North Dakota or Minnesota-Duluth?

[ruralminnedoctor]

Hello Everyone,

Long time reader, first time thread poster. I am fortunate enough to possibly have a choice of medical schools to attend in 2016. I have been accepted to Minnesota-Duluth and I have an interview at North Dakota. I have been trying to find websites that compare these two schools, but it is hard. I know UND is opening a brand new facility for next year, but Minnesota has a great program as well. Does anyone have any insights to which is the better program overall?

Thank you!

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[XactoPencilSharpener]

Are you a Minnesota or North Dakota resident?

 

[ruralminnedoctor]

Are you a Minnesota or North Dakota resident?

Minnesota resident

 

[ruralminnedoctor]

I've noticed people are voting in the poll, can anybody explain the reasoning why you are voting for that specific school?

 

[XactoPencilSharpener]

As far as personal life would go, Duluth is a larger city, with more to do. It's also only about two hours away from a major population center (Minneapolis/St.Paul). Additionally, Duluth has RPAP, and allows you to be exposed to rural care throughout your entire medical education, including after second year when you transfer to the twin cities.

 

[ruralminnedoctor]

As far as personal life would go, Duluth is a larger city, with more to do. It's also only about two hours away from a major population center (Minneapolis/St.Paul). Additionally, Duluth has RPAP, and allows you to be exposed to rural care throughout your entire medical education, including after second year when you transfer to the twin cities.

Those are great points, I definitely think Duluth would be better for lifestyle and rural family practice, but if I wanted to specialize do you think North Dakota would be better then?

 

[Taddy Mason]

Yes Duluth is nicer than GF (though unless you pick GF for 3rd and 4th year, you're only there for 2 years). Regarding being closer to the Minn/St. Paul - yeah it's nice, but consider how much free time you'll have and the fact that you'll primarily be living off of loans (I'm not saying there isn't time for fun in in med school, just really try and be realistic when considering those aspects). UND's mission is to push out primary care physicians, particularly ones who will serve rural communities. There are opportunities at UND to spend time with rural and primary care physicians during 1st and 2nd year that are very well received by those who participate in them. During 3rd year you can do ROME which entails spending a little over half of your rotations at rural sites. Those who choose the traditional 3rd year program at UND still have to spend at least 6 weeks rotating in rural communities. Also, there are plenty of rural electives during 4th year if that's really what you're interested in. A plus at UND is getting a lot of one on one time with attendings due to being a community program v. the typical hierarchical structure of attending, chief resident, junior resident, intern, 4th year, 3rd year. This allows for students to see and do a lot more at UND being there are "less hands in the pot", and you get to know your attending pretty well which = better/more personal LORs when applying for residency. A lot of UND grads have cited this as a big plus in preparing them for residency. A downside to UND is that if you're interested in research you'll likely have to work a bit harder to find solid opportunities. Its really not an issue if you're proactive about and don't just expect something to fall into your lap; plenty of students manage to line-up good research positions every year. Regarding specializing, it doesn't matter where you go. Again, despite what you may read on SDN, where you choose to attend will have little, if any, impact on being able to go into a particular specialty.

That said, I really like Duluth and GF does honestly suck (again you'll likely only be there for 2 years); it wouldn't be an easy decision for me. I'd still probably go with UND (I did pick UND over some other schools but U of M wasn't one of them), but mainly because I knew really well how 3rd and 4th year worked at UND going into the process, and I really preferred that over the traditional academic hierarchy at other schools for the reasons mentioned above. There isn't a wrong choice, go with what you feel will be the best fit for you as an individual.

Edit - also, don't forget which school has the better hockey team...

 

[Ad2b]

I voted UMD. Duluth is my hometown (not born there, grew up there; son was born there). UMD is far more personal of a choice, to me for reasons I won't say on a public forum (or in private on here either). Suffice to say, I am biased. UMTC is my alma mater. Mayo is "home" ... can't go wrong with any of the choices in MN.

That, and GF sucks. Seriously. Small town. Subzero weather for > 30 days a year; blowing wind chill; snow drifts; tumbleweed (seriously, it hurts); nothing to do.

Duluth. Larger city. Skiing (x-country, downhill), the LAKE!! omg, the lake. the people. sailing in the summer; Park Point; Grandma's Marathon! horses, rivers, hiking paths; even around UMD there are great hiking trails (Chester bowl area, Congdon Park), golfing ... and yes, it is closer to MSP (which is good for ... shopping, Vikings, Wild)...

 

[robin911]

I would look at ratings. If you go to UMD you have a good chance at doing rotations in the Twin Cities and across the state of MN. The U of M is a top fifteen primary care school and UND is unranked.

Although I am bias because I was accepted into the U of M - Twin Cities, I still think that UMD is the better option based on ranking.