Please help! UCF vs Carle Illinois vs UMN

[Bobo1234]

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I’m super grateful to have been accepted to multiple programs and to have amazing options! However, I’m now very conflicted. I feel like all 3 schools have something different to offer, and I just can’t decide. Any input would be greatly appreciated!

University of Central Florida

Pros:

• $12,000 a year in gift aid, renewal for all 4 years —> tuition + fees comes out to be about $45,000/yr
• Close to airport —> convenient to fly back home during holidays
• Good weather
• Decent Asian population in Orlando
• Administration is super responsive (I usually receive replies to my emails in less than 24hrs of sending them)
• Require research thesis
• Will be provided laptop and iPad upon matriculation
• Start late (August)
• Average class size (120 students)

Cons:

• Tuition is not fixed, but it hasn’t increased in the last several years
• Lack academic hospital
• May have to travel far away for clinical rotations (1-2 hours away)
• No nearby badminton facilities (the closest one is 30min car ride)
• Tolls everywhere (it seems like every major highway require tolls)
• Everything is spread out, and the public transportation system isn’t very good —> definitely need a car
• Opportunities to work on bioengineering projects are not as accessible, since the med school is pretty isolated from the undergrad campus
• Preclinical curriculum is A/B/C/F
• Clerkship starts Summer of year 3, no room for electives during year 3
• Expensive cost of living (1bed1bath averages around $1700/month)

Carle Illinois (UIUC)

Pros:

• Cold, but tolerable
• Huge badminton community at UIC (I’m an avid badminton player, so it’s an important activity for me to destress)
• Very light traffic since Champaign-Urbana is not highly populated
• Relatively large Asian population
• Good administration, admin staff seems to know all of their students at an individual level
• I love Carle’s engineering-based curriculum. I feel like it would really foster my sense of curiosity and desire to innovate solutions to healthcare challenges. The idea of being able to work with the school’s engineering students to produce a prototype by the end of my medical education sounds amazing
• Require research thesis
• Preclinical curriculum is P/F
• Clerkship starts very early (March of year 2) —> lots of room for electives during year 3
• Will be provided $10,000 “token” upon matriculation to work on a capstone innovation project. But all medical supplies will need to be purchased out-of-pocket
• Cheap cost of living (1bed1bath averages around $900/month)
• Small class size (60 students) —> higher resource to student ratio?

Cons:

• No gift aid —> tuition + fees is about $70,000 for the first year
• Tuition is not fixed
• Lack academic hospital, but has strong partnership with Carle Health
• May have to travel far away for clinical rotations (1-2 hours)
• Far from the cheaper airport (usually have to fly to Chicago O’Hare and then get to Champaign, which is 2 hours away by car). There is a local airport, but is significantly more expensive
• Car is needed since I may be assigned weekly clinics as far as an hour away
• Start early (June) —> will have to commit by May 15, which mean that I will no longer be able to be on a waitlist for a school in California (my home state)
• Small class size (60 students) —> may be harder for me to connect with other students if the class isn’t very diverse?

University of Minnesota - Twin Cities

Pros:

• One time $10,000 in need-based aid
• Fixed tuition
• Has academic hospital and is affiliated with many teaching hospitals nearby
• Opportunity to stay at one place for clinical rotations
• Close to airport —> convenient to fly back home during holidays
• There’s a decent badminton facility on campus, which is convenient when I want to play
• Good public transportation system. It is very possible to take the Metro or bus to campus at least for the first 2 years. This means that a car may not be needed for the first 2 years
• Has a good bioengineering department, I hope to gain exposure to some bioengineering projects as a med student
• Preclinical curriculum is P/F
• Will be provided stethoscope upon matriculation (I think?)
• Start late (August)
• Cheap cost of living (1bed1bath averages around $1000/month)

Cons:

• Need-based aid is not renewable. Will need to reapply every year, so no guarantee of receiving the same aid in the following years —> tuition + fees will be $63,000/yr without aid
• Very cold (Having lived in Southern CA for the majority of my life, I’m not sure how I’ll be able to adjust)
• Asian population is very small (I grew up in Southern California, so I’m not sure how affected I will be with the significantly less Asian population)
• Average administration, they try their best to be responsive but they sometimes take several days to respond to emails
• Does not require research thesis
• Clerkship starts Summer of year 3
• Huge class size (~230 students) - not sure if this is a good or bad thing, kinda reminds me of being in one of those huge 300 students lecture halls back in undergrad

Please let me know if any of the points above is inaccurate or if there is anything else I should consider in my decision-making process. Thanks so much!

 

[deleted1101558]

About UMN - is the Asian population really that small? I used to live around the area and iirc the Asian population was pretty decent. Things could've definitely changed between then and now though. Also, I was made aware that the 230 class size includes both the Duluth and TC campuses. The TC campus has roughly 170 students I think.

 

[Bobo1234]

About UMN - is the Asian population really that small? I used to live around the area and iirc the Asian population was pretty decent. Things could've definitely changed between then and now though. Also, I was made aware that the 230 class size includes both the Duluth and TC campuses. The TC campus has roughly 170 students I think.

I’ve talked to a few current students, and they all said that specifically the Eastern/Southeastern Asian population is small in Minnesota. But that may not be a huge deal, just something to get used to. Thanks for your helpful comment regarding the class size. I actually didn’t think about that.

 

[voxveritatisetlucis]

i would go minnesota or carle. UCF lost their rotations and now is affiliated with an HCA (for profit) hospital

 

[Putkernerinthehall]

I'd go to Minnesota. Well respected, long-established medical school.

 

[REL]

i would go minnesota or carle. UCF lost their rotations and now is affiliated with an HCA (for profit) hospital

Really? What is your source? They have clinical rotations at large VA and Nemours Peds in easily walkable distance from COM as well as fledgling UCF COM hospital across the parking lot. You will get vastly different clinical rotations in M3 year in different teaching hospitals. HCA clinicals within 30 mins, for other rotations over 50 miles the program pays for your travel and housing. Very strong match lists in competitive residencies. Orlando short on Asians, UCF is one of the largest universities in the nation with a very diverse of students. The only problem I see is badminton, tho our courtyard outside of the COM is used for sports.....get your classmates involved in it or, if tennis is a reasonable substitute (it isnt), the USTA national HQ is a very short drive away. As you said the airport is a short distance away for easy travel to multiple destinations for vacation or travel to residency interviews, etc.

 

[voxveritatisetlucis]

Really? What is your source? They have clinical rotations at large VA and Nemours Peds in easily walkable distance from COM as well as fledgling UCF COM hospital across the parking lot. You will get vastly different clinical rotations in M3 year in different teaching hospitals. HCA clinicals within 30 mins, for other rotations over 50 miles the program pays for your travel and housing. Very strong match lists in competitive residencies. Orlando short on Asians, UCF is one of the largest universities in the nation with a very diverse of students. The only problem I see is badminton, tho our courtyard outside of the COM is used for sports.....get your classmates involved in it or, if tennis is a reasonable substitute (it isnt), the USTA national HQ is a very short drive away. As you said the airport is a short distance away for easy travel to multiple destinations for vacation or travel to residency interviews, etc.

HCA is a for profit healthcare system. Plenty of people on this forum say that they’re bad places to train because they care more about the bottom line than training physicians.

This is why HCA EM and other residencies are not desired and tend to be a last resort

 

[REL]

HCA is a for profit healthcare system. Plenty of people on this forum say that they’re bad places to train because they care more about the bottom line than training physicians.

This is why HCA EM and other residencies are not desired and tend to be a last resort

Def aware that they are for-profit. While UCF students do some rotations at any of multiple HCA facilities they do just as much in other facilities and it keeps them nimble in learning different ways to do patient care. This seems to show well for UCF students in the Match as UCF, UM, and UF, are always vying for the top percentage of graduates in our state that end up in the most competitive specialties across the nation. One of UCF's previous partners was not a good place for our medical students to train and they are not great employers to physicians either.

Not sure that for-profit or non-profit is a good way to evaluate a program. At this stage you are looking for a good place to support you and provide you a strong education with the best outcomes possible. The LCME bird-dog's the clinical education sites very closely.

 

[REL]

IRT UCF "Cons" above:
- There are six Biolabs available for research in the Biomedical Education building that is adjacent to the COM building to include a Bionix Cluster. Some students choose to use these facilities for their M1/M2 FIRE project.
- The current curriculum implemented (1-2 years ago) allows for 2 electives during the M3 year as well as one 4wk block off....(ie. USMLE prep)..
- It is true that a single unit is now running at about $1800 mo, but double is about $2,400....I also see several opportunities for lesser cost options rooming in other nearby places with other med students for similar or lesser amounts on the FB pages.
- Also true is that there is a toll road that encircles Orlando and another that goes east-West through Orlando. There are many other non-toll roads that will get you to where you want to go that are efficient once you know the area.
- It is true that the M1/M2 grades are letter grades. It is also true that everyone in the class can get an A in each class if they do what they need to do to meet the requirements. If you meet/exceed the requirement for a grade you will get that grade. It is possible that a class will yield a very limited number of C's or possibly none at all. You basically get the grade that you work for and that is acceptable to you. This helps to foster a spirit of students working together to achieve rather than competition for "one of the few A's." Totally different grading concept. Residency directors seem to prefer ABC vs PF grades since STEP 1 is gone. In addition the Student Academic Support Services (SASS) Office provides student mentors for our students. Those mentors meet individually, in small groups, or even large groups (most of the large group sessions occur prior to major exams.......not sure why????? :>). I also believe that there are still voluntary end of week quizzes available that are on-line with immediate feedback on your correct/incorrect answers that help to direct your studies. All of these programs and resources, to include FIRE, are collectively helpful to UCF students to gain their residency positions, especially the most competitive ones.