Help- St. Louis U. or Southern Illinois ?

[Vandyfox]

I've got it narrowed down to these schools, but am having trouble deciding between them. When it's all said and done, I want to set my practice in my rural hometown of Hillsboro, IL (directly between Springfield and St. Louis). Let's pretend cost isn't a factor (yeah right!)- what is anybody's opinion?

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[southbelle]

SIU. Without a doubt

 

[jlee9531]

rural medicine then?
if thats the case, then id take the cheapest option, which if im not mistaken is southern illinois.

my friend was accepted to st. louis, but he just couldnt justify paying that much money to go there...so he declined and took his chances in getting off a waitlist at school that was cheaper and more towards his liking. fortunately everything worked out and he got in.

 

[size_tens]

I would definitely say SIU. The education at the two schools will probably be similar. I don't see a good reason to spend all the extra money to attend SLU.

 

[Tezzie]

If we ignore money for a moment, i think that your goals seem to fit perfectly the mission of SIU. They want people who will service the small Southern IL towns. Going to school in the bi-state area i have plenty of friends who interviewed and were accepted to SIU and everyone seems to like it. So i have to agree with the rest of the posters : SIU seems to fit both your goals and your finances.

 

[jonny_little]

SLU definitely has the superior reputation to SIU, especially with the up and coming facility advances. However, in your situation, SIU is the superior institution for rural medicine, since that is their focus, so I would choose SIU.

I was in the similar situation that I was admitted to a number of IL schools such as UIC and SIU and Rush, but for me, money was not the issue and I (at least right now) think I will be at SLU next year.

 

[GBFKicks]

Even if cost was not a factor I'd go to SIU for rural medicine.

 

[moops]

Well, I think that last statement is misleading and, OP, prob don't pay attn to it.

Fact is- rural medicine is about as easy to get into for a medical student as it is to cut a piece of butter with a machetti.

It's very "undesired" and therefore there is very high demand right not for physicians to go into rural areas and practice medicine.

henceforth, if rural medicine is your calling, you can ANYWHERE, despite whether or not it is *ranked* for rural medicine, and come out going to a GREAT residency progam with avg scores. these are the current state of affairs

 

[GBFKicks]

Well, I think that last statement is misleading and, OP, prob don't pay attn to it.

Fact is- rural medicine is about as easy to get into for a medical student as it is to cut a piece of butter with a machetti.

It's very "undesired" and therefore there is very high demand right not for physicians to go into rural areas and practice medicine.

henceforth, if rural medicine is your calling, you can ANYWHERE, despite whether or not it is *ranked* for rural medicine, and come out going to a GREAT residency progam with avg scores. these are the current state of affairs

Are you kidding me... yes, you can get into a rural medicine residency from any school. However, if you go to a school like SIU, you'll be getting hands on rural medicine training right from the beginning. There are certain schools that are strong in rural medicine exactly because of this... and that is FACT.
The only thing is, if you don't know for sure (which is usually the case) that you want to do rural medicine, a school that is "ranked" higher would probably give you more options.

 

[SocietyRed]

Between those two schools, definitely go with SIU. It has a great reputation and a great price. They are very innovative with the whole problem based learning stuff and a smaller school. I have a friend who went there and said it is a great time. Their board scores have been awesome too (that kinda surprised me cause they don't really do grades. You dont have to fight for honors). As for SLU, I have heard a few bad things. They had some incident a few years back with an high number of board failures. As a result, they have been hard on the incoming classes. The students tend to be ultra competative for the grades. Boards are everything, I don't see the point. The good news about SLU is that it's in a big city. SIU is out in the boonies. Also, SLU has that special program for college kids who are pretty much given admission to the med school for helping to boost their undergrad admit scores. My friend who goes there now says that they are pretty stupid and kinda annoying. Either way, both schools will serve you well if you plan to be a rural physician. Don't sell the schools short based on US news rankings. Check out their residencies (not that it matters if you are going to be FP). If you are from a rural community, you will probably enjoy life better at Carbondale/Springfield.

Good Luck.

 

[UseUrHeadFred]

My advice, for what it's worth:

If you are absolutely commited to rural medicine/family practice, SIU is superior. If you have even a shadow of a doubt, go with SLU. SLU has some really nice specialty programs.

 

[opus03]

I was accepted to both and would have picked SIU over SLU...even though SLU is a great school. The only thing I didn't like about SIU was location but if you really want to end up in rural medicine then I would say it's the place to be. Their small class size and innovative curriculum seem to work really well for the students and everyone there seemed pretty happy. Good luck!

 

[moops]

Actually- a lot of people in my class got into SIU (being that a lot are from IL), and didn't like the facilities, staff or area so they came here. Plus I just asked a friend yesterday- mentioned that the specialities outside of the strengths (rural, family) tend to be quite weak. Nonetheless, they are MUCH cheaper. Is that why you would have prefered it?

Honestly, if i was from IL and I got into SIU, I don't have much money, so I would have gone to SIU. But, if I had money, I would have gone to SLU.

 

[lindyloohoo]

did you all see siu's match list this year? one of my friends forwarded it to me and it didn't look all that weak. a few each in rads, ortho, ent and plastics out of a small class. (although i'm not sure where they matched) i almost wish i would have gone there instead of "one of the chicago schools", but the fun of the city snaps me back real quick

 

[southbelle]

Once you're talking about a school ranked as low as SLU(is it even in the top 50? 70?), it makes no difference. At all. The concentration on 'rural medicine' also makes no difference. At all. He could pick a residency in such a rural area if it was important to him. Just go to SIU because it's a lot cheaper, because it just doesn't matter which one of these two schools you go to.

 

[jonny_little]

SLU is in the top 65 schools- but will be much higher when the entering class graduates. I don't think it really matters anyways- there are many more characteristics to a school than it's US news ranking.

Ie, the FEEL at the schools is completely different. The atmosphere, the city, the FOCUS, everything- I think these are what individuals should look at (op). if money is a concern, which it is for most of us, SIU is the best choice. if the person likes the SIU community, school, etc. SIU is the best choice.

So, if i were in the situation, I'd probably go to SIU, for sure- i think it's much cheaper?

 

[southbelle]

The atmosphere, the city, the FOCUS, everything- I think these are what individuals should look at (op).

I haven't visited either school and don't know anyone who goes to either, but I think a lot of the time when people talk about a school's focus or mission they are really speaking about a focus or mission that doesn't really apply to anyone but a few people in admin and for state funding purposes. I hear all the time about how certain schools are committed to serving underserved populations and/or primary care, and then I look at the match list and it doesn't correspond. At all. The real deal is that the school gets some $$ from the state to have this mission statement, and so the administrative bigshots at the school spin this as the school's "focus". But the students aren't obligated to do it...and more end up doing anesthesiology than FP or obgyn in a rural community.

 

[jlee9531]

I haven't visited either school and don't know anyone who goes to either, but I think a lot of the time when people talk about a school's focus or mission they are really speaking about a focus or mission that doesn't really apply to anyone but a few people in admin and for state funding purposes. I hear all the time about how certain schools are committed to serving underserved populations and/or primary care, and then I look at the match list and it doesn't correspond. At all. The real deal is that the school gets some $$ from the state to have this mission statement, and so the administrative bigshots at the school spin this as the school's "focus". But the students aren't obligated to do it...and more end up doing anesthesiology than FP or obgyn in a rural community.

yeah you obviously don't know too much about many schools.

so for primary care schools you are telling me that their match lists have what...90% percent of the people going into specialties?

how does it not correspond. please give me an examples of a number of strong primary care schools like umass or msu and tell how their match lists dont correspond...students have an idea of what they want to do when they first enter medical school. then they do rotations and maybe they might see a speciality they are interested in. maybe they decide to go into that residency and then come back to serve an disadvantaged neighborhood. strong primary care schools will match a majority of their students in primary care fields.

 

[southbelle]

yeah you obviously don't know too much about many schools.

so for primary care schools you are telling me that their match lists have what...90% percent of the people going into specialties?

how does it not correspond. please give me an examples of a number of strong primary care schools like umass or msu and tell how their match lists dont correspond...students have an idea of what they want to do when they first enter medical school. then they do rotations and maybe they might see a speciality they are interested in. maybe they decide to go into that residency and then come back to serve an disadvantaged neighborhood. strong primary care schools will match a majority of their students in primary care fields.

Give me one US allopathic 'primary care' school that matches 60% of their graduates into obgyn, peds, fp, or IM programs that don't send a majority of their grads into subspecialties.

People know they can do primary care anywhere. From Vanderbilt. From MSU. From NYCOM. Or from SABA. It just doesn't matter. And no, having a few extra days of primary care preceptorships that the primary care schools offer won't mean much when looking at the totality of training.

Yeah the match lists might correspond in that a school like MSU might have 5-10% more of it's students going into true primary care than say....Ohio State. But I don't think it's a big deal.....

 

[Vandyfox]

Wow,
All of you guys have responded (in such a short amount of time) with some really great advice and opinions.
Just wanted to say thank you to everyone!

Vandyfox

 

[jlee9531]

Give me one US allopathic 'primary care' school that matches 60% of their graduates into obgyn, peds, fp, or IM programs that don't send a majority of their grads into subspecialties.

People know they can do primary care anywhere. From Vanderbilt. From MSU. From NYCOM. Or from SABA. It just doesn't matter. And no, having a few extra days of primary care preceptorships that the primary care schools offer won't mean much when looking at the totality of training.

Yeah the match lists might correspond in that a school like MSU might have 5-10% more of it's students going into true primary care than say....Ohio State. But I don't think it's a big deal.....

do you even know anything about msu?
i mean have you interviewed there? met the students there? talked to the students there? asked what their interests were?

oh wait...thats right...you dont need to since all your wide ranging comments about all the schools you make are so accurate.

my bad...please forgive me for my ignorance.

 

[southbelle]

do you even know anything about msu?
i mean have you interviewed there? met the students there? talked to the students there? asked what their interests were?

oh wait...thats right...you dont need to since all your wide ranging comments about all the schools you make are so accurate.

my bad...please forgive me for my ignorance.

so I guess that means you can't identify one such school??