Paging Baylor, WashU, UMich, Emory, UPitt and UPenn students

[HumbleMD]

Hi all,
So I've been accepted to all the schools above (but UPenn of course), and am trying to decide between the two. I went to UM undergrad so am leaning away from it, but would love to hear your opinions on why you may have chosen one school over any of the above (if your afraid of being negative, feel free to PM me).
Also, does anyone have any details on the second look weekends at these schools, as I'll definitely be relying on them to figure it out. Dates? Cost?
Thought I'd post it during break when y'all have some free time. Thanks .

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[OncoCaP]

Hi all,
So I've been accepted to all the schools above (but UPenn of course), and am trying to decide between the two. I went to UM undergrad so am leaning away from it, but would love to hear your opinions on why you may have chosen one school over any of the above (if your afraid of being negative, feel free to PM me).
Also, does anyone have any details on the second look weekends at these schools, as I'll definitely be relying on them to figure it out. Dates? Cost?
Thought I'd post it during break when y'all have some free time. Thanks .

Hi HumbleMD,

I don't think Baylor has a 2nd look weekend.

I'm an entering medical student, just like you; however, I've already made up my mind; I plan to go to Baylor. I'm adaptable and felt like I could have enjoyed any of the schools I interviewed at. UM was one of the schools I considered (I did not interview there) but ruled out due to cost/value relative to Baylor. I ranked Baylor as my first choice for a variety of reasons, including location (Houston Medical Center), proximity to MD Anderson (where I might like to wind up), student body (social fun smart caring people), curriculum, research opps, nice suburbs to raise family, relatively low tuition/fees/cost-of-living (I'm a Texas resident), and residency opps in same city in the future. I was accepted at Baylor at the earliest Texas date, and so I was done.

Once you have high-ranked options, I get the impression that choosing a medical school is a very personal decision ... not something anyone can do for you ... not something that someone else can try out for you. One thing I've been told over and over again, if you go to an excellent school (as all of your choices are) it really comes down to you learning what you need to learn and making the most of the opportunities. In other words, you get out of it what you put into it. The rest of it is more or less personal preferences stuff ... do you like hot or cold weather? Do you have a curriculum or research preference, etc.?

 

[Guile]

(Houston Medical Center)

Just FYI, not trying to be a tool, but it's Texas Medical Center--largest in the world.

 

[MadameLULU]

Baylor has a 2nd look but not everyone is invited. I think they give preference to out of state students who are wavering between schools.

Honestly, you can't go wrong with any of those schools. I almost went to UM and I think in some respects Baylor and Michigan are similar in terms of having progressive curriculums. Anyhow, you need to decide what is important to you and compare the schools on those aspects. Good luck.

 

[Bubblehead-to-MD]

HumbleMD:

After your not-so-impressive interview day experience, are you still giving serious consideration to Pitt?

 

[Keg]

Wash U pays a majority of your food and they pay for your lodging - transport is up to you. It'll be in early April sometime (as of right now, it's scheduled for April 14 or so).

 

[SteveUTexas]

Last year Baylor's 2nd look was only for minorities. The year that I was accepted I asked the admissions office about 2nd look and they told me that they did not feel that it was cost effective to invite Texas residents back (someone actually did the calculations). It is nice though that they pay $300 for those that are invited back to cover travel expenses, it might be more now.

If I had to choose over again I would probably have applied to UPenn and go there if I had been accepted. The reason for this is not so much the medical school but rather the business school that they are associated with. Wharton is a much better school than Rice is in terms of business education.

I like Baylor and very happy here.

 

[MadameLULU]

Last year Baylor's 2nd look was only for minorities. The year that I was accepted I asked the admissions office about 2nd look and they told me that they did not feel that it was cost effective to invite Texas residents back (someone actually did the calculations). It is nice though that they pay $300 for those that are invited back to cover travel expenses, it might be more now.

Not true. There were 2nd look weekends last year, and one of those was for out-of-state students.

 

[HumbleMD]

I think that UPenn may be at the top of the heap, but I know I'd be happy at any of the schools I've listed. A big part I think will be financial aid if anyone offers anything substantial (but not holding my breath).
I haven't ruled out UPitt, but I'm still getting over the less than stellar impression I had of the school. As I said, a good financial aid package could certainly sway me that way (but it's not looking likely as I have no interest in research for a fifth year).
For the Baylor students (I am out of state, btw), I couldn't remember if there was an option for an MD/MPH with Rice. If so, does anyone have any experience with it? I used to think that Baylor was my first choice until interviewing at UPenn (great school, and a pass/fail first year to boot). As far as perhaps getting invited to the 2nd look weekend, who should I contact to let know that I'm quite on the fence? Thanks all.

 

[OncoCaP]

I think that UPenn may be at the top of the heap, but I know I'd be happy at any of the schools I've listed. A big part I think will be financial aid if anyone offers anything substantial (but not holding my breath).
I haven't ruled out UPitt, but I'm still getting over the less than stellar impression I had of the school. As I said, a good financial aid package could certainly sway me that way (but it's not looking likely as I have no interest in research for a fifth year).
For the Baylor students (I am out of state, btw), I couldn't remember if there was an option for an MD/MPH with Rice. If so, does anyone have any experience with it? I used to think that Baylor was my first choice until interviewing at UPenn (great school, and a pass/fail first year to boot). As far as perhaps getting invited to the 2nd look weekend, who should I contact to let know that I'm quite on the fence? Thanks all.

Hi HumbleMD,

MD/MPH isn't one of Baylor's "catalog" degrees (it is not advertised in their brochure). UT Houston offers a Masters of Public Health if you're interested, and my guess is that you could make it work out if you planned carefully, applied to the MPH program and was admitted, etc. Here is the web address for the UT MPH program: http://www.sph.uth.tmc.edu/content.asp?id=77 (if this link takes you to the wrong place or doesn't work, do a google search on "School of Public Health Houston Texas"). Oh, and I don't think that Rice has a school of public health.

My guess is that you would contact the admissions office and/or Dean at Baylor about the second look program. You might ask them about whether any of their students have done the MD with MPH at UTH (perhaps they could give you the name of a student who is doing / has done that who you could talk to). In any case, you probably would want to communicate with them anyway. Explain your situation and they might just invite you for second look and explain the financial aid & scholarship situation.

You have wonderful options. Seems like it would be very hard to go wrong in your position.

 

[generic]

Onco is on target, as usual.

Rice does not have a SPH (or a Law school, for that matter). And yes, the business school is ranked 44th or something. Ah well.

UT-H does have a very good SPH.

I went to a meeting of a student organization where I was basically told, "if you want an MPH, you can definitely get it from UT-H SPH." They said they would work with students on an individualized basis to fit the 1.5 year curriculum or whatever in with our need. I think there was some possibility of getting both MD and MPH in 5 years (especially since most BCM students seem to take ~5 mos. off at the end of their time here anyway).

 

[QuantumMechanic]

UPenn (great school, and a pass/fail first year to boot).

p/f at UPenn is only for the first module which is just the first semester...not the entire first year unfortunately.

I'm in a somewhat similar situation (no word from Baylor post-interview yet though ) and I understand how difficult of a decision it is. Penn and Baylor are both amazing, Baylor's goal is to be a top 5 school in the near future and with the building of their new private hospital along with their incredible endowment (>1 billion dollars!), it is obvious that Baylor is going to be on equal footing with the WashUs and Penn's of the med school world soon if you don't consider Baylor to be that good at this point already.

 

[romeno]

hey, I'm actually a third year at Penn.

I personally went to a few second look weekends, and looking back in retrospect, there was very little that I got out of them in deciding what school to attend. At second look weekends, schools tend to overemphasize little points that make them unique, including classes in humanism, differences in curriculi, etc.

My advice is to decide on schools more based on what makes you happy: tuition (ie did a school offer you a scholarship vs one that did not), city vs suburban (Philly is very different than Ann Arbor), current students experiences, and somewhere in that, include the rank of the school because some argue that it is involved in attaining some of the more competitive specialties.

Let me know if I can answer any specific questions.

Hi all,
So I've been accepted to all the schools above (but UPenn of course), and am trying to decide between the two. I went to UM undergrad so am leaning away from it, but would love to hear your opinions on why you may have chosen one school over any of the above (if your afraid of being negative, feel free to PM me).
Also, does anyone have any details on the second look weekends at these schools, as I'll definitely be relying on them to figure it out. Dates? Cost?
Thought I'd post it during break when y'all have some free time. Thanks .