Geisel (Dartmouth) vs Renaissance (Stony Brook)

[Lunar_Cr3m3Puff]

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Finally got some update on financial aid- this a very similar post to the one I made months ago but I have withdrawn from BU, Drexel, and Albany due to cost reasons. NJMS is just too similar to SBU, I feel like I would rather just go to SBU. I had my heart set on stony for a long time, because the other schools are private and I didn’t expect any scholarships….well haha miracles happen right. The money really made me think twice. I am planning to do derm or anesthesia for now, NY native!

Dartmouth-

Pros:

1. Gave me a 50,000 scholarship, bringing my tuition to only 25k a year…they also gave me 42,700 in federal loans for a year which is more than enough for rent and food (I have been poor my whole life this budgeting stuff I got it in the bag). So I can cover tuition no problem with the cheapest loan interest rate.
2. Hanover is beautiful with a lot of nature- I heard I could regain 10 years back from my polluted NYC lungs 🫁
3. Matches well + “brand name” - I would say that stony Brook is more well known in NY but Geisel is better known nationally bc of their undergraduate Ivy League school. This is very superficial though.
4. Dr. Glaucomflecken went here 😌
5. P/F preclinical

Cons:

1. In house exams 😔
2. (possibly) less diverse patient population. I’m not sure about this one though, Suffolk is pretty homogenous too….hmm
3. far from home. You see I’ve been a house bird my whole life. I went to college in NY too. Never left. On one end I’m anxious of leaving all that I’ve known behind but on the other know that I’ll be fine wherever I end up going. I work for a doctor as an MA and he was like in the same situation. He went to Cornell for undergrad, ended up in Missouri for medical school with just a shirt on his back and a dream. He was literally like “you’ll be fine.” He also said I’ll be too busy studying to hang out with friends either way 😭 but maybe this is an opportunity to leave my bubble and to get out there and explore and meet new people you know

Stony Brook-

Pros:

1. P/F preclinical plus NBME exams!
2. close to home. I went here for undergrad I’m already familiar with the area. I can go home to shop in my parent’s kitchen (my favorite grocery store). Friends are here. Bf is here. I’m comfortable.
3. Even though it looks like stony Brook is a feeder for its own residency program (especially anesthesiology and derm), the 2025 match list has students going all over, from Brown to Yale, matching into vascular surgery and other subspecialties.
4. I think I can rotate in NY which may be nice, but again it’s bc I’m comfortable

Cons:

1. Nothing to do in Suffolk. Lol I can see myself flying my ass home every other weekend.
2. tuition and fee is going to be 50,000 a year alone. Including rent and then food, gas/insurance, it will likely be 270k for all 4 years. That’s a 100,000 difference in tuition alone between dartmouth and SBU. Idk if that’s a lot of money because I never had that kind of money so it seems like a lot, but some people mentioned that as a physician I can cover this difference easily (skeptical about this, I know how fast interest just eats you up). Going to try to bargain with them but idk what’ll happen.

This is all I can think about off the top of my head. Any input is appreciated. I’m kind of torn. Both are great schools, one of them is in a better location but the other is quite a bit cheaper.

 

[syrupedbacon]

Hard to turn down 100k and a better ranked school. I'd go with Dartmouth.

I'm in a very similar boat: Did my undergrad at Stony and am turning Stony down for a bigger name OOS school. It's definitely scary to go away but also exciting. Chances are you'll have to move around eventually, whether for residency or working as an attending, so it's probably good to experience that sooner rather than later. Difference is that you seemed to have recieved a pretty nice scholarship so I'm a bit jealous haha.

Also why is Stony's IS tuition 50k. Kinda wildly high.

 

[Lunar_Cr3m3Puff]

Hard to turn down 100k and a better ranked school. I'd go with Dartmouth.

I'm in a very similar boat: Did my undergrad at Stony and am turning Stony down for a bigger name OOS school. It's definitely scary to go away but also exciting. Chances are you'll have to move around eventually, whether for residency or working as an attending, so it's probably good to experience that sooner rather than later. Difference is that you seemed to have recieved a pretty nice scholarship so I'm a bit jealous haha.

Also why is Stony's IS tuition 50k. Kinda wildly high.

Thank you for your input. It’s 45k a year but including fees it’s almost 50k. My friend is at SBU now and tells me that she pays like 25,000 per semester for the tuition and fees as well.

 

[Yhwach]

Dartmouth

 

[FantasticBug5960]

I'm a Geisel student. Our exams aren't all in-house. It really depends on the block. Our preclin admin have been discussing moving closer to NBME style exams either next year or the year after, but that's a WIP. Still, you can pass exams off 3rd party content alone.

Patient population is not diverse, I'll give you that. A large chunk of our students do rotations at CPMC in San Francisco though. If you wanted, you could prioritize SF and get most of your rotations there, if that was a priority for you. I wouldn't be concerned about that (at least in comparison to SB).

If your bf and family are close to SB though, I'd recommend not making an impulsive decision. It's really important to have a great support system throughout medical school. Hanover can be isolating, and that support system may be the factor that differentiates a good med school experience from a great one. If COA difference is 100k over 4 years... that's a lot but I'd sacrifice that much to stay close to my friends and family.

Geisel does match very well, though. Lots of reasons to come here. Good luck!