- Joined
- Jun 9, 2016
- Messages
- 27
- Reaction score
- 48
Please help me choose between these schools! The COA for both is close enough that I am not factoring that in at this point. I just want to figure out which one would be the best fit.
RUSH
Pros
DOWNSTATE
Pros
RUSH
Pros
- A medium class size of 140 means more individual attention (Downstate has a class of 200)
- I grew up in the Chicago area and have some friends and family nearby
- Rush has more NIH research funding by a substantial margin (70.3 million for Rush vs. 22.7 million for Downstate) - I am not super interested in research but I would like to do some
- The administration seems much more organized
- Higher PD rankings from USNWR - I know this is a flawed measure though
- I liked the focus on serving the local community
- Ranked by quartile (25% pre-clinical and 75% clinical)
- All preclinical classes are mandatory and include small group - I think of this as a pretty big waste of time (although it is generally 10-15 hours I think, which isn’t so bad, but still)
- I hate the cold winters in Chicago
DOWNSTATE
Pros
- SO is in medical school in NYC for the next 3 years
- I would love to live near Prospect Park! I really like to run outside - having a spot near the school to do that is super exciting to me
- People say the clinical experience is excellent and I mainly want to be a clinician so that is great
- Possibly interested in Derm and they consistently match more people into Derm than Rush
- Seems like mandatory time is closer to 8-10 hours during preclinical
- Student ranking not reported but can get 'Distinction' (basically honors) in preclinical
- Downstate hospital has historically had some money issues which I think are resolved but it seems like it’s still kind of a struggling hospital
- The area immediately surrounding the hospital did not seem the safest
- The associated hospitals have relatively low scores on Medicare.gov, Leapfrog (both measures evaluating patient safety)