PlayfulT-Rex
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- Feb 23, 2024
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I appreciate any insights or opinions on what you would do in my shoes, I’m completely torn between these two great schools!
Things about me:
Pros:
Pros:
Things about me:
- I’m from the D.C. area
- I’ll be fully covering the cost of medical school on my own through loans and whatever aid I receive (have not received offers yet)
- I’m currently interested in some of the more competitive specialties such as ortho, IR, anesthesiology, ENT, but am still keeping options open
- The most important factor for me is being able to successfully match into one of these specialties (ideally east coast but not a requirement), but not far behind are cost of attendance and proximity to significant other (also lives in D.C. and cannot move due to his job) and family
Pros:
- Cheaper (COA: ~93k if living on campus, ~100k if living off campus)
- Much closer to support system, only a 2 hour drive
- Strong match list in competitive specialties (many of which are on the east coast which is a pro)
- School seems to have strong research opportunities across many specialties
- P/F Preclinicals. Honors/Pass/Fail Clerkships. No internal ranking.
- Super cheap to live on campus
- While there is nothing in Hershey, they’re in the middle of many cities (DC, Baltimore, Philly, NY)
- Students do seem happy and have minimal complaints (besides location, they were very open about disliking Hershey)
- Being in Hershey is a big con for me, I think I would prefer being in a city with an abundance of things to do (how much does this really matter while being busy in school?)
- Rural feel. Seems like hershey park carries the area and there is nothing else to do
- Little breaks within the curriculum (finish one block on a Friday and jump straight into the next on the following Monday)
- In-house exams, which includes free response questions
- Living situation seems meh. On-campus housing seems pretty depressing and price increases if you live off-campus
Pros:
- Located in a city - plenty of things to do
- Significant research opportunities built into the curriculum (very interested in scholarly concentration program)
- Ability to work with diverse population and be in an urban setting
- Living situation - ability to either live in Suburbs of Milwaukee or in the city, with plenty of options and nicer places to live
- Also strong match list in competitive specialties
- P/F Preclinicals. Honors/Pass/Fail Clerkships. No internal ranking.
- Spiral weeks between blocks, gives a week off lecture to recharge (still have some mandatory events but no exams)
- Milwaukee. While I do want to be in a city this is very far from my support system in D.C.
- Very cold. I love cool weather but I have never experienced weather like Wisconsin
- While the match list is strong, I wonder if my options to match back to the east coast will be limited in comparison with Penn State
- Not directly tied to an undergraduate institution. Not sure if this is a true con but it is a standalone med school
- In-house exams
- More expensive (COA: 107k)
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