Harvard vs Stanford vs UCSF

[throwingthisaway]

Hey guys,

I'm grateful to have had a successful cycle, and I'd love some help and input in my decision. A little about myself: I'm passionate about social justice and health disparities, especially as they relate to immigrant and LGBTQ communities. I'd like to have a career doing community health work and advocacy.

Anyway, schools

Harvard ($$$$$ pricey)
+ Prestige/reputation, especially if I pursue outside of being a traditional clinician. Harvard name follows you for the rest of your life.
+ Very strong work in health policy, good connections to pursue a career in that realm
+ Opportunities for interdisciplinary study (I see myself getting an MPH or MPP, and all of Harvard grad programs are notch and I'd be able to collaborate with them)
+ Strong clinical hospitals to receive training
+ Live in a new place? And build a whole new support network? Would probably the only time in my life I"d live in East Coast.
- ^ I'm scared of that. Family and friends all back home (Went to Berkeley for undergrad).
- Never really faced the cold; don't think I'll like it.
- Hospitals are great, but I don't want to come here for residency.
- Commitment to underserved less strong, but still has a good LGBTQ group and work here
- Got weird vibes during interview day from the other interviewees -- I don't know how I'd fit in here.

UCSF ($$$ not too bad! -- would save 80k over four years)
+ STRONG commitment to underserved communities and social justice (especially LGBTQ), but don't know how that will affect my medical education
+ Great vibes, I love SF. Loved interview day and students here.
+ Really cool research centers around health disparities and vulnerable populations, which is a plus for me since I'm interested in urban health issues
+ Would love to be able to match back here one day
+ Top 5 in primary care/research, and amazing hospitals
- Less well known outside medicine/academia? Which might matter if I choose to pursue a career in health policy
- Not attached to a large university, so harder to collaborate with people outside health.
- State school funding isn't the best, which showed. Buildings run down, funding for student research seemed less.
- Less resources/support, it seemed, in general. Relatively large class size in a public school, less "hand-holding" and career advising.
- Still has AOA? Unclear
- Grew up in Bay Area, and while I love it, I've never lived outside.

Stanford ($$$$$ pricey)
+ Prestige/reputation
+ Lots of independence and support for the small class size
+ Nice weather
- Did not seem as strong clinically
- Very few interested in community health and health disparities, even fewer in LGBTQ communities
- Tech/entrepreneurship is not my thing, and I don't think I get along well with these types of people
- Palo Alto sucks
- Probably liked this school the least, although my points seem kind of superficial. Would love any input if you had any.

Summary: Right now, leaning toward UCSF because of "fit" reasons (good weather, fun student body), but also think Harvard would be better for my career (prestige/reputation -- which matters in policy/advocacy, more interdisciplinary opportunities with all the Harvard schools).

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[libertyyne]

No wrong choice. Go with your heart. If not toss a coin. 80k is nothing in the grand scheme of things.

 

[Rachapkis]

Your opportunities will be limitless out of any of these schools. I would follow your heart, unless money is a significant concern, in which case I would attend UCSF. Good luck--you're obviously an amazing candidate. The world needs social justice warriors like you.

 

[YungMufti]

No wrong choice. Go with your heart. If not toss a coin. 80k is nothing in the grand scheme of things.

I agree with this, tough choice with no losing option. I'm also passionate about working with immigrant and refugee populations and I think that as you said, Harvard offers you the best long-term career options for major success in that area in policy, while UCSF might give you better hands-on experiences while in school. I think Harvard will be home to a wide variety of individuals, that will allow you to find great people to fit in with.

Congratulations, you're going to help a lot of people regardless of which school you choose.

 

[ihaveagf]

Why do SDN people always favor UCSF over its peer institutions (Harvard, Stanford, Hopkins)?

 

[meronebib]

Why do SDN people always favor UCSF over its peer institutions (Harvard, Stanford, Hopkins)?

I can answer why over Harvard and Hopkins - because realistically, these schools are all just about equal (it's really a premed delusion that coming from Harvard will make you a bigger and better physician than the other T5 schools). But, the difference is that UCSF is both cheaper and in a much nicer area!

Now, for UCSF v/s Stanford... I do not know. I suppose Stanford's location is a little worse than UCSF's?

 

[574522]

Sounds like you're between UCSF and HMS. HMS definitely opens more policy doors given the crazy complex of faculty and students interested in health care between HBS, HSPH, HKS, HMS, and all the affiliated hospitals. That being said, I would imagine you'd have more access to actually working with the patients you seem passionate about serving at UCSF, as well as have access to an equally impressive if much smaller group of thinkers. There's also plenty of students from other medical schools that do a 1-year master's at Harvard if you're primarily interested in Harvard for the policy network.

 

[skk_]

Why do SDN people always favor UCSF over its peer institutions (Harvard, Stanford, Hopkins)?

Full disclosure (since i'm very aware that I will be biased given my own decisions): current Stanford student, did not apply to UCSF, but was accepted at Harvard as well (Pathways, did not apply HST).

In reality at least, I don't think there's any real favoritism in reality one way or the other, particularly with regards to Stanford vs. UCSF - a very large portion of my class turned down acceptances there to go to Stanford instead, and I have no doubt that the reverse is also true at UCSF. Reputation-wise they're all equivalent institutions, so the choice comes down strongly to some combination of fit and cost.

Since I will be very obviously biased towards the school I decided to go to, i'll refrain from giving recommendations to the OP, especially since you can't exactly pick wrong. I would however recommend strongly that you go to the revisit weekends for all three schools and make up your mind based on your own experiences - on here, you're either going to get advice from current students at those schools that will be biased towards their own school (myself included), or advice from people at other schools and pre-meds that you honestly are probably far more knowledgeable than already with respect to this decision.

I do want to point out though that clinical training here is much stronger than is portrayed on SDN for whatever reason (and while there are many criticisms to be had about palo alto, you can't really generalize this to the quality of clinical training when half of the training sites we rotate through aren't even in palo alto), and the "stanford medicine is all about tech/entrepreneurship" thing is one of those strange perceptions that gets pushed a lot online and by other schools, but is not reflective of the student population here at all. While one of the big things about Stanford is that you'll be extremely well supported no matter what you intend to pursue, and the school is very big on providing a personalized education + access to opportunities aligned with your goals, people with those specific interests represent an extremely small minority of the students here. For what its worth, people in that group honestly also tend to have goals that I was surprised by how much I vibed with even though it isn't my thing - for example, the only person in my year who has pursued this angle strongly has focused all his efforts into working on projects that utilized tech in the context of infrastructure development to improve the access of healthcare in underserved communities in the bay area, which is something very different from what you tend to think of when you picture "tech and medicine".