Emory (full scholarship) vs Yale

[scones&bones]

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Hi everyone! I am so incredibly grateful for the opportunity to choose between these two fantastic schools, but am still having a difficult time weighing school fit, location, and of course, cost in my decision. Yale Med was my top choice throughout the application cycle and I had extremely positive experiences during interview day and second look, but I was given very little financial aid so would be paying close to full cost and taking out significant loans. I did not expect to, but I actually also really loved Emory during my interview day! And I was awarded a full merit scholarship covering tuition + some living expenses which would mean no loans! I am an international student, went to Yale for undergrad, and am potentially interested in Emergency Medicine and looking to match out West. I would be so grateful if you could share your thoughts and weigh in on the following points (especially current students at these schools), thank you so much!

Some important factors to me are:
- Global health opportunities
- Sense of community
- Ability to pursue other interests and low stress
- Access to climbing gyms and outdoor climbing (Yale & Emory are more or less matched, with Emory requiring a bit more driving in potentially bad traffic)
- Matching on the West Coast

Yale
Pros:
- Yale system curriculum: as someone with multiple interests outside of medicine, the flexibility and low-stress environment is a huge draw + no shelf exams or internal rankings
- Strengths in global health: certificate in Global Medicine, elective rotations throughout Africa, Latin America and the US (Indian Health Services), summer funding for global health research
- Opportunities to pursue refugee health work at Center for Asylum Medicine
- Flexible 5th year option to combine research & international electives
- Support system (friends from undergrad, research mentors, etc)
- No need for a car
- More support/advising for international students?
- Prestige and opportunities?

Cons:
- Weather + staying in the same city for 4-5 more years
- Cost + indebtedness


Emory
Pros:
- Full merit scholarship covering tuition + living expenses stipend for 4 years!
- Superb clinical training (Grady!) at incredibly diverse sites
- Less research, more clinical focus than Yale
- One of the largest refugee clinics in the world + social justice focus
- Dedicated 5-month discovery phase to pursue a research project
- Joint MD/MPH at Rollins and research opportunities at the CDC
- Weather + experiencing a new city and culture

Cons:
- Internal rankings (AOA), graded clinicals
- No support system
- Need for a car + stress of commuting
- No Global Health track

 

[wagonwheel23]

I cannot in good faith recommend that anyone in this situation take out $350k+ in loans to go to Yale when Emory, a very solid school that strongly aligns with your interests, is free. Emory has one of the strongest global and public health programs in the country. You can do Discovery and any of your electives abroad working on public health and Rollins is a top public health school (aka amazing for an MPH).

Yes, graded clinicals can be a drag. But, the grading at Emory is fair and there is no set % of people that get honors, high pass, etc. It is a letter grade system so theoretically everyone can get an A. Also, it's only a year of grades.

Take the money Emory is giving you and don't look back!

- An Emory medical student, so I am biased. But still, save that $$$

 

[hope_MD]

there is no reason to go 300k in debt when you have such an amazing offer at Emory! take the money and run FOR SURE. remember that interest, 300k in loans is actually gonna mean a lot more that you are paying back. but also take your offer from emory to Yale and ask them to match it!

 

[Marathondoctor]

I would definitely go with Emory on this one. The Yale name is big sure, but won't you feel better down the line knowing that you still went to an awesome school and never have to worry about crushing debt hanging over your head for ~20 years?

 

[Grapesurgery]

If you are an international student would you have to take out private loans to cover Yale’s cost? If so I cannot fathom how much insane interest would accrue on an already huge debt by choosing Yale for 4-5 years even if you were paying, say half of their COA. Emory, for FREE, is a fantastic option.

 

[Mr.Smile12]

Take the scholarship. Emory has a very strong public health program too. Getting in and out of Atlanta, especially if you're talking international travel, is much easier compared to getting out of New Haven to an airport. If you do well at Emory, I'm sure you can find your way back to the Global Health track at Yale as a resident/fellow...

 

[habibimarwan]

If you go to Yale, go to orthopaedics or dermatology, you can pay debt off easy. If not, Emory is very good school and worth the tuition free.

 

[Icebird]

Take the damn money before I slap you upside the head with it

 

[imbesrs]

Emory otherwise u can cashapp me Mr moneybags

 

[relax1234]

Congrats on your stellar choices! I also am a Yale alum but tbh Emory seems like a no brainer to me. Take the woodruff scholarship and run! I have some familiarity with the type of public health opportunities you will encounter at both institutions if that’s a big factor, so feel free to PM me if you have questions. I don’t know which school is more generous with research fellowships and that kind of thing but Emory has easily as strong of a global health research program as Yale, and there will be no shortage of opportunities for you in Atlanta (CDC, Rollins, Task Force, Carter Center, etc). If you are trying to add on an MPH to medical school, I think you would get better core training in things like epi, biostats, etc at Rollins than YSPH imho

 

[humanbean2016]

There are international students at Emory without cars who live next to campus and walk/bike/bus ~10 mins to class. Emory point apartments are up the street from the med school.

 

[Nerdanese]

As much as I love Yale and am a huge advocate for it, go with Emory. The full ride is unbeatable, and I have heard great experiences at Emory for the MPH program, which I'm sure you'll have access to these opportunities and resources