NYU vs. OHSU (OOS) vs. Penn

[Kai Fox]

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Hi All,
I was lucky enough to receive acceptances from 3 schools, but I only have ~a week to choose to avoid wasting money on multiple deposits. I really loved my experience on interview day at each school, but I'd love some input from current students from each to make my final decision..
I am from the west coast (OOS for all these schools) and eventually want to return to the west coast to practice. I'm not sure about specializing, but I do want to keep that door open. I would love to live in any of these cities.

Here are my current pro/cons:

NYU:
pros
- diverse student body & patient population
- sibling currently attending NYU for undergrad, will share living space
- ample research opportunities and specialties to rub elbows with
- clinical training
- lots of local/global community outreach opportunities
- students were saying some get jobs through alumni connections
cons
- less individual attention (but coming from a larger undergrad uni, not too concerned)
- ~$125K/yr cost of attendance

OHSU:
pros
- most beautiful facilities by far
- p/f grading w/ commendations (students don't seem to have any trouble specializing)
- ample research opportunities and specialties to rub elbows with
- clinical training
- 4th year community rotations
cons
- quarter system seems intense
- tiffs with admin over curriculum changes/mock boards seems to be an ongoing issue
- ~$110K/yr cost of attendance

PENN:
pros
- ~40% students get into specialties
- oral medicine oriented curriculum, seems very holistic which I appreciate
- newly renovated patient clinic and pennsmiles bus
- recently received grant to add more pediatric community outreach to D2 curriculum
- university housing available if needed
- D4 national/international externships (pretty cool, but basically shadowing)
cons
- ~$120K/yr cost of attendance
- from what students said on interview day, clinical training seems lacking compared to OHSU and NYU

 

[zriceman]

ohsu

 

[Kai Fox]

ohsu

Why do you think so?

 

[yaya97]

Hello! I interviewed at OHSU and Penn so I can share my thoughts with you. I ended up choosing Penn over OHSU. Although I was given a scholarship to Penn, I think I would have chosen it either ways. The commendations that OHSU students get, I was told during my interview at the school by some students, that they were very hard to get so it’s not as easy to stand out in a pack of all passes. The facilities were very beautiful, but some students complained to me about how the building really isn’t practical because they have all that walk space in the middle so students don’t really have where to study if they want to study at school. The lack of diversity there was another thing that got me but Overall it was a great interview experience and I have very little bad things to say about it (except from what was already shared...which aren’t really that bad). As for Penn (where I decided I’ll be attending), I reached out to some D4’s and asked them some questions about what they hated and what I kept on getting was that they wish they knew that there’d be so much construction when they first started but that will all be gone when we would start. For you, it’d only be about an hour away to go see your sister. The prices are pretty exaggerated that they give us for room and board so I feel like the price ends up evening out with OHSU here. The place that I found at Penn is about 500/month and it’s about a minute from the dental school so it’s super safe. One thing I’ve seen people on here do is call schools and see if they have any scholarships and explain the whole that you’re interested in them but you also go in somewhere cheaper to see if they’ll give you a scholarship or not.

Besides all that I’ve said, I’m all about going to the cheapest school. Do all the math and see which would really be the cheapest for you to attend overall and let that be a good 75% on your decision making.

 

[Kai Fox]

Hello! I interviewed at OHSU and Penn so I can share my thoughts with you. I ended up choosing Penn over OHSU. Although I was given a scholarship to Penn, I think I would have chosen it either ways. The commendations that OHSU students get, I was told during my interview at the school by some students, that they were very hard to get so it’s not as easy to stand out in a pack of all passes. The facilities were very beautiful, but some students complained to me about how the building really isn’t practical because they have all that walk space in the middle so students don’t really have where to study if they want to study at school. The lack of diversity there was another thing that got me but Overall it was a great interview experience and I have very little bad things to say about it (except from what was already shared...which aren’t really that bad). As for Penn (where I decided I’ll be attending), I reached out to some D4’s and asked them some questions about what they hated and what I kept on getting was that they wish they knew that there’d be so much construction when they first started but that will all be gone when we would start. For you, it’d only be about an hour away to go see your sister. The prices are pretty exaggerated that they give us for room and board so I feel like the price ends up evening out with OHSU here. The place that I found at Penn is about 500/month and it’s about a minute from the dental school so it’s super safe. One thing I’ve seen people on here do is call schools and see if they have any scholarships and explain the whole that you’re interested in them but you also go in somewhere cheaper to see if they’ll give you a scholarship or not.

Besides all that I’ve said, I’m all about going to the cheapest school. Do all the math and see which would really be the cheapest for you to attend overall and let that be a good 75% on your decision making.

Congrats and thank you for your advice!! I'm definitely going to start looking into housing options to calculate a more accurate COA. I absolutely loved Penn. The only thing that really got me was the clinical training aspect, but hopefully that will change with the new clinic.