LKSOM (Temple) vs. UUSOM (Utah)

[luxemas1790]

I grew up in Utah and attended the University of Utah for undergrad. My family lives in Utah. I was accepted to LKSOM and UUSOM. I have been getting tired of Utah and would like to see something new. Philly seems like it would be cool and LKSOM serves more of the communities that I'm interested in, but LKSOM is ranked worse (68th vs UUSOM at 35th) and is super far from home.

Any advice? (Cost is not an issue, and interested in ophthalmology).

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[Med Ed]

This is exhibit A as to why the rankings need to be disposed of.

Essentially, Utah is higher in the rankings because it gets more NIH awards than Temple. In 2022 Utah got $240 million in NIH awards and Temple got $76 million.

How should this impact your decision? It shouldn't. At all.

Have you been to north Philly?

 

[GoSpursGo]

I think the rankings are useful to a certain extent to identify tiers of schools, but the further you go through the rankings the more all the schools more or less are “good” and you should decide based on fit for you. IMO there is no functional difference in prestige between these two schools

 

[luxemas1790]

This is exhibit A as to why the rankings need to be disposed of.

Essentially, Utah is higher in the rankings because it gets more NIH awards than Temple. In 2022 Utah got $240 million in NIH awards and Temple got $76 million.

How should this impact your decision? It shouldn't. At all.

Have you been to north Philly?

I have not been to north Philly, I've been to Philly only once and it was for a few hours. I was waiting to visit schools until I was accepted but was placed on a couple waiting lists and got off of them, but currently I'm outside of the country and won't be back until like end of May.

If a school has more NIH awards, then it has more opportunities for research, which is increasingly more important for residencies, so how would that not impact my decision?

 

[luxemas1790]

It's not the only thing because I know Utah is a great program, it's also home (so I have friends and family, which could be nice) and has amazing outdoor activities which is also nice. It's just more of the same and I would like a change, I think. But if choosing change potentially makes it more challenging for me to get into the specialty that I want, then I would stay and wait until residency or my VA Hospital service commitment to move and live somewhere else for a longer period of time

If the ranking is the only pro for Utah, I’d go to Temple.

 

[GoSpursGo]

.

If a school has more NIH awards, then it has more opportunities for research, which is increasingly more important for residencies, so how would that not impact my decision?

I don’t really buy that most med students are really involved in the kind of research that gets NIH funding. There is nothing funding retrospective chart reviews or case reports etc. If anything I think funding speaks more to prestige, ie this institutions grants are favorably reviewed because it’s a prestigious institution. But it is not a huge difference in prestige from a residency selection perspective

 

[deomnibusdubitandum]

I have not been to north Philly, I've been to Philly only once and it was for a few hours. I was waiting to visit schools until I was accepted but was placed on a couple waiting lists and got off of them, but currently I'm outside of the country and won't be back until like end of May.

If a school has more NIH awards, then it has more opportunities for research, which is increasingly more important for residencies, so how would that not impact my decision?

My opinion is that past a certain point in funding, there are ample opportunities for participating in research in med school. You can only get involved with a handful of labs over the next 4 years and a school having 100 million more or whatever doesn't change that fact for students. That's to say that NIH funding shouldn't drastically affect your choice in which school you go to.

 

[m1redsox]

If you are committed to ophthalmology, then the correct choice is Utah, and there is no competition. The Moran Eye center might as well be the Harvard of ophthalmology (well, that’s probably Miami or Jefferson, but Utah is definitely T5). Go with Utah and don’t look back. The faculty and ophtho research there will open up doors for you that Temple simply cannot.

 

[Med Ed]

I have not been to north Philly, I've been to Philly only once and it was for a few hours. I was waiting to visit schools until I was accepted but was placed on a couple waiting lists and got off of them, but currently I'm outside of the country and won't be back until like end of May.

An in-person visit will likely be illuminating.

If a school has more NIH awards, then it has more opportunities for research, which is increasingly more important for residencies, so how would that not impact my decision?

If all you need is a pint of seawater then any old ocean will do.

If your main priorities are ophthalmology, serving certain communities, and a change of scenery, then evaluate your options based on those factors and ignore the rankings.

 

[Med Ed]

The Moran Eye center might as well be the Harvard of ophthalmology (well, that’s probably Miami or Jefferson, but Utah is definitely T5).

One of the things I love about my ophthalmology colleagues: they trained in 15 different places and they're all T5.

 

[m1redsox]

One of the things I love about my ophthalmology colleagues: they trained in 15 different places and they're all T5.

This probably isn’t specific to ophthalmology. Even for medical school rankings, if you tried to name the T20, I bet 25-30 names come to mind. Doximity ranks Utah #5 for ophtho right now, but regardless, and setting rankings aside, I think Utah will give OP a massive advantage for the sf match.

 

[luxemas1790]

Thank you to everyone that responded, it has given my some direction in my thinking as I've considered my options! As of right now, I'm thinking that Utah will probably be the one I choose come May 1st!

 

[Med Ed]

Thank you to everyone that responded, it has given my some direction in my thinking as I've considered my options! As of right now, I'm thinking that Utah will probably be the one I choose come May 1st!

It's hard to go wrong with that choice. Congrats!