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Congratulations on the acceptances!
There is no real difference. If your family is on the west coast, then Stanford makes the most sense. The opportunity to do entrepreneurship at Stanford is arguably the best as well in the country.
There is no real difference. If your family is on the west coast, then Stanford makes the most sense. The opportunity to do entrepreneurship at Stanford is arguably the best as well in the country.
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I would make your decision primarily based on how much you want to truly be a doctor. Besides what you've listed, biggest difference I have seen between the two at Harvard it is expected you will train, and that has a big influence on the culture. Stanford is a great place to go to medical school if you don't want to be a doctor.
Besides the culture difference the main difference is the level of affiliated hospitals. Harvard is like UCSF and Stanford merged (e.g. best hospitals in the region + stupid number of researchers + lots of business and other opportunities). That can be a pro or a con as you've noted as it leads to less class unity and it's easy to get lost in the sauce. As far as not starting research M1, not sure who told you that. You have a good amount of time for non-classroom activities first year, as only ~6 hours/day M-F are needed for class + prep. Many people decide to use that for things outside of research, but many also are very productive at HMS M1 year.
Overall you can't go wrong, but I'd think a lot about the culture you want. If you're going into medicine because you want clinical practice to be a part of your career and you think good research or innovation should be informed by actually understanding the practice of medicine, HMS would be a good fit. If you're mostly interested in the research/innovation for its own sake, and could take or leave clinical practice then Stanford would be the move.
Besides the culture difference the main difference is the level of affiliated hospitals. Harvard is like UCSF and Stanford merged (e.g. best hospitals in the region + stupid number of researchers + lots of business and other opportunities). That can be a pro or a con as you've noted as it leads to less class unity and it's easy to get lost in the sauce. As far as not starting research M1, not sure who told you that. You have a good amount of time for non-classroom activities first year, as only ~6 hours/day M-F are needed for class + prep. Many people decide to use that for things outside of research, but many also are very productive at HMS M1 year.
Overall you can't go wrong, but I'd think a lot about the culture you want. If you're going into medicine because you want clinical practice to be a part of your career and you think good research or innovation should be informed by actually understanding the practice of medicine, HMS would be a good fit. If you're mostly interested in the research/innovation for its own sake, and could take or leave clinical practice then Stanford would be the move.
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It is a misconception that Stanford’s culture is not well suited to clinical practice:
Harvard vs Stanford vs UCSF
Harvard vs Stanford vs UCSF
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Not saying it produces subpar clinicians or that it's "not well suited to clinical practice", but one posters comment doesn't override years of stats in which an astounding percentage of Stanford student's have foregone residency to pursue other things. At the end of the day if you took two students who had heavy non-clinical passions and dropped one at Stanford and one at HMS, the one at HMS would be much more likely to end up pursuing residency because of the cultural inertia
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If students would like to continue into residency, that’s up to them to stick to that path and decline other opportunities. It is trivial to make that a differing point versus geographic location, cost of attendance, proximity to family etc. If entrepreneurship is a major interest, go to Stanford. If it isn’t, then look at the previously mentioned aspects. The OP said they’re ok with the distance right now, but that and selling the car are honestly more tangible and distinctive than what each school could do for career goals (outside biotech/business) and what kind of classmates they provide.
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If the OP had strong feelings about those other factors they wouldn't need to post on SDN, and I'm sure they're capable of thinking through how location, etc.. impacts them. The decision to pursue residency is non-trivial and is more influenced by what we see our peers doing and school supporting than many would like to admit. I agree those other factors are important, but all else being equal, I think that cultural difference has the potential to have the biggest impact on the OPs future
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