It ultimately boils down to where you want to spend the next 4 years and where you would most likely be the most happy. Here are my rankings based off my perceptions from my interview day...
UTHSCSA- Awesome, big city that is a good distance away from other major Texas cities. Traffic isn't too terrible either. New Academic learning center(new TBL learning space, food places, study rooms, and I think a new anatomy lab?), newly renovated hospital. Good rotation sites such as The South Texas Med Center and the San Antonio Military Medical Center. The school is more non-trad friendly and is pretty diverse. Also SA has really affordable housing.
A&M- loved how it is connected to an undergrad campus, so you can attend all the athletic events for free (football games, basketball games, ect...). The school isn't connected to a medical center, but you split off after your first year to a new city (this can be a pro and con for some people). The other campuses are awesome, so you have a choice on whether you want to stay in a big city like Houston or a small town like Temple. Also the hospital affiliations for the clinical rotations at the other campuses are extremely impressive! The B/CS campus has new facilities and a new anatomy lab. College station is kind of a neat small town with affordable housing too.
UTMB- Not a huge fan of island life, but I think UTMB will have some good research oppurtunities due to it's association with the Galveston National Lab. UTMB is also a large medical center, so i'm sure they will have alot of volume when it comes to clinical rotations. Also the fact that they provide medical care for the correctional facilities is pretty cool because of the crazy pathololgy that we often see in patients in the correctional system. You also have the option to rotate into Houston or Austin for rotations (this might change though becuase of UT Austin's new medical school). Galveston does have a larger class which kind of gets in the way when it comes to camaraderie. I also felt like alot of the students were in cliques but of course that is just my perception.
TCOM- great city. The school has some amazing technology and their lecture hall is awesome. This school was actually the most freindly out of all of the others. The students seemed very close. Little more expensive for as cost of living. Obviously TCOM is a DO school which is a huge turn off for some people but if you want to do a primary care specialty or something a little less competitive then I don't think the whole DO vs. MD thing really matters.
PLFSOM- El Paso is a cool city with an outdoorsy peronality. Small class so you could definitely tell the camaraderie among the students. They have some pretty impressive technology also their curriculum was one of my favorites. This school was my last choice mainly due to location. It's too far from other major Texas cities.
So in conclusion UTHSCSA> A&M> UTMB> TCOM> PLFSOM. But once again, just my opinion. Good luck with your rankings!
