking and how it should affect your decision. But your situation is not like this. At all. So instead of nit picking at the small differences in numbers and reputation, go with your gut. For you, I vote gtown. Plus, one attending/medical director I know at UVa went to georgetown, and he wears a hoyas t-shirt underneath his button down nearly every day! he'll tell you that they were the best years of his life.

 

[blackbird11384]

It seemed clear from your original post that you were leaning toward Georgetown. Follow your gut. As far as reputation is concerned, it's not like you're comparing apples and oranges when you talk about Georgetown v Pittsburgh v Dartmouth. These are all great schools with great medical reputations, period. If you think your quality of life will be better at Georgetown, then go there. Now, if hypothetically you were deciding between Pitt and, I don't know, some obviously less reputable school (unranked, unheard of, but in a good location, etc), then I think that it would definitely be more reasonable to debate about the significance of reputation/ranking and how it should affect your decision. But your situation is not like this. At all. So instead of nit picking at the small differences in numbers and reputation, go with your gut. For you, I vote gtown. Plus, one attending/medical director I know at UVa went to georgetown, and he wears a hoyas t-shirt underneath his button down nearly every day! he'll tell you that they were the best years of his life.

Haha, i have three georgetown med shirts (two were given to me, one I bought), and three georgetown med sweatshirts. Georgetown students like to wear their school's name and colors.

 

[Smallville86]

Now these statements are just wrong. In addition to having its own >600 bed hospital, Georgetown also has its major association with MedStar health's very large hospital system. Part of the MedStar Health System is the Washington Hospital Center, the largest hospital in the DC metro area, which sees the majority of cases in the DC area. We also rotate through National Children's Medical Center, one of the best children's hospitals in the nation. So we have our own academic center for niche surgeries and clinical trials, WHC in a very urban setting that sees the best and worst of DC, a top children's hospital to rotate through, and many smaller suburban hospitals that see lots of bread and butter cases.

I agree that Pitt has the better reputation in medicine, but Georgetown has the better reputation as a whole university across the nation. Dartmouth's and Georgetown's medical reputation are probably equal. I think Georgetown's cost in this case is a nice happy medium between the more expensive Pitt, and the less desirable Dartmouth. I think Georgetown and Pitt should be the main contenders in the OP's decision (because Georgetown has the ideal location, better price, and big ortho placement, and because Pitt has the better medical reputation).[/QUOTE]

Although I agree that Georgetown is no slouch in clinical training, Pitt has the largest academic hospital system in the country. UPMC is the biggest employer in the state of Pennsylvania only after Pennsylvania itself, and with 14 hospitals (including 10 Ten USNWR) and 500 outpatient centers, it's hard to compare. Just thought I'd raise. 🙂

Also, do NOT go with overall reputation of a university- as medical schools are governed separately than undergraduates, one has no bearing on the other. The only thing you'll get out of a great university name is bragging rights at a party or high school reunion. Ex. Dartmouth (undergrad>med), UW-Seattle (med>undergrad), etc. etc.

This conversation is moot now as it's past May 15th, but hopefully this helps those still with decisions to make, or next year. Best wishes! 🙂

 

[takhara]

I agree that Pitt has the better reputation in medicine, but Georgetown has the better reputation as a whole university across the nation.

Who cares? Is a guy off the street going to determine your residency placement? People in the medical profession know these schools' reputations, so who cares what the nation as a whole thinks. I guess I'm annoyed because I chose against Gtown and can't tell you how many friends and family members have been shocked by my decision to turn down such a prestigious school. Don't get me wrong, i think it's a good med school, I just hate when people pull the "prestige" card. The general public knows nothing about med school, so don't let it sway your decision.

Oh it's after May 15. Good luck at whatever school you chose.

 

[blackbird11384]

Who cares? Is a guy off the street going to determine your residency placement? People in the medical profession know these schools' reputations, so who cares what the nation as a whole thinks. I guess I'm annoyed because I chose against Gtown and can't tell you how many friends and family members have been shocked by my decision to turn down such a prestigious school. Don't get me wrong, i think it's a good med school, I just hate when people pull the "prestige" card. The general public knows nothing about med school, so don't let it sway your decision.

Oh it's after May 15. Good luck at whatever school you chose.

You're right, residency director's probably won't care about the prestige of your school's name, and care more about the prestige of your medical school. But the people you will be serving and taking care of will know more about the prestige of your school's name. I can remember several instances where my classmates and I were rounding through Georgetown's hospital to see patients, and a patient would explain that they liked the fact that Georgetown students are at one of the best schools in the nation (they know our undergraduate/law/business schools are very well known). I'm not lying. I wasn't going to tell them that Georgetown is not in the tip-top echelon of schools. The people you will be serving will have heard of Georgetown more often than Pitt.

 

[spike22]

Pitt, hands down.