Dartmouth vs UCF

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Suomi-leijona

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Hi,

I have been fortunate to receive a few different acceptances. Right now I am trying to decide between UCF and Dartmouth and need some serious help deciding.
A little bit about me: I'm a 25-year-old male from Utah, married so my wife's salary will pay for living expenses throughout medical school. I am unsure about what I want to do specialty wise, but I like the idea of family medicine and have recently been intrigued by vascular surgery (very different, I know.)

Dartmouth
Pros

-Prestige/name recognition (pro for academic medicine/more competitive specialties like vascular surgery?)
-Great match list
-1.5-year curriculum and P/F unranked
-Only 92 people in class, so lots of opportunities for research, etc.
-My brother will be a 4th year at Dartmouth and he is hoping to stay for residency, so family would be close by.
-Large hospital close to the school

Cons
-Higher tuition cost (~$67k)
-I like the location, but my wife isn't a fan. She says it is too rural and everything feels old.
-Older facilities


UCF:
Pros
-Beautiful, brand new facilities and lots of technology integrated into learning
-We both would love to live in Florida, and would prefer to get out of the snow
-Cheaper tuition (~$46k)
-Only take tests 6-8 weeks and they are always on a Friday with a week off to study.
-Research built into curriculum

Cons
-A surprisingly good match list, but not comparable to Dartmouth
-Graded preclinical years
-2-year preclinical (I have heard mixed reviews about the 1.5 year preclinical, so I'm not sure If that's a pro or con)
-Not as highly regarded as Dartmouth

My wife says that she would move to New Hampshire if I feel like that's where I should go, but that it would be really hard for her compared to Orlando. So I guess my question comes down to: is the pass/fail curriculum and better name recognition/match lists worth $21k/year and my wife being disappointed if there is a decent chance that I will end up doing family medicine?

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Simple statement: Happy wife, happy life. Seems like UCF would be a better fit in your case, plus it's cheaper. Maybe visit Dartmouth before finalizing your decision to see if she changes her mind, but otherwise I think you should stick to UCF.
 
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my wife's salary will pay for living expenses throughout medical school.

UCF:
Pros
-We both would love to live in Florida, and would prefer to get out of the snow
-Cheaper tuition (~$46k)

Dartmouth
Cons
-Higher tuition cost (~$67k)
-I like the location, but my wife isn't a fan. She says it is too rural and everything feels old.



Seems like a pretty easy choice man...




With regards to your specialty choices, FM is one of the least competitive specialties to match. Vascular surgery is one of the most competitive, mostly because there are so few spots - to match integrated you'll have to do well on steps, network, get strong research/LORs from vascular surgeons regardless of where you go. General surgery is "medium" competitive overall (with academic programs being highly competitive) and you can get to vascular from there as well via fellowship. All of these are attainable whether you go to UCF or Dartmouth.
 
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