Hopkins vs Columbia

[jircd]

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Reasons for Hopkins:
- More prestigious
- Superior clinical training and research
- Columbia just lost $400M in federal funding, brain drain seems far less likely at Hopkins
- P/F clinicals (Columbia is graded)
- COA is slightly lower ($109k vs $115k)

Reasons for Columbia:
- Have family in NY / NJ, don't know a single person in Baltimore
- Heavily prefer the location
- My cultural community is concentrated in NY and absent in Baltimore
- More med students from Columbia match in CA

My goal is to match into a competitive non-surgical specialty in Los Angeles, and it seems like it would be easier to do so from NYC than from Baltimore. That said, the differences in match outcomes might just reflect self-selection.

Any advice appreciated!

 

[bananasundae3]

I would say Hopkins hands down. (Disclaimer I am on the WL at Columbia but headed to another T10)

Hopkins is practically equivalent to Harvard. You won’t have any trouble matching anywhere from Hopkins. Columbia’s research environment seems tenuous, which will be necessary to match into a competitive specialty in LA.

 

[TheRealBibFortuna]

Bias: A at Hopkins, WL at Columbia.

I would choose Hopkins for the same reasons as @bananasundae3 , but I wanted to add some clarification to your point about "More med students from Columbia match in CA".

At Columbia, 11 out of around 138 students matched into California. At Hopkins, 18 out of around 120 matched into California. I'm not sure where you heard that about Columbia, but if anything, the relationship is reversed. Columbia is know to primarily match people into NYC programs, while Hopkins sends people to the research powerhouses nationally.

 

[GratefulGoat112]

Would you rather spend 4 years in Baltimore or NYC?

 

[PLsPLsPLs]

No disclosures, Bmore sucks, you will match similarly well coming from either program

 

[eastcoastbestcoast]

Disc.: Choosing Hopkins over VP&S

Feel similarly about NYC >>>> Baltimore. What really did it for me though was the Columbia admin's actions recently, I can't imagine conditions/tensions on campus are going to improve in the near future especially with the government being the way that it is. Follow your heart but personally I think Columbia is going to be a very tense/suboptimal experience in these coming years

 

[Yhwach]

Hopkins

 

[jircd]

Hopkins

May I ask why?

 

[BigDawg101]

I would honestly put the politics aside. It's really not gonna affect you that much, given how extensive Columbia's financial resources are, unless of course you are heavily invested in basic science or the MD-PhD route. Even then so, you will still have plenty of opportunities. Learn to ignore the noise. Prestige is a wash at this level (Top-5). You have indicated you would be much more happier in NYC and find it easier to find a sense of community and have a support system, and that's incredibly important to value. I would take that over JHU given how the COA is roughly the same, and given JHU's location. Genuinely, two absolutely incredible options. Massive congratulations!

 

[eastcoastbestcoast]

To clarify: my point was not really centered on politics when I mean "the administration," I was talking about the Columbia admin/leadership rather than the fed. I disagree that the funding cuts are not going to have tangible effects on research/opportunities, but this is more a comment on the relatively-recent news about Columbia central and med school administration (e.g., see threads on reddit about SA cover ups etc.) not fostering a great environment.

 

[BigDawg101]

What did you end up deciding?