Duke ($0 CoA) vs Yale (32k a year)

[ninidia]

Hey everyone,

Fortunate to be able to choose between these great options and would love the collective wisdom as I make this choice.

I am not currently leaning towards any specialties but it’s unlikely that I’ll choose any of the standard competitive specialties. However, I am deeply interested in global health and I want it to be a key part of my future career in medicine.


Duke ($0 CoA)
Pros

• No debt!! (Full CoA scholarship)
• Higher prestige in medicine
• Better weather
• Liked Durham more
• Lower cost of living
• P/F curriculum all 4 years

Cons

• Limited global health opportunities: From talking with current students, it’s feasible to do a global health experience in the 3rd year but there isn’t much existing structure for it and the student has to do the heavy lifting
• Exams every other Monday for a year; concerns about burnout
• Mandatory activities 3-4 times a week
• Shelf exams in clerkship year: students don’t seem to think it’s a big deal but compared to Yale with no Shelf, it’s a legitimate con

Yale (32k a year)

Pros

• Full tuition scholarship
• Greater lay prestige
• Excellent global health presence and funding: Would be possible to do several global health rotations and research experiences. There is a lot of existing structure and Faculty for Global health with numerous projects that interest me
• Yale System: P/F curriculum all 4 years, less mandatory stuff, less intense, less frequent exams which is a better match with my learning style
• No Shelf exams
• Leaning towards taking a fifth year regardless of where I go and seems easier to do that fully funded at Yale.

Cons

• Worse weather in New Haven: I’m a huge fan of warmer climates
• Will have to take on some debt: Cannot match my Duke offer

Overall, seems like Yale would be a better fit with my interests and goals but simultaneously feels insane to turn down Full CoA at Duke. I’m also not sure if the global health opportunities at Duke are as limited as they seem or if I have incomplete information.

Thanks in advance!

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[newkungfukenny]

Duke by a mile. i'd ask current students about their global health institute for more information

 

[Brownies_15]

Exams every other Monday sounds daunting to me as well but the students I've talked to say that once you get a groove its fine!!

 

[tweedledumb]

If you're in a financial position where the relative chillness + access to the global opportunities is easily worth $128K (like plenty of parental support etc), maybe spend more thought on this. But unless you're in that top 0.5% of families in the US, you should go to Duke. Especially if you're interested in global health, which to my knowledge, tends to not pay super well once you hit attendinghood.

 

[shy_hulud]

Congrats on your great options!

Just speaking a bit more towards global health, Duke also has a ton of resources in this area and there's a lot of global health research infrastructure. Duke offers a funded immersion trip to Nagoya in the summer after M1 and M4 clinical electives at NUS-Singapore or Nagoya University. For M3 research, there's a dedicated research program in Singapore and a lot of global health faculty take on students for M3 projects (Dr. Julian Hertz is pretty popular). Finally, there's an M3 Global Health Study Program through the dedicated Global Health Institute (GHI) that connects you with projects/funding, most of the ppl I know in this track were in Tanzania or Kenya.

Since you are interested in doing a fifth year, there are also a lot of funded opportunities for global health. Duke's GHI offers an MD/MS in Global Health in 5 years, with most ppl getting a $15k scholarship + need-based aid for those years. Finally, UNC Gillings is top-tier for public health and they offer a dual MD/MPH with Duke in 4 or 5 yrs with a global health concentration. This route is very popular because you will, at minimum, get very cheap in-state tuition at UNC for the MPH and there are a lot of scholarships, so a lot of ppl get their MPH fully-funded.

 

[Brownies_15]

Congrats on your great options!

Just speaking a bit more towards global health, Duke also has a ton of resources in this area. It's not as popular compared to the MD/MPH path (through UNC), but a good amount of people do a lot of research in global health. Duke offers a funded immersion trip to Nagoya in the summer after M1 and M4 clinical electives at NUS-Singapore or Nagoya University. For M3 research, there's a dedicated research program in Singapore and a lot of global health faculty take on students for M3 projects (Dr. Julian Hertz is pretty popular). Finally, there's an M3 Global Health Study Program through the dedicated Global Health Institute (GHI) that connects you with projects/funding, most of the ppl I know in this track were in Tanzania or Kenya.

Since you are interested in doing a fifth year, there are also a lot of funded opportunities for global health. Duke's GHI offers an MD/MS in Global Health in 5 years, with most ppl getting a $15k scholarship + need-based aid for those years. Finally, UNC Gillings is top-tier for public health and they offer a dual MD/MPH with Duke in 4 or 5 yrs with a global health concentration. This route is very popular because you will, at minimum, get very cheap in-state tuition at UNC for the MPH and there are a lot of scholarships, so a lot of ppl get their MPH fully-funded.

Not to crowd the post but asking here bc im curious too:

What is the Nagoya immersion trip? Sounds super interesting and idk much about it! And is it fairly common for people to do their md/mph in 4 years? esp with taking step1+2 third year?

 

[shy_hulud]

Not to crowd the post but asking here bc im curious too:

What is the Nagoya immersion trip? Sounds super interesting and idk much about it! And is it fairly common for people to do their md/mph in 4 years? esp with taking step1+2 third year?

Here you go! It's usually one week but someone I know stretched their trip out over two weeks. I'd say it's more common for ppl to do the MD/MPH in 5 yrs, usually if their MPH thesis doesn't exactly overlap with their specialty of interest.

 

[ninidia]

Duke by a mile. i'd ask current students about their global health institute for more information

Thanks! From talking to a current student involved in Global Health, the global health institute has more formalized pathways for the undergrads but the medical student experience is more on the student to put together from scratch. It’ll be significantly more legwork than Yale for a similar experience

 

[ninidia]

Exams every other Monday sounds daunting to me as well but the students I've talked to say that once you get a groove its fine!!

Yeah, it definitely seems that way! The current students didn’t seem to be fazed by it at all which is a good sign

 

[ninidia]

If you're in a financial position where the relative chillness + access to the global opportunities is easily worth $128K (like plenty of parental support etc), maybe spend more thought on this. But unless you're in that top 0.5% of families in the US, you should go to Duke. Especially if you're interested in global health, which to my knowledge, tends to not pay super well once you hit attendinghood.

Thanks! The finances are the big sticking point for sure. I‘m finding it challenging to weigh the opportunities to pursue a strong interest that’s at the core of why I chose medicine at Yale vs making the financially sound decision at Duke

 

[ninidia]

Congrats on your great options!

Just speaking a bit more towards global health, Duke also has a ton of resources in this area and there's a lot of global health research infrastructure. Duke offers a funded immersion trip to Nagoya in the summer after M1 and M4 clinical electives at NUS-Singapore or Nagoya University. For M3 research, there's a dedicated research program in Singapore and a lot of global health faculty take on students for M3 projects (Dr. Julian Hertz is pretty popular). Finally, there's an M3 Global Health Study Program through the dedicated Global Health Institute (GHI) that connects you with projects/funding, most of the ppl I know in this track were in Tanzania or Kenya.

Since you are interested in doing a fifth year, there are also a lot of funded opportunities for global health. Duke's GHI offers an MD/MS in Global Health in 5 years, with most ppl getting a $15k scholarship + need-based aid for those years. Finally, UNC Gillings is top-tier for public health and they offer a dual MD/MPH with Duke in 4 or 5 yrs with a global health concentration. This route is very popular because you will, at minimum, get very cheap in-state tuition at UNC for the MPH and there are a lot of scholarships, so a lot of ppl get their MPH fully-funded.

Thanks for the detailed info!! I already have an MPH so definitely not the UNC route but the MD/MS route through GHI may be feasible. I’ll look into it

 

[shy_hulud]

Thanks for the detailed info!! I already have an MPH so definitely not the UNC route but the MD/MS route through GHI may be feasible. I’ll look into it

Sure thing! When you were talking to a current student, were they talking about formalized research pathways in M1/M2 or M3/M4? There's less structured research in M1/M2 because of how the curriculum is set up. However, the friends I know doing global health research had a lot of structure through the GHI program in M3/M4 and were essentially guided to research opportunities in M3 and international clinical electives in M4. This was all without doing the masters in global health and they found it very easy to get find formalized opportunities in Asia/Africa/South America.

The global health opportunities for undergrads are largely through the MS in global health (they also have access to a 5 year program), so you'll either have access to that exact same pathway via the MD/MS or structure from the M3 program.

I‘m finding it challenging to weigh the opportunities to pursue a strong interest that’s at the core of why I chose medicine at Yale vs making the financially sound decision at Duke

If it's okay, I also wanted to talk about this. I think I was in a similar position during my application cycle, with both Yale and Duke being near my final choices and I had a similar, strong interest at the core of my work in medicine (for me, it was health policy). Now that I'm in med school, I just want to say that both places will 1000%, beyond a shadow of a doubt set you up for success in your non-clinical goals. They both have bottomless resources and the structure/flexibility to get you there, particularly because you're interested in a 5th year. Personally (at least from my experience), I would go into this decision with full confidence that you'll be able to pursue your interests fully at either place.

 

[ninidia]

Sure thing! When you were talking to a current student, were they talking about formalized research pathways in M1/M2 or M3/M4? There's less structured research in M1/M2 because of how the curriculum is set up. However, the friends I know doing global health research had a lot of structure through the GHI program in M3/M4 and were essentially guided to research opportunities in M3 and international clinical electives in M4. This was all without doing the masters in global health and they found it very easy to get find formalized opportunities in Asia/Africa/South America.

The global health opportunities for undergrads are largely through the MS in global health (they also have access to a 5 year program), so you'll either have access to that exact same pathway via the MD/MS or structure from the M3 program.



If it's okay, I also wanted to talk about this. I think I was in a similar position during my application cycle, with both Yale and Duke being near my final choices and I had a similar, strong interest at the core of my work in medicine (for me, it was health policy). Now that I'm in med school, I just want to say that both places will 1000%, beyond a shadow of a doubt set you up for success in your non-clinical goals. They both have bottomless resources and the structure/flexibility to get you there, particularly because you're interested in a 5th year. Personally (at least from my experience), I would go into this decision with full confidence that you'll be able to pursue your interests fully at either place.

This is so so helpful, thank you!! You’ve definitely given me a lot to research and think about. It’s really important to me to have that assurance at the end as well. If both places will get me to where I need to be then it’s a much more straightforward decision. Thanks again 💛

 

[hydroflaskhomie]

If it's okay, I also wanted to talk about this. I think I was in a similar position during my application cycle, with both Yale and Duke being near my final choices and I had a similar, strong interest at the core of my work in medicine (for me, it was health policy). Now that I'm in med school, I just want to say that both places will 1000%, beyond a shadow of a doubt set you up for success in your non-clinical goals. They both have bottomless resources and the structure/flexibility to get you there, particularly because you're interested in a 5th year. Personally (at least from my experience), I would go into this decision with full confidence that you'll be able to pursue your interests fully at either place.

I agree ^^^^

Current Yale student here, I think there are enough pros in the Duke column to make me say you should feel confident choosing them!

$128k is not an infeasible amount to pay off as an attending, but I don't really see any clear reason here why you NEED to pay that. Yale rocks, I love the open curriculum, my classmates and I seem happier than any of my friends at various other schools (don't have any friends at Duke), global health is really prioritized here, no shelfs is a blessing straight from Heaven, etc - but you like Durham more, they gave you more money, they definitely have global health opportunities, AND they have P/F grading (which is way more important than no shelfs, no shelfs is just the cherry on top for us).

If you have any concerns about New Haven or Yale specific questions I'm happy to expand but I think you should feel happy being a Blue Devil for the next 4/5! Congratulations on great options.

 

[Student2025!]

Yale!