NYMC vs. Tufts: Advice and input will be appreciated!

[ckat]

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So, I'm trying to weigh these two schools. I would very much appreciate input and advice.

Here's my situation:
Accepted at NYMC, On Hold at Tufts.
Waitlisted SUNY SB, Waitlisted Columbia.

I have a gf of 5 years going to grad school next year. We are both from the NY area and would love to be there for the next part of our education/lives. We've been lucky to have been in the boston area together during college. she's been accepted to grad schools in both boston and ny, however she likes the ny one much much better and the ny school gives her many more options.

hopefully i will end up at stony brook or columbia, as i will definitely go to those schools... however, i can't decide b/w nymc and tufts.

looking at nymc's match list, they did pretty well this year and i liked the school's location and facilities.

tufts seemed like a nice school too, though i'm a little put off with their on hold game that they are playing.

I'm just trying to prepare myself for each possible scenario that may play out during this whole process.

thanks in advance!

 

[IntlMD07]

Ckat,

TUFTS is an amazing medical school. Their hospital is state of the art and receives patients from all over the world on a regular basis. My mother was treated for breast cancer there and received truly amazing care. On the other hand, NYMC has its first two years way upstate (if I am not mistaken) and its final 2 in NY city. It might be farther than Boston for the first couple of yrs.

Hang in there, things will work out.
-IntlMD07

 

[ckat]

thanks for the response intlmd!

nymc has its first two years in valhalla ny, which is only a 20-30 min drive into nyc. by commuter train it's 45 min. it's located in westchester county where everyone and their mother commutes into manhattan for work.

yeah, i know tufts is a good place, i'm just not sure how i will arrange things with my gf if i end up getting into tufts.

 

[carrigallen]

Since your dilemma is hypothetical (you haven't been accepted anywhere except NYMC), I think it may be a little bit soon to make any decisions...

Hopefully ~May 15 you will hear back from Tufts. NYMC is suburban, and Tufts is in a non-upscale area of Boston. The tuition prices are comparable, although I think that your NY state residency will assist your financial aid at NYMC.

I think if being with your s.o. and loved ones is important, then just stick with NYMC. If you are more interested in an urban environ or more famous school, maybe go with Tufts.

 

[merlin17]

Hi,

I don't know about the NY schools, but I know Tufts is extremely expensive. The money you might save could pay for a whole lot of commuter train fares from valhalla! Depending on what your financial aid packages look like, I wouldn't spend a whole lot more money to go to Tufts over NYMC.

And yes, the hold thing from tufts is really sort of stinky 🙂

Good luck!!!

 

[banannie]

chinatown bus between NYC and Boston now only costs $10 each way! only 3-4 hour trip! best of all, it departs 1 block away from the Tufts med campus!

if your girlfriend's going to school downtown in NYC, and you can study on a bus, it would be very feasible to live apart and see eachother almost every weekend.

but since you don't have the tufts acceptance yet, plan to go to NYMC and wait to see if tufts takes you off hold, then make a decision.

 

[ckat]

yeah, unfortunately, the both schools are about the same price, roughly 55k/year. as for ny state tuition assistance, i think ny only gives $500/year in assistance.

i know it's only hypothetical right now, but i need to think about it, as my gf has already placed $500 nonrefundable deposits at both schools and by june 1st needs to make another $1000 deposit at the boston school. basically she's down $500 already and can't afford to lose another $1000.

being in ny near my family and with my gf would be great, however, tufts is a reputable school, so i don't know if i'd be wasting an opportunity.

i know nymc matches well, but sometimes a name/connection helps a little bit.

i am also interested in staying in the ny area for residency, so i am thinknig that it might be easier if i went to nymc since my rotations would be in westchester and also in nyc. being at tufts wouldn't limit my chances of residency in ny, but then i'd have to think about away rotations etc.

as for doing a long distance thing b/w boston and ny, my gf and i have talked about that and definitely are very hesitant about doing a long distance thing. just not appealing at all. i know all about the fung wah and the $20 round trip. unfortunately it often takes longer than 3-4 hours due to traffic especially on weekends. i also have a friend who's in med school in nyc while her bf's in boston now and while they saw each other every weekend at first, it has since died down. traveling back and forth from boston-ny takes a lot of energy. for myself, i've driven down to ny 10 times this year for interviews and visits home and it's draining!

basically the only thing about tufts that is attracting me over nymc is the prestige. it really sux, cause if i go to tufts, my gf loses out, if i go to nymc, i feel like i would lose out.

 

[Izlude_Tingel]

Hi,

Last year I also had the opportunity to choose between Tufts and NYMC (some others as well), but I was caught in deciding between NY and Boston. I really liked NYMC, but I was not fond of the location and i am from NY, queens to be exact, so it was only 40 mins from my house. I am currently a first year at Tufts and I absolutely love it here. I love Boston and only a 3-4 hour drive by car to my house in NY, which I go to at least once a month.
I do agree that the relationship makes it difficult, but my question is why do you have to compromise, did she not also get accepted to a Boston school? In any case, the match list this year was good with good appointments for comp residencies. Honestly, I feel Tufts was significantly better in regards to location and curr that they offer. I don't think I would have been as happy if I went to NYMC. IMO, I think you should go where you feel happiest. It mat not agree with your sig other, not to sound cheesy, but if it is meant to be, it will work it self out. Good-luck. Email with any questions if you have any.

 

[Izlude_Tingel]

Sorry, I forgot to mention this as well. My dad is a physician at NY Eye and Ear, which is one of the specialty teaching hospital for NYMC, and I asked him to find out from the physicians that work with him, what they thought. They all pretty much thought I should choose Tufts over NYMC. While NYMC is good, they thought my opportunities would be better here. Of course if you get into Columbia, there is no question.

 

[karma4me]

sorry I can't give you any advice from personal experiences, but I did read a book that is very similar to your situation. "The Intern Blues" (forget the author) is a collection of the diary accounts of 4 interns in New York. One of the interns is from boston, has a girl friend in Boston, and is doing his residency in NYC. They are really positive about the commuting thing in the beginning of the year, and then it sorta starts to fall apart. The see each other about once a month towards the end, and he becomes increasingly more depressed. At the end of his internship, he decides to transfer to boston to finish up his residency. I know that his life does not equal your life, but it's something to think about if you're pretty serious with your significant other.

You should read the book, it's really awesome and insightful! Good luck with your decision! 🙂

 

[nuttymcpoonut]

While I'm not an expert on NYMC (I didn't apply last year), I did hear people at my Tufts interview asking Tufts students about it. The point that struck me the most is that they said people at NYMC that come from a prestigious undergrad are looked down upon by their classmates - like they are the stupid kids from Yale, Harvard (your school, ckat?), etc.

I don't really know if this is true, but I bring it up because it was an interesting point that I had never really considered before then. Are there any students at NYMC out there that can comment?

 

[irlandesa]

I'm a second year at Tufts and I'm very happy with most things here.. When I interviewed at NYMC and told people that I had an upcoming interview at Tufts, just about all the NYMC people told me to go to Tufts if I got in. I think Tufts is generally more laid-back and less competitive for the first 2 years, and while our board scores aren't as high as NYMC's, we have a respectable average just above the national average and a 96-98% pass rate for Step 1. Match list is also great, 14 people at Harvard affiliates this year and many UC matches (8 UCLA, 3 UCSF, several at Davis and Irvine and SD), plenty of strong NYC matches as well.. that being said, I think it would be wise to strongly consider NYMC if it would be an enormous sacrifice for your gf to live in Boston for another 4 years. LDR's are NOT fun in my experience. However, NYMC will not provide housing for both of you unless you get married before starting school, which might be a disadvantage. And if you end up in traditional campus housing and she has a shared apt in NYC, your privacy could go down the toilet pretty quickly.. just some things to think about. well good luck, and hope you get into Columbia or SB so you don't have to decide!

 

[ckat]

Thanks everyone for your input! 🙂

Yeah, this whole thing is very annoying.

So it seems that everyone is in agreement that Tufts is a "better" school than NYMC. No one's knocking NYMC, but Tufts' reputation is just better.

i'll address some things that people brought up:

nymc students looking down on people who come from ivy undergrads:
i certainly hope that is not the case.... i didn't get that feel when i got there, maybe it's only an isolated case or two.

housing at nymc:
yeah, their housing is very strict, ie married people's housing, not couples housing. if i were to go to nymc, i would live off campus near the metro north line so my gf could commute into nyc. her school does not have housing for students so they commute into manhatta. just about everyone living in westchester commutes to manhattan for work, so it would work.


Yeah, I'm just really not sure how well I could deal with a long distance relationship. I think I would end up very similar to the intern in that book that was mentioned.... I would be very very optimistic in the beginning but when work starts getting heavy, things might get rough. we did a long distance thing my freshman year of college and things were very rough, and i think my grades suffered. i really don't want a repeat of that.

another complication to this whole thing is parents. while they are very supportive of me overall, they are not going to be very supportive of me choosing a medical school based on location and b/c of my gf. so if i got into tufts, they would probably want me to go there.

i don't know, there are so many complicating factors... i guess what i'll have to do is hope that before june 1st, i can get off the waitlist at stony brook or columbia. i should hear from tufts soon, as they said people on hold should get a decision by may 15th.
if by june 1st i haven't heard anything from tufts and my other schools, i guess my gf will have to withdraw from the boston school as we can't afford another $1000. Then we'll have to wait and see what the summer movement's like.

do any of you have any other suggestions?

this whole process sux. 🙁

 

[TeinVII]

hey ckat,

did you apply to other suny schools like downstate and upstate? i think if you would rather stay in nyc closer to your gf, downstate is a better option than tufts. between tufts and nymc, tufts would be a better choice b/c their costs are comparable, but i think you should choose a suny school over tufts (assuming yer a ny resident) b/c tufts is a good school but it's not THAT good

 

[ckat]

hey tein. yeah, i applied to suny downstate and got my butt rejected. my advisor called and asked why and they just gave him a vague excuse about my science gpa etc.

i didn't apply to the 2 sunys in upstate.

yup, my plan is to go to stony brook over tufts if those are my options after the dice have stopped rolling. that particular situation is worked out, i'm just not sure about one possible scenario of nymc vs. tufts.

 

[gimleteyed]

I sure wish I had something helpful to add, but I thought I should mention that commuting to grad school in NYC from Westchester is a PAIN. If your girlfriend is in an easy program it might not be a problem (but if she were in an easy program, I'm betting she wouldn't care which school she went to), but otherwise I don't recommend it. Metro North trains (unlike the LIRR) stop running at 1:30am and don't start until 6:00am. Since most grad school classes are in the evening, that kind of kills any late nights at the library/lab. I've commuted to NYU, Columbia, and Cornell (Manhattan campus) from Fleetwood, and none have worked really well. (I still have bald spots from tearing my hair out at the first two....) I'll keep my fingers crossed for you for SB and Columbia!

 

[ckat]

hey gimlet. thanks for your info.

let me clarify a little. my gf is going to optometry school so classes will be during the day. the school is located 3 blocks from grand central station and about 10 blocks from penn station.

after speaking with current students (married, or with sig others) at nymc, they all have agreed that communting to nyc would be fine. the nymc housign office told me a few towns that have places to live within walkign distance of a train station accessible to manhattan.