HST vs Columbia

[liora]

My significant other is extremely grateful to be in a position to have to make this choice. He is leaning in one direction heavily (won't say which), but is still hesitant to make a decision. He's currently planning on attending both second looks to get a vibe of the class at each and waiting to see what my employment situation in either city will look like. His expected family contribution will likely be max at both schools, and his parents have decided not to contribute to his medical education (understandably as they contributed generously to undergrad). I was just curious what folks on here thought of the choices.

Harvard (HST)
Pros

• networked into research community already
• MIT + Harvard resources
• Boston is more his flavour of city
• networking of HST program has impressed him even as an admitted student
• Program is designed around research, so publication output is feasible during MD
• Rigorous pre-clinical material that will likely interest my SO
• familiar with and happy with Boston area

Cons

• a lot more expensive

Columbia
Pros

• 1 year scholarship + only 3 years of MD
• No guarantees at all, but program goal is to track matriculants to faculty at Columbia
• Excellent medical school
• From point 1, a lot cheaper
• Also has great research opportunities
• NYC is culturally and food-wise infinitely exciting

Cons

• Necessarily restricted to cognitive speciality (no chance for procedural specialties, though he's more worried about making the decision now rather than any real current interest outside of the cognitive specialties)
• No time for research during MD due to compressed curriculum
• NYC will be an urban leap, it would be fun, but could be overwhelming

Summary: Both top notch schools, research network set up at Harvard, but Columbia would be much cheaper. He said it's ultimately a career choice of gun the MD with hold on research (Columbia) or continue to develop research career with a slower (maybe even 5 year) research track MD (HST).

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[WedgeDawg]

Does your SO currently have a phd?

 

[liora]

Yes.

 

[WedgeDawg]

What specialty is of interest / what career path?

 

[liora]

He wants to be an academic physician and is tentatively interested in genomics in cancer and medical oncology, but is open to change.

 

[WedgeDawg]

And what's the reason he can't go into a procedural specialty from the PhD to MD program?

 

[liora]

Well he said it's not in the spirit of the program and that if he goes for Columbia it would be to fulfil the directors' mission for the program, which he said was geared toward cognitive specialties, particularly subspecialties under medicine. Plus they told him on interview day that most of the procedural specialties are not possible in three years, due to the need of having research specific to those specialties when applying for residency.

That said, he's not particularly interested in procedural specialties; he told me that it was a minor negative for Columbia, simply because he was afraid of choosing to forgo those career paths without more time exploring different specialties. He mentioned that if push came to shove he could transfer to the regular track if he went to Columbia and really liked a non-cognitive specialty, but given the work the directors have put into the program he really would not want to accept the offer banking on being able to that.

That's why I listed it as a con above.

 

[WedgeDawg]

Well he said it's not in the spirit of the program and that if he goes for Columbia it would be to fulfil the directors' mission for the program, which he said was geared toward cognitive specialties, particularly subspecialties under medicine. Plus they told him on interview day that most of the procedural specialties are not possible in three years, due to the need of having research specific to those specialties when applying for residency.

That said, he's not particularly interested in procedural specialties; he told me that it was a minor negative for Columbia, simply because he was afraid of choosing to forgo those career paths without more time exploring different specialties. He mentioned that if push came to shove he could transfer to the regular track if he went to Columbia and really liked a non-cognitive specialty, but given the work the directors have put into the program he really would not want to accept the offer banking on being able to that.

That's why I listed it as a con above.

Full disclosure: I'm a Columbia student - I don't think it locks you out of those specialties at all, especially if you have a PhD (as long as the PhD is healthcare related). His path might be different than someone who is doing the normal 4 year program, but if he found out he was really interested in Urology or something, Columbia would definitely work with him to make it work. Also "procedural" and "cognitive" are not really accurate descriptors. Cardiology can be a "procedural" specialty but it's not a surgical one, and surgical specialties, while build around doing surgeries (which are different from "procedures"), are also cognitive and require a vast array of knowledge and thought. However, cardiology is a medicine subspecialty, which is easily doable without extra research (PhD is bonus points), and can also lead to several other procedural (but not surgical) subspecialties (such as Pulm/CC and GI).

I think the best option for him at this point is to attend the second look weekends for both schools. Based on what you're saying, I'm thinking HST is probably the better option for him, but I don't think he could go wrong with either choice (and coming out of Columbia certainly won't limit his career). He should go to the second looks, talk to people, especially those in the programs that he was accepted to, and then make a decision.

 

[Willy38]

HST is unparalleled. I would go for that if I were him with those interests.

 

[evianeauminerale]

I think one think to consider is the learning style of HST, which is very different. Does he like more of a hands-off learning or hands-on classroom based learning.

 

[To be MD]