Downstate vs Stony Brook

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infinityavenue

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I have a week to decide between these schools and have no idea what to do. I'm IS at both and cost will more or less be the same. Both are close to home, but Stony Brook is more convenient in terms of travel time as I could easily drive home as opposed to having a 1.5 hr MTA commute. Both have similar caliber in terms of matching.

Downstate
Pros
(+) P/F grading, unranked/no shadow ranking
(+) Step 1 at 1.5 years preclinical
(+) City life, can live in a nice area of Brooklyn
(+) Hymns about clinical experience
(+) Diverse patient population

Cons
(-) Large class size (190)
(-) Many rotation sites, some as faraway as Staten Island
(-) Dreary/old facilities
(-) "Less organized" administration reputation
(-) Not the safest location
(-) Slightly nervous about everyday city stressors

Stony Brook
Pros
(+) small class size (140)
(+) slightly better reputation
(+) main rotations at Stony/not many super faraway rotations
(+) better research/funding
(+) Safer surrounding area
(+) Has a rep of having a strong community/relaxed feel
(+) Great facilities, good resources

Cons
(-) H/P/F - have heard from students it can be somewhat competitive
(-) Location is both boring and expensive
(-) Homogenous patient population, also rep of patients being more hoity-toity/less receptive to med students
(-) Step 1 at 3rd year, less time to plan for residency apps + figure out speciality in reach
(-) New(ish) curriculum so school is still ironing out kinks
(-) Would have to get multiple roommates (seems most med students live in a house together, although it could be possible pro).

I'm from the Long Island/Queens fringe area, so it could be nice to actually experience real city living. I'm not sure how much stock to put into preclinical vs clinical experiences. I also didn't have the best interview experience at Downstate, but it was one of my first interviews, so I really wasn't sure at what I was looking for and fear I may have judged it too easily. Stony Brook seems more comfortable, but Downstate feels like it'll be more exciting. I'm interested in pursuing competitive residencies, so research will be somewhat important.

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Congrats on your acceptances! I am also a NYS resident and interviewed at both Stony and Downstate but was ultimately WL'd at both. To be quite honest, Downstate was a top choice for me for a very long time because I went to NYU as an undergrad and I love the city feel. Plus clinicals in Brooklyn would be very exciting as the patient population is much more diverse. However, as you mentioned, their facilities are old and they are a bit more disorganized than Stony. Stony has some excellent research opportunities (new MART building, affiliations to Brookhaven, etc.), and I felt more welcomed at Stony than at Downstate (my Stony interview was also much better than my Downstate one). Overall, both institutions are similar in ranking and perform similarly in terms of residency matching. Go where you think you will be happiest and where you think you will have the resources necessary to achieve your future career goals. Good luck!
 
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I had to make the same decision, and I chose Downstate! I also made a post back in April, link here. I chose Downstate because ultimately, Downstate's location in NYC was too hard to beat! I also realized that my reasons for liking Stony Brook (I was set on Stony Brook since being accepted to both way back in October) weren't really that substantial. Shiny and new facilities are nice, but they wouldn't make me a better doctor. And also, higher research funding was less relevant since I wanted to do clinical research rather than basic science research anyway. I also suspect that Stony Brook's "better" reputation is due to the fact that it has a really big undergrad and a lot of people know college students who go/have gone there.

Also, does Downstate really have true unranked preclinicals? I was under the impression that the preclinical grades were P/F but they still ranked you under the table...
 
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I had to make the same decision, and I chose Downstate! I also made a post back in April, link here. I chose Downstate because ultimately, Downstate's location in NYC was too hard to beat! I also realized that my reasons for liking Stony Brook (I was set on Stony Brook since being accepted to both way back in October) weren't really that substantial. Shiny and new facilities are nice, but they wouldn't make me a better doctor. And also, higher research funding was less relevant since I didn't want to do clinical research rather than basic science research anyway. I also suspect that Stony Brook's "better" reputation is due to the fact that it has a really big undergrad and a lot of people know college students who go/have gone there.

Also, does Downstate really have true unranked preclinicals? I was under the impression that the preclinical grades were P/F but they still ranked you under the table...

Thanks for the link! I asked multiple med students regarding P/F and that's what they told me? I specifically said "true pass/fail" and they said yes. This was also confirmed by another friend who attended a different interview and asked about shadow rankings and such. Did you hear differently? I definitely agree on location though! NYC is such a vibrant place to be in your 20s vs Stony Brook which just feels so stagnant and dull.
 
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Thanks for the link! I asked multiple med students regarding P/F and that's what they told me? I specifically said "true pass/fail" and they said yes. This was also confirmed by another friend who attended a different interview and asked about shadow rankings and such. Did you hear differently? I definitely agree on location though! NYC is such a vibrant place to be in your 20s vs Stony Brook which just feels so stagnant and dull.
I think the people I've spoken to simply assumed that there was internal ranking since they had not been explicitly told otherwise.
 
I think the people I've spoken to simply assumed that there was internal ranking since they had not been explicitly told otherwise.

There are only a few "true pass/fail" schools in that any school that has AOA (the Alpha Omega Alpha medical honor society) has to rank their students in some capacity internally, otherwise they could not determine which students get AOA. If you are looking at a school that says they are truly pass/fail and students are unranked - see if they have AOA or not to get your answer.
 
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