Drexel vs. Loyola Stritch

[doctorsoonhopefully]

Hey everyone! I was hoping to get some advice on choosing a medical school. Disclaimer: I am still waiting to hear back from Loyola and was planning on submitting a letter of intent, which I know they strongly value. I do not want to submit without being 100000% sure.

I currently am finishing up a masters program at Drexel and have been living in Philadelphia for almost 2 years. I am not a huge fan of this city, but don't hate it either. My end goal is to end up back in NYC. I grew up in Dallas, went to college in North Carolina, lived in NYC for four years, and then moved to Philly. As you can see, I have no problem moving to a new city (I did not know anyone before moving to each of these places) and have gotten good at building a friend group/support system. That being said, it is always nerve-wracking moving to a new place, and I am very tight financially.

Drexel
Pros:

• established friend and support group
• familiar/comfortable with the city
• can stay in my current apartment, which is large, and very close walk to campus
• close to nyc where most of my closest friends are
• prefer to stay/end up in northeast
• familiar with first year curriculum as my masters program uses almost the exact same material
• have some part-time jobs and research that I can continue, have connections with professors to find more research opportunities
• believe there will be more research opportunities in general

Cons:

• no hospital (huge con)
• slightly more expensive (although not by much)
• very large class size, harder to form relationships (personal and professional)?

Loyola
Pros:

• hospital!!!!!!!! (biggest con)
• apparently have a very strong reputation for great clinical training (as told by current students during interview day)
• all students seem very genuinely happy
• smaller class size as compared to Drexel

Cons:

• current students said I would need a car(which I do not have, but have also looked and seems like I will be fine with public transit)
• more in the suburbs than the city (but city is extremely close)
• heard from friend who is a current student that there is very little diversity, and it is felt (had such a bad experience in college bc of this)
• heard from same friend that research is not super easy to find (but then heard from students during interview day that this is not the case, of course they are there to sell the school so unsure who to believe)

Same

• both mid-tier schools
• similar-ish match stats
• similar curriculum

Of course I am keeping my options open, but I am pretty sure I want to go into some type of surgery, with a very huge interest in neurosurgery. Ultimately, I want to go to the medical school that is going to give me the best chance of matching into something crazy like neurosurg. Really the biggest pro/con is the hospital situation. At the same time, I am a little nervous of moving to a suburb-like area where there might not be as much diversity (that being said, I am not crazy about the "diversity" in Philly either). I have also been hearing that Drexel is making more and more partnerships in the Philly area (since closing of Hahnemann was relatively recent), so by the time I get to rotations, it might be a better situation. Additionally, as I mentioned, I am very tight on money and my family cannot provide support. I would figure out how to make it work, but moving to Chicago would obvs cost more money than staying in Philly.

Any suggestions/insight/guidance is appreciated! Thank you in advance!

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[JungleTrouble]

This seems like drexel is the way forward tbh. Only slightly more expensive but you don't have to move and have a solid support system and connections