Pitt vs. BU

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rsj05004

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Any thoughts or suggestions as to which one to choose and why? I feel like Pitt will better prepare me for the NBDE part I and also clinically, but BU is in Boston and much closer to home. Also Pitt tuition will be a little cheaper and cost of living in Pittsburgh will be cheaper. Any help is appreciated!!

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Well, being close to home is nice if you've got a significant other, and for me that'd probably be worth the extra expense... seeing as how we're going to be so in debt anyways, hehe. But I can say I definitely like Pitt - the city and the school. While it's not as bustling as some other cities might be, and I could probably count on my fingers how many amazing sites there are to see in Pittsburgh, the city just has a certain appeal to me, has a smaller town feel while still being a big city. Oh, and you can buy a 3 BR house for 85k, that's always nice too, haha. Yeah, for the price I pay in rent for my huge apartment I'd likely get something resembling a large walk in closet back home in the LA area.

Most of the faculty are really great people, the bench instructors for the most part are amazing from what I've experienced so far (1st year). Granted, a few of the basic science professors are researchers.... and that really shows through in their teaching ability. Luckily for you new folks, the class that this was the biggest issue with has been supposedly phased out for you - that's 6 units that we had to take in our first semester that you won't have to take. One of the great things about Pitt (which many other schools may have as well) is the sense of family that they really try to promote. Dr. Etzel, ,the dean of student services, is a really great guy who you can talk to about anything. When I was actually trying to decide between two school, Pitt and Columbia, I sent an email to Rose asking for any residency matching rates she might have, because I had the same info from Columbia, and Dr. Etzel just called me with the information (one of the primary points being that everyone who applied to Ortho last year from Pitt were accepted somewhere, which matched the claim from Columbia that impressed me so much), and talked to me for almost an hour about the school, and (while he forwarded this with the fact that he had an obvious bias) really helped me compare the schools. If you want, send him an email.

I've got a few other posts on the same topic if you want to get some more info, but if anything else, I'll say that I really don't regret turning down Columbia for Pitt.

Good luck, and go with your gut, I felt that was the best way to pick, haha.
 
Thanks VicViper for the info :thumbup:! Anybody else want to weigh in??
 
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