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- Oct 4, 2002
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I may be jumping the gun as I have just begun to send in my secondaries, but I'm curious as to what the consensus is regarding public vs private schools. I live in NY and am applying to SUNY downstate/Stonybrook and some privates as well-NYU, NYMC, Einstein, Sinai, maybe Cornell as a reach. Anyway the privates literally are twice as expensive in tuition, and if I am lucky enough to have a choice I'm wandering which way to go, private school~120K debt vs public school~80K debt? I would imagine that privates have nicer facilities. Any thoughts on the topic?
I doubt you'll find any concensus on that question. It depends on so many variables. Like what fields you're interested in (i.e. whether you're planning on trying to get a residency in a highly competitive field), and how your state schools are ranked compared to the private schools for the type of practice you're considering (research rankings vs. Primary Care rankings -- I know nothing about NY state schools' rankings). Then there's location, facilities, curriculum type to consider. Since you're going to get to actually see the schools you're deciding between when you interview, you'll probably find you like some more than others. Probably the only concensus you'll find here is go where you'll be the happiest. The kind of debt difference you're envisioning isn't going to be that big a deal once you're practicing. You can do a search and find lots of opinions on the debt question. Good luck, and here's to choices!! Cheers!! 
