Quinnipiac vs. OUWB

[loverofneuro]

Hi everyone! I think I’ve narrowed my schools down to Quinnipiac and OUWB, and I really need help deciding. I’ve also been accepted to TCU and WL’d at Hackensack Meridian, but don’t think I’d attend either. For reference, I am potentially interested in neurosurgery or general surgery. I know neurosurg is hella competitive, and I’m not 1000% set on it, but I’m just trying to keep options open and choose the best school for all my potential interests. Both are low/mid tier schools, so I’m planning on really throwing myself at any and all opportunities! I received no financial aid at either school. I’ve bolded the items that are most important to me/most concerning to me.

Frank H. Netter School of Medicine at Quinnipiac University - COA $96,425

Pros

• Small class size, around ~95 students
• True P/F in preclinical years, with no AOA or internal ranking
• Both NBME and in-house exams
• MeSH program with very early clinical exposure - paired with a different community physician in M1 and M2 year to improve clinical skills early on
• 4-year Scholarly Project integrated into curriculum = guaranteed publication/poster and opportunity for mentored research
• More formative exams than summative, so plenty of time to make sure you have a grasp on material before the real deals
• ADORE the East Coast
• Close to Yale, lots of young people
• Opportunity to conduct research at Yale (lottery system tho)
• Awesome match list, consistently matches multiple people to Yale and other big names on West/East Coasts
• Very tight-knit community where the professors have an open-door policy and care deeply about students
• INCREDIBLE anatomy program - full-body dissection in group of 4 in a HUGE anatomy lab
• Beautiful medical campus building near Schools of Law, Nursing, OT, PA, etc., so you have regular interaction with other students
• All students and faculty were SO kind and warm at Second Look - made lots of friends too!
• Proximity to big cities like Boston and NYC
• Optional lectures
• Really amazing interview day and experience
• Has matched students in my specialties of interest before

Cons

• MeSH sites and 3rd/4th year rotations can be as far as 40 minutes to an hour away (but they try to mitigate this by making sure no student has back-to-back far away rotations)
• No home hospital
  
  • M4s at Second Look Day did say they really didn’t mind and it can be looked at positively by residency programs as you have experience with multiple different EMR systems and patient populations - but still kinda annoying
• Only 10% of each class wins the lottery to conduct research at Yale, but you can also reach out to faculty on your own
• Farthest from home and hard to get to (closest airports never have direct flights from CA)
• Higher COL
• Hamden and North Haven are kinda barren/depressing
• MSPE adjectives

Oakland University William Beaumont School of Medicine (OUWB) - COA $91,065

Pros

• Affiliated home hospital system - Corewell Health
• Embark Student Research Program - mentored research integrated within curriculum, guaranteed publications/posters
  • Lots of access to physician projects at Corewell Health too
• PRISM mentor program - paired with a faculty member and group of fellow students to help guide you through med school
• 24/7 access to the anatomy lab
• REALLY unique programs like Holocaust and Medicine and Public Health in Ghana
• Summer internships after M1 year
  • An M4 at Second Look talked about how she did an anatomy internship where she got to do full-body dissection to provide prosections for the M1s - I’d be super interested in something like that!
  • There’s also surgery ones which is AWESOME
• Can email Corewell physicians at any time for shadowing and students say it’s super easy to come by
• Matches well, lots of competitive specialties
• Home NSGY residency program - (doesn’t have any OUWB grads tho haha)
• Home gen surg residency program
• Very passionate faculty, with a lot of medical students choosing to stay in the area and practicing at Corewell Health during/after residency
• Lower COL
• Nicer area around the school with more things to do close by
• Optional lectures
• Has matched students in my specialties of interest before

Cons

• NOT true P/F in preclinical years
• AOA
• Internal ranking
• In-house exams instead of NBME
• Smaller anatomy lab, in a group of 6 so slightly less hands-on
• Larger class size, around ~130 students
• Got some WEIRD vibes at the Second Look events. I don’t know how to describe it - most people I talked to seemed pretty detached and cold, which was disappointing because the faculty seems great. Is this just a Michigan thing? Lol. (I met a lot of amazing people don’t get me wrong, but Netter’s student vibes were much better by far)
• Being in Michigan isn’t super appealing to me as someone who’s lived by the coast my whole life (yes ik it’s silly)
• MSPE adjectives
• Shares more spaces than expected with undergraduate campus

As of right now, based on amazing Second Look vibes, I’m leaning toward Netter, but there are a few things I’m concerned about (all of which pertain directly to chances of matching at desirable programs): 1.) Lack of a home hospital system, 2.) Competition? with UConn/Yale for research/volunteering/shadowing opportunities, 3.) Lack of access to a lot of research opportunities (which I feel goes hand-in-hand with lack of home hospital). Also wondering if no AOA, internal ranking, or no preclinical Honors is actually a negative thing for someone interested in competitive specialties? I know you can make yourself stand out anywhere, but I just worry :’) PLS HELP THANK U <3

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[hydroflaskhomie]

Hmm... I agree that it sounds like Quinnipiac is the better fit.

Tbh though I'm a little worried about no home neurosurgery program at Quinnipiac for you.

I am a Yale student and I haven't come across any QU students in various research labs but that could be just up to chance. Do people find opportunities at UConn too?

I agree that Hamden is remarkably barren but you will be busy in medical school thankfully.

You sound like a go-getter though and I am inclined to say go to the school that you got the better vibes at (QU) and then just be prepared to work hard to match.

 

[DoneDone3451]

Quinnipiac

 

[loverofneuro]

Hmm... I agree that it sounds like Quinnipiac is the better fit.

Tbh though I'm a little worried about no home neurosurgery program at Quinnipiac for you.

I am a Yale student and I haven't come across any QU students in various research labs but that could be just up to chance. Do people find opportunities at UConn too?

I agree that Hamden is remarkably barren but you will be busy in medical school thankfully.

You sound like a go-getter though and I am inclined to say go to the school that you got the better vibes at (QU) and then just be prepared to work hard to match.

basically the lottery allows 10% of the class to interact with Yale SOM faculty but doesn't prevent the other students from reaching out to Yale faculty not in the SOM, like for humanities or public health research for example. there's no barriers for people to reach out to any other schools so I'm sure people do research all over the place. I've actually talked to two netter students who are on Harvard projects rn - it's just entirely on them to initiate ofc!

Thank you sooooo much for the in depth reply! how do you like being in CT for med school in general? i loved New Haven so I'm sure there's also other really fun places to visit

 

[loverofneuro]

Quinnipiac

thank you sm for the response! any particular things that make you feel that way/words of wisdom?

 

[Iron Man23]

OUWB. Home hospital, home neuro program, and research opportunities that come with that are all things Quinnipiac will not provide you. They’ve only matched a few people to neurosurgery in their whole tenure. The Yale research thing is rare and students say is more of a selling point but no one’s getting the perks of being at Yale. I think you’d be a better fit at Quinnipiac based on your pros and cons. But if you want to do neurosurgery, I think having hospital and home residency is a big plus. It’s a tough one though because you really like Netter but neuro requires lots of research.

 

[hydroflaskhomie]

basically the lottery allows 10% of the class to interact with Yale SOM faculty but doesn't prevent the other students from reaching out to Yale faculty not in the SOM, like for humanities or public health research for example. there's no barriers for people to reach out to any other schools so I'm sure people do research all over the place. I've actually talked to two netter students who are on Harvard projects rn - it's just entirely on them to initiate ofc!

Thank you sooooo much for the in depth reply! how do you like being in CT for med school in general? i loved New Haven so I'm sure there's also other really fun places to visit

Oh weird, that's strange that they put an embargo on people reaching out! It's not like there's any shortage of research going on at Yale lol. Wonder if it's funded opportunities only? Yeah there's a ton of stuff happening at YSPH and you could do medical-legal stuff with YLS. And definitely get on those cool distance projects!

Just FYI, it's confusing but SOM is actually the business school (School of Management) - just in case you come to QU and are reaching out to people and might run the risk of getting cross-wired (med = YSM).

Connecticut really surprised me! I'm from the West Coast and I find this state beautiful. It's so nice to have metro north close to go down to NYC whenever and it's easy to get to Boston too (where my partner is now). The nature is amazing, the coast is surprisingly nice (wish it was the open ocean and not the sound but was pleasantly surprised by the sound anyways). The coastal towns are really fun to explore. Even Milford, Orange etc have way more charm than I was expecting. Fun also to go sightsee around the ritzy places like Fairfield and Greenwich. Also the populations we serve are surprisingly diverse, there is a lot of refugee resettlement here (maybe "was" 🙁 ) and I still get a lot of opportunities to practice my Spanish. Hamden is definitely not the best but there's still a lot around it (grocery stores, movie theater etc) and it's right next door to New Haven which has more happening than you'd expect.

Upon further reflection, I think as long as Quinnipiac has matched >= 2-4 students to neurosurgery I wouldn't worry at all, come to CT!

 

[loverofneuro]

OUWB. Home hospital, home neuro program, and research opportunities that come with that are all things Quinnipiac will not provide you. They’ve only matched a few people to neurosurgery in their whole tenure. The Yale research thing is rare and students say is more of a selling point but no one’s getting the perks of being at Yale. I think you’d be a better fit at Quinnipiac based on your pros and cons. But if you want to do neurosurgery, I think having hospital and home residency is a big plus. It’s a tough one though because you really like Netter but neuro requires lots of research.

i will say, definitely not 100% on nsg. hopefully end up leaning more toward gen surg but yeah def wanna keep my options open research-wise like you said. in fairness, OUWB has only matched 5 people to nsg in their tenure as well, but totally see your point and I worry that i'd be stupid not to have a home hospital if given the opportunity. ugh this is so hard

 

[loverofneuro]

Oh weird, that's strange that they put an embargo on people reaching out! It's not like there's any shortage of research going on at Yale lol. Wonder if it's funded opportunities only? Yeah there's a ton of stuff happening at YSPH and you could do medical-legal stuff with YLS. And definitely get on those cool distance projects!

Just FYI, it's confusing but SOM is actually the business school (School of Management) - just in case you come to QU and are reaching out to people and might run the risk of getting cross-wired (med = YSM).

Connecticut really surprised me! I'm from the West Coast and I find this state beautiful. It's so nice to have metro north close to go down to NYC whenever and it's easy to get to Boston too (where my partner is now). The nature is amazing, the coast is surprisingly nice (wish it was the open ocean and not the sound but was pleasantly surprised by the sound anyways). The coastal towns are really fun to explore. Even Milford, Orange etc have way more charm than I was expecting. Fun also to go sightsee around the ritzy places like Fairfield and Greenwich. Also the populations we serve are surprisingly diverse, there is a lot of refugee resettlement here (maybe "was" 🙁 ) and I still get a lot of opportunities to practice my Spanish. Hamden is definitely not the best but there's still a lot around it (grocery stores, movie theater etc) and it's right next door to New Haven which has more happening than you'd expect.

Upon further reflection, I think as long as Quinnipiac has matched >= 2-4 students to neurosurgery I wouldn't worry at all, come to CT!

i'm also from the west coast!! i worry id be depressed in the midwest lol. I'm glad to hear you've had a great time and thank you for the clarification regarding yale som vs ysm haha I had no clue!! netter has matched 3 people to nsg I believe, which in part is due to there being very little interest compared to primary care specialties for example, and small class size. this is gonna be such a tough choice. i really do worry about lack of home hospital if I were to choose netter, but I just really didn't like OUWB all that much :'( SO TORN

 

[Iron Man23]

i'm also from the west coast!! i worry id be depressed in the midwest lol. I'm glad to hear you've had a great time and thank you for the clarification regarding yale som vs ysm haha I had no clue!! netter has matched 3 people to nsg I believe, which in part is due to there being very little interest compared to primary care specialties for example, and small class size. this is gonna be such a tough choice. i really do worry about lack of home hospital if I were to choose netter, but I just really didn't like OUWB all that much :'( SO TORN

Yea it’s tough because you aren’t in love with the other school.

 

[loverofneuro]

Yea it’s tough because you aren’t in love with the other school.

i think i would be feeling much more positively about OUWB if my potential future classmates weren't so....cold at second look. it seems silly but it's tainting my view hella lmao. vibes are super important to me and I'm trying rlly hard to not let it influence my decision so much but damn it's tough!

 

[CoolSocks]

I would also be torn if I was you! I think the home hospital would be a heavy influence for me, but also vibes are important. Were most of the second look people with cold vibes seeming like they were even going to choose OUWB? I know in past years (I'm on their WL so I stalked them hard lol) they seem to have good WL movement. Maybe WL people will have better vibes (I am biased!!!) 🤣 I spoke with a current M1 (a Californian) and she said her class specifically has super kind and collaborative vibes, but each class ofc would be different.

However, if you want to go into residency and practice on one the coasts though, I wonder if Quinnipiac may be better--since you're gonna be in residency for a WHILE in the specialities you like. 4 years in the midwest for med school is not that long, but if the 4 years actually turns into + a long surgical residency in the midwest and OUWB matches more midwest than Quinnipiac, that would sway me towards Quinnipiac.

Best of luck on making up your mind!! Seems like a tough decision, but regardless you're gonna be a doctor so congrats!!!

 

[loverofneuro]

I would also be torn if I was you! I think the home hospital would be a heavy influence for me, but also vibes are important. Were most of the second look people with cold vibes seeming like they were even going to choose OUWB? I know in past years (I'm on their WL so I stalked them hard lol) they seem to have good WL movement. Maybe WL people will have better vibes (I am biased!!!) 🤣 I spoke with a current M1 (a Californian) and she said her class specifically has super kind and collaborative vibes, but each class ofc would be different.

However, if you want to go into residency and practice on one the coasts though, I wonder if Quinnipiac may be better--since you're gonna be in residency for a WHILE in the specialities you like. 4 years in the midwest for med school is not that long, but if the 4 years actually turns into + a long surgical residency in the midwest and OUWB matches more midwest than Quinnipiac, that would sway me towards Quinnipiac.

Best of luck on making up your mind!! Seems like a tough decision, but regardless you're gonna be a doctor so congrats!!!

First off, thanks SO MUCH for this thoughtful response, you're too kind!!! Home hospital is definitely nagging at me. But unfortunately all of the second look people who were off/cold were like 100% committed to OUWB lmao (as were most people there). I did speak with a current student about this, and they said that sometimes it just takes midwesterners time to warm up to new people and it could've also just been a stressful day for some people, but in general the students in their class do tend to stick around those from their same region. I don't really like that there's a divide like that, but ofc I'm sure it'd end up being fine as long as I found my people! It really is a great school, and I'm crossing my fingers so hard for you to get off that WL!

I do definitely want to practice on one of the coasts, and in general, Netter seems to match the majority of M4s to the coasts, which I like. OUWB does a great job of matching people to California too, though, which is ultimately where I want to end up, so it's definitely tough to know what the right choice is!!! I do know that someone in their class applied NSG and didn't match this year, which is a little scary to me but could very well just be the crappy match process ofc. Both schools match really well, and I'm very lucky to be in the position I am, as tough as it is to make a choice! :')

As a general update to all the lovely people who've commented on this post and my Reddit post (thank you <3), right now I am heavily leaning toward Netter. I'll be chatting with some med student friends tonight about it, and assuming they affirm my choice, I think it's gonna be Netter after today. At this point, I've spoken with like 5 separate students in different years, one of which just matched very competitively/prestigiously to a gen surg residency, and all of them said while it would've been more convenient to have a home hospital, they loved the places they rotated at and had no problems finding research throughout their time at Netter. The school being true P/F with no ranking is kinda unmatched for me, and all of the people I've talked to have said there are zero feelings of competition amongst their classes and they think it's because of that. They've all been well supported and have had nothing but positive things to say about the school, which really just reaffirms my gut instinct. Half of them actually also chose Netter over schools with home hospitals and don't regret their choice, so that's a plus!

Thank you soooo much to everyone who's helped me with this <3 yall are frickin awesome. and if I withdraw my OUWB A after today, I hope it goes to you @CoolSocks !!!!

 

[Iron Man23]

First off, thanks SO MUCH for this thoughtful response, you're too kind!!! Home hospital is definitely nagging at me. But unfortunately all of the second look people who were off/cold were like 100% committed to OUWB lmao (as were most people there). I did speak with a current student about this, and they said that sometimes it just takes midwesterners time to warm up to new people and it could've also just been a stressful day for some people, but in general the students in their class do tend to stick around those from their same region. I don't really like that there's a divide like that, but ofc I'm sure it'd end up being fine as long as I found my people! It really is a great school, and I'm crossing my fingers so hard for you to get off that WL!

I do definitely want to practice on one of the coasts, and in general, Netter seems to match the majority of M4s to the coasts, which I like. OUWB does a great job of matching people to California too, though, which is ultimately where I want to end up, so it's definitely tough to know what the right choice is!!! I do know that someone in their class applied NSG and didn't match this year, which is a little scary to me but could very well just be the crappy match process ofc. Both schools match really well, and I'm very lucky to be in the position I am, as tough as it is to make a choice! :')

As a general update to all the lovely people who've commented on this post and my Reddit post (thank you <3), right now I am heavily leaning toward Netter. I'll be chatting with some med student friends tonight about it, and assuming they affirm my choice, I think it's gonna be Netter after today. At this point, I've spoken with like 5 separate students in different years, one of which just matched very competitively/prestigiously to a gen surg residency, and all of them said while it would've been more convenient to have a home hospital, they loved the places they rotated at and had no problems finding research throughout their time at Netter. The school being true P/F with no ranking is kinda unmatched for me, and all of the people I've talked to have said there are zero feelings of competition amongst their classes and they think it's because of that. They've all been well supported and have had nothing but positive things to say about the school, which really just reaffirms my gut instinct. Half of them actually also chose Netter over schools with home hospitals and don't regret their choice, so that's a plus!

Thank you soooo much to everyone who's helped me with this <3 yall are frickin awesome. and if I withdraw my OUWB A after today, I hope it goes to you @CoolSocks !!!!

That’s great for you. The big thing when you have choices is to find somewhere you think you’d thrive. And that sounds like Netter is that for you! Congrats!

 

[CoolSocks]

First off, thanks SO MUCH for this thoughtful response, you're too kind!!! Home hospital is definitely nagging at me. But unfortunately all of the second look people who were off/cold were like 100% committed to OUWB lmao (as were most people there). I did speak with a current student about this, and they said that sometimes it just takes midwesterners time to warm up to new people and it could've also just been a stressful day for some people, but in general the students in their class do tend to stick around those from their same region. I don't really like that there's a divide like that, but ofc I'm sure it'd end up being fine as long as I found my people! It really is a great school, and I'm crossing my fingers so hard for you to get off that WL!

I do definitely want to practice on one of the coasts, and in general, Netter seems to match the majority of M4s to the coasts, which I like. OUWB does a great job of matching people to California too, though, which is ultimately where I want to end up, so it's definitely tough to know what the right choice is!!! I do know that someone in their class applied NSG and didn't match this year, which is a little scary to me but could very well just be the crappy match process ofc. Both schools match really well, and I'm very lucky to be in the position I am, as tough as it is to make a choice! :')

As a general update to all the lovely people who've commented on this post and my Reddit post (thank you <3), right now I am heavily leaning toward Netter. I'll be chatting with some med student friends tonight about it, and assuming they affirm my choice, I think it's gonna be Netter after today. At this point, I've spoken with like 5 separate students in different years, one of which just matched very competitively/prestigiously to a gen surg residency, and all of them said while it would've been more convenient to have a home hospital, they loved the places they rotated at and had no problems finding research throughout their time at Netter. The school being true P/F with no ranking is kinda unmatched for me, and all of the people I've talked to have said there are zero feelings of competition amongst their classes and they think it's because of that. They've all been well supported and have had nothing but positive things to say about the school, which really just reaffirms my gut instinct. Half of them actually also chose Netter over schools with home hospitals and don't regret their choice, so that's a plus!

Thank you soooo much to everyone who's helped me with this <3 yall are frickin awesome. and if I withdraw my OUWB A after today, I hope it goes to you @CoolSocks !!!!

It sounds like you’ve made the right choice for you and truly done your due diligence by reaching out to people at the schools for better insight! Now you can get all excited and plan your move and such, that’s SO fun. You’ve definitely got the drive/initiative that I think you would’ve been successful with either option 🙂 Thank you for your support for me and OUWB, fingers crossed and your future classmates at Netter are lucky!!

 

[loverofneuro]

That’s great for you. The big thing when you have choices is to find somewhere you think you’d thrive. And that sounds like Netter is that for you! Congrats!

thank you!!! <3 i've loved seeing your posts in all the school threads this cycle - it's so cool to see us all ending up where we're meant to be. do you know where you're leaning toward rn?? congrats to you too on all your A's!!!

 

[loverofneuro]

It sounds like you’ve made the right choice for you and truly done your due diligence by reaching out to people at the schools for better insight! Now you can get all excited and plan your move and such, that’s SO fun. You’ve definitely got the drive/initiative that I think you would’ve been successful with either option 🙂 Thank you for your support for me and OUWB, fingers crossed and your future classmates at Netter are lucky!!

awwww thank you thank you!!! <3 your future classmates are super lucky too!!!

 

[milkywayglass]

Omg what is your LM, I would LOVE to have to choose between these two schools in this upcoming cycle

 

[ecobio]

First off, thanks SO MUCH for this thoughtful response, you're too kind!!! Home hospital is definitely nagging at me. But unfortunately all of the second look people who were off/cold were like 100% committed to OUWB lmao (as were most people there). I did speak with a current student about this, and they said that sometimes it just takes midwesterners time to warm up to new people and it could've also just been a stressful day for some people, but in general the students in their class do tend to stick around those from their same region. I don't really like that there's a divide like that, but ofc I'm sure it'd end up being fine as long as I found my people! It really is a great school, and I'm crossing my fingers so hard for you to get off that WL!

I do definitely want to practice on one of the coasts, and in general, Netter seems to match the majority of M4s to the coasts, which I like. OUWB does a great job of matching people to California too, though, which is ultimately where I want to end up, so it's definitely tough to know what the right choice is!!! I do know that someone in their class applied NSG and didn't match this year, which is a little scary to me but could very well just be the crappy match process ofc. Both schools match really well, and I'm very lucky to be in the position I am, as tough as it is to make a choice! :')

As a general update to all the lovely people who've commented on this post and my Reddit post (thank you <3), right now I am heavily leaning toward Netter. I'll be chatting with some med student friends tonight about it, and assuming they affirm my choice, I think it's gonna be Netter after today. At this point, I've spoken with like 5 separate students in different years, one of which just matched very competitively/prestigiously to a gen surg residency, and all of them said while it would've been more convenient to have a home hospital, they loved the places they rotated at and had no problems finding research throughout their time at Netter. The school being true P/F with no ranking is kinda unmatched for me, and all of the people I've talked to have said there are zero feelings of competition amongst their classes and they think it's because of that. They've all been well supported and have had nothing but positive things to say about the school, which really just reaffirms my gut instinct. Half of them actually also chose Netter over schools with home hospitals and don't regret their choice, so that's a plus!

Thank you soooo much to everyone who's helped me with this <3 yall are frickin awesome. and if I withdraw my OUWB A after today, I hope it goes to you @CoolSocks !!!!

netter is a great school !! i think its important to make sure you choose a place that you think you’ll thrive, which it sounds like you are. congrats future doc :’)

 

[loverofneuro]

netter is a great school !! i think its important to make sure you choose a place that you think you’ll thrive, which it sounds like you are. congrats future doc :’)

CONGRATS TO YOU TOO!!!! <3