Miami Miller VS Tufts

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ruberscoobix

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Help!

Background:
-Attended college in Boston and have been living here since I graduated in 2016.
-I completed an SMP at Tufts (and so I'm about 100k in debt already).
-Will be moving with my SO.
-I have a strong interest in pediatrics (hospital-based), possibly OBGYN, and urban medicine.

Tufts
PROS
-More "prestigious" school/better name recognition. One of my main concerns is that Tufts is considered the more "elite" school. Would I be silly for turning down a Tufts acceptance for Miami?
-I like, trust, and have a good rapport with the faculty
-Lots of friends in Boston!
-Only a car or train ride away from my hometown in NY

CONS
-At $97K COA, Tufts is more expensive than Miami
-Expensive cost of living
-Would be living in a neighborhood I'm not particularly jazzed about
-Weather
-Kind of sick of Boston
-Doesn't seem to have the best work/life balance
-Research opportunities aren't great (an interviewer told me this)
-Have to travel to hospitals all around the Boston area for rotations

University of Miami Miller
PROS
-$83K COA ... ~15K Cheaper than Tufts, which will add up to be about a $65K after 4 years. Remember I already have 100K in loans from my master's.
-Slightly cheaper cost of living than Boston, would be able to get a much nicer apartment in a much nicer area
-Amazing clinical opportunities (better than Tufts, IMO)
-Awesome research (better than Tufts, IMO)
-Seems like at least 90% of rotations are on the medical campus
-Better work/life balance
-Love the city, culture, and weather (sick of freezing my a** off in Boston)
-My brother lives there now, Dad did his residency there
-The adventure!

CONS
-Not as highly regarded, especially because I plan on doing my residency in the Northeast
-Don't know anybody but my brother and my SO (who is moving with me)
-Culture shock
-I don't like flying

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(Miami is my top instate choice so bias disclaimer.)

3 out of your 4 Miami cons don’t seem to be significant cons compared to your longer list of valid concerns with Tufts.

In terms of “prestige”/name recognition, n=1 but I didn’t know where/what Tufts was until this post, but have known Miami to be one of the Florida powerhouses since very young. Granted, I grew up in Florida and haven’t ventured out until interview season so that might play a role.

Any concern about Miami getting you where you want in residency can be shut down by their match list. Consistently getting 10+ matchs in various competitive specialties into the likes such as MGH is standard year to year

I’m also a huge proponent of cost >> most other things, especially when it’s not a significance jump in the tiers; another + for Miami.

I’d 100% go Miami with those two options.
 
I think Miami is technically ranked higher than Tufts so not sure it is actually more prestigious. Tufts just tends to match better in the northeast due to regional biases in residency programs, but that's not to say it is impossible to go to the northeast from Miami.
 
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I agree with the above poster. The only significant cons you have for Miami are prestige-relate. However, USWNR actually ranks Miami slightly higher, and on PD rankings Tufts is slightly higher. I don’t think there is any prestige difference at all. Perhaps Tufts is more well-known in the Northeast, but I’m from CA, and I’ve known about Miami since I was a kid and only heard about Tufts last year on MSAR when I was applying. If you can save $65k by going to Miami, it sounds like that is the better choice.
 
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Did not know Tuffs was more prestigious than Miami. That is news to me!


By the way, if you want to speak Spanish, go to Miami. It will be hard at the beginning, but you will eventually learn it.
 
Fellow New Englander here. Tufts does have a reputation for excellence in the Northeast. In fact the undergraduate school is often called a "Little Ivy." But it amazes me how people from all over the country have heard about schools in their own regions having the same types of high name recognition. There may be a Tufts-type of school in the Southwest that I've never heard of, but people there would say, "Oh yes, that's a very good school." Through this process I've learned about a number of great schools and programs I never knew existed. Be careful to not over-value name recognition.
 
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I can't say which school specifically, but I do want to add something to think about:
-An extra $65k in loans is not big enough of a deal to choose one school over another, in my opinion. It's a huge amount of money, don't get me wrong, but at the level of debt people go into for medical school, I wouldn't choose $65k over my personal happiness.
 
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I also think of Miami as a more prestigious med school than Tufts. At either school, if you perform average or better you will have no problem matching in peds or ob/gyn in the northeast. Probably even below average will be fine.
 
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