Background:
-Thanks to outside scholarships and generous aid, cost is about the same at each school.
-I have lived in NYC my whole life and have been in New Haven the past few years doing research, so I am very familiar with both areas and what it’s like to live there.
-Fiance and dog coming along with me; dog is energetic and needs to be walked quite a bit (>5 miles throughout the day); not willing to abandon either.
Priorities:
-Housing options beyond on-campus options. Kind of done with student housing and with a pet, it’s generally not an option.
-Walkability around where most people live at night. I do not want to live far from everyone else to be able to walk my dog for an hour at night.
-Strong established URM community within the school and in the community the school serves.
-Ability to explore other specialties and interests easily; not sure on specialty but definitely not something like NSGY/surgery/etc.
-A tight-knit medical school community to build my support system.
Columbia:
Pro
-Washington Heights is definitely the more affordable NYC option.
-Strong Latino community within and outside of Columbia
-Relatively close to home (<30 minutes away)
-Small group learning
-It’s NYC! The variety of things the city has to offer is amazing. My fiance has never lived in NYC and she would probably really enjoy this!
-Kind of dumb, but it’s pretty close to Yankee Stadium and I love the Yankees
Con:
-Area around the Columbia bubble seems fine, but the bubble is quite small… Knowing the area, it can get quite loud in the summer. Cool culture but the catcalling that women face can be quite intimidating/demeaning.
-I have noticed on the IG stories most of the activities students enjoy doing are outside of the main campus, which is disappointing. I have only heard a few fun things people do on campus or near campus.
-Seems to rely on being able to take the subway everywhere to do anything fun. The 1 and A lines can be closed on the weekends, so I can imagine that might not be fun.
-Expensive! Even with cost of living covered, it’s just crazy how quickly things add up in NYC. A dinner for 2 can literally run $100.
-Far from the undergrad campus, where there tend to be a lot of cool study spots.
-P/F clinic; Students seems much more stressed than at other institutions and not as happy with grading; honors is capped.
Penn:
Pro:
-Strong sense from Penn Preview that people were passionate about the community work that Penn does.
-Strong URM community within and outside of Penn.
-Spitting distance from the rest of the campus for cool study spaces.
-Lots of great running spots around the Graduate Hospital area that do not
-Everything seems pretty walkable in Philly and the bus system seemed surprisingly robust.
-Close to Citizens Bank Park.
-Much more affordable cost of living but still has the perks of being in a big city.
-I love how close it is to real nature if you have a car.
Con:
- I do not feel like I know enough about Philly to make a good judgment about safety at night. Everyone I talked to seemed pretty happy in Philly, but I am worried about how sketchy some areas of Philly get.
- This might be the New Yorker in me, but can you get bored in Philly? It felt like it could be small.
- Not as close to home (still ~2hours driving, which is not terrible).
- P/F clinical; seemed to be uncapped and people felt they liked how it was graded.
NYU
Pro:
-Finish 1 year early
-Much nicer and more pedestrian area of NYC that is central to everything. Easy access to anything in the city.
-During my visit, the students seemed happy about their time at NYU and did not feel as stressed about the 3 year program.
-Extensive shadowing opportunities and resources to explore interests in pre-clincal year. Seems to be the most put together in helping students find shadowing opportunities, not that it would be much harder at the other institutions
-Opportunity to apply to guaranteed residency into NYU; even if I do not get in, it would mean less of my classmates are trying to match, which means less competition.
Con:
-I do not know if ‘saving a year’ is as good as it sounds. I am pushing myself through a year earlier for a year in my 40s or 50s; I am pushing residency 1 year closer and I wonder how much in the future I wish I could have taken it easier when I was younger.
-Student housing seems like it will not be possible. I can try getting my pet as an ESA, but I do not know how likely this is. Off-campus is prohibitively expensive.
-Unproved match list for the new track; with NYU not being as prestigious as the others, this seems like much more of a gamble.
-With 12 months of preclinicals, I worry the community will not be as tight-knit.
-NYU is literally doing second look this weekend… Seems disingenuous and like NYU is being a bit too full of itself.
-Not P/F clinicals and definitely not headed in that direction anytime soon.
Yale:
Pro:
-I like New Haven. The city is small but East Rock feels very safe and homey. You can literally walk for hours and feel pretty safe.
-True P/F preclinicals and clinicals.
-Fiance already has career established in academia but she is not attached to staying in her current role, but staying would be one less thing to stress about.
-Cost friendly.
-Great Latino community outside of Yale
-Probably the nicest and most diverse students I met of the schools I visited. Maybe I was just having a good day but everyone felt super friendly.
-Students really do live up to the ‘chill’ stereotype of being a Yale med student. This was also post-match, though, but I am sure being P/F helps. Students loved the curriculum and not needing to stress over shelf exams.
-Match list clearly not affected by move to P/F.
-Proximity to undergrad campus is nice.
Con:
-I feel I can thrive academically in the Yale system, but I worry about how cohesive a class can get when people can quite literally skip almost every group thing.
-Yale’s URM community seems lackluster. It was not as bad like at some other schools (cough cough Hopkins cough cough) but definitely noticeably smaller.
-Limited access to outpatient primary care, which might be an area of interest
-City I already know. Should I be trying to minimize new stress or trying to explore where I see myself living in the future by trying new cities?
-New Haven is still small, so community efforts are proportionally less numerous.
-Most students take a 5th year (>70%). I do not want to take one but I worry this will affect my ability to match well.
Reflections:
I guess my biggest tension point is in figuring out if being at a school that is P/F clincals actually matters to me. On the one hand, no stress would be good but on the other hand, having gotten into all of these schools, I feel like it’s not something I have to worry about as much. Sure, I may not get honors in every rotation but I feel like I am driven enough to at least pass my rotations. I just worry that the whole P/F clinicals means I need to take that 5th year to be competitive if I do choose to do something like urology or want to go to a great program in IM at Mass Gen or UCSF.
Would love any thoughts. Apologies for the length.
-Thanks to outside scholarships and generous aid, cost is about the same at each school.
-I have lived in NYC my whole life and have been in New Haven the past few years doing research, so I am very familiar with both areas and what it’s like to live there.
-Fiance and dog coming along with me; dog is energetic and needs to be walked quite a bit (>5 miles throughout the day); not willing to abandon either.
Priorities:
-Housing options beyond on-campus options. Kind of done with student housing and with a pet, it’s generally not an option.
-Walkability around where most people live at night. I do not want to live far from everyone else to be able to walk my dog for an hour at night.
-Strong established URM community within the school and in the community the school serves.
-Ability to explore other specialties and interests easily; not sure on specialty but definitely not something like NSGY/surgery/etc.
-A tight-knit medical school community to build my support system.
-Washington Heights is definitely the more affordable NYC option.
-Strong Latino community within and outside of Columbia
-Relatively close to home (<30 minutes away)
-Small group learning
-It’s NYC! The variety of things the city has to offer is amazing. My fiance has never lived in NYC and she would probably really enjoy this!
-Kind of dumb, but it’s pretty close to Yankee Stadium and I love the Yankees
Con:
-Area around the Columbia bubble seems fine, but the bubble is quite small… Knowing the area, it can get quite loud in the summer. Cool culture but the catcalling that women face can be quite intimidating/demeaning.
-I have noticed on the IG stories most of the activities students enjoy doing are outside of the main campus, which is disappointing. I have only heard a few fun things people do on campus or near campus.
-Seems to rely on being able to take the subway everywhere to do anything fun. The 1 and A lines can be closed on the weekends, so I can imagine that might not be fun.
-Expensive! Even with cost of living covered, it’s just crazy how quickly things add up in NYC. A dinner for 2 can literally run $100.
-Far from the undergrad campus, where there tend to be a lot of cool study spots.
-P/F clinic; Students seems much more stressed than at other institutions and not as happy with grading; honors is capped.
Penn:
Pro:
-Strong sense from Penn Preview that people were passionate about the community work that Penn does.
-Strong URM community within and outside of Penn.
-Spitting distance from the rest of the campus for cool study spaces.
-Lots of great running spots around the Graduate Hospital area that do not
-Everything seems pretty walkable in Philly and the bus system seemed surprisingly robust.
-Close to Citizens Bank Park.
-Much more affordable cost of living but still has the perks of being in a big city.
-I love how close it is to real nature if you have a car.
Con:
- I do not feel like I know enough about Philly to make a good judgment about safety at night. Everyone I talked to seemed pretty happy in Philly, but I am worried about how sketchy some areas of Philly get.
- This might be the New Yorker in me, but can you get bored in Philly? It felt like it could be small.
- Not as close to home (still ~2hours driving, which is not terrible).
- P/F clinical; seemed to be uncapped and people felt they liked how it was graded.
-Finish 1 year early
-Much nicer and more pedestrian area of NYC that is central to everything. Easy access to anything in the city.
-During my visit, the students seemed happy about their time at NYU and did not feel as stressed about the 3 year program.
-Extensive shadowing opportunities and resources to explore interests in pre-clincal year. Seems to be the most put together in helping students find shadowing opportunities, not that it would be much harder at the other institutions
-Opportunity to apply to guaranteed residency into NYU; even if I do not get in, it would mean less of my classmates are trying to match, which means less competition.
Con:
-I do not know if ‘saving a year’ is as good as it sounds. I am pushing myself through a year earlier for a year in my 40s or 50s; I am pushing residency 1 year closer and I wonder how much in the future I wish I could have taken it easier when I was younger.
-Student housing seems like it will not be possible. I can try getting my pet as an ESA, but I do not know how likely this is. Off-campus is prohibitively expensive.
-Unproved match list for the new track; with NYU not being as prestigious as the others, this seems like much more of a gamble.
-With 12 months of preclinicals, I worry the community will not be as tight-knit.
-NYU is literally doing second look this weekend… Seems disingenuous and like NYU is being a bit too full of itself.
-Not P/F clinicals and definitely not headed in that direction anytime soon.
Yale:
Pro:
-I like New Haven. The city is small but East Rock feels very safe and homey. You can literally walk for hours and feel pretty safe.
-True P/F preclinicals and clinicals.
-Fiance already has career established in academia but she is not attached to staying in her current role, but staying would be one less thing to stress about.
-Cost friendly.
-Great Latino community outside of Yale
-Probably the nicest and most diverse students I met of the schools I visited. Maybe I was just having a good day but everyone felt super friendly.
-Students really do live up to the ‘chill’ stereotype of being a Yale med student. This was also post-match, though, but I am sure being P/F helps. Students loved the curriculum and not needing to stress over shelf exams.
-Match list clearly not affected by move to P/F.
-Proximity to undergrad campus is nice.
Con:
-I feel I can thrive academically in the Yale system, but I worry about how cohesive a class can get when people can quite literally skip almost every group thing.
-Yale’s URM community seems lackluster. It was not as bad like at some other schools (cough cough Hopkins cough cough) but definitely noticeably smaller.
-Limited access to outpatient primary care, which might be an area of interest
-City I already know. Should I be trying to minimize new stress or trying to explore where I see myself living in the future by trying new cities?
-New Haven is still small, so community efforts are proportionally less numerous.
-Most students take a 5th year (>70%). I do not want to take one but I worry this will affect my ability to match well.
Reflections:
I guess my biggest tension point is in figuring out if being at a school that is P/F clincals actually matters to me. On the one hand, no stress would be good but on the other hand, having gotten into all of these schools, I feel like it’s not something I have to worry about as much. Sure, I may not get honors in every rotation but I feel like I am driven enough to at least pass my rotations. I just worry that the whole P/F clinicals means I need to take that 5th year to be competitive if I do choose to do something like urology or want to go to a great program in IM at Mass Gen or UCSF.
Would love any thoughts. Apologies for the length.
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