Help deciding which school to go to?

[NP545]

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I've been fortunate to receive a few MD acceptances and now have some difficulty in deciding between them:

School A:
In State School
~100K for all 4 years combined (NOT including possible scholarships)
-happy students, good hospital nearby
-not ranked (it's a lower mid-tier type of school) but has great clinical experience opportunities in 3rd and 4th year

School B:
-top 30 school
-OOS
-300K for all 4 years
-environment seems nice, would probably get better ranked residency spot in this state (if it matters)

School C:
-top 30 school
-OOS
-400K+ for all 4 years (including apartment, etc)
-always wanted to live in this city, but has very high cost of living

Which school should i accept?
I want to do my residency in either a top ranked program or near my hometown. School B or C would have a better chance of getting me into a higher ranked residency while School A would probably get me a spot near my hometown.

I've never left my state for undergrad, so maybe leaving would be a good experience. However, the comfort and support system from my home state could have potential benefits too.

Does the residency ranking really matter as long as you are from a US MD school? Would a better residency land you a better starting job or would both a top residency and unranked residency have equal chance of starting your career the same? (probably better starting money, but it may not be much to make a huge difference)

Fortunately, my parents would largely help pay my cost of attendance, so the money would not be an issue at all. Now, it's just deciding amongst the three... any advice?

 

[WingedOx]

name the schools.

(you'll get realistic honest answers)

 

[NP545]

name the schools.

(you'll get realistic honest answers)

School B is UMich

School C is USC Keck

Do not want to disclose school A, but it is IS-biased

 

[WingedOx]

As for the second part of your post, your residency absolutely matters, and matters WAY more than your MD school. The problem is that while certain residency programs are quite simply better than others (even when comparing big name programs... not just academic vs community) I know quite a bit about the various residencies in my region in my specialty and know their strengths/weaknesses/what types of doctors they churn out, but I honestly couldn't care less what any of them are ranked one way or the other. You can go over to the various specialty forums, and there tends to be debates about ranking residencies, but they tend to be mostly for fun and somewhat tongue in cheek.

 

[WingedOx]

School B is UMich

School C is USC Keck

Do not want to disclose school A, but it is IS-biased

Damn, I'd have a hard time turning down UMich, but I also have some midwestern roots and lived in Ohio for part of my life. That's probably personal preference though. I also wish I didn't have OOS debt (even with some parental help myself), so there's that too.

 

[hoihaie]

i thought you were unsure of going in to medicine haha

 

[optimistic3]

I don't really know anything about any of those schools but where did you personally feel more at home when you visited for you interviews? Also consider the weather - warm and sunny Southern California sounds nicer to me than cold Michigan! But $100K sounds a lot better to me than $400K (even though I know you said your parents would pay).

 

[NP545]

i thought you were unsure of going in to medicine haha

That insecurity was just the pre-interview anxiety/crisis I was temporarily experiencing

 

[mimelim]

#1 "Top 30" is completely meaningless. On residency applications it means nothing. Top 5 matters for some applicants (high end IM/Surg or in competitive specialties), but for the vast majority of applicants it is completely irrelevant. That "ranking" is just something that USNews puts together to make money on.

#2 If you are looking to practice in California, you should go to California for medical school. Applying into California is not impossible and not particularly competitive in certain specialties, but yes, you will have at a minimum a small edge by staying in Cali.

#3 There are no rankings with residency.

#4 Where you go to residency will impact where you practice in the future. It will be unlikely to affect your starting salary or chances of getting a job post residency. It WILL affect your choices of starting positions. Academic positions most often go to people coming out of the better residencies.

I've been fortunate to receive a few MD acceptances and now have some difficulty in deciding between them:

School A:
In State School
~100K for all 4 years combined (NOT including possible scholarships)
-happy students, good hospital nearby
-not ranked (it's a lower mid-tier type of school) but has great clinical experience opportunities in 3rd and 4th year

School B:
-top 30 school
-OOS
-300K for all 4 years
-environment seems nice, would probably get better ranked residency spot in this state (if it matters)

School C:
-top 30 school
-OOS
-400K+ for all 4 years (including apartment, etc)
-always wanted to live in this city, but has very high cost of living

Which school should i accept?
I want to do my residency in either a top ranked program or near my hometown. School B or C would have a better chance of getting me into a higher ranked residency while School A would probably get me a spot near my hometown.

I've never left my state for undergrad, so maybe leaving would be a good experience. However, the comfort and support system from my home state could have potential benefits too.

Does the residency ranking really matter as long as you are from a US MD school? Would a better residency land you a better starting job or would both a top residency and unranked residency have equal chance of starting your career the same? (probably better starting money, but it may not be much to make a huge difference)

Fortunately, my parents would largely help pay my cost of attendance, so the money would not be an issue at all. Now, it's just deciding amongst the three... any advice?

 

[Lucca]

I too would have a very hard time turning down UMich. Ultimately it comes down to your priorities and your financial resources.

If your finances are in order I would probably take the debt and go

1)Umich
2) IS school
3)USC keck

But living in Cali is not a big priority for me and you say it is where you have always wanted to live so that might not necessarily be what you want. The main difficulty about California is having to eat up all of that debt while living in a very expensive area while I have (literally) negative income. The way I see it I don't see the point in draining myself financially and hamstringing my future choices (because when you are in debt it will definitely affect the decisions you make about job offers, residency placements, specialty, etc) when I don't have an income. I would happily eat the cost of living in an area I found very desirable if I had any income to fall back on and less debt to hold me back. That being said, UMich is in a beautiful part of the country that I would find very desirable.

Is it 200k + interest worth of desirable? That depends, can you afford it? Do you have a working spouse or parents who can help with the cost?

Do you know what your career goals are? They will change during med school of course but having a good idea of what you want may tell you more about where you should go.

 

[WillburCobb]

So you've been accepted even though you haven't taken the MCAT and you still need another year to finish pre-reqs? http://forums.studentdoctor.net/threads/which-psychology-class-for-2015-mcat.1092370/

Or wait you're suddenly done with pre-reqs and studying to take the MCAT a few months later, but still haven't taken it late into the app season and have yet somehow been accepted? http://forums.studentdoctor.net/threads/forgot-almost-everything-from-prereqs.1103548/

 

[IlDestriero]

If your parents can really pay, meaning they have several million dollars and writing a check each year for 100k has no impact, go wherever you want. If not, you know what to do.
Studying hard and scoring high on your USMLE has the most impact on your residency selection. Just make sure that your little unranked state school gives you good clinical exposure to a major full service hospital. If you are trying to get a leg up by doing research and making connections with mentors, you need to have access to these people. That's one advantage major academic centers have and probably another reason why DOs are disadvantaged in the match. Don't overlook that.

 

[referee3]

So you've been accepted even though you haven't taken the MCAT and you still need another year to finish pre-reqs? http://forums.studentdoctor.net/threads/which-psychology-class-for-2015-mcat.1092370/

Or wait you're suddenly done with pre-reqs and studying to take the MCAT a few months later, but still haven't taken it late into the app season and have yet somehow been accepted? http://forums.studentdoctor.net/threads/forgot-almost-everything-from-prereqs.1103548/

Caught!

I don't understand why people do this??

 

[WillburCobb]

Caught!

I don't understand why people do this??

There's more if you wanna check OP's post history, I just left it at those. I've suspected OP of being a troll for a while.

 

[IlDestriero]

Doing this should earn you a BAN.

 

[Ace Khalifa]

So you've been accepted even though you haven't taken the MCAT and you still need another year to finish pre-reqs? http://forums.studentdoctor.net/threads/which-psychology-class-for-2015-mcat.1092370/

Or wait you're suddenly done with pre-reqs and studying to take the MCAT a few months later, but still haven't taken it late into the app season and have yet somehow been accepted? http://forums.studentdoctor.net/threads/forgot-almost-everything-from-prereqs.1103548/

LOL OP is so dumb, thinking no one would notice.

 

[WillburCobb]

LOL OP is so dumb, thinking no one would notice.

In all fairness I've given OP the benefit of the doubt in the past beings I've been too lazy to double check his/her post history even though I've suspected otherwise. I'll keep him/her more closely on the radar.