FIU vs FAU?

[flyinglantern22]

Hey everyone, I was hoping if you all could give me some insight into my current dilemma.

I decided to attend FIU for medical school, but I got off the waitlist at FAU today. I have until June 1st to respond with my decision.


Cost: Both cost the same for me.

Location: Both are about 40 mins - 1.5 hours away from my house depending on traffic. I would be living off campus regardless but I like being near family, so location in that sense isn't an issue. Boca Raton is definitely has a better quality of living than Miami but both places are expensive to live.

Curriculum:

FIU:

• A/B/C/F grading, students are ranked numerically
• Traditional lecture based curriculum, attendance not mandatory
• Take step 1 after M3 year (but have the highest step average in the state currently tied with UCF)
• Typical clerkship but their associated hospitals are a lot better than FAU's

FAU:

• Problem Based Learning (PBL) Curriculum
  
• P/F grading, BUT administration keeps an internal rank in order to award students Highest Honors/Honors during graduation
• Their clerkships are odd -- they do all their clerkships (internal med, surgery, etc.) all at the same time from what I understand but on different days (Mondays will be internal med, tuesdays will be surgery, etc.) but they're assigned to an attending the entire time

Those are the main differentiating factors that I can think of off the top of my head, not sure if I'm missing anything important that I should add. Both schools have students who match well IMO.

If you guys can shed any light into my decision about information from either school, I would really appreciate it! I know FIU's curriculum pretty well at this point but not enough about FAU. I'm kind of turned off about FAU's PBL based curriculum but I don't exactly know the benefits of PBL anyway.

Thank you!

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[FutureFloridaDr]

First off, congratulations on getting into both!

Another difference is that FAU has smaller class sizes; that may/may not play a role in your decision making process.

I do not know much about FIU other than Miami traffic sucks. A lot. No one can drive.

Good luck wherever you go!

EDIT: Edited most of my post, get actual knowledge from the FAU med student a post below

 

[FAUMed2k15]

That's not how we did clerkship during 3rd year at FAU, that makes no sense. You are confused by "Continuity Clinic" which is the year long Family Medicine rotation of 3rd year one afternoon a week. There were dedicated rotations in Medicine, Surgery, OB/GYN and Psych. Regardless, in retrospect, there's almost no difference between the 2 in terms of matching. So go wherever there is a better fit. Any notions you have about hospital rankings as a pre-med is largely irrelevant. As long as you are working with residents and fellows wherever you rotate, you will have adequate training.

 

[flyinglantern22]

That's not how we did clerkship during 3rd year at FAU, that makes no sense. You are confused by "Continuity Clinic" which is the year long Family Medicine rotation of 3rd year one afternoon a week. There were dedicated rotations in Medicine, Surgery, OB/GYN and Psych. Regardless, in retrospect, there's almost no difference between the 2 in terms of matching. So go wherever there is a better fit. Any notions you have about hospital rankings as a pre-med is largely irrelevant. As long as you are working with residents and fellows wherever you rotate, you will have adequate training.

That's for clearing that up! Would you be able to elaborate on how shelf exams are administered for this particular clerkship this? If you're not take a surgery rotation block but instead are doing it as a year long thing one afternoon every week, how are the shelves for internal med, surgery, etc. Scheduled? Do you also take them all at the same time (like the same week or something)?

 

[WedgeDawg]

Moving to SSD

 

[Mansamusa]

Oh, I was going to post here that FAU's clinical sites are a lot better...except for St Mary's no longer existent peds heart surgery program (don't know about the rest of the hospital). FAU's southern cluster definitely looks good (especially if it's the main Cleveland Clinic-Fl in Weston) and will put you with residents. (I would say the hospitals affiliated with the hospitals affiliated with FIU are better than FAU's, but FIU has you in small community hospitals that are just affiliated with larger health systems that have a famous name)

I would choose FAU

 

[flyinglantern22]

Oh, I was going to post here that FAU's clinical sites are a lot better...except for St Mary's no longer existent peds heart surgery program (don't know about the rest of the hospital). FAU's southern cluster definitely looks good (especially if it's the main Cleveland Clinic-Fl in Weston) and will put you with residents. (I would say the hospitals affiliated with the hospitals affiliated with FIU are better than FAU's, but FIU has you in small community hospitals that are just affiliated with larger health systems that have a famous name)

I would choose FAU

What do you think about their PBL curriculum though?

 

[Mansamusa]

What do you think about their PBL curriculum though?

Isn't the PBL like 6hrs/wk? I don't think I interviewed at a school that had less than 3hrs/wk of PBL, TBL, or something like that.

If you end up not liking PBL then those hours would be wasted, but it isn't that much

 

[FAUMed2k15]

That's for clearing that up! Would you be able to elaborate on how shelf exams are administered for this particular clerkship this? If you're not take a surgery rotation block but instead are doing it as a year long thing one afternoon every week, how are the shelves for internal med, surgery, etc. Scheduled? Do you also take them all at the same time (like the same week or something)?

The ONLY rotation that is a year long is Family Medicine. Surgery, Medicine, Pediatrics, Psych and OB/GYN are individual blocks that last 4-6 weeks. We took shelf exams at the end of each "semester" of 3rd year. Most schools do shelf exams at the end of the rotations.

Almost every medical school is shifting to PBL-style learning. Its biggest benefit is being able to interact with your peers and learn how to become part of the medical team that has become the norm in modern medicine. I'm sure FIU does something similar.

Once again, I will re-iterate that there is not a right or wrong choice. There are both FAU and FIU residents in multiple specialties at the university program where I'm doing residency (not in FL) and we're all doing just fine.

 

[alexpc21]

Hello, I am having this same dilemma now between these schools, and figured I'd ask in case you still come on here sometimes. Which school did you choose, why, and are you happy with your decision?