If you had to decide which school to attend . . . .

[GeauxMD]

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If you could do it again, which type of school would you attend?

 

[jbrice1639]

my choice came down to my state school (good, but not "prestigious") and a private school (also good, but not "prestigious")

i chose the more expensive private because i liked it better.

 

[GeauxMD]

Thanks for voting everyone. I would also like to know about any students who are currently attending prestigious private universities and now wishes they had gone the state school route and vice versa. I'm trying to figure out which is the right direction, and I would love some input from people who are going through it right now.

 

[Northerner]

Thanks for voting everyone. I would also like to know about any students who are currently attending prestigious private universities and now wishes they had gone the state school route and vice versa. I'm trying to figure out which is the right direction, and I would love some input from people who are going through it right now.

YOU'LL REGRET IT FOR THE REST OF YOUR LIFE!

 

[psipsina]

Hey, I chose my state school and am very happy with my decision. I am only a first year but I feel like I have every opportunity I need to excel and the faculty is attentive and supportive, which friends at more prestigious schools are not experiencing to the same extent in basic sciences since their proffs are such big time researchers and the teaching is really only a side job for them. The clinicians I have encountered are amazing and willing to spend time with first years. I say go with wherever you think you will be happiest, but if the only advantage of the more expensive school is prestige you'd be kicking yourself in the a$$ for paying for that years down the road.

 

[Lyricist]

I chose my less prestigious but still well-regarded (and so, so much cheaper!) state school, and I'd make the same decision again.

 

[ForbiddenComma]

A Holy Trinity school if they took me, of course... (Harvard Hopkins Stanford)

Other than that, I'm quite happy with my supposedly middle-of-the-road state school, its excellent instructors, and its very good tuition. Most of our profs are as dedicated as any you can find. Our shelf exam averages for the basic sciences are always above 50th percentile, and usually much more so.

(except neuro... our neuro department bites... hehe)

 

[Wizard of Oz]

I chose my less prestigious but still well-regarded (and so, so much cheaper!) state school, and I'd make the same decision again.

I wouldn't call UTSW non-prestigious. It's easily a top twenty school in the country by anybody's ranking system. Given its cost and the Dallas cost of living, I'd pick it over almost every private school in the nation.

YOU'LL REGRET IT FOR THE REST OF YOUR LIFE!

You really have to look at where you are in your life and what you are looking for. If you are honest about wanting to do primary care, a non-competative internal med felllowship, or something easy to match like psych or neurology, then there is no value in going to an expensive school save for your own personal edification. In my case, I was already 70K in the red from previous degree programs, and I wasn't willing to risk 40K per year in tuition/fees alone on a US healthcare system becoming super-saturated with uninsured patients. Currently-practicing physicians advised me not to.

Medical school content is standardized between US allo schools, and you're not going to convince anybody at a state school that students at private schools "push" you any harder to excel. It's the student vs. the USMLE (i.e. everybody else taking the exam). If there were a magic way to teach medicine that ensured a top score, every school in the country would be using a carbon copy of it.

If you want to do something competative and/or become world-renowned, then I would indeed choose the fanciest private school you can find. Likewise if somebody is paying your ticket, do it. If there is one thing about the private environment that I like, it is the diversity among the student body.

 

[humuhumu]

I'd go with the school that, all things considered, just feels like the best fit for you. That's what I did and I have no regrets at all.

 

[Wizard of Oz]

After looking at the options, there are also going to be a lot of people who want to practice in their home state and have no "prestigious private school" in-state. There are plenty of reasons to choose your state school that have nothing to do with cost. My state school, for example, has an ophtho PGY program that is easily top ten in the country. I'm sure that people who live in well-populated states with particularly "prestigious" state schools picked them for more reasons than cost. Too bad my family didn't raise me in one of those states.

 

[Northerner]

You really have to look at where you are in your life and what you are looking for. If you are honest about wanting to do primary care, a non-competative internal med felllowship, or something easy to match like psych or neurology, then there is no value in going to an expensive school save for your own personal edification. In my case, I was already 70K in the red from previous degree programs, and I wasn't willing to risk 40K per year in tuition/fees alone on a US healthcare system becoming super-saturated with uninsured patients. Currently-practicing physicians advised me not to.

Medical school content is standardized between US allo schools, and you're not going to convince anybody at a state school that students at private schools "push" you any harder to excel. It's the student vs. the USMLE (i.e. everybody else taking the exam). If there were a magic way to teach medicine that ensured a top score, every school in the country would be using a carbon copy of it.

If you want to do something competative and/or become world-renowned, then I would indeed choose the fanciest private school you can find. Likewise if somebody is paying your ticket, do it. If there is one thing about the private environment that I like, it is the diversity among the student body.

I was just ****ing with him.

 

[Wizard of Oz]

I was just ****ing with him.

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