Duke vs. Penn

[howlol]

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Really humbled to be in this position and struggling to make a decision - any advice is welcome!

Duke
Pros
+Pretty close to home: It'd be great to have the option to see my family, a pretty easily drivable distance away
+Full tuition scholarship
+Student culture: I would love to be somewhere where students have school spirit/care about sports
+Third year: Definitely interested in doing a dual degree and having the program structured in a way that facilitates this is appealing

Cons
-Environment: I got used to living in a city during undergrad and I'm not sure how I'd feel about going back to having to drive everywhere
-Pretty far from my partner of 4 years who I can definitely see a future with. We would likely have to do long distance for the duration of my medical school
-Clinical training: While I would take full advantage of the third year, I've heard from multiple sources (including a couple at Duke) that the condensed curriculum can end up creating graduates that are not as knowledge/capable as residents as their peers from similar institutions

Penn
Pros
+Full tuition and fees scholarship
+Location: I've only been to Philly a couple times but I've loved it so far
+Much closer to my SO
+Quality of clinical training: I've heard multiple things about Penn producing top-grade clinicians
+Interdisciplinarity: Penn as a university seems very committed to forming strong connections between schools and I'd find a lot of opportunities specifically related to my interests because of that

Cons
-Student culture: I feel like I'd fit in better somewhere like Duke where the students are supposedly more chill and have more diverse interests. Everyone always talks about how Penn students are very competitive (haven't seen it for myself though)
-Farther from home: I was far from home for undergrad and I get the sense that my family would love to have me closer for medical school even though they aren't pushing me to be
-Large class size: Don't think I'd be competing for resources or anything like that, but it would be nice to feel like I'm in a tighter-knit environment

 

[deleted915325]

Penn is closer to SO and full tuition and a better rep, although not by a ton. Seems like a pretty straight forward choice. Tbh, I feel like my family can hold be back being so close to them in med school. SO is more supportive

 

[puahate]

Penn

 

[lalalallala]

I would go to Penn.

1. I don't think the larger class size is a prob - it's not that big and you'll have more friend options.

2. are the students at Duke really that chill?

3. If you are serious about the SO then you will want to be near them!

4. I feel like Duke's 3rd yr program is great for people who don't want to be clinicians. Personally I am going to medical school to treat patients so I want to spend that time in the hospital and don't want to cram the pre-clinical into 1 year. So I don't really like Duke's set-up - I didn't like how they came to my school and were like oh you can go get another degree in that time - but I don't want another degree I want to treat patients - but that is also just my opinion