Rush vs IU

[kay4907]

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Hey everyone! So I am so thankful to have a couple acceptances to great schools, but I am so indecisive and having a lot of trouble choosing a school. Here are my pros and cons:

RUSH
Pros:

• location in Chicago, only about 45 minutes from home, would be very easy to see my family whenever
• best friend from elementary school goes to dental school in Oak Brook (~20 minutes away), would be nice to be close to her
• rotations at Rush and Stroger (safety net hospital for Cook county and very level 1 trauma center) are a huge plus for me because I am interested in EM and trauma surgery
• tons of jobs in software development/engineering for my fiancé
• integrated, one pass curriculum
• so many service opportunities that I am interested in
• students seemed very happy
• fell in love with the school on interview day
• I work at Rush now in the Alzheimer's Disease Center so I already have some connections for future research

Cons:

• more expensive tuition than IU
• more expensive to live in Chicago
• in-house exams
• ranked lower than IU

Neutral

• flipped classroom - my inorganic chem class was like this in undergrad and I didn't mind it but not sure how I feel about doing it for 2 years
• P/F with internal rankings

IU
Pros:

• scholarly concentration programs that I would love to participate in
• cheaper tuition since I'm IS
• cost of living is lower
• ranked higher than Rush (not sure how important this will be with Step 1 moving to P/F)
• true P/F

Cons:

• not a huge fan of the statewide campus system, would most likely have to move after second year to Indy for clinical rotations
• if assigned to Indy for pre-clinicals, required to take "most" of your clerkships outside of Indy
• not sure about job opportunities for my fiancé at some of the regional campuses, and he would likely have to quit his job to move again after second year
• students did not seem very happy or enthusiastic about the school but that could have just been my interpretation over zoom lol

I'm really leaning towards Rush right now, but I just want to make sure I'm not overlooking anything! I'm also not sure how school rankings might come into play in the future with Step 1 moving to P/F, so any advice on that would be appreciated as well! Thanks everyone 🙂

 

[MongutheDoggy]

IU for the price.

 

[Banco]

What's the overall cost difference?

 

[kay4907]

What's the overall cost difference?

I did get a small scholarship at Rush which brings the COA down a little, so the total difference between the two over 4 years would be ~50k for me

 

[Banco]

I did get a small scholarship at Rush which brings the COA down a little, so the total difference between the two over 4 years would be ~50k for me

And what do the total costs end up being?

 

[kay4907]

And what do the total costs end up being?

Around 250k for IU and 300k for Rush

 

[Banco]

Around 250k for IU and 300k for Rush

Yeah it really comes down to your personal threshold of how much you're willing to splurge. You can make the case for Rush or IU here, so go with your gut.

 

[Shunsui]

Rush easily imo

Sounds like the only benefit of IU is the price (and maybe true P/F) but that's not even too big of a difference in the grand scheme. Seems like you (and your SO) would be happier at Rush with your support system.