FAU vs Ohio State vs Pitt

[user305614]

I'm leaning towards doing a competitive surgical subspecialty, Ortho, Ophtho, and Derm (if i hate the surgery lifestyle)
Florida Atlantic
Pros

• The lowest total cost of attendance, 180k (not including interest)
• P/F (although they do have AOA)
• Small class size, family-like culture
• Lots of support from admin and faculty
• The location in South Florida is as close to perfect for me as I can get.

Cons

• Lower ranked so worried about how matching into competitive specialties with step 1 being p/f
• lack of research opportunities, lots of students go outside of the medical school to do research (unsure if this is the norm or only occurs here)

Ohio State
Pros

• P/F, but internal rankings based on percentiles
• home residencies in the specialties I'm interested in
• lots of research opportunities
• well-established medical school, higher ranked in PD rankings (i would be blessed worried with step 1 being p/f)

Cons

• Significantly higher cost of attendance, 290k (not sure if the added cost is worth it)
• larger class size (205)

Pittsburgh
Pros

• Highest ranked in PD and research rankings,
• True P/F (no internal ranking)
• Home residencies in the specialties I'm interested in
• Tons and tons of research opportunities, students here said they get approached by faculty to join their research.
• Pittsburgh as a city excites me to live in, ( about equal in excitement to living in South Florida)

Cons

• The highest total cost of attendance, 390k ( not including interest)
• I never lived in a snowy city, not really a con to me, but everyone tells me this is a big deal

In summary, I'm really unsure if the prestige of a Pittsburgh is worth the additional 200k+ in loans to attend, especially considering I'm leaning towards very competitive specialties, but what makes this harder is FAU match lists have been impressive. I view ohio state as the middle ground med school between being established and significantly less expensive than Pittsburgh.

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[noname8291]

How do you feel about going to school in Columbus? You mentioned going to school in either Pittsburgh or South Florida excited you the same, so if you’re indifferent about OH might be the move.

 

[user305614]

How do you feel about going to school in Columbus? You mentioned going to school in either Pittsburgh or South Florida excited you the same, so if you’re indifferent about OH might be the move.

Yea if I had to rank them it would be in the order of excitement for living it would be
1. south Florida
2. Pittsburgh
significant gap
3. Columbus Ohio,
not to say that I would hate living there but it doesn't necessarily excite me, however most of my time in medical school will be spent studying and working so I'm not too sure how much of a factor location should really be.

 

[voxveritatisetlucis]

Pitt if you are thinking about anything competitive which it seems you are

 

[theoceanman]

Have you tried asking Pitt to match some of the tuition costs so you won't be almost 400K in debt without interest? Pitt has the complete edge in prestige and name-value here, but if they don't match anything you received so far from FAU or Ohio State, I would go FAU all the way.

 

[chilly_md]

Ohio State will give you a lot of opportunities without having to pay an arm and a leg like at Pitt.

 

[user305614]

Have you tried asking Pitt to match some of the tuition costs so you won't be almost 400K in debt without interest? Pitt has the complete edge in prestige and name-value here, but if they don't match anything you received so far from FAU or Ohio State, I would go FAU all the way.

Yes, unfortunately, it did not work out for me.

 

[user305614]

One thing that has made trying to make this decision even harder is looking at the match lists between the schools, for instance looking at FAU which has a class size of 64 students, matches 4 people into derm, while Pitt's most recent match list had 3 derm matches in a significantly larger class (139 students). I know it's hard to compare match lists like this because students at different schools have different goals and want to go into different specialties, but is there something I'm overlooking or missing with the match lists?

 

[user305614]

Ohio State will give you a lot of opportunities without having to pay an arm and a leg like at Pitt.

Thank you for your response, this has been one of the things I've been considering and the reason why I might find Ohio state to be appealing over Pitt.

 

[chilly_md]

One thing that has made trying to make this decision even harder is looking at the match lists between the schools, for instance looking at FAU which has a class size of 64 students, matches 4 people into derm, while Pitt's most recent match list had 3 derm matches in a significantly larger class (139 students). I know it's hard to compare match lists like this because students at different schools have different goals and want to go into different specialties, but is there something I'm overlooking or missing with the match lists?

Look at 2021 and 2022 for FAU. 1 year is hard to gain any info from.

FAU lacking home programs in any of the 3 residencies you listed is a drawback.

 

[theoceanman]

Yes, unfortunately, it did not work out for me.

Then I would look into what you prioritize, having to do a lot of external rotations, but cheaper, which is FAU, or Ohio State with its home residencies which gets you an "in" with those programs being from the medical school.

 

[user305614]

Then I would look into what you prioritize, having to do a lot of external rotations, but cheaper, which is FAU, or Ohio State with its home residencies which gets you an "in" with those programs being from the medical school.

Would you say doing aways for rotations could be comparable to getting your foot in the door for matching at certain programs as being a med student would allow you to do? also, I wanted to say thank you for your input it is greatly appreciated.

 

[user305614]

Look at 2021 and 2022 for FAU. 1 year is hard to gain any info from.

FAU lacking home programs in any of the 3 residencies you listed is a drawback.

I had previously looked at several years of match lists but didn't want to overwhelm this thread with pdfs, from my understanding, FAU surprisingly was matching competitively as comparable to these other top programs despite their lack of name prestige and I wasn't sure if that was a mistake on my interpretations or something else. Yes, I do agree the lack of home programs is a significant drawback, I'm trying to determine how significant it is in comparison to cost.

 

[chilly_md]

I had previously looked at several years of match lists but didn't want to overwhelm this thread with pdfs, from my understanding, FAU surprisingly was matching competitively as comparable to these other top programs despite their lack of name prestige and I wasn't sure if that was a mistake on my interpretations or something else. Yes, I do agree the lack of home programs is a significant drawback, I'm trying to determine how significant it is in comparison to cost.

2022 there 2 derm, and 1 each of the other 2.
2021 there was 1 ortho and none for the other 2.
2020 had 3 ortho and none for the other 2.

It seems this past year was the first time in at least a little while that they had a bigger upswing.

 

[theoceanman]

Would you say doing aways for rotations could be comparable to getting your foot in the door for matching at certain programs as being a med student would allow you to do? also, I wanted to say thank you for your input it is greatly appreciated.

I had a few friends at schools that didn't have home programs at all, and did away rotations at specific places they wanted to match. Most of them matched at one of those away rotations and are very happy about it. It's worth a shot, but also looks good when you apply and interview at other programs as well.

 

[user305614]

I had a few friends at schools that didn't have home programs at all, and did away rotations at specific places they wanted to match. Most of them matched at one of those away rotations and are very happy about it. It's worth a shot, but also looks good when you apply and interview at other programs as well.

This sounds similar to what some physicians have told me when I mentioned my concerns about not matching into a competitive specialty residency at a school that lacks those home programs, they suggested just doing away and honoring rotations, but I wasn't sure if that would still hold true today. Thank you for clarifying this for me.