Hofstra vs. Dartmouth

[alphadoc28]

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Hi everyone,

I've been fortunate enough to get into both of these programs but I'm having a hard time making a final decision. I'm from the northeast (closer to Hofstra) and I'm hoping to match into otolaryngology. Here are my pros and cons:

Hofstra
Pros:
-Innovative curriculum (PBL and early clinical experience)
-about $30k less expensive than Dartmouth per year (scholarship)
-closer to home
-small class size
-brand new facilities
-NSLIJ hospital system

Cons:
-New school (hard to judge quality of match list, no practicing alumni)
-Curriculum may be too independent in some ways (little to no guidance from faculty)
-Commuting everyday may be hard (lots of traffic)
-Research opportunities not as robust
-Prosection-based anatomy lab (not sure if this matters much)

Dartmouth:
Pros:
-Great research opportunities
-Super small class size
-Away rotations all over the country
-Established reputation
-Beautiful surroundings/less hectic
-Mix of lectures and PBL (more balanced curriculum)

Cons:
-More expensive (+$30k/year)
-Older facilities
-Further from family (not a huge deal though)
-Hanover has less going on


Thanks, I'd appreciate some input!

 

[mik30102]

Any prior debt? How do you feel you will best learn? Have you tried to see if Dartmouth will match? I liked Hofstra a lot but I'm not to familiar with Dartmouth.

 

[alphadoc28]

No prior debt but I may have to take loans out if I go to Dartmouth. My parents can cover about 40k per year. I enjoy independent learning but I'm just worried that it may be hard to learn basic sciences at the med school level without faculty guidance. If I'm aiming for a career in academic medicine do you think school choice will matter?

 

[BioEngMD]

If you don't have any prior debt and your parents will be contributing ~40k / year I'd take out the extra loans for Dartmouth and never look back. Dartmouth is a very well-respected medical school with a history of great match lists, and nothing against Hofstra, but I wouldn't be willing to bet my future success on a new medical school if I had such a great alternative. Also, I'm not too familiar with academic medicine, but I've heard countless times that if you want to go into academic medicine you want to go to the best school you can get into. In that case its even more of a clear choice.

 

[alphadoc28]

Thanks for the input! Sill going back and forth but I feel like Dartmouth would be the safer option given my future career goals.

 

[NYCFMD]

Hi! Congrats on the acceptances! I honestly think Hofstra would be the better place for you. First off, you shouldn't worry about reputation or "respect" of the school for MD programs. Every medical school is great and as one admissions officer told me, all medical schools do 98% of the same thing its the 2% difference you want to look at. In my opinion Hofstra's 2% would be better for you. First off the specialty you want to go into is very specific, and if you want good exposure to that (recommendations, training, etc...) you need to go to a place where you will have available access to that. Dartmouth-Hitchcock medical center is good, but it doesn't nearly have the same access to a diverse and large patient base as Hofstra does.

The north shore LIJ medical system is the second or third largest in the country and you can do rotations at their main center near the campus or even at lenox hill hospital, a HUGE hospital in downtown NYC. You will get much better exposure to the specialty you want as these hospitals rather than at Dartmouth. Also since you have family near the area I am assuming you would probably want to do your residency near there as well, and by being able to do rotations in the specialty you want in NYC hospitals you have greater access to mentors who can help you get residency spots in these hospitals.

Dartmouth may have the ability to do a lot of away rotations, but the only main one it has set up is in san francisco, and that program is so popular and competitive (probably because there is not a great amount of patients at DHMC), and so you may not even be able to go to san francisco. Finally, because of the size of the north shore LIJ medical system, there is a TON of money flowing into the school, and many of the deans were heads from other great schools like case western, NYU, georgetown, etc...If "reputation" of school is something that you care about then you could even argue that by the time you are done with residency Hofstra will actually be a better known school than Dartmouth because of all the investments that are going into Hofstra. Also, I don't know if you know this but a friend of mine who is a second year at Dartmouth told me they are undergoing a lot of curriculum changes and it doesn't seem like they know how they want the curriculum to be. Not a good time to be starting there in my opinion.

Bottom line, if you are interested in practicing more primary care or internal medicine specialties then Dartmouth might be a solid choice, but if you are interested in a very specific and competitive specialty then you will want to go to a place where you can get the experience to put you ahead of the rest of the pack and get into that great residency! Good luck with this choice but you will be fine either way- congrats!

 

[ConsultantMD]

Have you asked if Dartmouth can match your offer from Hofstra? I know someone who just graduated from Hofstra and really liked it, matching into one of his top choices. I think it'd be hard to justify that discrepancy in cost if I were in a similar position. Like someone said LIJ is a powerful hospital system. I am not sure about the speculation that it'll surpass Dartmouth in reputation since Dartmouth is one of the country's oldest medical programs. Do you want to be an EMT? It's a big part of first year isn't it?

Be glad you have supportive parents, and good luck choosing!

 

[premed12345678910]

Hi! Congrats on the acceptances! I honestly think Hofstra would be the better place for you. First off, you shouldn't worry about reputation or "respect" of the school for MD programs. Every medical school is great and as one admissions officer told me, all medical schools do 98% of the same thing its the 2% difference you want to look at. In my opinion Hofstra's 2% would be better for you. First off the specialty you want to go into is very specific, and if you want good exposure to that (recommendations, training, etc...) you need to go to a place where you will have available access to that. Dartmouth-Hitchcock medical center is good, but it doesn't nearly have the same access to a diverse and large patient base as Hofstra does.

The north shore LIJ medical system is the second or third largest in the country and you can do rotations at their main center near the campus or even at lenox hill hospital, a HUGE hospital in downtown NYC. You will get much better exposure to the specialty you want as these hospitals rather than at Dartmouth. Also since you have family near the area I am assuming you would probably want to do your residency near there as well, and by being able to do rotations in the specialty you want in NYC hospitals you have greater access to mentors who can help you get residency spots in these hospitals.

Dartmouth may have the ability to do a lot of away rotations, but the only main one it has set up is in san francisco, and that program is so popular and competitive (probably because there is not a great amount of patients at DHMC), and so you may not even be able to go to san francisco. Finally, because of the size of the north shore LIJ medical system, there is a TON of money flowing into the school, and many of the deans were heads from other great schools like case western, NYU, georgetown, etc...If "reputation" of school is something that you care about then you could even argue that by the time you are done with residency Hofstra will actually be a better known school than Dartmouth because of all the investments that are going into Hofstra. Also, I don't know if you know this but a friend of mine who is a second year at Dartmouth told me they are undergoing a lot of curriculum changes and it doesn't seem like they know how they want the curriculum to be. Not a good time to be starting there in my opinion.

Bottom line, if you are interested in practicing more primary care or internal medicine specialties then Dartmouth might be a solid choice, but if you are interested in a very specific and competitive specialty then you will want to go to a place where you can get the experience to put you ahead of the rest of the pack and get into that great residency! Good luck with this choice but you will be fine either way- congrats!

Choosing between these schools and this post was so helpful in making my choice. See you in the fall Hofstra!!

 

[ridethecliche]

I would go to Dartmouth in spite of the loans, especially if you will have assistance in paying the principal. If your parents can front you the money, you'll save so much even if you have to pay them back with inflation.

 

[breakintheroof]

Hi! Congrats on the acceptances! I honestly think Hofstra would be the better place for you. First off, you shouldn't worry about reputation or "respect" of the school for MD programs. Every medical school is great and as one admissions officer told me, all medical schools do 98% of the same thing its the 2% difference you want to look at. In my opinion Hofstra's 2% would be better for you. First off the specialty you want to go into is very specific, and if you want good exposure to that (recommendations, training, etc...) you need to go to a place where you will have available access to that. Dartmouth-Hitchcock medical center is good, but it doesn't nearly have the same access to a diverse and large patient base as Hofstra does.

The north shore LIJ medical system is the second or third largest in the country and you can do rotations at their main center near the campus or even at lenox hill hospital, a HUGE hospital in downtown NYC. You will get much better exposure to the specialty you want as these hospitals rather than at Dartmouth. Also since you have family near the area I am assuming you would probably want to do your residency near there as well, and by being able to do rotations in the specialty you want in NYC hospitals you have greater access to mentors who can help you get residency spots in these hospitals.

Dartmouth may have the ability to do a lot of away rotations, but the only main one it has set up is in san francisco, and that program is so popular and competitive (probably because there is not a great amount of patients at DHMC), and so you may not even be able to go to san francisco. Finally, because of the size of the north shore LIJ medical system, there is a TON of money flowing into the school, and many of the deans were heads from other great schools like case western, NYU, georgetown, etc...If "reputation" of school is something that you care about then you could even argue that by the time you are done with residency Hofstra will actually be a better known school than Dartmouth because of all the investments that are going into Hofstra. Also, I don't know if you know this but a friend of mine who is a second year at Dartmouth told me they are undergoing a lot of curriculum changes and it doesn't seem like they know how they want the curriculum to be. Not a good time to be starting there in my opinion.

Bottom line, if you are interested in practicing more primary care or internal medicine specialties then Dartmouth might be a solid choice, but if you are interested in a very specific and competitive specialty then you will want to go to a place where you can get the experience to put you ahead of the rest of the pack and get into that great residency! Good luck with this choice but you will be fine either way- congrats!

I feel a little wary of this post. The poster just joined, this is their first and only post, and they are really throwing the book at Dartmouth.

Plus, they put "NYC" in their username, but apparently think that Lenox Hill is in "downtown NYC." I wouldn't call 77th & Park downtown.

Am I being too cynical here? Does anyone else feel like this is suspect?

 

[breakintheroof]

Okay, I am going to come right out with this.

@premed12345678910 has nine previous posts. All are anxiously waiting for a decision in the Dartmouth thread. In their last post, on 4/13, they still had no decision from Dartmouth; perhaps they are now on the waitlist. Then they come to this thread and say this about the @NYCFMD post:

Choosing between these schools and this post was so helpful in making my choice. See you in the fall Hofstra!!

I can't help thinking that there's some sock puppet action going on here, which would be a shame. I hope I am wrong.

Anyway, @alphadoc28 good luck with your decision, those are two great options.

 

[ConsultantMD]

Okay, I am going to come right out with this.

@premed12345678910 has nine previous posts. All are anxiously waiting for a decision in the Dartmouth thread. In their last post, on 4/13, they still had no decision from Dartmouth; perhaps they are now on the waitlist. Then they come to this thread and say this about the @NYCFMD post:

I can't help thinking that there's some sock puppet action going on here, which would be a shame. I hope I am wrong.

Anyway, @alphadoc28 good luck with your decision, those are two great options.

I didn't want to sound too biased so thanks for saying exactly what I was going to say! Seems mighty fishy...

 

[breakintheroof]

I didn't want to sound too biased so thanks for saying exactly what I was going to say! Seems mighty fishy...

Yep. Fortunately, the stakes here are pretty low. The chances of OP deciding based on that post are slim.

At any rate, I reported @NYCFMD, time to let the mods sort this out from here, if they want.

EDIT 5/4:

 

[PopcornPrincess]

I've been following this because I'm on the Hofstra waitlist and interested in seeing what people have to say.

I just wanted to say Damn! Fabulous detective work! You all are so smart and impressive the way you guys figured this out and thanks for doing it.