although i won't be going to either, i thought about this a lot too and spoke w/ random students and friends at both places. i'd say the sense of community appeared to be higher at rwj (i only saw piscataway) despite the split campuses. it seems that a lot of njms students are commuters who just go to class and then go home to study, whereas rwj has more of a college feel to it. i'm pretty sure njms doesn't even have a gym. all that may change next year when the new njms housing structure is up. re: location, newark isn't that bad and closer to nyc than new brunswick, if that matters. i thought the facilities at newark were kinda grimy compared to rwj, but it wasn't too bad. i think your volunteer opportunities will be similar at either place. one thing about NJMS is that they told me you can do the md/mph in 4 years, whereas I was under the impression that it takes 5 years w/ RWJ. i'm not completely sure on that though. clinically i think njms def. ups rwj, even though i like rwj hospital much better than the newark hospital. i also had an incredible time shadowing a surgeon at rwjh one summer.
even though i always thought rwj was better b/c of the slightly more prestigious name, in the end i favored njms for a few reasons. first, the honors/pass/fail vs. (correct me if i'm wrong) the honors/high pass/pass/etc. at rwj. i can see the latter being a lot more stressful. second, the administration was much friendlier and paid more attention at njms than rwj. the only contact i had w/ rwj was the acceptance call and a scholarship call, but after that my emails to them weren't even answered except for a confirmation when i finally withdrew my acceptance. at njms, i had a fair amount of contact with heinrich, got a letter from my interviewer, etc.
