Mayo vs. University of Chicago Pritzker

[jk818]

Decision time is coming up. Would really appreciate additional perspectives here about either school! I have been running all the finances in my head, but I hope to get some advice without consideration for finances here - all "heart", no "head" (this is not to say I'm ignoring finances at all, I am getting those opinions from some friends and mentors to factor into final decision 🙂 ). EDIT: cost added

A bit about me: no ties geographically. I want to do academic medicine, so that is currently the number 1 criteria for choosing schools. I have put together a handy chart:

EDIT: adding 4yr costs (cost of living included):
Mayo: 100k
Pritzker: 175k

Mayo
Pros:
· Mayo Clinic! 1 of 52 students in an internationally recognized hospital, so many opportunities
· Selectives are the best things to happen to a medical school curriculum
· Peers with life experiences that I feel like I can learn from
· Faculty that love to teach and mentor

Cons:
· Same concern as everyone else, Rochester! Weather is not a problem, but single and early 20s COULD be a problem. I do have connections in the Twin Cities but it is far
· Lack of underserved population, lots of VIP @ Mayo

Pritzker
Pros:
· Serves the Southside, amazingly diverse pt population and issues to be involved with
· Chicago is an awesome city
· Most “touchy feely” school by far, I like
· Undergrad campus a big plus for amenities (gym, coffee shops, libraries) and meeting people

Cons:
· Hospital system weaker than Mayo
· Traditional curriculum

I know that Chicago as a city will be a much better place to be, but I don't know how much to weigh location (is there THAT much free time?) Rochester is not unbearable to me, but it doesn't compare to Chicago. Loved the Mayo system and philosophy, worried that I will miss the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to train there if I choose to not go, especially considering I don't have any family/SO issues to factor into the equation right now.

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[zedsdead]

You have physical location as an 8. Go enjoy life in Chicago.

 

[Cognovi]

They are equivalent for purposes of getting a residency, and UChicago wins on location. You'll find that many students at Mayo are content to stay in the middle of nowhere to train at the mecca of medicine. You have to decide whether that's something you want to say.

Mayo
Residency director score: 4.0
Average Step 1: 245
Graduates accepting in-state residencies: 40%

UChicago
Residency director score: 4.0
Average Step 1: 244
Graduates accepting in-state residencies: 35.5%

Source: USNews Compass 2016-17

 

[occams_razor]

You said that Rochester wasn't unbearable to you - could you see yourself being happy living there? Did you get a sense that one school felt like a better fit for you, or were they both about the same?

 

[bearintraining]

You also said you don't want to give up a once in a lifetime opportunity. Are you going to have regrets if you pick Chicago? (Btw my bias would be to pick Chicago because I like the city)

 

[Duke1K]

Yeah I'd probably go with Pritzker. There's a lot about Mayo to like. It's a beautiful hospital, and run like a well-oiled machine. You'll learn things at Mayo that you won't anywhere else. I personally love Mayo's focus on patient care. But the advantages that Mayo has from being in the middle of nowhere also carries tremendous disadvantages - the biggest being that they have a reputation for being insular. Mayo retains Mayo people, and doesn't send out (on average) a lot of Mayo people. Clinically, they do things in certain ways that aren't done anywhere else and they don't have a reputation of sharing. Your patient population is likely to be wealthier, whiter, and healthier than at Pritzker, and your research will likely be much more limited in breadth and depth (though you can still probably publish a lot of clinical papers fairly easily at Mayo). Chicago winters are bad, but wait until you survive Rochester. Small class size can make for an incestuous mess.

Pritzker has relatively small hospitals and they don't carry as much weight as the Mayo brand, but as a med student it doesn't matter. All that matters are grades, Step 1, +/- AOA, research, and connections. Come interview time, if you go to Mayo, you'll be fielding a lot of questions about what it was like to go to Mayo for med school; for some people, that could be a good thing, but personally I'd want to focus on the criteria that matter (e.g. research, ECs, commitment to the field, etc.).

 

[jk818]

Thank you so much for the insights everyone! Adding 4yr costs (cost of living included):
Mayo: 100k
Pritzker: 175k

They are equivalent for purposes of getting a residency, and UChicago wins on location. You'll find that many students at Mayo are content to stay in the middle of nowhere to train at the mecca of medicine. You have to decide whether that's something you want to say.
Source: USNews Compass 2016-17

This hits the nail on the head, I am not sure if I would be as happy there as peers - I am on the younger side of people admitted, and without family/SO.

You said that Rochester wasn't unbearable to you - could you see yourself being happy living there? Did you get a sense that one school felt like a better fit for you, or were they both about the same?

If this was any other school but Pritzker, it would be no contest. But I loved the community at Chicago as well, small class, collaborative, happy people.

Yeah I'd probably go with Pritzker. There's a lot about Mayo to like. It's a beautiful hospital, and run like a well-oiled machine. You'll learn things at Mayo that you won't anywhere else. I personally love Mayo's focus on patient care. But the advantages that Mayo has from being in the middle of nowhere also carries tremendous disadvantages - the biggest being that they have a reputation for being insular. Mayo retains Mayo people, and doesn't send out (on average) a lot of Mayo people. Clinically, they do things in certain ways that aren't done anywhere else and they don't have a reputation of sharing. Your patient population is likely to be wealthier, whiter, and healthier than at Pritzker, and your research will likely be much more limited in breadth and depth (though you can still probably publish a lot of clinical papers fairly easily at Mayo). Chicago winters are bad, but wait until you survive Rochester. Small class size can make for an incestuous mess.

Pritzker has relatively small hospitals and they don't carry as much weight as the Mayo brand, but as a med student it doesn't matter. All that matters are grades, Step 1, +/- AOA, research, and connections. Come interview time, if you go to Mayo, you'll be fielding a lot of questions about what it was like to go to Mayo for med school; for some people, that could be a good thing, but personally I'd want to focus on the criteria that matter (e.g. research, ECs, commitment to the field, etc.).

These are all really good points, especially RE: patient population. Though when I was there I did see quite a range of patients in the hospital in terms of demographics (they do serve a lot of folks in the surrounding areas).

So so conflicted!

 

[occams_razor]

This hits the nail on the head, I am not sure if I would be as happy there as peers - I am on the younger side of people admitted, and without family/SO.

If this was any other school but Pritzker, it would be no contest. But I loved the community at Chicago as well, small class, collaborative, happy people.

These are all really good points, especially RE: patient population. Though when I was there I did see quite a range of patients in the hospital in terms of demographics (they do serve a lot of folks in the surrounding areas).

So so conflicted!

It's definitely a tough decision to make. I remember at Mayo's second look hearing some of the current med students talk about dating/meeting people. It's a very small class, but there seem to be opportunities to meet people outside of the med school. One student mentioned dating someone who was a resident at Mayo Clinic and another mentioned that he was partnered to a social worker at Mayo. Since Mayo Clinic is so huge, it seems like it wouldn't be too hard to meet Mayo people who are outside of the med school. I don't doubt that it would be easier to be single and in your early 20s in Chicago, but I also think that you could still meet cool people at Mayo.