Duke vs. Sinai

[gabaminergic]

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Any help would be so appreciated!

Duke:
BIGGEST DRAW: Curricular structure (12 months in classes without break but then full year for Research)

• Don't have to find summer jobs while studying during pre-clerkship (because will be in school during summer)
• With applying to residency getting so competitive, where more and more medical students are taking gap years DURING medical school, having that built-in time at Duke sounds amazing.
• If needed, I would also hope to make at least some income during this time (rather than pay for living costs for a research "gap year").
• As someone always anxious and thinking about the next step, having a year off during medical school to do that research would be very beneficial.
• BUT the first year might also be too fast for me…I’m kind of slow sometimes, so maybe I wouldn’t do so well.

Sinai:
BIGGEST DRAW: Support system & the city

• Even if some of my friends who are there now move away, there’s always someone in NYC who I would like to hang out with (I have good friends at Sinai too).
• My boyfriend also lives there, and I don't want to do another 4 years of long distance (it's already been 1 year).
• BUT even with friends in New York, I think it would be difficult because the people I know in New York are very well off with nice corporate jobs and plenty of vacation, which is something I just can't engage in with 450k in loans HAH. However, there's nothing that says that Duke won't be the same or even worse. I just don't know people at the school yet.
• Only 3 hours on train from my family back home.
• Don't need a car or ubers all the time to see people (public transit!!)
• With this, there's just so much to do all the time and I think that's also reflected in diversity of experiences of patients.

Both:
COA is roughly the same and will be taking out loans and PRAYING for PSLF regardless

• Duke is 110k per year while Sinai's is 100k (both NUTS).
• Duke includes 2 more months for the first year in that COA (12 months versus 10).
• Duke budgeted for 1500 for rent per month, which in Durham gets you a decently nice solo apartment (that allows cats!).
• At Sinai, the COA is much stricter to their dorms, and although you can increase it to add more loans if you want to move off campus, theres no point.
• I'd be taking out loans for the full amount, so I don't think the COA is so different in the end
• BUT, I would have to lease a car at Duke (though I have found cheap apartments so could use housing budget to help with this)

Feels like I'm choosing between a known support system, which is very important to me and being very isolated from big city/people I know, so I want to make sure Duke would be worth that choice.

 

[deleted1180326]

Personally, I am a favor of Duke (bc of the one year preclinical, student vibes, p/f clerkships, and third year research) but it sounds like Sinai might be a better fit for you in terms of support system

Admitted to Duke, on the Sinai WL

 

[cookiemonster204]

Congrats, my vote is for Sinai! What a great position to be in. I truly think quality of education is almost negligible at both of these schools, so I would highly consider lifestyle factors when choosing. I would emphasize these specifically: housing, transportation/car, relationships, and support system. Sinai has cheap housing at around 600/month which is an insane deal to get to live in the city at that price. Also the "dorm-like" culture is very nice to help build community (even though you have other friends in the city). You would most definitely need your own car at Duke, which costs would include car itself, on campus parking permits, apartment parking permit, and insurance. My guess is that nyc's public transit would be much cheaper than those costs, especially with the transit cap. Since your partner/fam is in nyc, that also sounds like a big pull to me (depending on where you are in your relationship), but it would be pretty hard to coordinate frequent visits esp with a busy preclin curriculum at duke. (Context, I'm currently a med student on the west coast & my partner is in NYC. Long distance is hard and requires lots of red eye flights & although I am getting a top tier education here, sometimes I wish I considered the lifestyle factors of New England more.)
Some other things you could consider are: proximity to large international airport (for personal travel, easy conference travel while in school, etc), and clerkship training sites (diversity of types of healthcare system you will be exposed to).

Message me if u wanna chat further!

 

[gabaminergic]

Congrats, my vote is for Sinai! What a great position to be in. I truly think quality of education is almost negligible at both of these schools, so I would highly consider lifestyle factors when choosing. I would emphasize these specifically: housing, transportation/car, relationships, and support system. Sinai has cheap housing at around 600/month which is an insane deal to get to live in the city at that price. Also the "dorm-like" culture is very nice to help build community (even though you have other friends in the city). You would most definitely need your own car at Duke, which costs would include car itself, on campus parking permits, apartment parking permit, and insurance. My guess is that nyc's public transit would be much cheaper than those costs, especially with the transit cap. Since your partner/fam is in nyc, that also sounds like a big pull to me (depending on where you are in your relationship), but it would be pretty hard to coordinate frequent visits esp with a busy preclin curriculum at duke. (Context, I'm currently a med student on the west coast & my partner is in NYC. Long distance is hard and requires lots of red eye flights & although I am getting a top tier education here, sometimes I wish I considered the lifestyle factors of New England more.)
Some other things you could consider are: proximity to large international airport (for personal travel, easy conference travel while in school, etc), and clerkship training sites (diversity of types of healthcare system you will be exposed to).

Message me if u wanna chat further!

Thank you! This actually helps a ton. I guess I'm just worried about not being able to enjoy being with my friends/partner/fam if I'm worried about having to juggle research & school & everything else at once, while at duke id have that time set aside to do so. But this perspective was much needed.