Name & Fame | Name & Shame | Reviews of Schools 2019-2020

[TheDataKing]

UC Davis School of Medicine
Location: Sacramento. Not as nice as SF/LA but it still has decent things to offer such as being close to Tahoe, and there is Midtown which is fairly urban.
Cost of Living: Very low, especially for California.

Transportation: A car is essential to live here.

Clinical Rotations: 2 year curriculum so they don't start till 3rd year. Rotations are all over the place from what I've heard and can be fairly scattered.

Positive Impressions: A very mission oriented school that cares a lot about underserved communities and recruits a lot of minorities. Based off the FB group page it's like 60% of the class will be URM. Student body seemed to be very happy and genuine during interview day. Very non-traditional friendly. MMI is very fair and looking for certain traits you'd want in a physician

Negative Impression: Not the greatest place to be if you have interests outside of primary care, as you have to put in a little more work to find research and stuff but it's there. Match care is majority primary care with some specialties sprinkled. Traditional students seem to be the minority here so if you're single and wanna go out every now and then meh.



UC Irvine School of Medicine
Location: Irvine, a middle-upper class Asian suburb in conservative Orange County. It's boring and safe, but there's Newport Beach and good Asian restaurants around the area.

Cost of Living: Fairly high.... but I think it's reasonable for California standards.

Transportation: A car is essential to live here.

Clinical Rotations: 2 year curriculum so they don't start till 3rd year. Preceptorships in the first 2 years can be scattered around Orange County, my student interviewer drove 45mins to go to her preceptorships. Most rotations are at UCI Hospital which is in Orange and is like a 15-40 min drive away from Irvine depending on traffic, so I think most students move to Orange.

Positive Impressions: Pleasant interview day, we played a trivia game with the Dean of Admissions and I won a hat! The amazing weather and proximity to the beach makes students fairly happy here. Cheap CA instate tuition. Really cool emphasis on ultrasound in the curriculum that's very unique. I loved my faculty interviewer and felt like she was really empathetic and listening to me. Definitely someone I could see as a mentor.

Negative Impression: Irvine is a kind of boring I guess, and the match list is mostly primary care focused as you'd expect from a state school. OC is conservative.

Weill Cornell Medical College
Location: Upper East Side of Manhattan, a very posh and residential neighborhood. A bit further from subway than ideal, like 7-10min walk I think? Perfect location for a young person, it's nice and quiet so you can focus on studying but easy to venture out if you want to explore and have some fun.

Cost of Living: Very high. It's Manhattan and one of the most expensive parts. Subsidized housing for all 4 years is amazing. 1st year is in a dorm tho but 2nd-4th are in fancy high rises.

Transportation: Don't need a car which is amazing. School provides shuttles for clinical rotations and if they don't you can take Uber and the school will reimburse you. Or if it's close you can take subway.

Clinical Rotations: 1.5 year curriculum, rotating at the main hospital across the street from housing in an academic setting, and more community-oriented hospitals in Brooklyn/Queens, Lower Manhattan, and even Westchester. You can also rotate at Houston Methodist in Houston and the school covers all travel feels and provides housing. Heard the main hospital isn't as hands on b/c it's posh but more hands on for other hospitals.

Positive Impressions: Incredible and prestigious hospital system (NY-Presbyterian), strong focus on diversity/inclusion/wellness, access to Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center and Hospital for Special Surgery. Gorgeous and world-class facilities, school is loaded with money. Opportunities to work with the urban underserved. Mentorship is highly valued here and one of my faculty interviewers was trying to convince me to be a part of his field and said he would love to work with me. Fancy Ivy League pedigree. Debt free, so attractive to people who come from families with less money.

Negative Impression: Out of 12 interviewees, only 2 of us went to public schools and the other 10 attended fancy private schools such as Duke, Brown, Hopkins, Harvard, etc. Not a very diverse pool they seem to be trying to recruit. The 2 people with Hispanic last names looked very white lol. NYC is saturated with medical schools and there's probably some competition with Columbia/MtSinai/NYU. Did not see the students interact much with each other, and have some concern that there might be stand offish elite Ivy League mentality here. Only half of student body qualifies for financial aid so that means other half are probably filthy rich.



Georgetown University School of Medicine
Location: Georgetown, DC, a very posh white part of DC that's not well connected by transit and out of the way from the lively areas of DC.

Cost of Living: Very high. DC is expensive.

Transportation: I think you definitely need a car for rotations here as the transit options are terrible.

Clinical Rotations: 1.5 year curriculum, there is a main hospital and a bunch of other affiliated sites that are a bit further in like Maryland/Virginia.

Positive Impressions: None.

Negative Impression: Cura personalis is full of cr** as every school does this, facilities are so run down it's comical considering the tuition. Students during the tours and lunches did not seem like they really liked the school at all tbh. Huge class (200) + class with SMP student. They tried to show off their match list and they had like 15-18 ortho matches, but then my M3 friend told me that about ~35 applied ortho and only half matched into it lol. The fishbowl was ugh. Financial aid handout was given at the end of the day after the interview. Don't come here if you want to do OB-GYN bc it's still a Catholic institution.

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[TheDataKing]

Sidney Kimmel Medical College (Jefferson)
Location: Center City, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Cost of Living: off-campus housing ranges from $600-1,500 per month, more if you want a rooftop view and feeling bougie. in-campus housing is about $1,500. It can be pretty expensive.

Transportation: Able to walk/take public transportation wherever the first two years. Preferable to have a car for M3-M4. I heard there's a Step 2 CS testing site nearby.

Clinical Rotations: Lots of different sites along PA,NJ, partnership with Christiana Care Health System which is the big fish in DE.

Positive Impressions:
- Center city has everything you need, good for foodies, everyone told me they feel very safe.
- The student admissions team here seemed happy, almost entirely ran by students actually with very little oversight from the dean.
- Has a long tradition of excellence, often physicians come back to work at Jeff throughout their careers (they call them "lifers")
- Seems very well known around the area with a good reputation, don't know how that translates outside the northeast.
- Match list is decent? The students I know tell me that Jeff doesn't close any doors when it comes to competitive specialties, but with Step 1 changes idk how true that would be.
- My interviewer knew my whole application down pat. She was very warm, genuine, and honest. Truly believes in Jeff's system in producing quality residents, ranks them highly (she's a family med PD).

Negative Impression:
- Large class size, though some students claim that it doesn't feel that way due to splintering into different small groups.
- Not focused on research, the emphasis is on early clinical skill building. Our speaker told us that Jeff trains clinicians with research being secondary. There is a mandatory scholarly inquiry which can be on any topic students choose. Some projects get you in touch with physicians at Penn Med.
- Shared environment with other allied health professions. Ran into a couple of buddies that are in the PA and PT track at Jeff when we were touring at the library

. Some lecture rooms were used interchangibly with other healthcare tracks, not exclusive to med students.
- 4 on, 4 off per cadaver so 8 people.
- Some courses are taught by students, not sure how that translates to quality of education. Jeff empowers students to teach courses outside of the curriculum if there is a need and enough interest.
- Our tour guide got lost on a couple turns and it wasn't really structured, "what do you guys want to see?" type tour, not sure if this is really a negative.

 

[gruffgoat]

Yale School of Medicine
Location: New Haven seemed fine, though hard to get to by plane. Not far from Boston or NYC, which is nice. Cool that Yale undergrad is so close. New Haven is definitely a bit gritty and dirty and parts might be dangerous. Faculty seemed to live outside of New Haven.

Cost of Living: seems not too bad, lots of housing options, also dorms (bleh)

Transportation: You basically need a car for some rotations. Car is like 100-200 a month to keep there, current students say?

Clinical Rotations: You see low, mid, and high-income patients. Some hospitals are 30-45 minutes away, sometimes get an apartment if too far away. Oh, hospital-wide translation service where you can facetime a translator in the hospital. Pretty cool.

Positive Impressions: my gut reaction - it’s Yale! Yale! Yale! I met some students that I enjoyed. Students could take lots of time off if they want. Lots of educational outreach and focus on medical education. “Yale family” kept coming up - so, maybe good professional community with faculty and students?

Negative Impression: I don’t love that so many people take an extra year (like, 90% or something insane like that)View attachment 301077 and I really, really did not vibe with one of the students. They talked about how they don’t know so many of their classmates and how they see some of them once a year. Then, they went on to decide to not go to her clerkship for the day, which was weird? And left me with a bad taste of … woah, Yale is so hands-off. Which, I don’t love. I didn’t get a great sense of community here. 3rd years “seem to disappear.” HAVEN (free clinic) is like … massive, and includes undergrads and people from all across the university, which also rubbed me the wrong way. Seemed like you couldn’t really get involved in leadership as a MD student, although I could be wrong. You may not rotate in rad, optho, derm during clerkship year. Students soooo (too?) chill.

how do yale students match anywhere? There's no aoa, no exams, no ranking, no shelf exams, everything is optional/chill. And now with p/f step 1, I wonder...

 

[TheDataKing]

Einstein
Location: quiet residential neighborhood but definitely not manhattan. also seems very safe like why ya'll always saying it's unsafe lol

Cost of Living: not manhattan but still nyc so stuff is pretty expensive but hey, guaranteed subsidized housing

Transportation: nyc subway system is a waaalk away / car is recommended but not required

Clinical Rotations: you have access to a large hospital network with a culturally rich and diverse patient population

Positive Impressions: the opportunity to take a "fifth year" to pursue additional opportunities like research or an MPH is a huge plus. the support system for students of color seems solid and stopping by the diversity office to talk with the students there instead of listening to another interviewee talk about backpacking across europe was my best experience of the day tbh

Negative Impression: the interview day was mostly sitting around with other interviewees. we didn't get a tour of the hospital which is literally connected to the med school.

fellow interviewees and tour guides seemed like the gunner types and didn't really vibe with them. also felt like the school is out of touch with their location. i understand the history and the reason why the school was founded but this is the only academic med center in the bronx (home to 1.4 million people!!!), the unhealthiest medically underserved county in NY state but the administration (besides the office of diversity) doesn't talk about addressing the health disparates of the surrounding communities and instead focused on highlighting and selling their global health opportunities???? i asked both my interviewer and one of the student ambassadors about community based research opportunities and got looked at like i had a third eye.

 

[TheDataKing]

Boston University School of Medicine
Location: Boston, MA

Cost of Living: EXPENSIVE JUST KNOW THAT OF THE RIP

Transportation: Could probably do without one all 4 years but BUSM is in a weird area in relation to the trains and might make it a little less navigable. In general, first 2 years no car is doable, last 2 years you decide if its worth it to buy one or not. I would PERSONALLY lean towards not.

Clinical Rotations: Most done in Boston Medical Center, which is large safety net hospital

Positive Impressions:
- Strong social justice vibe
- Living in Boston seems great and I loved visiting there
- Training in BMC will allow you to see how treating the sickest and poorest patients looks like

Negative Impression: EXPENSIVE

 

[TheDataKing]

Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth
Location: Hanover, New Hampshire, rural

Cost of Living: Tuition is high ($87,872) but low COL (if I remember)

Transportation: You need a car.

Clinical Rotations: Rotation sites include Dartmouth-Hitchcock; VT VA Hospital; CA Pacific Medical Center; Children’s Hospital Orange County; Fort Defiance Indian Hospital; Hartford Hospital; Navajo Medical Center; Valdez Medical Center.

Positive Impressions:
- Chill student body
- Welcoming administration
- Being able to easily do core rotations in Cali is sick
- Layman’s prestige

Negative Impression:
- Rural (no Uber, Drive everywhere, no night life, white and old)
- Patient population is homogenous (white and old)

 

[TheDataKing]

Duke University School of Medicine
Location: Durham, NC

Cost of Living: Expensive tuition but heard they are generous with aid, Very low COL (very cheap rent)

Transportation: Car is recommended. Durham is suburban

Clinical Rotations: Lots of places to rotate: Duke University Medical Center, Duke Children's Hospital and Health Center, Durham Regional Hospital, the Veteran's Administration Hospital, Duke Raleigh Hospitals, Lennox Baker Children's Hospital.

Positive Impressions:
- Duke’s clinical and research prowess is impressive
- Faculty is impressive
- Diverse faculty that are true leaders
- 1 year condensed preclinical

- 1-year research built in to curriculum
- Strong in surgery and Internal medicine (A student at Duke said she did not even have to do away rotations for her to apply to a surgical subspecialty because programs already know how strong Duke is in surgery training)
- Low COL

Negative Impression:
- Durham is boring! Suburban college town h*llhole (There is nothing to do outside of campus)
- From conversations I had throughout my stay in Durham there seems like there might be a subtle distrust of DukeMed from the POC residents that live there. This is something I CANNOT verify but have picked up from students, inferences on the area and even a talk I had with my Uber driver.

 

[TheDataKing]

Morehouse:
Location: Hotlanta

Cost of living: ATL can get pricey

Transportation: car is needed

Clinical Rotations: Grady Health System, Atlanta Veterans Medical Center, Children's Hospital of Atlanta, Wellstar Atlanta Medical Center, Gwinnett Medical Center, Ridgeview Hospital, and Atlanta Regional Hospital

Positive Impressions:
Small class size (around 100)
Family environment (students are close. You can tell in the hallway that the students are very close)
Nurturing
HBCU might be something you want
ATL is bomb
Med campus has a lot of features (cafe, gym) centrally located

Negative Impressions:
Graded preclinical (historically people discriminated against HBCU grads so grades are kinda needed to prove they know material. But if you scored well on the MCAT 507+ you should not need to prove yourself to that granularity)

Small campus (everything is small, cafe, gym ect)
Stand alone med school meaning you need to travel a lot for rotations
Main hospital is Grady which is own by Emory (not really bad but obviously that might cause an unequal dynamic)
Research doesn't seem that strong there.

 

[TheDataKing]

George Washington University
Location: Washington DC

Cost of Living: Expensive - DC is $$$

Transportation: You most likely would not need one. Metro train system is great. DC is condensed enough to walk to most places or take the train or bus

Clinical Rotations: You will rotate main in The George Washington University Hospital along with other cool places like NIH medical center, Psychiatric Institute of Washington, Walter Reed Medical Center and more

Positive Impressions:
- Being in DC proper you are close to a lot of governmental opportunities
- Great focus on public health or public policy
- Heavy in activism
- Close to NIH so there you go for cutting edge research
- Big on work/life balance

Negative Impression:
- Run-down facilities (to be fair they are renovating)
- EXPENSIVE and way more than it is worth imo
- Talking with students it was clear that research was not GW focus, it is there though

 

[TheDataKing]

Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai
Location: Manhattan, NYC, NY - near central park woo

Cost of Living: High but subsidized housing makes it manageable

Transportation: No need for a car in NYC. Best public transportation in USA.

Clinical Rotations: Obviously in Mt Sinai hospital and other places as well

Positive Impressions:
- Medical center is connected to school
- Facilities look nice (yes its smaller but its NYC you cant expect a big a*** room)
- Strong research
- NYC is the best and has its own perks
- Match well
- Top 20
- Students I talked to seem to like it there

Negative Impression:
- On my interview day I was only one of three “non-prestigious” alumni interviewee, everyone else went to a prestigious institution (JHU, Vandy, Stanford Dartmouth ect). Also, students I saw in the video I saw on interview day seem to be from a top school. This was not the case for my other interviews.
- My interviews were 30 mins (short) and they seem kind of rushed.
- A lot of the students the come in are from Icahn flexmed program so that could be weird if you come from the traditional route.
- Has gotten PR for some bad **** lately which is a yikes in my book

 

[TheDataKing]

Brody East Carolina
Location: Greenville, NC - pretty rural and kinda in bumble****

Cost of living: cheap haha it's rural

Transportation: car needed

Clinical Rotations: Vidant Medical Center

Positive Impressions: Small class size with a level 1 trauma center. Even though it is rural, you will see everything at the hospital. Extremely friendly atmosphere, if you love primary care and are an NC resident, a very good choice

Negative Impressions: Graded curriculum (A/B/C etc),

and the rural setting may turn people off. However, about an hour and a half from Raleigh, so access to bigger cities with a drive. Has research opportunities, but is very much primary care focused. Maybe not for those with other interests. They do fine in the match but they are lackluster compared to Duke, Wake, and UNC

 

[TheDataKing]

Mayo Clinic Alix School of Medicine - Arizona Campus
Location: Scottsdale, AZ ( not to far from Phoenix )

Cost of Living: Tuition is expensive but typically students receive some assistance. Scottsdale is alright when it comes to COL

Transportation: You will need a car since Scottsdale is basically a suburb of Phoenix. Also, Mayo-AZ has a strong relationship with Arizona State and they provide free Lyft rides (at certain times) to the campus (great if you want to meet up with students there and have a good time at the bars there)

Clinical Rotations: Mayo Hospital and Phoenix Children's Hospital (Mayo only does adult medicine)

Positive Impressions:
- The Mayo Way/ Culture: Putting the patient first in whatever they do is first and foremost.
- Clinicians teach everything and are invested in you (no PhDs)
- Small class
- Easy to get in contact with a physician and work with them
- Almost everyone is published by the time they graduate
- Selectives throughout the year
- Warm weather
- Strong clinical departments
- Close to Phoenix, which is one of the fastest growing cities in USA

Negative Impression:
- Required attendance for lectures. It is done because clinicians teach everything, it would be kind of rude for students not to show up since they are volunteering to take time of from clinic and teach. (Still annoying, could do anki cards through the lecture)
- Scottsdale is boring
- Mayo wear (Professional dressing, suit and tie for men) can suck but to be fair its not as extreme as people make it out to be. You only wear it when you are seeing patients. (so in clinic or patient comes in class)

- Clinicals might not always be the best teachers and a PhD could be better

 

[TheDataKing]

Tufts
Location: Boston, Busy city

Cost of Living: Expensive

Transportation: No car is needed, and you can use public transit

Clinical Rotations: Tufts Medical Center is main place you will rotate in. It is also connected to the medical school

Positive Impressions:
- Faculty was nice!
- Boston is a great place to live

Negative Impression:
- I tried to ask a student if there’s anything they would change or didn’t like about the school and they said “Let me get back to you on that”. No school is perfect and not knowing what needs to be changed sounds out of touch to me. Every student at every school I asked would answer that question
- The fin aid process is kind of invasive and long. I don’t know why I need to send my parents mortgage statement to them????? No other school has asked for me to send a copy of this. At most just whatever is in CSS profile
- Boston is expensive
- Out of all the Boston medical schools I feel like Tufts is the bottom rung school in the area

 

[TheDataKing]

University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine
Location: Pittsburgh, PA
Cost of Living: very reasonable

Transportation: Having a car is preferable. Even though there are apartments close to the medical school and Pittsburgh has above average public transportation, having a car would make recreational activities and travel outside the city feasible.

Clinical Rotations: UPMC system, mostly at its Oakland/Shadyside hospitals, with the furthest removed site being UPMC Children’s in Lawrenceville (~10 minute drive from Oakland)

Positive Impressions: Pitt is both an epic research powerhouse which is perennially 4-6th in NIH funding, while UPMC is a clinical hegemony that will be adding to its already massive network with 3 new specialty hospitals worth $2 billion in the next 2-4 years. The scope/size of Pitt/UPMC permeates the whole place and is truly awe-inspiring. The opportunities are unlimited and the school places a ton of emphasis on research. The training prowess and reputation is clearly reflected in Pitt’s incredible match lists. The students definitely seemed more interesting and diverse in regards to age/background (not necessarily ethnicity, but that didn’t bother me) than those at some of the other “top 20” schools I managed to interview with. Pittsburgh is also cool place with an “up and coming” feel and the medical school is ideally situated within the city. The gym is awesome and literally in front of the med school. UPMC Children’s is gorgeous and the Wiser simulation center was the best I have seen on the trail. Pitt Med Magazine is super dope too.

Negative Impressions: Even though there’s a ton of construction/renovation going on that will likely change this in the future, parts of the school definitely seem a bit dated. The curriculum is fairly traditional with a 2-yr preclinical, though this may change soon from what I have heard. However, the biggest “negative” impression Pitt made was that they collectively seem to have this weird imposter syndrome where they feel the need to really emphasize and drive home how accomplished and prestigious and highly ranked they are – all this was simultaneously subtle and not subtle and I think I know why. Still, all very minor. Awesome program.

 

[TheDataKing]

University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine
Location: Pittsburgh, PA

Cost of Living: Tuition is not that bad compared to other private institutions. COL is cheap

Transportation: You wont really need a car. It is a luxury if you do get one

Clinical Rotations: UPMC health system

Positive Impressions:
- UPMC has one of the strongest and vast systems in the area, basically UPMC is the system
- Pittsburgh is a low COL city with a decent nightlife
- Pitt has strong and unique departments (emergency ped, transplant)
- Strong in research
- Strong research programs (prematriculation research program, 1 year of clinical research after 3rd year)

Negative Impression:
- Still on a 2+2 program when they should have a condensed preclinical and have 6-12 month protected research time built in especially for a research heavy school
.

 

[openstage]

Has anybody reading this thread visited Penn State? Love to your thoughts here.

 

[mushu22]

School name: Wayne State
Positive Impressions:
Downtown Detroit is beautiful and underrated
Negative Impression:
First of all, they had the audacity to serve sandwiches with COLESLAW in them for lunch.


Second of all, our interviews ended 1 hr 30 min later than the scheduled end time. No apologies and thankfully I didnt have a flight to catch, but I would've been pissed if that were the case.


Third of all, I did not learn a single thing about the school. I learned about the city of Detroit and I learned about some of the things that med students do, but I learned absolutely nothing about the curriculum, rotations, or anything of that nature. Also the tour was just a bunch of hallways.


And last but not least, the only interaction we had with someone from admissions (besides the interview) was at the very end of the day for about 5 minutes. The medical students who led us throughout the day were nice, but it was extremely unorganized, and the dude from admissions gave a quick 5 minute shpeal. That was it. Just never seen such a hands off admissions committee.

@hailbate when did you interview? Because I SWEAR this was my interview day experience I interviewed 12/9/2019. I couldn’t believe how over time we were for the interview - I had to skip the Detroit bus tour or else I would’ve missed my flight.

 

[hailbate]

@hailbate when did you interview? Because I SWEAR this was my interview day experience I interviewed 12/9/2019. I couldn’t believe how over time we were for the interview - I had to skip the Detroit bus tour or else I would’ve missed my flight.

Oh boy, I interviewed back in mid-September. This has been a consistent theme among people I have talked to who have interviewed here across multiple dates.

Thankfully, the people I know who go there have had an overall positive experience, and have said that the interview day shouldn't reflect the school itself, but yeah it's hard to just ignore it.

 

[TheDataKing]

Stanford Medical School
Location: Palo Alto itself is fine— it’s mainly made up of Stanford’s campus which is HUGE. There's a ton of food on campus and there’s downtown Palo Alto which is cute (has bars, restaurants, etc.). It seems like a lot of rich people live in Palo Alto (though there are underserved neighborhoods of Palo Alto— East Palo Alto). It’s not far from SF and people sometimes go there on the weekends. The weather is great (for the most part- less variable than SF), it’s near mountains and Lake Tahoe and the beach, etc. California is awesome!!

Cost of Living: expensive!! There is graduate housing (apartments), but they are still quite expensive and they are far away.

Transportation: Everyone seems to have a bike— Stanford’s campus is really spread out and huge and it would take forever to walk everywhere.

Clinical Rotations: Stanford hospital, VA, Kaiser, County hospital, Children’s hospital. Don’t know much more because this was not a focus of the interview day. Just opened a new hospital which is really beautiful.

Positive Impressions: Big emphasis on MD being your baseline goal— what *else* are you going to do? (get a PhD? Masters? Start a company? Make an app? Get a JD??). Awesome research opportunities, cool elective opportunities (that are during lunch/are night classes so you can take them— Abraham Verghese teaches one that is super popular). It’s hard to get a good sense of a school when it’s an MMI, but they did a good job with having informative sessions. People talked a lot about the feeling of being a student there and asking yourself “wow how the heck did i get to be a stanford med student,” which made me feel like I’d be struggling w imposter syndrome every day there :’). Students did send out a super supportive email before your interview day about how you deserve this opportunity, etc. which was a nice touch. The campus is beautiful!! Also lunch was pretty yummy.

Negative Impression: It seemed if you didn’t want to do something else (in addition to your MD) you’d be in the minority. The current students said that the running Stanford Med joke is “if you don’t have a PhD, you want one.” Clinical training seems relatively weak (though the first years had just gotten to campus when I interviewed, so maybe they just didn’t know). TAs seem to be really involved in your education (they do everything outside of lectures— office hours, review sessions, labs). This MMI was my most stressful, probably. The “traditional” interview portion of the MMI was like rapid-fire Q&A and some of the questions I was asked were the hardest I encountered on the interview trail. The MMI process was not as intuitive as it was at other schools and i felt there was no reason the interview day had to start at 7:45 am.

 

[TheDataKing]

University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine
Location: Pittsburgh is described as a “big city with small city vibes.” Given the number of universities all sharing the same space, you have everything you need within walking-ish distance (restaurants, bars, stores, etc.). There are a lot of cute neighborhoods. It’s about 5 hours driving to Philadelphia, 6-7 hours to Chicago. Pittsburgh is hilly and rainy.

Cost of Living: reasonable, many people get apartments on their own but they have subsidized university apartments too (though these actually seem to be more expensive because they’re closer to campus/more recently renovated)

Transportation: Probably need a car for clinical rotations

Clinical Rotations: Main rotations are on the campus or near campus, but there are some flagship campuses. UPMC is really massive (25 hospitals, 500+ outpatient clinics) and the big ones are right on campus.

Positive Impressions: Lots of ‘mini electives’ in really cool topics that you can take MS1 and 2 (~35 classes offered at any given time) and people usually take 2-3. Pitt does a lot of small group/problem-based learning sessions. Research is a big emphasis and they have a lot of ‘speed dating’ and ‘mixers’ to find your mentors. Lots of mentorship, including advisory groups across all 4 years (“FAST” group— faculty and students together). People were pretty chill and joking around a lot with interviewees (talking about getting drunk on the weekends).


Negative Impression: 2 year preclinical, the campus feels small (right near the undergrad, it felt like there was no need/the mindset was that you didn’t need to explore/go off campus because everything is there). Although school had *just* started when I interviewed, not many students made an effort to come by and chat with us. My faculty interviewer put a lot of words in my mouth and I left the interview feeling like she knew nothing about my actual interests.

 

[TheDataKing]

Penn State University College of Medicine
Location: Middle of nowhere, central Pennsylvania Hershey (Derry Township) known for the chocolate it makes and the amusement park.

Cost of Living: Cheap/Medium depending on on campus/off campus. Private university so tuition expensive at 51k, were generous with scholarships it seems.

Transportation: Some med students said they didn’t have cars but I felt I would 100% need a car, the nearest town is a 15 min drive away, if you live off campus you definitely need one, or if you want to do something for fun in Philly/NYC.

Clinical Rotations: Hershey Medical Center which is attached to the school, and some other associated outpatient clinics and rotation sites, max 30 min drive.

Positive Impressions:
- Students seemed genuinely happy.
- Student hosts seemed really nice, and were honest about the school.
- The atmosphere is apparently very collaborative and chill, students didn’t seem very stressed.
- preclinical 1.5 years, Step 1 after M3
- humanities course longitudinal

Negative Impression:
- The location is a huge negative, considering its in the middle of nowhere and not much fun stuff to do apart from breweries and the amusement park. Yes hiking is fun but not a great social scene apart from that. If that is your scene you will enjoy it.
- Diversity in the community and patient population is very little.
- Tests are essay type which the students definitely were not a fan of, at least the ones I talked to. Step 1 and 2 are pretty close and I don’t know how I feel about that since more stress on Step 2 now.
- very long post II wait for decision (10-12 weeks avg, some more than that)

 

[TheDataKing]

VCU School of Medicine
Location: Richmond, VA

Cost of Living: Expensive for OOS @90k tuition ( 1 bed/ 1 bath @1200)

Transportation: No car is needed, and you can use public transit, parking is extra everywhere in the city, students live walking distance from school and it’s literally 10 mins

Clinical Rotations: Medical College of Virginia Hospital which is a huge hospital, and the VA which is about 25 mins away if I’m not wrong.

Positive Impressions:
- Had the best feeling after the interview and really wanted to attend. (I will attend)
- Facilities are really great, it library for just medical students, has a chic fil a on campus, campus is in downtown Richmond so lots of food in the walking distance as well.
- Richmond is the capital of VA and the school is literally a 5 min walk from the state capital building, lots of opportunity for health advocacy.
-Pt population is diverse, lots of opportunities to serve the underserved.
- Students were really happy as well.
- Lots of research opportunities and close to DC for opportunities in the summer as well.
- Great climate

Negative Impression:
- Class size -180, although split up in 4. Perhaps a problem if looking for opportunities.

 

[Cheezin]

This is super helpful, bless you

 

[Ms. Incognito]

Great posts thus far. Anything from Vermont?

 

[TheDataKing]

Quinnipiac
Location: the school itself is waaaaay suburban, not much around, but most students live in new haven and new haven seems kind of fun! Def not big city living but cute in a small city way.

Cost of Living: seems comparable to other smaller cities, not too pricey

Transportation: you 100% need a car

Clinical Rotations: no associated hospital, primary clinical partner is St Vincent in Bridgeport, but you may also rotate at St Francis in Hartford or Connecticut Children’s in Hartford

Positive Impressions: this was the absolutely nicest/most pleasant interview day I had. Every administrator/faculty member/student was so welcoming and warm, and it felt really genuine. Even the fellow interviewers were nicer than anywhere else I’d II’ed at - the girl sitting next to me had her dad to drive me 45 mins to the airport at the end of the day! I think a ‘warm and welcoming’ environment is something they really prize and put emphasis on.

Negative Impression: I didn’t have any negative impressions during the interview day, but the lack of teaching hospital and the relative newness of the school give me pause.

 

[TheDataKing]

Maryland
Location: Its.... Baltimore. Some good, some bad, definitely city living

Cost of Living: depends greatly on the neighborhood, if you feel comfortable living in some rougher parts of town it could be pretty cheap

Transportation: you don’t absolutely need a car, but there are rotation options outside of Baltimore so you might want one for that

Clinical Rotations: the medical school is right in the middle of the VA hospital, shock trauma, and the university of Maryland medical center - all seem like really excellent places to rotate at.

Positive Impressions: The dean of admissions was really great, and every faculty member and student I spoke to emphasized all of the great research opportunities here.

Negative Impression: come prepared to play hide and seek with your interviewer... they give you a map at the beginning of the day and then send you off to find him/her.

They gave me a map to the VA emergency room and not my interviewer’s office, so I had to spend time talking to ER nurses and eventually sitting in the ER waiting room while the nursing staff paged my interviewer... yikes!

 

[TheDataKing]

USC Keck
Location: Located in Los Angeles, which will give you access to everything a big city can offer. Its a couple of miles away from DTLA and other parts of the city with a lot of activities and nightlife, which in LA can be a nightmare with its infamous traffic. The immediate area around the Health Sciences campus doesn't have much to do or see, you have to drive out to experience things. Located in the not so nice part of LA, but it has that wonderful SoCal weather.

Cost of Living: Pricey, its LA. Expect to pay ~$1k+ for a single bedroom, and this can go higher depending on where you're looking to live. Heard a lot of students choose to live in Currie Hall, but many also live in the 626, Pasadena, and off-campus apartments in the area.

Transportation: A car is necessary or expect to pay to Uber/Lyft everywhere. Some make do without one.

Positive Impressions: Really chill vibes from the students and faculty. Dean Arias is amazing, she gives you this nice chat before you meet your first interviewer that really sets the tone for the day. You get the impression that you're there to help underserved people that really need it + a research focus. LAC+USC looks like a really robust system, and Keck has two other hospitals (Norris and Keck) literally a 5-minute walk from the medical school.

Negative Impressions: Area isn't great, and students didn't seem as tight-knit as at other places I interviewed at (class size of 180). Crazy expensive tuition (65k/yr).

 

[FatherTime-PhD]

USC Keck
Location: Located in Los Angeles, which will give you access to everything a big city can offer. Its a couple of miles away from DTLA and other parts of the city with a lot of activities and nightlife, which in LA can be a nightmare with its infamous traffic. The immediate area around the Health Sciences campus doesn't have much to do or see, you have to drive out to experience things. Located in the not so nice part of LA, but it has that wonderful SoCal weather.

Cost of Living: Pricey, its LA. Expect to pay ~$1k+ for a single bedroom, and this can go higher depending on where you're looking to live. Heard a lot of students choose to live in Currie Hall, but many also live in the 626, Pasadena, and off-campus apartments in the area.

Transportation: A car is necessary or expect to pay to Uber/Lyft everywhere. Some make do without one.

Positive Impressions: Really chill vibes from the students and faculty. Dean Arias is amazing, she gives you this nice chat before you meet your first interviewer that really sets the tone for the day. You get the impression that you're there to help underserved people that really need it + a research focus. LAC+USC looks like a really robust system, and Keck has two other hospitals (Norris and Keck) literally a 5-minute walk from the medical school.
View attachment 301256

Negative Impressions: Area isn't great, and students didn't seem as tight-knit as at other places I interviewed at (class size of 180). Crazy expensive tuition (65k/yr).

Just to add-

Positive impression: for me, I felt the students were very tight-knit. I heard the social chair (or whatever it’s called) does a great job putting together events and social for students (especially after exams). Everyone seemed super friendly on my interview day and passionate about why they loved their school. Some students even talked about how they went on a cruise together. Additionally (this depends on the type of student you are), but I really liked how they just have one exam at the end of each block (and a midterm that is either graded or ungraded depending on the block). I think this allows for a lot of flexibility in studying ... but requires a lot of accountability to stay on track. They also have a “dead week” before the final exam, which I don’t remember the exactly what it was, but vaguely recall it being a couple of days off before your exam to get some extra studying in? Someone can correct me on that. Also, for future students who are looking at this, I had heard that Keck is looking to shorten their preclinical period to 18 months. It was originally rumored to start for my class, so I’d imagine it’ll definitely in place for the next class (‘25), especially in light of the P/F step 1 news. I will re-echo that Dean Arias appears to be awesome and really cared for the students. And the clinical experience you would get at Keck from Keck Hospital to LAC to Children’s is as good as any top school in the country.

negative impressions: COA is ridiculous, and I don’t think Keck is known for giving good, if any, need-based aid. It would’ve been an outright commitment for me had it not been for the dreadful though of 95k debt every year (~380k not considering interest when I graduate). They do give out some merit scholarships, but I don’t think they give out a lot, and they’re definitely competitive.

 

[TheDataKing]

Loyola Stritch
Location: Maywood, IL (12 ish miles from downtown chi-town) - you can drive downtown in 15-30 min depending on traffic but it's in the suburbs

Cost of living: reasonable if you stay near Loyola in the suburbs and more expensive if you venture closer to downtown Chicago

Transportation: car is needed

Clinical Rotations: Cook County Health System Edward Hines Jr. VA Hospital Gottlieb Memorial John J. Madden Mental Health Center La Rabida Children's Hospital Loyola University Medical Center - really good rotation sites

Positive Impressions:
Fantastic facilities, genuinely happy students, genuinely supportive faculty and admin, and a brand new research building. They have a 2 year preclinical curriculum right now but are supposedly transitioning to 18 months for the class of 2025. Chicago is awesome and while Loyola isn't downtown, I'm not bummed because I have the ability to drive downtown or take the train. They use prosections for cadavers which I love - I'm not trying to spend 3-4 hours cutting thru connective tissue and accidentally destroying the area of interest.

Grading is P/F preclinical but internally ranked (not great)


Negative Impressions: I'm not a fan of the 2 year preclinical curriculum when so many other schools have transitioned to 18 months or 1 year. Hopefully they shorten this for the next incoming class. The relative distance to downtown Chicago could be a downside if you don't have a car. They currently have a lack of research which is problematic but with the new research building opening, this may change. It's expensive but pretty much on par with other private schools.

 

[TheDataKing]

University of Virginia (UVA)
Location: Charlottesville, VA, in a college town in a rural area haha

Cost of Living: Out of state tuition is kind of high but I received a need-based scholarship even though parent income is middle class. COL is low

Transportation: You need a car, but you can get around campus by foot

Clinical Rotations: You have the UVA system in Charlottesville, or you can rotate in Inova Fairfax. Inova is in the metro DC area so its more metropolitan than Charlottesville

Positive Impressions:
• Curriculum is very deliberate in design
• 1.5 year preclinical
• Med school connected to medical center
• Unique dual degree programs that are really good (MD/MBA is good here, MD/JD, Law in UVA is elite, Cool new MD/MS in data science)

• The ability to go to Inova and experience a more metropolitan feel
• Decent amount of diversity.
• Flexible testing (quizzes and test on computer anytime between Friday and Sunday)
• Good food from the dining hall when we went there

Negative Impression:
• Charlottesville is a college town that revolves around sports (sports are cool but that’s like the only thing exciting besides drinking at bars)
• Outside of Charlottesville is rather rural

 

[TheDataKing]

Miami Miller
Location: Miami, FL - awesome location

Positive Impressions: Miamiiii. Love it or hate it, the city of Miami itself is an international hub for food, arts, nightlife, beach, and a wide variety of exciting opportunities. Miami is one of the most thrilling and unique cities in the U.S and it's definitely a great opportunity to be able to experience it for 4 years. Serving as one of the largest international ports in the U.S due to its close proximity of South America, you will have both incredible clinical and lifestyle opportunities in South Florida. Jackson Memorial is well known and due to the large ethnic population there is tons and tons of diverse patient populations and experiences available.

The NextGen program that UMiami is switching up for the incoming class is also very convenient now with Step 1 being P/F as this virtually reduces the preclinical curriculum to 1 year to further maximize the clinical exposure you will receive. I also really like the symptom based curriculum they are implementing as I find it more accessible and relevant to clinical encounters. With a wide variety of opportunities in research, clinical experiences, international programs, and the mammoth that is Jackson itself, Miami is no question the clinical heavy hitter of Florida. One look at their match list will be all you need to further confirm this.

Negative Impressions: . On the staff side of things, rude security on interview day and inaccessibility to contact the adcoms through phone topped the list before II even started. As for the interviews themselves, coming in 15 minutes late, forgetting my interview packet, answering your telephone twice throughout the interview, insulting my choice of LORs, making me recall EXACT DATES for Freshman year ECs, making rude comments about my grades, and asking GOTCHA questions that would easily be answered by actually reading my packet are NOT ways to make me feel comfortable and excited about attending your program. For the record, I've been stress interviewed before and this was not a case of that. I spoke with at least 5 other individuals who had similar experiences, and this has not been the first time where I have heard anecdotes like this from UMiami. While I understand that I should not judge a program based on certain individuals, having had multiple rude interactions with staff and faculty members is definitely a glaring issue .

In regards to clinical experiences, diversity, location, and match list, I definitely think UMiami edges out an advantage on UF but you cannot go wrong attending either, and I think the choice generally comes down to the type of environment you are looking for (citylife vs collegetown) and overall COA for the next couple of years.

 

[TheDataKing]

UFlorida
Location: Gainesville, FL - not ideal

Cost of Living: not that bad

Transportation: you need a car

Positive Impressions: Hands down had to be one of my favorite interviews both in state and out. The school makes a sincere effort to get you know and you will immediately pick up on this as you enter the building. One of the staff members held the door open for me and said, "Hey ___!" and I had to look behind me REAL QUICK thinking they were talking to someone else. NOPE! The staff had memorized the name and home town of all the interviewees the day of, and its small details like this that really made me feel right at home and comfortable throughout the day. Interviewers were carefully selected to be of similar background as the interviewee; I had a medical student interview with exact same specialty/research interests and a faculty interviewer from the same city of my birth country! All the medical students clapped for us during lunch and sat down to talk with us; it truly felt close knit and homey. Much love for my Gators I give them a 10/10 for interview day hospitality !

UF is objectively one of the two powerhouse schools in Florida for both research and prestige alongside UMiami. You can virtually find research in any specialty of interest with faculty that are eager to teach and see students succeed. There is a great opportunity for clinical exposure in Shands although you might find it to be a bit lacking in patient diversity due to population make-up of North Florida (students do rotations in Jacksonville for a bit for this reason).

Negative Impressions: The big fat con for this school would have to be: GAINESVILLE. If you live in Florida you should know by now that the state is divided into South Florida, Orlando, and everything past Orlando. Gainesville is in the middle of swamp land with very little to do in terms of food, nightlife, and after-school activities. While UF has a very solid match list, I found that it was a bit subpar compared to the prestige people would normally hold UF to in the state of Florida, and especially due to the fact that most of the students that were matching were matching right back at UF; there is NOTHING you could do to convince me to stay in Gainesville for that long.

 

[TheDataKing]

UCF
Location: Orlando, FL
COL: moderate/lower
Transportation: car needed

Positive Impressions: In a sharp contrast with other schools in this list, UCF hands down had the most transparent and accessible staff out of all the schools I've been in contact with. Always answering phone calls, quick email responses, transparency throughout the process ranging from telling you the exact decision date and actually calling you to tell you the decision and where you are ranked in the waitlist; UCF showed much LUV and APPRECIATION for their interviewers and I give them A+ for that. Apart from the traffic, Orlando is a great city if you still want a low-key type of enviorment while still having access to fun nightlife, food, and a variety of other activites. Disney and the theme parks are also a plus if that's your thing!

UCF has a unique and innovative idea with their concept of the medical city in Lake Nona and they pride themselves on being one of the schools in Florida that truly allow you to become the physician you want to be; this is reflected in their match list as they are definitely hitting above their weight class and prestige in Florida relative to how new of a program they are (the 5/6 derm matches back to back ain't no GAME). With their teaching hospital opening M2 year for incoming M1s, you can definitely not go wrong with UCF in terms of overall COA, location, and the ability to craft your medical school experience based on how

Negative Impressions: Graded preclinicals are a bit of a bummer, but the biggest con for me is that the school has taken some questionable actions over the past few years, the biggest is partnering with for-profit HCA to build their teaching hospital and losing out on 40% of their overall rotations due to losing AdventHealth and OrlandoHealth; the two health systems that were with them from the inception of the schools program.

Florida medical school loses 40% of student training sites after partnering with HCA : Third-year medical students at Orlando-based University of Central Florida can no longer complete clerkships at the region's two largest health systems, according to the Orlando Sentinel.

There have been mixed reviews about the quality of HCA rotations compared to the other two systems but again this might be a game of he said she said rather than a concrete con.

 

[TheDataKing]

Albany
Location: Albany, NY - large city but not a ton to do, close-ish to skiing if you care about that. COLD

Cost of Living: reasonably cheap but tuition is $$ (though fairly typical for a private school)

Transportation: You need a car

Clinical Rotations: Albany Medical Center + Albany VA Statton Medical Center, Memorial Hospital, St. Peter's Hospital, Glenns Falls Hospital, Mary Imogene Bassett Hospital, Samaritan Hospital,Saratoga Hospital, CDPC

Positive Impressions: really emphasized student wellness, they offer unlimited free counseling to all students, all M1s get brand new tablets, exams are taken on the computer on student's own time, test questions come from old Step 1 exams to provide exposure to those types of questions, strong match rates, lectures are recorded and posted online

Negative Impressions: cost, not that much to do in Albany; traditional two year preclinical curriculum. They're currently graded EH, E, G, M, U (Excellent with Honors, Excellent, Good, Marginal, Unsatisfactory) for pre-clincial years and I'm not sure if this is changing but this is a poorly veiled ABCDF grading scale. Students are ranked but this isn't shared outside of the school (not in the MSPE? would be a pro potentially). Numerous students I've spoken with haven't been thrilled with Albany and ended up here because it was their only choice and they say "it's what you make of it." They are not known to be generous with aid

 

[openstage]

Really love reading these -it's particularly interesting for schools you applied to and did not get an invite to. Thanks TheDataKing!

 

[TheDataKing]

University of Vermont
Location: Burlington, VT. I did not have a chance to see much of the city, but I understand that it has a reputation for being a regional cultural hub. Lots of access to nature, from lake activities, to hiking trails, to skiing slopes.

Cost of Living: Fairly cheap, but more expensive than you would expect a small city in Vermont to be.

Transportation: You need a car

Clinical Rotations: Some people do them all in Burlington, some go to another campus in Connecticut.

Positive Impressions: VERY GOOD VIBES.

The school building itself, from what I saw, is fairly new (last decade or two) and is really well kept. Perhaps I didn't get the full feel of the campus, but I was surprised and impressed by their facilities. Much better than the other public schools I interviewed at. The admissions office is likely one of the nicest in the country, and they always connected me to a kind person every time. On interview day, this was no different. Food was excellent, MMIs were appropriate, and the other interview day activities, such as the team exercise and the interview feedback with admissions dean was unique and great. I get the sense that the students are really quite happy and that they are getting a top notch experience. Very communal feel and I don't get the sense that students are feeling the stress of a hyper-competitive atmosphere.

Negative Impressions:
I don't really have much bad to say in terms of impressions. It gets really cold in VT and the roads get snowy, so for people who aren't used to it or like to be outside in decent weather, you wont have as much opportunity in VT as you might in most other schools. Relatively non-diverse patient population, and I also got that same sense from the student body.

 

[TheDataKing]

Oregon
Location: Portland - urban (although coasts are 1 to 2 hours away); super close to downtown and the TRAM is cool which brings you from the top of Marquam Hill (OHSU hospitals) to the medical school in the Robertson Life Sciences Building / South Waterfront campus - vice versa. There's a bridge that only OHSU employee/students can use so that's kinda cool i guess?

Cost of Living: downtown is expensive , especially the Pearl district (can go up to 1.8-2k for singles I heard if you want to live close to med school). They have an option to live with 10+ others in the "coop" for about 250-400 dollars /month up the Marquam Hill campus. CO-OP on the hill | Located in the scenic Pacific Northwest OHSU is a half-public/private school so tuition is not as cheap as other state schools (tuition: 45k IS, 70k OOS)

Transportation: TriMet, our public transportation (Bus, train) runs well although I don't really take these (lived in suburban); traffic is becoming worse and worse in Portland, no surprise, lol, welcome to a city. Be prepared to drive just like other urban schools, though for the first year living close to medical school should be pretty convenient.

Clinical Rotations: OHSU/VA/Kaiser/St. V's/Emmanuel/Legacy/Unity (almost all in downtown); rural track for other areas of Oregon is available. If interested, apply to the Scholars for a Healthy Oregon Initiative. Apply ASAP. Full tuition, choose any specialty, work for 5 years in (rural) Oregon, urban if you go primary care. diverse population just like the west coast cities, increasing homeless population too

Positive Impressions: Very pretty campus and people were generally super nice. If you like outdoors, Oregon is known to have the best hiking trails. If you like skiing, the Hood is about 2 hour 30 mins drive from Portland. Artsy, cute, musical city. also good marijuana chains apparently? I don't smoke but Portland is known for weed lol. West coast matching? kinda? West-coast matching is apparently a thing and OHSU seems to match 62% (39% outside oregon, 23% oregon (including OHSU))

Negative Impressions: I've been hearing that both UW/OHSU are struggling with administrative issues/malignant residencies, being worked too hard, lackluster PDs etc. Take it with a grain of salt bc so far this happens almost EVERYWHERE in some department. Match list is decent unless you wanna go T10s then kudos to you; don't come here. Also if you don't approve of NDs you won't like it here bc OHSU employs them. Cool, hippy antivacc ppl all around. Come here esp if you wanna do fam/rural med. Their program i heard is great. I only lived in Oregon and even then not in downtown Portland, so I have lots to discover myself.

 

[jellibean]

Anyone have input on Ohio University Heritage College of Osteopathic Medicine?

 

[TheDataKing]

Anyone have input on Ohio University Heritage College of Osteopathic Medicine?

I'd ask in the pre-DO forum tbh. This thread is dedicated to MD schools at the moment

 

[jellibean]

Oh! Thank you!

 

[Sosaveli]

Anyone have input on Ohio University Heritage College of Osteopathic Medicine?

Didn't apply DO but I know a few people from undergrad that went there. It avoids many of the disadvantages of other DO schools due to the fact it's associated with a public state university, so there are more research opportunities available etc. I can't speak to student life or the area since I didn't apply, interview or attend the school, but I know Ohio University is considered a party school FWIW.

 

[TheDataKing]

Rutgers NJMS
Location: Newark, NJ

Cost of living: pretty cheap.

Transportation: Need a car

Clinical Rotations: University Hospital, VA-East Orange, Morristown, UMC Mountainside, Newark Beth Israel, St. Barnabas, St. Joseph's and many others

Positive Impressions: Strong focus on underserved areas … so clinical experience is probably pretty good. Close to the city, so good for social purposes.

Negative Impressions:Lol this place sucked. My least favorite interview out of all of them. My interview day wasn’t even an interview day. I had one interview with a faculty member who literally talked the entire hour lol. Which is good I guess, but he made the interview bad because he asked for what other schools I had interviewed at and what ones I had upcoming … I tried to side step it but he basically demanded names and then wrote them down. Also, he literally was like, if you want to do research, don’t come here … LOL. I guess NJMS doesn’t have a good reputation for research, so I guess I appreciated the transparency. Lastly, I had scheduled a student interview, but the student had an exam … so understandable. What was NOT understandable, however, is letting me know 15 minutes AFTER my interview was supposed to start, leaving me sitting there twiddling my thumbs waiting for someone that was never going to show up. The facilities were OLD and boring. The library reminded me of my middle school library. The interview day food also sucked and the students were not passionate about their school.

 

[TheDataKing]

Medical College of Wisconsin
Location: Milwaukee, WI (have two other campuses: Central Wisconsin/Green Bay … more of a primary care/rural area focus I believe)

Cost of living: I believe you can find some pretty cheap spots if you don’t live in downtown Milwaukee. My host was paying less then $500 IIRC for a pretty spacious 2 bed/1 bath place. There are students that do live downtown by all the bars and everything, but I still think it was relatively cheap with regards to what you were getting

Transportation: You will need a car.

Clinical Rotations: Froedtert/MCW …. don’t know of others lol.

Positive Impressions: PANERA was served for lunch - yum!

On a more serious note, one of the interviews days I enjoyed a lot. Students seemed to be super nice and not stressed out at all. The facilities were very nice and modern, which I’m a big fan of. Research seems to be pretty important here, and there’s no undergraduate schools around … so plenty of opportunities to get involved and no worries about competition from people outside of the school. There's also the Scholarly Pathways that are required for students at all of MCW's campuses where you choose one of 8 different areas of interest and design and work on a project. IIRC, buildings are all connected, so in the winter, you don’t have to worry about entering and exiting from the cold several times. Students also seemed to have a lot of time for extracurriculars and interests, and student wellness seemed to pretty important to the school.

Negative Impressions: Milwaukee is great, but it’s no CHI/LA/NYC/BOSTON. Also, it’s going to get cold here … so keep that in mind. Public transportation isn’t that great … hence the need for a car.

 

[jellibean]

Thanks Sosaveli!

 

[TheDataKing]

Rutgers RWJMS
Location: New Brunswick, NJ

Cost of living: affordable

Transportation: Will need a car

Clinical Rotations:

Positive Impressions: Really enjoyed my interview day here. Students were super friendly and passionate about their school. And there seems to be a strong sense of camaraderie amongst students. RWJ seems to have a strong emphasis on global health as well (the have one full COA scholarship called the Chancellor’s Scholarship that is awarded to someone who can demonstrate something cool they’d want to implement that involves global health). They also matched surprisingly really well and, from the sounds of it, research opportunities are plentiful.
There also implementing some changes into the M3/M4 curriculum that will affect future classes starting with hours (main thing being that they will now have 2 week “intercessions” between clerkships … allowing the devotion of more time towards studying and scholarly work)

. That reminds me - there is distinction programs that allow you to work long-term on a scholarly project. Also, it’s close to NYC… have an abundance of things you can do there if you ever wanted a break from good ol’ new brunswick. Have the PACCE program (primary care focus program) … get to experience longitudinal care with patients.

Negative Impressions: Run-down facilities that didn’t impress me very much. No gym … gotta sign up for a membership at somewhere local.

 

[TheDataKing]

New York Medical College (NYMC):
Location: Valhalla, NY (about 45 mins to 1 hour from NYC by train)

Cost of Living: Average (around 800-1100)

Transportation: Car is semi-required

Clinical Rotations:Nearby hospitals in Westchester, VA hospitals and other hospitals including one that is around Harlem called NYC Health + Hospital (about 45 mins by train)

Positive Impressions: The campus is very nice and the students appear happy. They feel prepared for STEP and enjoy the clinical rotations. They focus on wellness and have many student-led initiatives. They have on-campus housing that is near where classes are held. Something that I enjoyed was seeing their "student area" where students from other schools, including the medical school, were hanging out so it's cool to see other students from the other schools. Another thing that stood out was that someone from the Latino Medical Student Association (LMSA) reached out to us to meet with us after the interview day.

Negative Impressions: The on-campus housing is okay and there is only one cafe option that closes semi-early so you would either have to cook something at home or order food for delivery. There are not many opportunities to do things in NYC, medical school related. The only opportunities are one volunteer opportunity at a health clinic in Harlem and doing a clinical rotation at NYC Health + Hospital. Another thing was that there were not that many opportunities to work with the underserved so it requires extensive research/reaching out.

 

[TheDataKing]

Hackensack Meridian School of Medicine
Location: Nutley, NJ

Cost of Living: *shrugs* I'm not sure lol. There is no "on campus" housing.

Transportation: Car is required.

Clinical Rotations: Basically the Hackensack Meridian Extensive Health Care Network lol

Positive Impressions:
I enjoyed the school experience! I have a few friends here and they all enjoy it. Their mission resonates with mine which focuses on the human dimension and being able to work with families in the community. The students also appear happy and felt comfortable being in a newer school. Something cool is that you can graduate in three years if you intend to do residency with the Hackensack Health Care System.

Negative Impressions:
Tuition is $$$

If you do not want to do residency within the Hackensack Health Care System, then you would have to pay tuition for the fourth year. The cool thing is that you can use that as your "elective year" and do anything you want to enhance your education (I.e. research, another degree, etc.). The surrounding area is mainly houses so not sure if there is a "city-like" common area where students go to hang out. The drive to NYC is about an hour and 15 minutes.

 

[Wolvvs]

TheDataKing, just want to thank you so much for being willing to pull all of this together, it must be a ton of work but it's really cool to have such a comprehensive compilation of impressions.

 

[openstage]

Better than what's on TV tonight...

 

[TheDataKing]

TheDataKing, just want to thank you so much for being willing to pull all of this together, it must be a ton of work but it's really cool to have such a comprehensive compilation of impressions.

You're welcome I thought it would be helpful going forward as people apply this coming year! It's always nice to have some recent feedback on schools and the emotes add some spice lol