Loyola vs VCU vs Drexel vs Wake Forest

[comboplayer]

So I have been accepted to Loyola, VCU, and Drexel, and am waitlisted at Wake Forest.

Each school is very far away from home, and I’m out of state for all so it’s likely that they will all cost around the same.

My biggest concern in picking a med school is which one would help me match a ROAD specialty the south east. I.e, which has the strongest name recognition and research opportunities. All things being equal, I prefer to go to the school with the warmest weather.

Which would you guys recommend? Also, it would be nice to commit to a school ASAP so I can start the process of buying a house in that area. If I don’t get off the waitlist at Wake Forest in May does it make sense to wait for it over a school like VCU or Loyola?

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[chilly_md]

VCU would be good and will have warmer weather than the other 2. It is up to you whether you want to wait for Wake, but you should spend some time in the area and learn where exactly you'd like to buy first. Not something I'd recommend rushing in 1 summer.

 

[deleted1158770]

Agree with chillymd if weather is that important to you. I don’t think that you could go wrong with any of those schools, but other factors besides weather to consider are class size (Drexel is huge) and style of grading for example. If you can afford it attending second look will help to get a feel for the schools.

 

[comboplayer]

Agree with chillymd if weather is that important to you. I don’t think that you could go wrong with any of those schools, but other factors besides weather to consider are class size (Drexel is huge) and style of grading for example. If you can afford it attending second look will help to get a feel for the schools.

I would say my main concern is which one would help me match a specialty most, given I put the same effort in each school. But if two schools are the same rank, then I would like to go to the one with the best weather.

Looking at PD rankings, Loyola and VCU are very similar in ranking, and Wake Forest is the best. But is the better ranking of Wake Forest enough to make a difference?

 

[chilly_md]

I would say my main concern is which one would help me match a specialty most, given I put the same effort in each school. But if two schools are the same rank, then I would like to go to the one with the best weather.

Looking at PD rankings, Loyola and VCU are very similar in ranking, and Wake Forest is the best. But is the better ranking of Wake Forest enough to make a difference?

There is no substantial difference. You can wait on Wake as I said if you really like the school and surrounding area.

 

[m1redsox]

Full disclosure: M3 at Wake

I see no difference between Wake and VCU tbh. The only school I would rule out is Drexel because they don't have many home programs, whereas the other 3 schools have all ROAD home programs.

 

[tzuyu&yuqi]

Hope to see ya in July if you choose VCU!

 

[veraserah]

So I’m an M1 at the West Reading campus at Drexel and just by our experience here we have a lot of students interested in the ROAD specialties with access to a lot of research publication opportunities at our own hospital (unofficially officially our home residency teaching hospital with home residency programs). The M2s, our inaugural class over here, are doing a lot in their respective choices of fields. Some people are already confident they won’t need to take a gap year, though of course from an outsider‘s perspective without a match list, that’s not definitive of anything.

In terms of housing, a LOT of students here buy property and some are considering buying a second house (the 3-4 bedroom type of house) since those run for like 200-350k over here. Some people rent out those extra rooms for below market value to classmates, and are able to make a profit/cover their loans by doing so. And knowing we will only have more students and more residency programs in the upcoming years, the area is only going to increase in value as it has been steadily doing so in the past couple of years.

obviously weather is probably a deciding factor and that is unlikely to change much between the years you’ll be in school.

 

[gavinupwht]

So I’m an M1 at the West Reading campus at Drexel and just by our experience here we have a lot of students interested in the ROAD specialties with access to a lot of research publication opportunities at our own hospital (unofficially officially our home residency teaching hospital with home residency programs). The M2s, our inaugural class over here, are doing a lot in their respective choices of fields. Some people are already confident they won’t need to take a gap year, though of course from an outsider‘s perspective without a match list, that’s not definitive of anything.

In terms of housing, a LOT of students here buy property and some are considering buying a second house (the 3-4 bedroom type of house) since those run for like 200-350k over here. Some people rent out those extra rooms for below market value to classmates, and are able to make a profit/cover their loans by doing so. And knowing we will only have more students and more residency programs in the upcoming years, the area is only going to increase in value as it has been steadily doing so in the past couple of years.

obviously weather is probably a deciding factor and that is unlikely to change much between the years you’ll be in school.

Do you know if Reading Hospital has any plan to open ortho, derm and radiology residency program soon? Just curious...

 

[veraserah]

Do you know if Reading Hospital has any plan to open ortho, derm and radiology residency program soon? Just curious...

I do know radiology and ortho residencies are on their list of residency programs to start implementing, though no idea on the timeline. They used to have a radiology residency that they’re trying to restart, and the surgery dept sees a lot of ortho cases especially when the private practice consultants in the area aren’t on call. All of our ortho interested students do a lot of research with surgery dept ortho adjacent case work currently, and research here has to be on site (therefore Philly students realistically don’t commute here to do this). Derm maybe not so much? I’m not in the know as much as an M1, so take that with a grain of salt.

Also a lot of surgery fellowships are starting here, plastics being one of the more "competitive" ones. We get a lot of DO grads here and that is likely their only way to get into plastics, but it’s great for students here who want to go into that area (a lot of research). But like, if you go to residency in surgery here and want to go into plastics, you’re pretty much guaranteed the fellowship spot.