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- Mar 27, 2015
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EDIT: Mods, please move to the School Specific forum!! thank you and I'm sorry
Hi guys,
First, thank you to everyone, especially the ADCOMs, who have given me any sort of feedback or constructive criticism on this website. It really helped out this cycle and I was accepted to 10 schools. Right now, I have it narrowed down to these 5, and I am getting increasingly stressed about this decision that I'm going to have to make in a month. Warning: this is going to be a long post, but I'm only doing it because I want to get things right. These schools are the main ones that really won me over on interview day, but I'm having a very difficult time balancing out the fine details that may or may not matter. I can say with > 95% confidence that my professional goal is to become one of the top in a surgical specialty with a large focus on the development of novel techniques and procedures, and ultimately reporting outcomes and whatnot. I want to also practice in a diverse metropolitan environment, hopefully near family. My parents don't have money to support me, and I already have 50k in loans. I have not heard about any financial aid packages and have not negotiated money anywhere. For what it's worth, I'm split 50/50 between Loyola and Dartmouth, but I left a few of the next runner-ups in case someone has anything interesting to add. Here we go:
Dartmouth (Geisel)
PROS:
High Step 1 average
More involvement in clinicals relative to other schools
Top-notch match list (see it over the past few years here)
~85 class size
Pass/Fail curriculum, integrated with PBL, and supposedly teaches much more strongly to step 1
Clinical exposure/preceptorships during M1 and M2
Name-brand (Ivy League) really catches my attention
Quiet area / no distractions
Urban Health Scholars program
Can do clinical rotations at UCSF-affiliates
Seem to fit well with their mission
No limits on what I can do professionally
Low cost of living
Students seem happy
Tight-knit community of people
85% of students receive scholarship (140k avg. indebtedness)
CONS:
Rural area and the transition to it (e.g. I've been a commuter from home my whole life)
FAR away from family, friends, dog
Can't go to concerts
Most expensive tuition
Limited patient demographics
Very outdoorsy-type people
Small community (friends, dating, etc.)
Financially "in the red"; have heard that the school spent more money than they earned?
Barely anyone matching in the Midwest area
Loyola Stritch
PROS:
Cura personalis and mission statement
Near family, friends dog
Working with desired patient demographics (Chicagoland)
Very impressive facilities, all renovated within the past couple of years (hands down the most impressive facilities of this interview cycle)
The fitness center is a 1-2 minute walk down the hall from classrooms, and its amazing.
Students seem very happy
Pre-dissected bodies for anatomy lab
Good match list and has home neurosurg/ortho programs
Loyola Medicine is a name brand for the Chicagoland area
Felt great about the school after interview day
Can go to concerts with friends (big music fan)
Alma-mater
Food and supplies can be easily sent from home
CONS:
Traditional grading for pre-clinical years
Not much, if any, clinical exposure pre-clinically
More expensive cost of living
Maywood is an unsafe area depending on where you live
165 class size, bigger than I'd prefer
Georgetown
PROS:
Beautiful location
Diverse patient demographics
Preclinical exposure
Longitudinal research thesis
Mission statement
Many match into orthopaedics
Name-brand to some extent
CONS:
200 class size
No idea how students feel about the school... couldn't even tell if students were happy or not
Graded pre-clinical years
Very expensive cost of living
Unimpressive facilities
UIC (state school)
PROS:
Cheapest tuition
Pass/Fail curriculum
Tons of research (at least at Chicago)
Solid match list especially for a state school
High average Step 1 scores since their curriculum transformation
Several colleagues go there already between M1 and M4
Food and supplies can be easily sent from home
Numerous opportunities to customize your experience based on your professional goals (research, global health, etc.)
CONS:
> 200 class size
Was not offered Chicago placement, even though this was perhaps the main reason I applied
Felt OK about the school after interview day; not blown away, not disappointed
Overall, unhappy with living in Rockford/Peoria/Urbana for four years
Have to take full cost of attendance in loans ($60k/year).
Rush
PROS:
125 class size
Very strong residency programs at the home institution (ortho, neuro, neurosurg, primary care)
Honors/pass/fail
Students seem very happy
Near family, friends, dog
Ideal living location
Diverse patient demographics = many disease mechanisms I wouldn't see elsewhere
Stroger hospital (level 1 trauma), the safety net of Chicago healthcare
High emphasis on outcomes based research
Brand new hospital
Rush has a very strong name in the Chicagoland area
Can go to concerts with friends
Food and supplies can be easily sent from home
CONS:
More expensive cost of living
Lower Step1 Scores relative to others on this list
Historically OK match list
Unsafe area depending on where you live
Thank you all so much. Please help me make the best decision. I don't really have any family or friends that are pursuing medicine, so their advice isn't very helpful aside from the obvious things.
Hi guys,
First, thank you to everyone, especially the ADCOMs, who have given me any sort of feedback or constructive criticism on this website. It really helped out this cycle and I was accepted to 10 schools. Right now, I have it narrowed down to these 5, and I am getting increasingly stressed about this decision that I'm going to have to make in a month. Warning: this is going to be a long post, but I'm only doing it because I want to get things right. These schools are the main ones that really won me over on interview day, but I'm having a very difficult time balancing out the fine details that may or may not matter. I can say with > 95% confidence that my professional goal is to become one of the top in a surgical specialty with a large focus on the development of novel techniques and procedures, and ultimately reporting outcomes and whatnot. I want to also practice in a diverse metropolitan environment, hopefully near family. My parents don't have money to support me, and I already have 50k in loans. I have not heard about any financial aid packages and have not negotiated money anywhere. For what it's worth, I'm split 50/50 between Loyola and Dartmouth, but I left a few of the next runner-ups in case someone has anything interesting to add. Here we go:
Dartmouth (Geisel)
PROS:
High Step 1 average
More involvement in clinicals relative to other schools
Top-notch match list (see it over the past few years here)
~85 class size
Pass/Fail curriculum, integrated with PBL, and supposedly teaches much more strongly to step 1
Clinical exposure/preceptorships during M1 and M2
Name-brand (Ivy League) really catches my attention
Quiet area / no distractions
Urban Health Scholars program
Can do clinical rotations at UCSF-affiliates
Seem to fit well with their mission
No limits on what I can do professionally
Low cost of living
Students seem happy
Tight-knit community of people
85% of students receive scholarship (140k avg. indebtedness)
CONS:
Rural area and the transition to it (e.g. I've been a commuter from home my whole life)
FAR away from family, friends, dog
Can't go to concerts
Most expensive tuition
Limited patient demographics
Very outdoorsy-type people
Small community (friends, dating, etc.)
Financially "in the red"; have heard that the school spent more money than they earned?
Barely anyone matching in the Midwest area
Loyola Stritch
PROS:
Cura personalis and mission statement
Near family, friends dog
Working with desired patient demographics (Chicagoland)
Very impressive facilities, all renovated within the past couple of years (hands down the most impressive facilities of this interview cycle)
The fitness center is a 1-2 minute walk down the hall from classrooms, and its amazing.
Students seem very happy
Pre-dissected bodies for anatomy lab
Good match list and has home neurosurg/ortho programs
Loyola Medicine is a name brand for the Chicagoland area
Felt great about the school after interview day
Can go to concerts with friends (big music fan)
Alma-mater
Food and supplies can be easily sent from home
CONS:
Traditional grading for pre-clinical years
Not much, if any, clinical exposure pre-clinically
More expensive cost of living
Maywood is an unsafe area depending on where you live
165 class size, bigger than I'd prefer
Georgetown
PROS:
Beautiful location
Diverse patient demographics
Preclinical exposure
Longitudinal research thesis
Mission statement
Many match into orthopaedics
Name-brand to some extent
CONS:
200 class size
No idea how students feel about the school... couldn't even tell if students were happy or not
Graded pre-clinical years
Very expensive cost of living
Unimpressive facilities
UIC (state school)
PROS:
Cheapest tuition
Pass/Fail curriculum
Tons of research (at least at Chicago)
Solid match list especially for a state school
High average Step 1 scores since their curriculum transformation
Several colleagues go there already between M1 and M4
Food and supplies can be easily sent from home
Numerous opportunities to customize your experience based on your professional goals (research, global health, etc.)
CONS:
> 200 class size
Was not offered Chicago placement, even though this was perhaps the main reason I applied
Felt OK about the school after interview day; not blown away, not disappointed
Overall, unhappy with living in Rockford/Peoria/Urbana for four years
Have to take full cost of attendance in loans ($60k/year).
Rush
PROS:
125 class size
Very strong residency programs at the home institution (ortho, neuro, neurosurg, primary care)
Honors/pass/fail
Students seem very happy
Near family, friends, dog
Ideal living location
Diverse patient demographics = many disease mechanisms I wouldn't see elsewhere
Stroger hospital (level 1 trauma), the safety net of Chicago healthcare
High emphasis on outcomes based research
Brand new hospital
Rush has a very strong name in the Chicagoland area
Can go to concerts with friends
Food and supplies can be easily sent from home
CONS:
More expensive cost of living
Lower Step1 Scores relative to others on this list
Historically OK match list
Unsafe area depending on where you live
Thank you all so much. Please help me make the best decision. I don't really have any family or friends that are pursuing medicine, so their advice isn't very helpful aside from the obvious things.
