Hopkins vs Yale MD/PhD

[snowonkey]

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Hey Guys,

I've been lucky enough to be accepted to both MD/PhD programs and am still struggling slightly with this decision.

Yale
Pros:

• Incredible collegial atmosphere. Right next to gorgeous undergrad campus, ability to take other classes in diverse interests. Favorite school environment by far
• Yale system works really well with my personality
• Great research faculty in my field (infectious disease/chemical biology)
• Incredible history of community
• New Haven seems to be a great size
• Woman director that seems passionate about women in science
• Slightly higher stipend (avg 30k vs 28k)
• More prestigious every day name
• Great new drug discovery campus

Cons

• New Haven not as exciting as Baltimore
• Cost of living is much higher
• Individual faculty are very good, but aren't a ton of them in my field
• Smaller associated hospital
• Smaller/less diverse patient population

Hopkins
Pros

• Gorgeous hospital/med school facilities
• Baltimore seems like an awesome place to live. Love the grit
• Cheap cost of living (many buy houses)
• Best faculty for my fields and lots of them (though Yale was definitely a close 2nd)
• Incredible match lists
• Great name in medicine
• Woman director passionate about women in science

Cons

• Lacks the undergrad element. Campus feels a bit sterile with undergrad a few miles away
• Competitive nature of students
• Lacks Yale system

For me, I think i'm leaning a bit towards Hopkins, but still struggling. Of all the schools I visited Hopkins was by far the best in terms of research in fields I'm interested in, though Yale was definitely second in those regards. School wise I preferred the Yale system and the school atmosphere better at Yale, but Hopkins certainly wasn't bad. City wise Baltimore has the slight edge, but New Haven is not a deal breaker either since both are far from home on the west coast.

Any other things I should think about?

 

[wholeheartedly]

Hey Guys,

I've been lucky enough to be accepted to both MD/PhD programs and am still struggling slightly with this decision.

Yale
Pros:

• Incredible collegial atmosphere. Right next to gorgeous undergrad campus, ability to take other classes in diverse interests. Favorite school environment by far
• Yale system works really well with my personality
• Great research faculty in my field (infectious disease/chemical biology)
• Incredible history of community
• New Haven seems to be a great size
• Woman director that seems passionate about women in science
• Slightly higher stipend (avg 30k vs 28k)
• More prestigious every day name
• Great new drug discovery campus

Cons

• New Haven not as exciting as Baltimore
• Cost of living is much higher
• Individual faculty are very good, but aren't a ton of them in my field
• Smaller associated hospital
• Smaller/less diverse patient population

Hopkins
Pros

• Gorgeous hospital/med school facilities
• Baltimore seems like an awesome place to live. Love the grit
• Cheap cost of living (many buy houses)
• Best faculty for my fields and lots of them (though Yale was definitely a close 2nd)
• Incredible match lists
• Great name in medicine
• Woman director passionate about women in science

Cons

• Lacks the undergrad element. Campus feels a bit sterile with undergrad a few miles away
• Competitive nature of students
• Lacks Yale system

For me, I think i'm leaning a bit towards Hopkins, but still struggling. Of all the schools I visited Hopkins was by far the best in terms of research in fields I'm interested in, though Yale was definitely second in those regards. School wise I preferred the Yale system and the school atmosphere better at Yale, but Hopkins certainly wasn't bad. City wise Baltimore has the slight edge, but New Haven is not a deal breaker either since both are far from home on the west coast.

Any other things I should think about?

Are there stats on average and ranges of time to completion for MD/PhD students at those schools?

You're going to be wherever you go for a very long time so trust your gut.

 

[trynahelp]

Based on the list you put up, I feel like you prefer Yale but are leaning towards Hopkins because of the name. Not necessarily a bad idea, but since they are both top-tier programs and you got into both, I feel like the name is much less important.

I'd vote Yale: you like the atmosphere better, Baltimore is not that great of a city, and you're in between NY and Boston. Plus the essentially equivalent faculty and the fact that one of Hopkins' cons is it's not Yale.

 

[wholeheartedly]

Here's a link to a post in the MSTP forum with some good questions to ask potential programs/students, etc.

http://forums.studentdoctor.net/thr...neral-discussion.1174901/page-5#post-17490485

Also, if you'd like me to move this to the physician scientist forum for more specific feedback, I can do that. just tag me in a reply here.

 

[neurotroph]

You listed fewer cons for Hopkins and those cons aren't as significant as the ones for Yale, so I'd say Hopkins. Location and a good research fit are the most important factors for MSTP imo, and for you Hopkins has the edge in both cases. But this is from someone who didn't bother applying to Yale.

 

[Willy38]

Yale has the happiest students. Come here, be happy 🙂

 

[Sir.SavaLottaLife]

I'd pick Hopkins because I feel like the name (within medicine/research) does matter, and they trounce Yale when it comes to clinical experience. But thats my preference; really it depends on how much you think Yale's system fits your personality better than Hopkins.

I think it's important to remember you're not just getting this education to go to school, you get an MD/PhD to launch a career as a physician-scientist. So I don't like to think of slight "system" preferences as important as the prestige of the school and your personal success as and MSTP student, which will be highly individualized and in your hands at either of these top schools. It would be one thing if there were things about Hopkins system that you really didn't like, but if you really think that you would thrive more as a student at Yale vs Hopkins than go for it. But I think Hopkins wins when it comes to research and clinicals.

 

[carpediem22]

I think you'd be fine at either, so I'd pick the one where you felt most at home. 8 years is a long time. New Haven is definitely not as bad as some make it out to be, but it is a small city and you have to be OK with that. I like that it is so easy to get to Boston and NYC, though I suppose Baltimore is also close to DC. One plus about New Haven (or negative, depending on how you look at it) is that Yale culture is pervasive throughout the city -- you can't step 5 feet in any direction without running into someone who is affiliated in some way with Yale, and it is the single largest employer in the city. There is also an inordinate amount of school pride; Yalies bleed blue for their school, something that you feel especially during football season as the Harvard-Yale game nears.

With respect to clinical diversity, you will get a good amount of that no matter which school you choose. YNHH is one of the main tertiary referral centers in Connecticut, so you will see patients from across the state. And don't be fooled by CT's WASPy demographic stereotype -- the wealth disparity in CT is astronomical, so while we have some of the country's wealthiest suburban families we also have some of the poorest inner-city communities. New Haven itself is also a major refugee hub, with people from all over the world coming through to find their new homes in the US. Having spent a fair amount of time in the YNHH ER, I can assure you that you will see quite a diverse panel of patients. As diverse as Baltimore? Probably not quite, but close.

For research, I think that one of the things Yale prides itself on is the fact that it is a smaller program and community. There may be fewer researchers in any one field at Yale, but the ones that are there tend to be both highly innovative and highly invested in students. If you find a few that you are interested then in it is almost guaranteed that they'll be doing cool stuff. And the selling point of collaboration at Yale is really true -- everyone collaborates with each other. So long as there are a handful of researchers who you are interested in, I think you should be fine there.

Finally, I'll add that the Yale System happiness effect is real. I was an undergrad at Yale (if you couldn't tell already, hah), and I was constantly amazed by the extent to which first and second year medical students were involved in extracurricular activities within the greater Yale community, including running the free medical clinic HAVEN. They have so much time, and rarely seem stressed!

Tl;dr, go where you feel like you'll be happiest. Hopkins probably has a slight name advantage over Yale, but I don't think you could go wrong with either.

 

[Mad Jack]

Hey Guys,

I've been lucky enough to be accepted to both MD/PhD programs and am still struggling slightly with this decision.

Yale
Pros:

• Incredible collegial atmosphere. Right next to gorgeous undergrad campus, ability to take other classes in diverse interests. Favorite school environment by far
• Yale system works really well with my personality
• Great research faculty in my field (infectious disease/chemical biology)
• Incredible history of community
• New Haven seems to be a great size
• Woman director that seems passionate about women in science
• Slightly higher stipend (avg 30k vs 28k)
• More prestigious every day name
• Great new drug discovery campus

Cons

• New Haven not as exciting as Baltimore
• Cost of living is much higher
• Individual faculty are very good, but aren't a ton of them in my field
• Smaller associated hospital
• Smaller/less diverse patient population

Hopkins
Pros

• Gorgeous hospital/med school facilities
• Baltimore seems like an awesome place to live. Love the grit
• Cheap cost of living (many buy houses)
• Best faculty for my fields and lots of them (though Yale was definitely a close 2nd)
• Incredible match lists
• Great name in medicine
• Woman director passionate about women in science

Cons

• Lacks the undergrad element. Campus feels a bit sterile with undergrad a few miles away
• Competitive nature of students
• Lacks Yale system

For me, I think i'm leaning a bit towards Hopkins, but still struggling. Of all the schools I visited Hopkins was by far the best in terms of research in fields I'm interested in, though Yale was definitely second in those regards. School wise I preferred the Yale system and the school atmosphere better at Yale, but Hopkins certainly wasn't bad. City wise Baltimore has the slight edge, but New Haven is not a deal breaker either since both are far from home on the west coast.

Any other things I should think about?

Yale is far bigger than Hopkins, hospital-wise. After the acquisition of St. Ray's, the hospital has 1,541 beds, compared to Hopkins' 1,059. The main York Street campus is just shy of 1,000 beds, with the second campus making up the remainder. It all functions as one unit though, with different patient populations being targeted to different campuses in many cases, so overall you're looking at a much larger patient population to work with at Yale.

 

[snowonkey]

Thank you everyone for the inputs! Interestingly the poll is almost exactly tied (20 hopkins-19 Yale). Second look will definitely be telling!