deciding between mstps-- home vs. "better"

[rogerthaat]

This is a long post, so bear with me.

I'm currently deciding between UC Irvine and Vanderbilt for MD/PhD. Ultimately I know this decision is my own, and that many here may not be able to comment about the schools themselves, but I thought I would list my thoughts, and if anyone has input or suggestions of anything else that I need to think about, then I will take this advice into consideration. I have told the programs that I will make a decision Monday (just visited both).

Location: I'm from the suburbs of Los Angeles, and my undergrad is in Boston. My parents are in LA, but I have some extended family in Tennessee. My plan when I started applying to schools was to come back to California. Irvine is by far the better climate and location for me, though I've heard people say that it's a bit boring. Nashville is supposed to be a fun and young city, but I have never lived in the south.

Med School: Irvine seems really forward thinking in terms of the iMedEd program and their emphasis on ultrasound as the future of physical exams, but the hospital is like 20 minutes away on a good day. At Vandy it would be very convenient to be practically next to the hospital both during M1/2 and grad years. They have a solid curriculum that obviously gets results based on average step 1 scores, but I don't know how innovative it is.

MSTP: It's clear that the Vandy administration is very invested in the well-being and future of the students. At Irvine, I didn't get the impression that they were as involved. Students at both places seemed happy to be at their respective schools.

Grad research: Vandy definitely has more micro research, which is what I am interested in right now, though I acknowledge that my interests may change.

I don't know how much this should influence my decision, but Vanderbilt is ranked 15 by US News, vs. 42 for Irvine.

Final thoughts: If I were to pick Irvine, would I be doing my future self a disservice in terms of matching into a competitive California residency?
If I picked Vandy, could I be missing out on the opportunity to spend time with my family in a place I want to live? 8 years is a long time. I think I would feel much more comfortable about Vandy if I were only looking at 4 years.

For any students at either of these MSTPs, can you think of other pros or cons to your program?

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[bd4727]

This is a long post, so bear with me.

I'm currently deciding between UC Irvine and Vanderbilt for MD/PhD. Ultimately I know this decision is my own, and that many here may not be able to comment about the schools themselves, but I thought I would list my thoughts, and if anyone has input or suggestions of anything else that I need to think about, then I will take this advice into consideration. I have told the programs that I will make a decision Monday (just visited both).

Location: I'm from the suburbs of Los Angeles, and my undergrad is in Boston. My parents are in LA, but I have some extended family in Tennessee. My plan when I started applying to schools was to come back to California. Irvine is by far the better climate and location for me, though I've heard people say that it's a bit boring. Nashville is supposed to be a fun and young city, but I have never lived in the south.

Med School: Irvine seems really forward thinking in terms of the iMedEd program and their emphasis on ultrasound as the future of physical exams, but the hospital is like 20 minutes away on a good day. At Vandy it would be very convenient to be practically next to the hospital both during M1/2 and grad years. They have a solid curriculum that obviously gets results based on average step 1 scores, but I don't know how innovative it is.

MSTP: It's clear that the Vandy administration is very invested in the well-being and future of the students. At Irvine, I didn't get the impression that they were as involved. Students at both places seemed happy to be at their respective schools.

Grad research: Vandy definitely has more micro research, which is what I am interested in right now, though I acknowledge that my interests may change.

I don't know how much this should influence my decision, but Vanderbilt is ranked 15 by US News, vs. 42 for Irvine.

Final thoughts: If I were to pick Irvine, would I be doing my future self a disservice in terms of matching into a competitive California residency?
If I picked Vandy, could I be missing out on the opportunity to spend time with my family in a place I want to live? 8 years is a long time. I think I would feel much more comfortable about Vandy if I were only looking at 4 years.

For any students at either of these MSTPs, can you think of other pros or cons to your program?

Both are well-respected biomedical research institutions with NIH-funded MSTPs. The differences between them are not ones that will affect your future career-- at this point it is more about what you will do as an individual during your time than about the difference between these two schools. Unless you have very specific research interests, which it sounds like you don't, then either one will be great.

In my opinion (and others on this board) the "innovation" of the med school curriculum is BS they use to recruit nieve pre-meds-- its all the same in the end no matter where you are they just call things different names.

 

[orrghead16]

PM at ya.

 

[Neuronix]

Final thoughts: If I were to pick Irvine, would I be doing my future self a disservice in terms of matching into a competitive California residency?

IMO, regional bias is more important for getting a residency in a particular area than is ranking, especially when you're splitting hairs between MSTPs like this. So if anything, if your primary goal is a California residency, I think Irvine is the right choice.

 

[texasguy]

IMO, at the end of the training you want to gain a good understanding of science in your field and learn how to complete a good research project stem to stern AND be competitive in the residency match. the former requires you to seek out a good mentor so go to either institution where you can identify a good mentor to have and the latter you can find out from looking at the school's MD/PHD match list (of where its graduating seniors go for residency). Most MD/PhDs that do well in med school (irrespective of where they go) and are fairly productive in graduate school do well in the match so you're probably well of at either place.

 

[Neuronix]

I disagree with two things in the last post.

First, match lists are advertisements. They don't list the people who didn't match. They don't tell you about the people who chose a lesser ranked program to be close to home or stay at their med school. They don't tell you about people who matched at a "big name" program in a location they absolutely hate. They don't tell you about programs that sound big name based on the med school, but in reality suck for that particular specialty. They don't tell you about the people who applied in two specialties and matched in their second choice specialty. They don't tell you who scrambled. They sometimes lie and list a prelim spot as "internal medicine" when in reality they didn't get a categorical spot at all. Even "got their first choice" neglects the fact that they may not have gotten interviews at their top five programs going into the application season.

Second, my experience has been that grad school and med school performance is completely unrelated. But when it comes to getting the residency you want, it's almost entirely the med school performance that counts, with perhaps the exception of pathology and a minority of programs in very limited specialties (peds, IM, neuro).

 

[Shifty B]

I agree with the above statement that geographic bias is strong when it comes to getting residencies and/or jobs. If your ultimate goal is to be in California you are likely better served by going to medical school there.

That being said, if the research opportunities are better at Vanderbilt it is a quality institution and could be very good for you. Overall, the name of Vanderbilt is better than Irvine. Is that enough to overcome geography? Depends on your preference.

 

[rogerthaat]

Thanks for everyone's input. I ended up choosing Vanderbilt!