Thank you for every ones time considering my situation and providing comments and advice. I think at this point I am looking for subjective responses regarding peoples own experiences with different aspects of each school (or other schools if you feel they are applicable), more particularly their spouses and childrens experiences and experiences gaining educational opportunities from the surrounding communities that aren't directly provided by the school (e.g. research, elective residencies, etc.).
Ill lay out my positives and negatives here for anybody interested and to help me think this decision through. Be warned, I can be fairly wordy but hopefully this is informative. Also, this will include objective comments but also some subjective comments, particularly when discussing the location and how I felt visiting the schools. This is a personal write up but I wonder if it might help others in a similar situation to my own. If you notice anything that I have not considered or that is inaccurate please let me know.
School Focus:
Both schools primary missions are to create rural primary care physicians in their regions.
Financially:
After factoring in moving/travel and differences in living costs, CUSOM would be about 10,000 dollars cheaper over 4 years unless I get offered the 10,000 dollar a year scholarship which then makes that deficit much larger. This of course does not factor in tuition inflation so how accurate this ends up being is up for debate. PNWU tuition is 50,000 per year, CUSOM ends up being 44,100 per year between tuition and mandatory annual fees.
How established is the school:
PNWU - The school has been around since 2008 and has sent students to all different specialties and to highly ranked residencies (
http://www.pnwu.edu/files/6714/3897/7071/PNWU_Match_Results_2012-2015.pdf). Doctors in my area who have had PNWU students have in some specialties, family medicine and Physiatry, commented that they are more prepared than UW students for their rotation. In other specialties the typical comment is clinically they are equally and many times more prepared than UW students but UW students typically have a better base in their basic sciences. PNWU students typically have an above average first time COMLEX pass rate (
http://www.pnwu.edu/inside-pnwu/fast-facts/). The rotation sites in my hometown at least seem to be quite good. They don't have any affiliated residencies that I am aware of but that doesn't seem to limit the students.
CUSOM - The school will be graduating its first class in 2017 and those students are just experiencing the rotation sites for the first time. The school is not fully accredited but has done very well throughout the accreditation process. Per an SDN post (CUSOM 2015-2016 page 22) the 2017 class did fairly well on their first step of the boards. ("94.1% COMLEX pass rate. 7 people over 700, 23% above 600, 61% above 500. 100% USMLE pass rate. IIRC, ~1/3 of class took USMLE, but that may be a bit off"). I am not familiar with the rotation sites or how the students like their rotations as I have not discussed rotations with a primary source and they just now putting their first class through rotations. The school has multiple established affiliated residencies at this point and this is expected to continue to expand (
http://www.campbell.edu/cusom/academics/gme-program/residency-programs/).
Location:
PNWU - Yakima is a city of 90,000 people that is 3 hours from my hometown and provides familial and friend support to some degree for my wife and I, still 3 hours away. There are essentially 4 seasons. Close proximity to UW residency and rotation sites if those are places that I become interested in as future training sites. The only large medical schools in the region with teaching hospitals are OHSU and UW so without significant travel, rotations at larger hospitals are limited. Yakima is within 2 hours of some of the best hiking sites in Washington, good fishing and hunting, and good skiing but is a primarily orchard and winery town without much to do outside of outdoor activities. The closest bigger city is Seattle at 2 hours and Spokane at 3 hours. There are 2 reasonably sized hospitals in the area, my wife is an x-ray tech so this is important to us. Finally, one of their main rotation sites is in my hometown which is a pro and con. It is a pro because I could go back to Spokane after my second year, it is a con because I may have a hard time getting rotations outside of Spokane if Spokane is not my preferred rotation location. No intramural sports, campus activities, or other benefits that come with being connected to a college.
CUSOM - Buies Creek is a very very small college/farm town but 45 minutes from Raleigh, 500,000 people, and most students I spoke with live in Fuquay Varina which is about 20 minutes from the school and 20 minutes from Raleigh. Weather seems to be fairly mild during the winter and humid and warm during the summer (from what I have seen/read). The school is an hour and a half from the beach and 2 hours from the closest mountain that I am aware of. Duke Med and UNC are an hour away along with various other large hospitals in Raleigh (about 20 minutes from Fuquay = job opportunities for the x-ray tech in the family). You are also in relatively close proximity to some of the top schools and hospitals in the nation, within a 8 hour radius, so if you are willing to be proactive and persistent, traveling for rotations at top hospitals is fairly reasonable (I may be being a bit ambitious with that last statement but where there is a will there is a way). The research triangle is an hour away so there is a lot of top research occurring in the area (Once again, possibly ambitious but I think if approached right you can find opportunities). I have not been particularly drawn towards research up to this point but it's good to know the doors are there. The school is connected to a college so you get access to their resources and activities including the gym, intramural sports, and campus ministry opportunities (As a Christian this is a plus for me but may not be for others). Relative to Yakima, hiking and other outdoor activities are fairly limited (It sounds like there is a bit of a drive involved in going on big hikes).
Subjective (This is my own personal experience, everyone gets a different feel and experience from every school.):
PNWU: The faculty is amazing and the facilities were very up to date and comfortable. The faculty has helped me in every step of my medical school application process, even after not being offered an interview last year. I have visited multiple times and the students are wonderful but I have never connected with the students I have met quite as well as I have at other schools, this isn't a deciding factor, just something I noticed. My wife isn't super excited about living in Yakima other than being an hour and a half from Leavenworth (You should check it out if you live near Yakima or go to PNWU and have never been there). Being close to family is a draw but the community in Yakima itself doesn't seem to offer very much in regards to places to go (there aren't any large cities nearby) or community activities, though I may be wrong in this. Family is a draw but being 3 hours away creates the question, would she be able to get connected enough within the Yakima and PNWU community to find a good friend/support group there.
CUSOM: Faculty members were amazing and very welcoming and facilities are pretty incredible. As a school with a Christian background and a missions oriented school the faculty I spoke with and I connect really well on what we are passionate about. I felt like I really connected with the students and they all seemed very excited about the school and the area. I didn't meet any students with families but I heard from secondary sources that the spouses seem to band together to support each other. There seems to be a large Christian community in that area and that is important to my wife and I. It is a long way from home, 36 hour drive/7-10 hour flight, and we will be learning how to be parents.
