Oakland Beaumont vs. Toledo

[gulogulo18]

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Hello all! I was recently accepted off the waitlist for Toledo and was hoping for some advice on whether or not I should end up switching my commitment. Any an all feedback is appreciated! Thank you everybody!

Oakland University William Beaumont
Pros:

• Closer to current home, so I know the area well and there are a lot of things I love doing in the area.
• New facilities!
• Great affiliated hospital system
• Suburban environment
• Good job market for fiancee
• Good residency match list for a new school
• Highly receptive to student feedback
• Non-traditional curriculum

Cons:

• More expensive
• Newer school, less of a reputation
• Might be harder to get competitive residencies

Toledo
Pros:

• In-state tuition is about $20,000 less per year
• More established program
• Receptive and supportive faculty
• Good match list, lots of places represented that I would love to go to
• New curriculum
• Closer to family

Cons:

• Location
• Don't really know too much about the job scene for fiancee
• Less research opportunities
• Less notable (at least IMO) affiliate hospital system
• Closer to family
• Don't know the program as well as OUWB

Summary: TBH I don't know as much about UT as I do OUWB, but any additional feedback that anyone can give would be greatly appreciated! I have a couple days to make my decision, and right now I am leaning towards sticking with OUWB, but am not opposed to switching if a strong case is made for Toledo. Thank you everyone!

 

[Inakidba]

Might be too late to matter, but it depends on whether you're willing to take the financial hit. 20k more a year is 80k after four years, and probably 100k+ COA difference after interest. These schools are pretty similar and I don't think one is superior to the other, so idk if that is worth it. Looked up Utoledo's match list and you definitely won't be limited specialty-wise there. But since your fiancee has better job prospects in the OUWB area , that sounds like it is a dealbreaker for you.

 

[MedicalWaste]

I just wanted to a take a quick second and comment on OUWB's "newness/lack of establishment" and the idea that Toledo (UT) has a superior match to OUWB.

While the fact exists that OUWB is only 7 years old, its relationships and matching data look more like an established school. I am a student at OUWB and also seriously considered UT when deciding on schools. Both are great schools, and I would have been happy to attend either. Please do not review this post as a bash on UT. If there are factors (including financials) driving you towards UT, please go there and make the best of your experience.

Now to address a few of the pro/cons above (which I often hear in various posts), I wanted to discuss OUWB's 2018 match (I believe reviewing 2016 and 2017 match data you'd see a similar trend) and compare it to an "established" school like UT.

I believe the below data demonstrates that OUWB is respected by residence programs and directors. OUWB is matching in competitive programs and competitive fields. The Beaumont brand has been around for so long and is well established, so I often describe our school as being half new (i.e., the first two years of biomedical sciences is new, but the 3rd and 4th year clinical teaching has been going on with students from UMich, Wayne State, and MichState (as well as visiting students) for decades).

The 2018 match data for UT and OUWB shows a higher match percentage for Beaumont in the following fields: Derm, Neuro Surg, Optho, ENT, Plastics, Rad (Diag), Interventional Radiology, Urology, Surgery (categorical), Surgery (preliminary), OBGYN, IM/Peds, Family, Neuro, and Transitional positions.

The data shows UT had the higher match percentage in Ortho, Thoracic Surgery, Anesthesiology, EM, Child Neurology, Rad Onc., IM (categorical), IM (preliminary), Path, Peds, PMR, Psych, Psych/Neuro.

A brief summary of the data is below (Yellow = UT; Blue = OUWB)

If you look at the actual percentages in the above table, you'll note that the matches for most of these fields are fairly close. My interpretation of the 2018 data does not show a UT advantage in matching to any "competitive field" (I'm ignoring cases in which UT matched 1 student and OUWB matched 0 such as in Thoracic Surgery). On the other hand, I believe OUWB is demonstrating an advantage in matching in both Urology (3 in a class of 100 at OUWB) and Ophthalmology (6 in a class of 100). Note, the high match percentages in Urology and Opthamology have become a trend at OUWB.

Additionally, OUWB students are matching at great programs in all regions of the country. 2018 grads matched at various programs, including: UChicago, NYU, Vanderbilt, Johns Hopkin, Yale, Cleveland Clinic, Mayo, Baylor, UNC, UMich, Northwestern (and various other big ten schools - Ohio State, Indiana, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Illinois) and UCSF, UCLA (and various other UC schools).

Based on OUWB's recent match success, I don't think that UT's match and age provide a significant advantage over OUWB or that OUWB is being viewed as a new school on which residency directors don't want to take a risk.

Once again, please don't read this as a knock on UT. Also, if you have any questions about OUWB that I can answer, please feel free to direct message me.