Med Schools in the Hood

[pico61]

hey ya'll i am gathering my list of schools for the app process. I am interested in schools that are located in the hood. Particularly, schools in los angeles, new york, chicago, philadelphia, and new jersey or any other areas. If ya'll can list some schools, i will greatly appreciate it. Also, a one to two sentence description would help. For example, school x is located in a ghetto neighborhood, the patient population is extremely poor et cetera..

thanks in advance

*

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[pillowhead]

hey ya'll i am gathering my list of schools for the app process. I am interested in schools that are located in the hood. Particularly, schools in los angeles, new york, chicago, philadelphia, and new jersey or any other areas. If ya'll can list some schools, i will greatly appreciate it. Also, a one to two sentence description would help. For example, school x is located in a ghetto neighborhood, the patient population is extremely poor et cetera..

thanks in advance

*

well, it's not NY, Chicago, etc, but juding by your use of "ya'll" hopefully it would be still be okay. most of the rotations and clinical experiences at emory are through the Fulton-Dekalb County Hospital authorities which runs Grady Memorial Hospital. It's one of the largest of its kind similar to Bellevue in NY and Charity in New Orleans (although I've never actually been to either...just heard the comparisons). The patient population is almost all minority, almost all are indigent/uninsured, lots of immigrants from all over the world (not just Spanish speaking), lots of crazy social problems (11 year old mothers, homelessness, prositutes, IV drug users, or any combination of the above), lots of very interesting pathologies due to long-term untreated diseases, and lots of strange and interesting infectious diseases. As one of our micro professors always likes to say, if Grady Hospital was a state, it would be like number 20 in the country for TB incidence. And because it's always understaffed relative to the huge patient population, you will have plenty of opportunites to do procedures, take care of patients, etc.

EDIT: Emory itself isn't in the hood so you first two years will be in a nice area unless you choose to live more in town (which many people do), but your third and fourth years will be "in the hood."

 

[WolfpackRed]

Tennessee (Memphis, TN) - The zipcodes surrounding the school have infant mortality rates of 3rd world countries

 

[bigdan]

I (of small town, suburban background) consider NJMS of UMDNJ to be in the 'hood, nestled in sunny Newark, NJ.

I second a previous post, that Emory is actually in a nice area, but Grady Hospital for the clinical years does qualify for 'hood status.

dc

 

[mendel121]

hey ya'll i am gathering my list of schools for the app process. I am interested in schools that are located in the hood. Particularly, schools in los angeles, new york, chicago, philadelphia, and new jersey or any other areas. If ya'll can list some schools, i will greatly appreciate it. Also, a one to two sentence description would help. For example, school x is located in a ghetto neighborhood, the patient population is extremely poor et cetera..

thanks in advance

*

It doesn't get anymore ghetto than Wayne State in Detroit. I believe that it is still the nations largest inner city medical school. It is close to Comerica Park, so the neighborhood that it is actually in is on its way up, but Detroit is still, well ya'll know about Detroit

Its a good school, part of a huge medical center. It's not top tier, but not at the bottom either. You'll get to see it all at Wayne

 

[pico61]

It doesn't get anymore ghetto than Wayne State in Detroit. I believe that it is still the nations largest inner city medical school. It is close to Comerica Park, so the neighborhood that it is actually in is on its way up, but Detroit is still, well ya'll know about Detroit

Its a good school, part of a huge medical center. It's not top tier, but not at the bottom either. You'll get to see it all at Wayne

thanks for the in on wayne, i am looking into the school. I am a cali resident so i wonder about the tution, but the school sounds interesting. I am not into the top tier or low tier stuff(dealing with the poor folk is top tier in my book)--I am just looking for good clinical exposure and want to see what loopholes i find to help poor folks...I think i am definately going to add wayne state to my list of schools.

thanks for the info mendel121

 

[pico61]

I (of small town, suburban background) consider NJMS of UMDNJ to be in the 'hood, nestled in sunny Newark, NJ.

I second a previous post, that Emory is actually in a nice area, but Grady Hospital for the clinical years does qualify for 'hood status.

dc

yeah i had NJMS on my list but background chatter indicates it is a really competitive school--i have to look into this though. I sort of like the weirdness of newark-some of those folks really need help. It should present a great challenge.

 

[pico61]

well, it's not NY, Chicago, etc, but juding by your use of "ya'll" hopefully it would be still be okay. most of the rotations and clinical experiences at emory are through the Fulton-Dekalb County Hospital authorities which runs Grady Memorial Hospital. It's one of the largest of its kind similar to Bellevue in NY and Charity in New Orleans (although I've never actually been to either...just heard the comparisons). The patient population is almost all minority, almost all are indigent/uninsured, lots of immigrants from all over the world (not just Spanish speaking), lots of crazy social problems (11 year old mothers, homelessness, prositutes, IV drug users, or any combination of the above), lots of very interesting pathologies due to long-term untreated diseases, and lots of strange and interesting infectious diseases. As one of our micro professors always likes to say, if Grady Hospital was a state, it would be like number 20 in the country for TB incidence. And because it's always understaffed relative to the huge patient population, you will have plenty of opportunites to do procedures, take care of patients, etc.

EDIT: Emory itself isn't in the hood so you first two years will be in a nice area unless you choose to live more in town (which many people do), but your third and fourth years will be "in the hood."

thanks for the info--grady sounds like la county and bellvue- most definately...

 

[dara678]

most definitely LAC+USC .... it's not exactly in the hood, but because it serves a very indigent population as well as the prison population, you are going to get a very wide variety of patients, many of whom are poor and do not have insurance. if you want to stay in california, you should really consider usc, especially since it serves the exact population you want to serve. we get real patient contact every week and profs plunge us into medical history-taking right after we get our white coats.

(btw, usc also serves a "richer" patient population at the university hospital if you are looking for variety ...)

 

[it.]

Watts School of *it. gets shot in drive-by* Medicine

 

[Law2Doc]

hey ya'll i am gathering my list of schools for the app process. I am interested in schools that are located in the hood. Particularly, schools in los angeles, new york, chicago, philadelphia, and new jersey or any other areas. If ya'll can list some schools, i will greatly appreciate it. Also, a one to two sentence description would help. For example, school x is located in a ghetto neighborhood, the patient population is extremely poor et cetera..

thanks in advance

*

I'm suspect you are joking. But in Philly, Temple is the school in the roughest neighborhood. In NY, I guess Columbia is closest to Harlem, but not nearly as bad as it used to be. You might also like U of Miami's Jackson Memorial.

 

[berkeleyboy]

I'm suspect you are joking. But in Philly, Temple is the school in the roughest neighborhood. In NY, I guess Columbia is closest to Harlem, but not nearly as bad as it used to be. You might also like U of Miami's Jackson Memorial.

I totally agree with Temple being ghetto. I was just there a couple of weeks ago and its straight Ghetto. If I had to walk around the area at night by myself in some of the neighborhoods just a few blocks from campus.....I'd seriously consider being strapped.

 

[MDgonnabe]

i go to temple med and have absolutely no idea how our hospital stays afloat with the number of uninsured/unemployed/homeless/etc patients we see. most of our affiliated hospitals are also in some not-so nice areas but with less urban populations for added variety. if you're sincere about serving the underserved, definitely come and check us out. lots of community outreach opportunities. and i can honestly say that the clinical years have been very humbling for me.

 

[Smurfette]

What comes to mind:
Wayne State
Johns Hopkins
Wash U (I've heard surrounding areas are kind of sketchy...haven't seen it myself though).

 

[alhkim]

Temple is one of the few private hospitals that gets mad $$$ from the state...MCP (or what formally was MCP) was in the same situtation before Tenet took over (state funding ceases when a for-profit organization runs hospitals).

btw, MCP is Medical College of Pennsylvania, a former teaching hospital of Drexel.

i go to temple med and have absolutely no idea how our hospital stays afloat with the number of uninsured/unemployed/homeless/etc patients we see. most of our affiliated hospitals are also in some not-so nice areas but with less urban populations for added variety. if you're sincere about serving the underserved, definitely come and check us out. lots of community outreach opportunities. and i can honestly say that the clinical years have been very humbling for me.

 

[alhkim]

WashU?? the neighborhood it's in, the central west end, is probably one of the nicest neighborhoods in the city of St. Louis. how about U Chicago (not awful terrible, but not good), Wayne State/Temple/UMiami/Columbia (which were mentioned already), or Albert Einstein?

What comes to mind:
Wayne State
Johns Hopkins
Wash U (I've heard surrounding areas are kind of sketchy...haven't seen it myself though).

 

[Kazema]

What comes to mind:
Wayne State
Johns Hopkins
Wash U (I've heard surrounding areas are kind of sketchy...haven't seen it myself though).

SLU is in a worse area of St Louis than Wash U.

 

[lakersfan]

hey ya'll i am gathering my list of schools for the app process. I am interested in schools that are located in the hood. Particularly, schools in los angeles, new york, chicago, philadelphia, and new jersey or any other areas. If ya'll can list some schools, i will greatly appreciate it. Also, a one to two sentence description would help. For example, school x is located in a ghetto neighborhood, the patient population is extremely poor et cetera..

thanks in advance

*

USC...its in East L.A and serves the LA County Hospital... I really don't think it is as bad as most people make it out to be but I may be biased for obvious reasons.

 

[Hallm_7]

University of Louisville......TLC taped a "Trauma - Life in the ER" there and the hospitals security cameras recorded TWO shootings within an hour of each other directly across the road from the horpsital.

 

[Espion]

We can see Mexico from our parking garage. BEATEN! 😛




[edit: Texas Tech sends 3rd and 4th years to El Paso. The pathology is 3rd world country with a little "diabetic wonderland" thrown in there for ya. Surprisingly, not a lot of penetrating trauma here. El Paso is actually the 3rd safest city (of its size, I presume) in the US.]

 

[14022]

Wash U (I've heard surrounding areas are kind of sketchy...haven't seen it myself though).

WashU is super nice. In fact, whenever they get patients from the surrounding "hoods" they "refer" them to SLU. Wash U will stabilize them in their ER and then transfer them to SLU because of insurance (or lack thereof).

SLU (and the associated children's hospital) is in a pretty bad area and they do their fair share of poor people care. The students at SLU run a clinic in a pretty poor area in north St. Louis every weekend and all students can start volunteering from their first day of medical school. A lot of uninsured use the clinic as their primary means of healthcare. The hospital that houses SLU's OB/GYN dept is in a nice area but they are the major site for high-risk pregnancies within 200 miles. They see plenty of poor people at that hospital as well. It was interesting rotating through psych at SLU because of all the issues that the patients had to deal with on top of their mental illnesses, like homelessness, substance abuse, little social support, etc.

 

[pico61]

thanks to all who have responded so far. It is hard to make choices of which schools to apply to from msar as they focus on general stuff. It would be nice if someone in the near future compiled something like msar, but speaking more specifically about the sociological context of the schools--after all it is very important.

 

[StreetGenius]

thanks to all who have responded so far. It is hard to make choices of which schools to apply to from msar as they focus on general stuff. It would be nice if someone in the near future compiled something like msar, but speaking more specifically about the sociological context of the schools--after all it is very important.

Yo that is a berry good Point!

 

[ddmo]

My school is more ghetto than your school 😛

 

[Smurfette]

WashU is super nice. In fact, whenever they get patients from the surrounding "hoods" they "refer" them to SLU. Wash U will stabilize them in their ER and then transfer them to SLU because of insurance (or lack thereof).

SLU (and the associated children's hospital) is in a pretty bad area and they do their fair share of poor people care. The students at SLU run a clinic in a pretty poor area in north St. Louis every weekend and all students can start volunteering from their first day of medical school. A lot of uninsured use the clinic as their primary means of healthcare. The hospital that houses SLU's OB/GYN dept is in a nice area but they are the major site for high-risk pregnancies within 200 miles. They see plenty of poor people at that hospital as well. It was interesting rotating through psych at SLU because of all the issues that the patients had to deal with on top of their mental illnesses, like homelessness, substance abuse, little social support, etc.

Hey, I wasn't sure about it, which is why I wrote the disclaimer....maybe it was SLU I had heard about?

 

[MadameLULU]

Since when does a med school have to be located in the "hood" to take care of underserved patients? I think any school that's located in a large metropolitan area, particularly if its the only academic hospital in the surrounding area, will have a large proportion of indigent patients.

 

[brucecat]

All the Philly schools would work for you:
Temple is right in the middle of probably the largest continuous block of "hood" in the US...
UPenn isn't in the hood, but many of its patients are from West & SW Philly, and its affiliate hospital, Presbyterian, is a community hospital to some pretty ghetto areas.
Jefferson isn't in the hood--it's right downtown--but it also receives a very diverse patient population... and Jeff's largest student organization is called JeffHope, where students (starting at MS1) run free clinics at local homeless shelters.

 

[DOCTORSAIB]

All the Philly schools would work for you.

Except PCOM...🙂

 

[Dr Who]

Einstein comes to mind. The Tremont section of the Bronx where it is located is not the nicest of neighborhoods.

 

[nutmegs]

gonna have to 4th for temple... "highest volume of penetrating trauma in the deleware valley" and you can volunteer with several student-run clinics in the hood churches, or (my personal fav) the clinic that is run alongside the needle exchange van that pulls up on the empty block in da hood... seeing IV drug users and sex workers in your first 2 years gets you used to asking the social history questions FAST... I think I could take a detailed sexual history from the freakin first lady

 

[substanceP]

also check out the university of miami (the other UM). jackson is a county hospital in a 'not great' area. you come out of the pre-clinical years feeling comfortable taking histories and doing physicals on just about anyone, drawing blood, speaking medical spanish etc. most md's are very excited about you wanting to get clinical exposure early on, and will let you tag along and do stuff from the beginning of first year. the patient population is the epitome of 'underserved' - many people have no insurance and very few options.

also, you can do some rotations at another hospital in a more swanky part of town (miami beach), so you get a good mix of different sub-populations.

 

[Evil X]

thanks for the in on wayne, i am looking into the school. I am a cali resident so i wonder about the tution, but the school sounds interesting. I am not into the top tier or low tier stuff(dealing with the poor folk is top tier in my book)--I am just looking for good clinical exposure and want to see what loopholes i find to help poor folks...I think i am definately going to add wayne state to my list of schools.

thanks for the info mendel121

I will second that suggestion of Wayne State University. Great place to learn about health care for indigious people.

 

[rpkall]

I can't believe no one said anything about Washington DC (Howard) and Baltimore (Johns Hopkins).

Both of those are in freakin' demilitarized zones.

The area around Johns Hopkins is pretty crappy; Washington DC, though, needs Batman or something.

 

[Tiki]

Robert Wood Johnson has an option to do your second two years in Camden. Camden was voted the most dangerous city in the U.S. I win, I win!!!!! 😀

 

[heeter]

UT Southwestern's Parkland is THE county hospital for Dallas. There is a high rate of HIV infection on the medicine wards, lots of uninsured/homeless, etc... Mostly African Americans, many from south Dallas. I'm just accepted there but I'm sure current students can chime in w/ more authority.

 

[Law2Doc]

Robert Wood Johnson has an option to do your second two years in Camden. Camden was voted the most dangerous city in the U.S. I win, I win!!!!! 😀

Yeah, I seem to recall that Camden NJ was listed in the mid through late 80's as the city with the highest per capita level of crack cocaine use. Not sure if they maintained their title, though, since that fancy new aquarium was built.

 

[oompaloompa]

Since when does a med school have to be located in the "hood" to take care of underserved patients? I think any school that's located in a large metropolitan area, particularly if its the only academic hospital in the surrounding area, will have a large proportion of indigent patients.

I completely agree, many of our associated hospitals in Houston are super-nice because they're part of the med center, but a HUGE part of the patient base is the inner-city Medicaid population. The hospital itself is close to some of the nicest neighborhoods in the city, but that doesn't mean that only rich people are treated there. I mean, they actually treated someone with PLAGUE here last year. How many doctors have ever seen a case of plague? I think your devotion to taking care of the medically underserved is quite admirable, but I don't think its necessary to limit yourself to only the hospitals/schools in the "hood" to get good exposure to pathology. Like the above poster noted, any major academic center in a large city is likely to meet your requirements. Good luck and God bless for your charitable nature.

 

[ilanahg]

I'm suspect you are joking. But in Philly, Temple is the school in the roughest neighborhood. In NY, I guess Columbia is closest to Harlem, but not nearly as bad as it used to be. You might also like U of Miami's Jackson Memorial.

Columbia is *not* in the ghetto. It is located in the 5th safest precinct in NYC. SUNY Downstate, however is in a pretty poor, immigrant neighborhood way out in Brooklyn. I'd say of all the NYC schools, SUNY Downstate is in the worst neighborhood.

 

[stoleyerscrubz]

Are you talking about Columbia med school or their undergrad as I think they are in 2 seperate places. I know the undergrad is in a safe neighborhood but I'm not sure about the medical college since I never been up there.

Columbia is *not* in the ghetto. It is located in the 5th safest precinct in NYC. SUNY Downstate, however is in a pretty poor, immigrant neighborhood way out in Brooklyn. I'd say of all the NYC schools, SUNY Downstate is in the worst neighborhood.

 

[SocialistMD]

Hey, I wasn't sure about it, which is why I wrote the disclaimer....maybe it was SLU I had heard about?

No, it was Wash U. For some reason, it gets a bad rap. I walked home last night from dinner and had no problems whatsoever. As for SLU's student-run homeless clinic, many other schools have those as well (I know we had one in Houston) if that is your bag.

UT Southwestern's Parkland is THE county hospital for Dallas. There is a high rate of HIV infection on the medicine wards, lots of uninsured/homeless, etc... Mostly African Americans, many from south Dallas.

Actually, I think you will see as many patients of hispanic origin as you do African Americans; Dallas is very similar to Houston that way. I don't know where you heard the "high rate of HIV" information because I don't think it is any higher than that of any other urban hospital in the US, but you do see a great number of indigent patients (just as you would at any county hospital).

I guess my point is that any hospital located in a large city will have its share of less fortunate patients. If you are looking to live in these areas, that will always be an option.

 

[mfrederi]

Have to agree with two choices on the list. 1. Parkland- UTSW is actually located about 2 blocks from Harry Hines, a notorious place for hookers and dealers, and all the surrounded area near the school pretty much sucks (interested yet?) 2. Texas Tech- the first two years are in Lubbock, which is so desolate that all the gangsters left, but then you get shipped to El Paso, where I honestly believe there is no where else in the US more jacked than a Texas border town. You will tx alot of people that literally get shot or whatever in Mexico and then are dropped on the American side of the line for an American ambulance to pick them up. If you know about Mexico's health care system you will have great compassion on these people. Recently, in Nuevo Laredo (another Texas border town) a new sheriff was elected, he lasted 6 hrs till the drug cartel gunned him down. That town is now under martial law, and the first thing they did when the Mexican army got to town was arrest all the Mexican cops because they are all suspects in the drug running rings. This place is so messed up, I'm sure you will love it. But, in all seriousness, the people that you help are for the most part very gracious, which is different from many other underserved areas.

 

[J-Mo]

University of Louisville......TLC taped a "Trauma - Life in the ER" there and the hospitals security cameras recorded TWO shootings within an hour of each other directly across the road from the horpsital.

Too bad that "hood" was torn down this year and has relocated elsewhere.

 

[Justin4563]

oh yeah new jersey med.. real sshiiiit hole.. cant get any worse than that........ gunshot wounds galore...

 

[relema]

Have to agree with two choices on the list. 1. Parkland- UTSW is actually located about 2 blocks from Harry Hines, a notorious place for hookers and dealers, and all the surrounded area near the school pretty much sucks (interested yet?) .

The campus at UTSW is not that ghetto you go a few miles northeast of UTSW and you are in highland park the richest area of dallas. Go a bit south and you are close to fair park( by far the scariest part of dallas). The school seems to be leaning towards being in the ghetto. I would not walk around the streets by parkland late at night by myslef, but I feel fine going to and from the parking garage to my lab and around parkland during the day or driving down harry hines.

 

[StreetGenius]

it is very interesting to see peoples definition of hood sparkle through their explanationz

 

[StreetGenius]

oh yeah new jersey med.. real sshiiiit hole.. cant get any worse than that........ gunshot wounds galore...

i from the streets yo, you offend me!

 

[Doc Ivy]

Actually Yale is in the hood too--- walk a couple of blocks in any one particular direction and it's straight ghetto. With the exeception of the students and professors that live there, New Haven is pretty economically depressed so if sickle cell and penetrating trauma are what you're after, it's a good place to be.

Northwestern...now that's the ANTI-HOOD. Oprah lives across the street.

 

[DW]

Actually Yale is in the hood too--- walk a couple of blocks in any one particular direction and it's straight ghetto. With the exeception of the students and professors that live there, New Haven is pretty economically depressed so if sickle cell and penetrating trauma are what you're after, it's a good place to be.

Northwestern...now that's the ANTI-HOOD. Oprah lives across the street.

you can't possibly be more anti-hood than the Upper East Side of Manhattan 😛 However, here at Cornell you have the option at rotating at places such as Lincoln Hospital, which definitely qualifies as hood medicine, and we do get a fair amount of medicaid/uninsured/immigrant patients.

 

[noncestvrai]

I think most big cities, in the US, have some "ghetto" patients, I would even say that the poor cities too, in the South especially.

As somebody mentionned, how about Wash, D.C. and Baltimore? I heard the trauma training is one of the best at JHU.

noncestvrai

 

[nutmegs]

I think most big cities, in the US, have some "ghetto" patients, I would even say that the poor cities too, in the South especially.

As somebody mentionned, how about Wash, D.C. and Baltimore? I heard the trauma training is one of the best at JHU.

noncestvrai

U of M has shock trauma 🤔