Duke (partial merit) vs Penn

[spoodleydoo]

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Hi all, deciding between Duke and Penn, truly am struggling and am 50-50 between both. I know both match well (I'm interested in IM / heme-onc), but am also hoping to go into health policy/public health research during and after medical school, so am looking for avenues to research, advocacy, and community work beyond purely clinical education and work. Am hoping to match back into MA/CT. Thanks in advance


Duke

Pros

• Received Dean's Merit Scholar (1/4 tuition scholarship, around $72,000 saved over 4 years). I am fortunate that my med school costs are not an issue either way, but money is money.
• Whole year for research in M3 — want to go into academic medicine (IM --> heme/onc) and would be interested in doing their Armstrong 3rd Year Medical Humanities Program alongside pursuing health policy research. Basically, seems to have paths for med hum and community health advocacy and research
• Avenues to get an MPP through Duke's Sanford school of public policy
• Early exposure to clerkships (starts M2)
• Went to SLW and felt like there was a strong culture of support/individual attention and mentorship there, very collegiate environment and very chill class. Small class size maybe helps with that.

Neutrals

• P/F clinicals, not for or against this, since it seems like more attention will be paid to my STEP2 score and other outputs because of this
• I generally like Durham as a place to live, the nature is beautiful
• Great research funding (especially cancer research, which I am interested in and have experience in), but is true of Penn as well
• Liked that they had a whole building dedicated for med student education

Cons

• Have to get a car, Durham is not walkable and rotations will be a 10-15 min drive away routinely unless at Big Duke, and farther away potentially for family med. Also, just needing to have a car to get groceries, go to the gym, etc.
• Farther from home (2 hour plane ride) and friends, who are mostly in Boston
• No free clinics? (heard they may be growing this more?)

Penn

Pros

• Philly is very diverse, strong clinical training here
• Huge emphasis on community health, can get involved in any number of free clinics
• Emphasis on the medical humanities, tons of student-led opportunities here, from their lit mag to electives
• Closer to home (4-5 hr drive)
• No need to get a car for clinicals (except maybe for family med), extremely walkable (student gym is free on campus, a nice perk)
• Lots of emphasis put on dual degrees, I'd be interested in the MBA or Master of Science in Health Policy Research, would have to pay out of pocket unless I won an internal scholarship. Also tons of health policy research at the Leonard Davis Institute
• Maybe some Ivy League prestige? I have no clue how much this matters coming from a non-Ivy undergrad, but several of my past PIs have noted this can sometimes be of note in the world of Northeast academia...

Neutrals

• Not great public transport, but don't see myself using that routinely as I want to live as close to campus as possible
• Graded clerkships add stress, but not really doing anything else during that year anyways
• Amazing research funding (how much medical students do seems up to them if they can balance research/class), the med student building is literallt inside the hospital, nice for quickly going to lab or shadowing

Cons

• Condensed timeline for taking Step 1/2 if taking after clerkships (which most students do), and that timeline gets more condensed if I get a Master's
• Didn't get as strong of a sense of student community/camaraderie during Preview, vibes slightly off
• Largest MD/PhD size in cohort compared to other schools (I believe), heard from M4 that the culture of research can feel daunting at times... but maybe this would push me more since I am into research, but not into MD/PhD, which felt a bit more prioritized at Preview in some ways (could have been reading too much into it)
• Individualized attention less emphasized throughout Preview compared to Duke

 

[rob120]

current duke student--duke! cheaper and it seems like you have more pros!

 

[shy_hulud]

I'm a Duke med student that was choosing between here and a few other NE programs (Columbia, Yale, Harvard). I also have a very big background and current interest in health policy, so feel free to reply or DM if you had any specific Qs.

On the whole, I think there are very strong med humanities opportunities through structured programs, like Armstrong as you mentioned, the Divinity school, broad research opportunities, the Hippocratic Society, and others. For IM, both schools are attached to top-tier programs that are right behind the big 4 and have really strong matching into the big 4 IM residencies. There is also essentially total flexibility on when you can take Step 1/2. Having experienced clerkships, I am also a big, big fan of P/F clinicals. In talking with friends at other schools, they save you a ton of time and allow you to keep up with research, personal opportunities, visiting home, etc.

Broadly, it sounds like the main pro/cons for you come down to curriculum vs location.

Have to get a car, Durham is not walkable and rotations will be a 10-15 min drive away routinely unless at Big Duke, and farther away potentially for family med. Also, just needing to have a car to get groceries, go to the gym, etc.

This is true. You can 100% get by without a car in M1, but it becomes much harder in M2 and you miss out on a lot of really cool stuff/nature in NC.

Farther from home (2 hour plane ride) and friends, who are mostly in Boston

Fwiw home for me is also about a 1.5-2hr flight away and I was able to fly back home multiple times per month throughout M1 and M2. RDU is also a fantastically accessible airport and I can be on a flight from my apartment in less than 30 min. Obviously the costs of flights are a factor, but you'll have an extra $70k on hand + cost of living in Durham is cheaper.

No free clinics? (heard they may be growing this more?)

So there's a primary free clinic right now (Holton) and there should be an additional 2 free clinics affiliated by the time you start.