Need Help before tomorrow!!!: RWJMS vs. UCLA

[5218Leo]

MA resident, went to college In NYC
Interested in competitive speciality + want to match in NYC

RWJMS
pros

• cheaper by aprox. - 60-70k
• closer to home (5 hrs) and support system in NYC with S/O (1 hour)
• match list has good Northeast/NYC schools
• rlly flexible schedule, not much required stuff to go in for (more time for research?)

cons

• match rate went down to 93%....can someone tell me why? if it's because people don't take a research year, I'm planning to take a research year anyways
• H/HP/P/F clinical grading --> I've heard this is actually a good thing from some people tho...
• AOA

UCLA
pros

• better prestige
• loved loved the people. would definitely find a great community here, and it would be a new adventure
• v high match rate (98-99%)
• P/F clinical
• seems like I can easily match back to Northeast (and all at good schools)
• seems to give better opportunities to be involved in tech/business

cons

• expensive, LA COA is high, but also if UCLA affects my career long term then I'm ok with spending the extra money
• So far away from support system (10 hour commute) 🙁
  • I'm an only child, my parents are older, and I know no one in California
  • will have to rely only on med school friends for support; will be v hard for parents and S/O to visit often
• a lot of required stuff, need to be on campus M-Thurs

Overall, I know I can succeed at both school. RWJMS I'll be more supported and keep my NYC community. I'm curious as to how a more prestigious medical school could open opportunities to me in 10-20 years from now, and if it would be a disservice to myself to not choose it.

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[Iron Man23]

Tough choice. UCLA costs more and farther from home. I think you’d be happier at RWJMS and still would have enough opportunities

 

[DoneDone3451]

Rutgers because of cost and sounds like you would be happier there.

 

[xUnrevealed]

Rutgers seems like the better play here bc you're interested in NE/NYC residencies, but just to clarify, I I'm not 100% sure if the claim that there's a lot of required stuff (at least preclinical) is true for UCLA. I believe lectures are optional, and the only things that are required are the labs, doctoring sesh, and the weekly test assessments

 

[5218Leo]

Rutgers seems like the better play here bc you're interested in NE/NYC residencies, but just to clarify, I I'm not 100% sure if the claim that there's a lot of required stuff (at least preclinical) is true for UCLA. I believe lectures are optional, and the only things that are required are the labs, doctoring sesh, and the weekly test assessments

thank you! I totally might be wrong...I just remember seeing a sample student schedule and it seemed like they had to go into campus every day for something. But you are right, lectures are asynchronous!

 

[5218Leo]

Does anyone have pro or con UCLA thoughts? Financials matter, but willing to pay more if it it's worth it

 

[ConfusedPremed3000]

Does anyone have pro or con UCLA thoughts? Financials matter, but willing to pay more if it it's worth it

Ngl, I think paying $60-70k is 100% worth it to go to a better ranked school in UCLA; you can easily pay off that difference in a year of attending salary. The curriculum aspects, such as the P/F all the way through in pre-clinical and clinical with no AOA will make life so much easier so that you can focus more on research productivity and the dedicated time during Discovery year will help even more for your residency apps. The research funding and opportunities at UCLA are significantly better and the match list, while a bit self-selecting as people in Cali prefer to stay in cali, is pretty diverse and good. You will not be held back from going to the Northeast or Midwest or the South if you attend UCLA. Similarly, I think if you ever want to pivot to other aspects of medicine such as medtech, global health, healthcare economics, health policy, or anything academic, UCLA will give you more opportunities and a big leg up.

I personally withdrew from UCLA due to finances (though the school I picked would be nearly 300k cheaper and with interest, that's almost a 600k gamble), but I was tempted even til the last minute (and even now post withdrawal) to pay that extra price for UCLA due to the peers there, research availability, nice campus, curricular benefits with less stress, and just knowing I would get great clinical training via two T20 hospital systems in UCLA Health and Cedars-Sinai. There are rumors circulating around of UCLA's negatives (idk why premeds want to find ways to bash on schools and have personally seen folks on the WL talk abad bout the school) but I would try to ignore those as the admin has put in substantial effort and change to fix an issue that occurred 4 years ago when the 1 year preclinical was adopted.

Good luck on your decision!