Help with school decision (Tufts vs. Stony Brook)

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90manbat

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Hey guys,

I'm feeling really stuck about this. I know I've got some time before this decision needs to be made, but I was wondering if anyone went through something similar could weigh in on how they felt about their decision.

I was impressed similarly by both schools, and both seem to be similar enough in rank (good research, similar match lists, etc). I'm a New York resident, so Stony Brook would be significantly cheaper, like 20K per year cheaper. However, I've been living in Boston for the past few years (undergrad and post-grad), and absolutely love this city. I did the Tufts MBS program as well, and really love the school. As a final push for Tuft, my (very serious) SO who I've been living with for the past few years has a great long term job here that definitely has potential to become a life-long career. Being in the same city with my SO is important to me because it provides a peace of mind and stable support system so I can focus on my studies. I know that planning 4+ hour trips on weekends would really distract me from doing well in school.

So, to anyone who may have made this decision...is saving the money worth it? I don't know if I can quite justify Tuft's hefty price tag along with Boston's absurd living expenses for how much I love the program, but being set up and motivated to do well in school could be game changing for my career.

Thanks in advance guys! I realize I'm incredibly lucky to have multiple acceptances to begin with.
 
I would go with Tufts, as it is a far better school, better location, and better for your SO. +80k after four years of med school should be very manageable.
 
Thanks guys, I guess I was more looking to see if anyone coming out of school with less debt felt they made the right decision, or if coming out with more debt was absolutely unmanageable. I still have a good amount from undergrad.
 
BTW Boston is tough, but you can be smart about it and keep expenses to a reasonable level.
 
90manbat said:
Hey guys,

I'm feeling really stuck about this. I know I've got some time before this decision needs to be made, but I was wondering if anyone went through something similar could weigh in on how they felt about their decision.

I was impressed similarly by both schools, and both seem to be similar enough in rank (good research, similar match lists, etc). I'm a New York resident, so Stony Brook would be significantly cheaper, like 20K per year cheaper. However, I've been living in Boston for the past few years (undergrad and post-grad), and absolutely love this city. I did the Tufts MBS program as well, and really love the school. As a final push for Tuft, my (very serious) SO who I've been living with for the past few years has a great long term job here that definitely has potential to become a life-long career. Being in the same city with my SO is important to me because it provides a peace of mind and stable support system so I can focus on my studies. I know that planning 4+ hour trips on weekends would really distract me from doing well in school.

So, to anyone who may have made this decision...is saving the money worth it? I don't know if I can quite justify Tuft's hefty price tag along with Boston's absurd living expenses for how much I love the program, but being set up and motivated to do well in school could be game changing for my career.

Thanks in advance guys! I realize I'm incredibly lucky to have multiple acceptances to begin with.
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Like Winnie the Pooh staying put at Hundred Acre Wood, you shouldn't travel too far away from the honey tree. Tufts
 
livinginlalaland said:
You can also probably save a lot money living with your SO.
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True, but you'd be surprised. Boston rent is tough, marginal utility for number of additional bedrooms is definitely real, and not too many people want to live with a couple.
 
Many thanks to everyone for your input. I think we both want to be able to make career choices independent of one another, and I like Tufts more even without the SO situation. It's just hard to quantify how much more I feel it's a good fit/better for my career, where its very easy to quantify how much more debt.
 
90manbat said:
Many thanks to everyone for your input. I think we both want to be able to make career choices independent of one another, and I like Tufts more even without the SO situation. It's just hard to quantify how much more I feel it's a good fit/better for my career, where its very easy to quantify how much more debt.
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I'm usually in the frugal minority on SDN and would normally tell you to choose the cheaper option. However. if your SO is someone you are considering marrying, then I would say go to Tufts. You like Tufts better, it's a better school and you can stay with your SO.
 
Kind of a side note, but there are multiple people claiming Tufts is much better than SBU overall.
Can any of you explain why/how this is quantified (obviously other than location)? I'm curious 😀
 
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breezy16 said:
Kind of a side note, but there are multiple people claiming Tufts is much better than SBU overall.
Can any of you explain why/how this is quantified (obviously other than location)? I'm curious 😀
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For whatever it might be worth, US News agrees. Also Boston >>>>>>>>>>> Long Island. I know you said other than the location, but the opportunities in Boston can not be overstated. Yeah LI is near NYC but there is a huge difference between a 2 hour commute and a 15 minute subway ride.
 
ChrisMack390 said:
For whatever it might be worth, US News agrees. Also Boston >>>>>>>>>>> Long Island. I know you said other than the location, but the opportunities in Boston can not be overstated. Yeah LI is near NYC but there is a huge difference between a 2 hour commute and a 15 minute subway ride.
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Of course, I wasn't disputing that in the slightest. I was just hoping there were more concrete reasons like better research opps, curriculum, step i scores, match locations (this is pretty contested, though) etc. Just curious is all 😀 OP is lucky to have such a choice to make.
 
I also would be interested in where this notion that Tufts is a "far better" school than Stony Brook is coming from, particularly when its mostly from pre-meds(like myself) who are largely just stating it in a matter of fact tone and where there's a fair chance what they are using to determine which school is "better" are not the key things to be using for consideration.

OP honestly outside of saving 20k is there any other reason you would consider SB over Tufts? It seems clear where you want to go out of the two, just go with that.
 
GrapesofRath said:
I also would be interested in where this notion that Tufts is a "far better" school than Stony Brook is coming from, particularly when its mostly from pre-meds(like myself) who are largely just stating it in a matter of fact tone and where there's a fair chance what they are using to determine which school is "better" are not the key things to be using for consideration.

OP honestly outside of saving 20k is there any other reason you would consider SB over Tufts? It seems clear where you want to go out of the two, just go with that.
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Because OP would be saving 80k (20k per year), which is significant.
 
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Affiche said:
Because OP would be saying 80k (20k per year), which is significant.
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Not to mention that the 80k would probably be taken out in unsubsidized loans at a crazy interest rate so when it all shakes out it's about 500-1,000 per month more in loan repayments depending on what sort of repayment plan I choose.
 
Affiche said:
Because OP would be saving 80k (20k per year), which is significant.
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Saying a school is cheaper and a "better" option is not the same as saying a school "is far better" than another school which others are saying. Two completely different things.
 
GrapesofRath said:
Saying a school is cheaper and a "better" option is not the same as saying a school "is far better" than another school which others are saying. Two completely different things.
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I never even implied that they were the same thing. You stated that OP would be saving "20k" and should just go where he wants to go, so I corrected you that he'd actually be saving 80k and that's significant enough to consider taking the cheaper option, especially when you consider capitalizing interest. Everyone gets that "cheaper" and "better" are two different things, duh.
 
Affiche said:
I never even implied that they were the same thing. You stated that OP would be saving "20k" and should just go where he wants to go, so I corrected you that he'd actually be saving 80k and that's significant enough to consider taking the cheaper option, especially when you consider capitalizing interest. Everyone gets that "cheaper" and "better" are two different things, duh.
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I wasn't addressing you when I said it. And I forgot to put 20k/year instead of 20k.

There are clearly other posts in this thread that said Tufts is a better school one even saying "far better". I'm not really sure why so many people are just stating that in a matter of fact tone because I really don't see any evidence of one of these schools being "far better" than the other and honestly you could make a debate for either of these schools.
 
GrapesofRath said:
I wasn't addressing you when I said it. And I forgot to put 20k/year instead of 20k.

There are clearly other posts in this thread that said Tufts is a far better school. I'm not really sure why so many people are just stating that in a matter of fact tone because I really don't see any evidence of one of these schools being "far better" than the other and honestly you could make a debate for either of these schools.
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You quoted me and only me so I reasonably assumed it was directed at me.
Anyway, I think only one person said Tufts is a "far better" school while everyone else has simply said it's better, which I agree with. Tufts receives more NIH funding, is ranked higher and has a better reputation outside of the East Coast (at least where I'm from, where SB isn't nearly as well-known as Tufts is). I also prefer the larger class size and location of Tufts over SB, but that's irrelevant.
 
Goro said:
Having grown up on Long Island, I can tell you than this is simply not true.
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Concur with Goro; obviously none of you have been in Central Islip or Brentwood. Suffolk county is ~1.5 million people and Stony Brook is the only lvl 1 trauma center in Suffolk (AKA every major trauma or disease will go to SB unless selectively flighted out to NYC-area)
 
Or Patchogue!

breezy16 said:
Concur with Goro; obviously none of you have been in Central Islip or Brentwood. Suffolk county is ~1.5 million people and Stony Brook is the only lvl 1 trauma center in Suffolk (AKA every major trauma or disease will go to SB unless selectively flighted out to NYC-area)
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Goro said:
Or Patchogue!
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I still have nightmares from when I did my driving test there moons ago. 😉

I just wonder with the larger class size and the fact that there are many hospitals in the Boston area how much competition Tufts would have for patients/time/rotations/etc. Urban vs suburban, fine. I can get out to Brooklyn in probably an hour fifteen from SB on a good day without traffic on the Southern State; thats not a bad commute.
Saying SB lacks in diversity is unfair, Tufts has the 'bigger name' and is private but honestly, I'd rank them quite even.
 
Goro said:
Having grown up on Long Island, I can tell you than this is simply not true.
Click to expand...

breezy16 said:
I still have nightmares from when I did my driving test there moons ago. 😉

I just wonder with the larger class size and the fact that there are many hospitals in the Boston area how much competition Tufts would have for patients/time/rotations/etc. Urban vs suburban, fine. I can get out to Brooklyn in probably an hour fifteen from SB on a good day without traffic on the Southern State; thats not a bad commute.
Saying SB lacks in diversity is unfair, Tufts has the 'bigger name' and is private but honestly, I'd rank them quite even.
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Fair enough, but to be fair to me, and it may or may not be true, but I just said Boston is more diverse. I never said Long Island lacked diversity. And plus, that was one component to a sentence that also included the research opportunities in Boston, which would be hard to argue against.
 
Affiche said:
You quoted me and only me so I reasonably assumed it was directed at me.
Anyway, I think only one person said Tufts is a "far better" school while everyone else has simply said it's better, which I agree with. Tufts receives more NIH funding, is ranked higher and has a better reputation outside of the East Coast (at least where I'm from, where SB isn't nearly as well-known as Tufts is). I also prefer the larger class size and location of Tufts over SB, but that's irrelevant.
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The whole convo started because you initially quoted my post lol I only quoted you after that.

Anyway these differences are not significant at all. That's the whole point. Nobody should be making a difference off these small discrepancies. Goro already addressed how the theory of Boston being "objectively better medical region than Boston" which @piii was talking about is flawed. No pre-med should be making any decisions about where to attend based off very small differences in NIH funding. The other thing that piii was talking about residency director scores is not very relevant when not talking about specific residency areas. All that should matter is personal preference type considerations for the OP: not some idea that one of these schools is somehow clearly "better" than the other when really all it is that these two schools are similar with differences in "prestige" or "quality" being moot points and variable from individual to individual. It sounds like OP's preference is for Tufts so that's where they should go.
 
GrapesofRath said:
The whole convo started because you initially quoted my post lol I only quoted you after that.

Anyway these differences are not significant at all. That's the whole point. Nobody should be making a difference off these small discrepancies. Goro already addressed how the theory of Boston being "objectively better medical region than Boston" which @piii was talking about is flawed. No pre-med should be making any decisions about where to attend based off very small differences in NIH funding. The other thing that piii was talking about residency director scores is not very relevant when not talking about specific residency areas. All that should matter is personal preference type considerations for the OP: not some idea that one of these schools is somehow clearly "better" than the other when really all it is that these two schools are similar with differences in "prestige" or "quality" being moot points and variable from individual to individual. It sounds like OP's preference is for Tufts so that's where they should go.
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Hey, at least I acknowledged that I may be biased - gotta have pride for mah city :laugh:
 
From someone who lives in NYC, SB has a pretty amazing reputation around these parts. And its closer to the best city in the World LOL 🙂
 
GrapesofRath said:
The whole convo started because you initially quoted my post lol I only quoted you after that.

Anyway these differences are not significant at all. That's the whole point. Nobody should be making a difference off these small discrepancies. Goro already addressed how the theory of Boston being "objectively better medical region than Boston" which @piii was talking about is flawed. No pre-med should be making any decisions about where to attend based off very small differences in NIH funding. The other thing that piii was talking about residency director scores is not very relevant when not talking about specific residency areas. All that should matter is personal preference type considerations for the OP: not some idea that one of these schools is somehow clearly "better" than the other when really all it is that these two schools are similar with differences in "prestige" or "quality" being moot points and variable from individual to individual. It sounds like OP's preference is for Tufts so that's where they should go.
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Do you know how a forum works? When I have a response to something you post, I quote you and respond. If you have something to say that's not relevant to my post, you don't quote it to respond lol.

80k and the presence of a SO whom OP is considering marrying are the only two significant things that should be considered here. Preference for school doesn't even matter because 80k is enough to make me attend a school I don't prefer, but being close to my SO to also attend a school I liked better would make me throw away 80k. That's all that needs to be said here.
 
Affiche said:
Do you know how a forum works? When I have a response to something you post, I quote you and respond. If you have something to say that's not relevant to my post, you don't quote it to respond lol.
Click to expand...

I could ask you the same thing.

I say something in general to the forum that's not addressing you at all. You choose to address me anyway which is fine. I address you back. That's how a conversation tends to work. Really not that complicated.
 
GrapesofRath said:
I could ask you the same thing.

I say something in general to the forum that's not addressing you at all. You choose to address me anyway which is fine. I address you back. That's how a conversation tends to work. Really not that complicated.
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You said you weren't addressing me back, which is why I was confused by your quoting me lol.
But whatever, this is stupid. If you aren't addressing me then don't quote me and we'll understand each other.
 
@90manbat I think this all comes down to how serious you are about your SO. Making career plans independent of each other really doesn't work if you're planning the rest of your lives together. If you are, then I'd advise Tufts. If you aren't planning to stay together and would be okay with the relationship ending for you to pursue medical school, then by all means, take the cheaper option and attend SB.
 
I'll give you the answer my dad gave me when I was asking him about me taking extra classes (paying for overload and summer credits):

"It is only money, do whatever makes you happy and what you think will be the best for you, don't let the money be a decider or limiting factor"
 
akellish1028 said:
I'll give you the answer my dad gave me when I was asking him about me taking extra classes (paying for overload and summer credits):

"It is only money, do whatever makes you happy and what you think will be the best for you, don't let the money be a decider or limiting factor"
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I think in this context its good advice but in general it is not. Money isnt just money it severely affects your comfort, happiness and opportunities available to you. Money is something you should highly take into consideration when making life decisions. In this case money is not a deciding factor but in many cases it sure as hell is....

Dont want to make any assumptions about you , but for myself growing up in a 3rd world country being dirt poor you gain a different prospective on what money is worth,..
 
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