Medical school location

[bearforce]

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Question for current medical students:
Location is a huge factor when considering medical schools, how and by what criteria did you select medical schools? What is the best way to evaluate cities and whether you might like them if you attend a certain school?
If you have any insight into living in the following cities it would be helpful as well.:
Boston, Baltimore, Chicago, NYC, Houston, Philadelphia.

 

[Sammich117]

I live in boston. It's pretty awesome. Fairly expensive, though.

 

[bearforce]

Ive heard Boston can be stuffy and racist. Have you seen or felt a pervasive attitude like that before? Are you in medical school? How did you get to know that city?

 

[morning]

I dislike big cities and actually enjoy living in a more rural area, so I'm the complete opposite. All those random liberal college towns scattered throughout the midwest are my ideal locales... i.e. Madison, Ann Arbor, East Lansing.

Ive heard Boston can be stuffy and racist. Have you seen or felt a pervasive attitude like that before? Are you in medical school? How did you get to know that city?

I've never heard of Boston being stuffy or racist. Keep in mind it is suffused with college students. Metro Boston is like a college metropolis.

 

[Sammich117]

Ive heard Boston can be stuffy and racist. Have you seen or felt a pervasive attitude like that before? Are you in medical school? How did you get to know that city?

Not even a little bit stuffy and racist... I've never heard that before either.

I'm in undergrad and have lived right in the city for 4/5 years.

I don't really know how to answer the how did I get to know it question... I live in it, so it's sort of hard not to.

 

[bearforce]

Not even a little bit stuffy and racist... I've never heard that before either.

I'm in undergrad and have lived right in the city for 4/5 years.

I don't really know how to answer the how did I get to know it question... I live in it, so it's sort of hard not to.

Im basically talking about finding out about the city before you got there. Im trying to compare different locations to choose a school. The problem is that there is soo much info. Im over-saturated. It is also difficult to find a book or info source from a student (particularly a medical student's) perspective.

 

[silverhorse84]

For reference, my choices were LA, Philly, and near DC.

-I actually kind of wanted to leave Ca, which narrowed my choices down a bit when picking a school.
-Don't underestimate having family close!
-Sometimes I wish I had stayed west coast, because the 3 hour time difference is bigger than you'd think when you're trying to call people who work regular hours.
-I chose the DC area as opposed to Philly, because I have family around here - and I thought I'd like this school better.

 

[bearforce]

For reference, my choices were LA, Philly, and near DC.

-I actually kind of wanted to leave Ca, which narrowed my choices down a bit when picking a school.
-Don't underestimate having family close!
-Sometimes I wish I had stayed west coast, because the 3 hour time difference is bigger than you'd think when you're trying to call people who work regular hours.
-I chose the DC area as opposed to Philly, because I have family around here - and I thought I'd like this school better.

Does family being close really help that much? I am close with my family, but being in medical school seems like it would really cut down on time i could spend with them anyway. Good advice though ill keep it in mind.

 

[red10]

Does family being close really help that much? I am close with my family, but being in medical school seems like it would really cut down on time i could spend with them anyway. Good advice though ill keep it in mind.

You're not going to have tons of time to hang out with them but it's easier to get home if you need or want to when you live closer. Just remember that the farther away you are the more difficult and expensive it will be to go home for holidays, birthdays or just to see friends from home. This is a bigger deal to some people than others.
Visiting these cities while on the interview trail is probably going to be you best way of judging them as well as talking to students at the specific schools you're interested in to get their take. Many will be coming from cities other than the city he college is in and can best judge the surroundings as they compare to home

 

[futuredoc8788]

Question for current medical students:
Location is a huge factor when considering medical schools, how and by what criteria did you select medical schools? What is the best way to evaluate cities and whether you might like them if you attend a certain school?
If you have any insight into living in the following cities it would be helpful as well.:
Boston, Baltimore, Chicago, NYC, Houston, Philadelphia.

NYC and Chicago are awesome. Spent the summer in NYC while living in manhattan and LOVED IT!!! Best experience of my life, there was so much to do. While I had a lot of work and studying to do, it was great to have so much entertainment at my fingertips in my breaks/downtime. Thats something to think about when appying to medschool, for me it's important to have an outlet.....

Chicago is also great. I have a cousin there that's in her residency and we always have fun(great food, parks, music, clubs, etc). If I had to choose between them both, I'd choose NYC but like I said they're both still awesome and I'd be happy in either location.

Congrats on your acceptances btw 🙂