OUWB vs EVMS

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Hi all! I recently was accepted off the waitlist at OUWB (Oakland University William Beaumont), and also currently hold an acceptance at EVMS (Eastern Virginia). Perhaps I should have prepared earlier to make this decision, but I have to make one soon. I am pretty torn between the two schools, as they are similarly ranked, have similar tuitions, and I'll have to move across the country anyways. Any comments/thoughts from all of you would help! Please feel free to mention any pros/cons for each school if you are aware of any that I missed.

My long-term goals are to match back to CA for residency, although I have no idea what specialty I want to go into yet. I am interested in somewhat competitive specialties like anesthesiology or EM.

EVMS

Pros:
- community-focused, lot of opportunities to work with the surrounding diverse populations
- more established, in terms of reputation as well as in the community
- milder winters (due to proximity to the beach) better weather compared to Michigan
- Sentara and Children's Hospital right across the street
- new medical school building will be ready by fall
- step 1 scores are impressive, although may not matter much once it becomes p/f
- preclinical p/f
Cons:
- no affiliated university/ potentially less resources and opportunities
- match list shows more matches on the east coast and in specialties like IM or peds (personally I am leaning towards specialities like anesthesiology and trying to match back in CA)

OUWB

Pros:
- Beaumont Health System is fantastic, would give me great clinical exposure
- connected to undergraduate university, so maybe more resources and networking opportunities
- seems to care a lot about students and provide them resources (they really emphasized this on interview day)
- match list is more diverse in terms of more competitive specialties, and more matches back to CA
- cheaper cost of living, since it's in the suburbs
- free laptop lol
Cons:
- semi-mandatory attendance for high pass/honors (not true p/f like EVMS)
- relatively new medical school, not as established as EVMS
- harsh winters
- an hour away from Detroit and airport
- less diverse community, in a more affluent suburban area relative to city like Detroit --- personally would have a harder time adjusting to this

Students seemed happy at both schools on interview day. Hard to say where I'll end up enjoying my time at the most. Thanks in advance for making it through this post and for your help! I am definitely grateful to have to make a choice. But it's tough for an indecisive person like me.

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I'm also accepted to EVMS (PTE right now) and did not apply to OUWB.

I have analyzed EVMS match list (2020), but not OUWB. California is the 2nd highest match state for EVMS (tied with PA and behind VA) at ~8.4% of the class. Still small, but considering 51.6% are in-state students (the majority of which likely want to remain in the general area), I would say that is pretty good. Beaumont has slightly more in-state students with more California matches. I briefly looked at their Match List. It's nice having undergrad schools listed with match location for OUWB. I just searched for California and compared it to the match location. Most of the people that matched in Cali got their undergrad in Cali or a nearby state (I'm including Utah as nearby). I believe a similar phenomenon would be prevalent with EVMS. People often go OOS for med school only to return to where they want to be (or at least closer) for residency. That said, OUWB had 10 people match anesthesiology and 8 EM. EVMS had 4 and 21 respectively. Granted, just as the state of residency was self-selecting, so is the specialty. OUWB had no derm matches. Ortho and urology were pretty balanced between the 2.

That was a lot of rambling...

I'm not sure what added resources you are looking for with a connected University?

You make a point of a less diverse community at OUWB. Is there a specific segment of the community you want to work with?

Have you spent a significant amount of time living outside of California? Also, what part of Cali? Odds are EVMS would offer more similarities (beach, more moderate weather - though still colder than coastal CA).

OUWB is closer to a major city, so it comes with more things to do. Though Norfolk is still in a large metro area with lots to do.
 
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@rdyotz Congrats on your acceptance to EVMS! and wow thanks for sharing your thorough review of the match lists. I appreciate you taking the time to look that up. I agree and have heard from current OUWB students that a good proportion of their students are from CA and do end up matching back to the state. I guess my main concern is whether or not going to EVMS would limit my chances of matching back in more competitive programs, as CA is known to be highly impacted. However, I have heard from many others that it ultimately is possible no matter school you go to. So perhaps it is not as big of a deal.

I suppose being connected to an established university already gives the medical school groundwork to build on, and would grant more opportunities for networking with faculty and various departments. However, this isn't so much a huge factor in my decision. I have heard that this will not really matter as much. From what I've looked into, EVMS may have less research opportunities although I'm sure I will be able to find a lab I like at either school. I guess it comes down to: Would going to either school open more doors for me?

I went to undergrad in CA so I have not spent a sig amount of time outside of the state. I agree that I would probably find EVMS more suitable to my living preferences.
 
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