Factors?

[DJ W.R.]

For those of you in medschool, what were some of the factors that led you to choose your particular school over others that you got into? (ie prestige, location, family/friends/significant others) Now that you are in, has the order of importance shifted for some of those?...making you wish that you would've give them more weight when deciding?

I posted a similar question on the pre-allopathic forum but I thought I'd see what the reality is on the "other side".

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[sundevil1]

hey, that's a great idea, hindsight is 20/20 so people who have already made the decision may give better insight.

 

[Jim Picotte]

For me it was 1) location (wanted to stay in state if I could), 2) how friendly the students were on interview day, 3) as non malignant an environment as I could get. I applied to about 10 school back in 1997, did only 3 secondaries to the 3 state schools here in Michigan. Was accepted into U of M and MSU right away in October. Cancelled my interview that was in Novemeber at Wayne State so my choice was only between two places. I just felt more appreciated and "loved" lol at MSU so that's where I went.

Now in hind sight. I don't think it would have mattered what school I went to. I'm very happy here, I'm sure I would of loved U of M as well. I really believe I'll get one of my top choices for residency (going into radiology). I feel very confident with my skills and hey, I got free food during my clinical years here at MSU so felt even more appreciated (like the hospitals really wanted us there to learn).

 

[Voxel]

If you can stomache the debt, go to a place with the best reputation. Go to a location you would be happy to live in. Go to a place that does not SCUT out the medical students, so they have time to actually learn things than wheel patients to xray or draw blood on every single patient because the hospitals have crappy ancillary services. Go to a place where your gut feeling is that you would be happy.

 

[squeek]

I say go for gut feeling. It really does tell you a lot. In marriage, undergraduate and medical school my gut has yet to fail me.

That doesn't mean you should throw all caution or reason to the wind...but it does mean that somewhere inside you, you know yourself pretty well and can tell what's best for you.

I can tell you this: I got accepted to every school I loved while interviewing, and I got waitlisted at every school about which I felt unsure. (believe it or not, the lower ranked schools waitlisted me and higher ranked ones accepted me. Try to figure THAT out...it just goes to show you that ranking really doesn't mean anything in the long run, outside of the infamous name game).

If you know yourself well, you'll project that--and you'll likely be accepted into an environment you'll thrive in. After all, most of these schools have been doing this admissions thing for a long time, and they're pretty good at picking good fits for their school.

Good luck!