Pritzker vs. Pitt

[zsarnat]

I am trying to decide between these two programs for med school. Which would you chose and why? I am 28-years-old and want to go into primary care. I'm from California, so either place is plain old far away. I'm excited about my options, but seeking current med students and residents' advice.

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[coop]

I'll be a pritzker MS1 this fall. I also interviewed at pitt, but withdrew before I heard their decision because I had gotten into pritzker and liked it better. I feel like the environment at pritzker was more intelletual, there was more of a high reguard for research and academic medicine, which I am interested in. Pitt I felt like the students were happy, but I didn't click with them too much. Students are happy both places, and both places match well, but the curriculums and surroundings are very different, I think they attract different types of people, so one isn't unequivically better than the other. If you have any more specific ?s I'd be happy to try to answer them.

 

[zsarnat]

I felt very similarly to you after visits to both. The two main appeals to Pitt for me are 1) the idea of learning in blocks fo years 1-2 rather than taking 3-5 science classes simultaneously. Not having to waste energy on deciding which science course to study for at any given point sounds nice. 2) The other plus to Pitt is the built in study groups you have through PBL. I learn best by talking points through with another classmate or two. Do you get the sense that study groups are integral to the Chicago curriculum? Or is lecture the only mode for learning years 1-2. Years 3-4 seem fairly similar.

 

[coop]

a lot of pritzker students I talked to studied in groups... but it's not in the formal pbl sense like at pitt.

I think it's related to focus on academic medicine, but pritzker's matchlist was far more impressive than pitt's... going into primary care, this is of minimal importance. I'd also feel like pittsburgh is a place where I could be, and it'd be fine for 4 years... but chicago is a place I'm REALLY EXCITED about moving to. I think that's from being in a nice/livable, but smaller city for the last 4 years.

 

[PittMD]

I don't know much about Pritzker, but here's what I know about Pitt and I'll make "some" comparisons to Pritzker:
-Pitt #12, Pritzker #27 in NIH research money. That's a substantial difference. While the thought that Pritzker feels more academic might be true, there's plenty of research and academics at Pitt. If anything the med school dean at Pitt is all about research (we make fun of him a lot about that in our end of the year play). Pitt will be going up in the rankings since construction is about to begin on a new science tower that will bring a lot more research money and the dean is recruiting for a lot of new scientists. Also, the cancer center (which already has more oupatients than MD Anderson or Sloan Kettering)is almost complete and that will bring more research grants since it will free research space at the current science tower.
-USNews Pitt #17, Pritzker #19. I would take that with a grain of salt, in any case, pretty similar as seen by others around the country.
-Pitt has the hybrid lecture/PBL in the first two years. It's organ based, organized by blocks and the school makes sure that you have plenty of time to study for boards.
-3rd and 4th years. I don't know much about the hospitals at Chicago, but I think Pitt can compete with "almost" anyone. UPMC is a network of 19 hospitals, anything from tertiary centers (2 of them, Presbytarian, Shadyside) to community hospitals and we get to practice in any of them. Like Peds? Children's is ranked 4th. Like Ob-gyn, Magee's Hospital is ranked 10th. Like psych, Western Psych is ranked 11th. UPMC as a whole is ranked 15th so you'll be practicing and learning from some of the best in the country no matter what specialty. There's a new sports complex where the Steelers/Pitt train this is absolutely amazing and which brings athletes from all over the country to train/heal there. You will treat people from all over the country as well some from all over there world here at Pitt.
-Faculty/Staff are very encouraging and supportive. Students are amongst the frendliest and non-competitive (unless you plays sports!) Overall the feel is of cooperation and friendship.
-Future: Pitt/UPMC is embarking on a 700 million dlls construction that will see a new Children's hospital/new biomedical science tower/new outpatient tower/overall facelift to the Oakland UPMC campus. The hospitals are most profitable in all of Pennsylvania and UPMC is the only major med center in Pittsburgh and Pitt the only med school (no competition vs. 4-5 other med schools for patients, training sites, etc.)
If anything I don't think that Pitt gets enough recognition/credit from people since it doesn't have the name like Stanford/Pritzker/Vanderbilt. Granted Pitt has only been "good" for the last 15 years so it's reputation is not quite that strong/established yet.