Hey everyone, I’m super fortunate to have acceptances at both amazing institutions. I know I can’t go wrong with either choice, however it has been tough deciding. I greatly appreciate all your help, thanks again.
GW
Pros:
Pros:
GW
Pros:
- Location: DC is amazing and offers many unique opportunities, and good food hehe.
- Connections with NIH, Walter Reed, Children’s National, etc.
- Strong match list as always
- Attended second look and enjoyed meeting incoming classmates along with upperclassmen
- Scholarly concentration in global health (some current students recently went to Vietnam over their summer break)
- Possibility of matching around DC if I choose to
- Family and friends live in Northern Virginia (~40 minutes away without traffic)
- Mix of in-house and NBME exams
- P/F preclinical (unsure about internal ranking)
- Expensive tuition. I fortunately qualified for the maximum need-based aid, but tuition still comes down to roughly 49k/year.
- Cost of living is also very high in and around DC area
- Never lived in a large city so not sure how distracting it may be
- Name and Shame thread on reddit but just n=1
Pros:
- In-state tuition plus generous scholarship making tuition alone 15k/year
- Richmond is way more affordable than DC
- Facilities are nice and newer
- Have heard amazing things about their curriculum
- Class is known to be tight-knit and supportive of each other (I’m sure this is true about GW as well)
- Again, family and friends live in Northern Virginia (~1 hour and 30 min commute)
- P/F preclinical (unsure about internal ranking)
- Location. Not familiar with Richmond but heard it’s a small and wonderful city.
- Slightly lower ranked than GW (but I think they’re both pretty similar in prestige)
- Worried about there being fewer opportunities compared to GW
