MCW ($$) vs. Hofstra ($$$)

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[allopathicapple]

If current students at either school had any thoughts/advice that would be great too! 🙂

 

[breezy16]

Grew up on the island and lived there the majority of my life, there are places you wanna live and places you dont. Highly suggest living on up north in Westbury (if affordable) or a little east (stay away from Wynadanch). Hofstra has grown significantly since my HS days, had a lot of friends go there for UG and they loved it. Said it was a nice niche community. (I'm sure the med school echos that). Plenty of diversity, food, and stuff to do. Traffic on the LIE and Southern parkway sucks but it is what it is. Buy a monthly and use the LIRR.

I have no exp with MCW.

 

[preeeeeeemed]

Have you asked MCW to match Hofstra's offer or to maybe throw in 60k over 4 years? Good luck and congrats, both seem like great choices 🙂

 

[HofstraMedStudent]

Hi all -

I'm a current Hofstra student (MS4, graduating in a few weeks) and while I generally don't love SDN I do love my school, so I wanted to reply to a few of your questions/concerns.

PBL/mandatory classes: the way that Hofstra teaches is the best thing about it. I came to Hofstra because of their curriculum, and I absolutely love it. They definitely de-emphasize lectures and instead focus on having students work through cases and teach one another in small groups. For me, this was wonderful. It does mean that you have to be present every day, both for yourself and because you owe that to the classmates who rely on you, but you feel incredibly prepared for step exams and clinical rotations. It also means you spend a lot of time with your classmates, which meant that I made incredibly friendships. But to be honest, if you don't want to show up every day and put in the work and learn from the people around you, this may not be the best learning style for you. It's a personal decision.

Location: I am not from Long Island, and had never been to the Hofstra area before coming for my interview day. There are pros and cons, but I would not trade being at Hofstra for anything in the world, including other locations/more exciting cities. I live in Queens, which also means that I have access to the subway and my spouse works in Manhattan without any problem. I've done this for all four years, and while the commute can be rough at times with traffic it generally has worked really well for my family, and I've had fun exploring NY.

New school: of course going to a new school can be daunting, but it's about picking the place that you feel will make you the sort of doctor you want to be. Hofstra gave me that. People cared enough to go above and beyond in making sure we felt prepared, and I never felt held back by being at a new school. In fact, it gave me something to talk about at residency interviews, because I could share why I thought going to a new school was so exciting. But again, this is a decision where you need to factor in your own attitude and desires as a student.

All that being said - my final piece of somewhat unsolicited advice is to make this decision based on how you felt at each school. Step scores and match lists are averages, and really what matters is which place made you feel like you could excel there. I chose to go to Hofstra over schools with longer histories and bigger names because on my interview day I felt like I could see myself here, and I have never regretted that decision.

 

[jih]

Weather and living in Wisconsin. I'm not too much of a fan of the Midwest

Don't base your decision on this. Wisconsin winters are an experience and most people from the coasts adjust after 1 year