Rush vs OUWB

[Dingohouse]

Hello everyone! I have been fortunate enough to get into a couple schools this cycle and have narrowed my choices down to these two.

I am born and raised in Michigan and currently go to OU for undergrad. I am pretty unsure about my long term career plans and would like to keep my options open but I could see myself going into IM and possibly specializing afterwards. I have an interest in the serving the underserved and hope to continue volunteering a little in med school but mostly throughout my career down the road.

Rush

Pros

• Love the location, it would be super cool to live in Chicago, very exciting and a big change from the suburbs
• I really feel like I "fit" their mission. Everyone there seems to really care about their community and theres ample service opportunities to show it
• Diverse patient population with a large concentration of my own ethnicity
• Rush seems to be a hospital with a lot of resources that would be beneficial to my medical education (although not as much as Beaumont)
• P/F
• Cook County Hospital- getting to see a lot of progressed pathologies and a high density of trauma cases

Cons

• About 5 hour drive away from home (being close to family is important to me)
• New curriculum (100% flipped classroom)- I have taken courses that use TBL in undergrad and I really liked it but I'm not sure how I would fare in a curriculum with no lectures at all
• Getting used to city life/public transport would be a change and might hinder my studying ability? (especially since this would be my first time moving away from home)

OUWB

Pros

• Familiar environment- I already go to OU so I already know where everything is and what there is to do
• Close to home, about a 30 min drive, would make a lot of things easier and might allow me to do better in school/on board exams
• Beaumont is an incredible health system with many resources that would allow me to learn a lot about newer procedures and equipment (maybe rush has this too idk)
• More traditional curriculum but still with some flipped classroom components

Cons

• They're switching to focus on more low yield material in their curriculum (through more professor-written questions rather than NBMEs), not sure if I want to spend time in school studying material that probably won't be on my boards
• honors/high pass/pass/ low pass/ fail grading system
• Feels like I've been here forever and I just want a change (not a very logical reason I know lol)
• Worried the proximity to my family would enable them to force/guilt me into family events that would keep me away from studying when I should be

Overall, I think both schools are pretty much on the same tier and I just need to decide if I would rather be in a city by myself for the first time or living just 30 minutes away from my family. Cost difference is pretty much negligible between these two schools and I would say their match lists are pretty much even as well. I would link the match lists but SDN isn't letting me smh. They're both available online for anyone to reference (let me know if you can't find Rush's).



Thank you so much!🙂

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[icedude2010]

It seems like a lot of your pros (and cons tbh) revolve around proximity to family and experiencing a new city or staying with the old. I think you need to figure out whether you want to move to a new, big, city, or stay with what you are more familiar with. Keep in mind that 5 hours away from family isn't a huuuuuuuge distance. That being said I'll talk about the schools themselves:

I think Rush is the better school (at this stage)-- they'll have more research opportunities IMO, and more things going on outside of the classroom. Beaumont is a great health system, but Rush University Medical Center and Cook County + the sim lab there would get you all the experience with procedures or shadowing that you want. You also said that you enjoyed TBL (which is good because I think it's actually a really good way to learn material); Rush actually has recorded lectures and videos to teach materials. I personally am not considering the curriculum as a negative in my own consideration of the school. Plus it is P/F vs graded which is essentially what Oakland is, which I don't really like.

Anyway, I think it's more of an issue of whether you want to explore a new city or stick with the familiar. Both are great schools.

 

[NeuroSoph75]

I agree, decide whether you want to be close by home or in a new and exciting place. I say shake things up and go to Chicago for a few years. If you don't like it, you can always come back to MI. I spent some time living abroad in a big city and I gained a sense of self-confidence and independence through it that I didn't even know I lacked. Don't worry about public transportation, it is fairly straightforward and I don't think it will hinder your studying. Grocery shopping in cities is a little different than the suburbs, but again it is nothing to be afraid of you just need one of those roller cart things lol. However, there are benefits to being close by family and if you like your location then there is no need to uproot.

I also interviewed at OUWB and I did not get the impression that the grading system made the class competitive. It was actually very warm and friendly.

Cook County isn't just good for clinical training, you will be working with patients who cannot access the healthcare available in other fancy, private hospitals -- I think this is a huge pro especially if you want to work with underserved populations in the future.

I love Chicago. But I also like lectures, so I see your dilemma.

Good luck and congrats!

 

[SpringsHTTR]

I would echo what everyone else is saying do you want to be in a new large city or keep the familar setting of home?
I see both schools as fantastic for chances with underserved and each hospital is great on its own way.
Also to my knowledge (unless changed) OUWB is H/P/F. The Honors though occurs only with 70% attendance at lectures.

I think a support system cannot be understated. Maybe second look days can help give you a feel for what is more logical and exciting to you as a student. Best of luck!

 

[BeautheBear]

I don't think you can go wrong between the schools. OUWB grad here and I have had a couple friends who graduated from Rush. It sounds like pretty similar schools, Rush a little more established and OUWB a little more on the upswing. Good opportunities from both. Having a family support system nearby is a huge benefit, but it might also be fun to get to explore Chicago for 4 years and then decide where you want to end up. Overall probably easier to match in the Detroit area rather than Chicago.

Also I can say we had a couple sessions with flipped classrooms and I hated it. TBL wasn't too bad.