Rush VS Wake Forest: Your Input Kindly Requested

[DeVry Cum Laude]

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I am so grateful to have gained acceptance to medical school -- and the opportunity to choose between two fantastic programs is really more than I could ask for. This is the biggest decision I have ever faced, and I would really appreciate any advice or comments you may have about either program. Of course it is to a large degree subjective and dependent on one's career interests, and I will ultimately have to decide for myself, but I think SDN is a great resource for sorting this stuff out, and I have seen many great comments to similar threads like this in the past. Please share your wisdom!

The factors I am told that have a biggest impact are as follows:
- school reputation (should this matter?) >>Both are ostensibly about the same, according to the really casual/obscured system of US News.

- location >> I am more intrigued at the prospect of living in one of America's great cities, despite some really hostile seasonal weather. I am from California, so both of these are far from my close family and friends, however I have a lot of cousins in Chicago. I tend to lean to the left - somewhere between Bill Clinton and Bernie Sanders politics, so I think being exposed to the culture in NC may be challenging but also a great learning experience.

- overall student happiness >>Hard to gauge, as everyone I met on I-Day were really happy with their school -- however some first-year Rush students weren't pleased with the demands of their Preceptorship arrangements.

- best clinical exposure >> Winston-Salem is pretty diverse, but I think Cook County (John H Stroger) Hospital has more clout nationally.

- tuition/cost-of-living expenses >> The numbers each school gave me are calculated under different criteria, so an exact comparison is more difficult, however with regards to tuition they are about the same give or take $1,000. (as absurd of a statement as that is, coming from a person in my [so-to-speak] financial shoes)

$50,300 WF vs. $49,183 Rush​

Total cost of attendance year-to-year (as per school's own calculations):
WF: 74,058, 76,974, 75,965, 74562 Rush: 66,596, 63,937, 72,147, 70,395

-residency match list: This is a hard one to judge, I have heard these lists aren't that useful because they are very self-selecting. I would prefer to return to California for residency -- which neither school is exactly showing in spades. The 2014 match lists for Rush and Wake Forest. It appears Rush really likes its own, however WF students possibly go to more prestigious hospitals. Wake Forest seems to focus more on primary care, which is cool, however I really don't know yet whether I want to do that or pursue a subspecialty. I hope to pick a program that leaves the doors wide open to a variety of career paths.

-research: WF gets a lot more funding. I have heard that doctors at Rush are very happy to involve med students in research despite the school's more limited funding.

- best facilities: WF seemed kind of old, while Rush has a nice new building but I'm not too sure about this factor. I have heard that WF is more tech-savvy and gives each student an IBM notebook to use.

- time spent in class: WF students seem to spend more time in class, which isn't ideal, considering that I am hoping to do research in the first two years.

- hospital reputation: Hard for me to gauge, I would really appreciate some insight here.

 

[Lya]

I do not have firsthand experiences with both schools, but from what I have heard so far, WF seems to have a better reputation and research than Rush.

You said you hope to do research during the first two years. I would think that more research funding at WF will be beneficial for you.

 

[DeVry Cum Laude]

Thank you for your input Lya. I have heard that WF has a somewhat better reputation, however both are in the same tier. Regarding research, (and I should have listed this above) Rush has about $41 million flowing in, whereas WF has $123 million. Rush does have a year-long research elective for M1s, for students to come up with a proposal for research they will do in the summer after their first year. Summer research opportunities exist at both schools though.

 

[LostinLift]

Do you have any specific fields of interest? Compare these fields at both schools. Also Rush gives the students iPads which you take your tests on.

 

[repititionition]

This strikes me as another "validate the decision I've already made" thread.

You do know that all of those prelim medicine spots on WF's list are NOT PC residencies, correct? WF's list is absolutely stacked with non-PC specialties.

Like it or not, WF reputation > Rush reputation by a small but perceptible margin, and I'm not talking US News rankings.

Ultimately, with costs roughly par and roughly par reputation, go to the school where: a) you like the curriculum and b) wherever you want to live for four years - Chicago or North Carolina.

 

[tarheel1408]

I'm a student at Wake, and in my opinion you have an easy decision 🙂 PM me if you have specific questions.

 

[Ismet]

Moving to school-specific discussions

 

[DeVry Cum Laude]

Thanks for your input LostInLift. Urology, Neurology and Rad. Onc. are a few of my interests so I will look into those further.
Repititionition, you keenly inferred my slight inclination toward Rush's program. I assure you I am not just seeking validation for a decision I have already made.
I created this post for a couple reasons:
1. I want to make this decision as objectively as possible, rather than on the "feel" I got from interview day.
2. I was hoping for advice as to whether choosing one school over the other would limit my career opportunities, because although both schools are well-regarded regionally, I am hoping to attain a residency in California.

 

[premedstudent19]

Obviously, this is a personal choice and you have to decide what is right for you. However, in my personal opinion, I would pick WF. While both are fine schools, and attending either one obviously means you get to become a doctor, I simply think WF is a better school...As for your point about career opportunities, I think WF is a more prestigious school than Rush and as such you likely have a slight edge by going there. To give you an analogy: Duke and Harvard are both excellent educational undergrad (and grad, for that matter) institutions. People who go to either one are able to safely secure a job later in life without a doubt. However, if you have a student who obtains a certain GPA, test scores, extracurriculars etc. at Harvard and then you have a student with the identical stats at Duke, the kid from Harvard is gona win out in the job front in all likelihood due to prestige of the school he/she attended. Obviously, this is just an analogy, but I basically view your situation as similar. WF and Rush are both good medical schools, but I think (just as Harvard is better than Duke) that the balance of prestige is definitely tilted towards WF. Again, it is your call and either way I am sure things will work out just fine. Best of luck!

 

[lalalaaaaaa]

My 2 cents for Rush (accepted there, rejected preII at WF) is that if you want to be in an urban environment and work with underserved populations as a doc, it's pretty tough to beat. They want to train excellent clinicians so if you want to be a researcher or academic, it might not be as strong as Wake (I have no idea though, and this is very relative each person as there are opportunities for both at Rush,). Overall I thought the school was almost too laid back (not sure a better way to phrase it), but everyone seemed pretty happy overall. Preceptorship at Rush seems less than ideal, particularly if you are placed far away. 3r and 4th year at Rush are almost all at Rush Hosptial or Stronger, which is great, but they didn't seem to have many other strong hospital affiliations (no major children's or VA or rural). Awesome location too.

And then there is the fact that you would be my classmate, and that alone would make many choose Rush 😛 Good luck!

 

[Bakerji]

I am so grateful to have gained acceptance to medical school -- and the opportunity to choose between two fantastic programs is really more than I could ask for. This is the biggest decision I have ever faced, and I would really appreciate any advice or comments you may have about either program. Of course it is to a large degree subjective and dependent on one's career interests, and I will ultimately have to decide for myself, but I think SDN is a great resource for sorting this stuff out, and I have seen many great comments to similar threads like this in the past. Please share your wisdom!

The factors I am told that have a biggest impact are as follows:
- school reputation (should this matter?) >>Both are ostensibly about the same, according to the really casual/obscured system of US News.

- location >> I am more intrigued at the prospect of living in one of America's great cities, despite some really hostile seasonal weather. I am from California, so both of these are far from my close family and friends, however I have a lot of cousins in Chicago. I tend to lean to the left - somewhere between Bill Clinton and Bernie Sanders politics, so I think being exposed to the culture in NC may be challenging but also a great learning experience.

- overall student happiness >>Hard to gauge, as everyone I met on I-Day were really happy with their school -- however some first-year Rush students weren't pleased with the demands of their Preceptorship arrangements.

- best clinical exposure >> Winston-Salem is pretty diverse, but I think Cook County (John H Stroger) Hospital has more clout nationally.

- tuition/cost-of-living expenses >> The numbers each school gave me are calculated under different criteria, so an exact comparison is more difficult, however with regards to tuition they are about the same give or take $1,000. (as absurd of a statement as that is, coming from a person in my [so-to-speak] financial shoes)

$50,300 WF vs. $49,183 Rush​

Total cost of attendance year-to-year (as per school's own calculations):
WF: 74,058, 76,974, 75,965, 74562 Rush: 66,596, 63,937, 72,147, 70,395

-residency match list: This is a hard one to judge, I have heard these lists aren't that useful because they are very self-selecting. I would prefer to return to California for residency -- which neither school is exactly showing in spades. The 2014 match lists for Rush and Wake Forest. It appears Rush really likes its own, however WF students possibly go to more prestigious hospitals. Wake Forest seems to focus more on primary care, which is cool, however I really don't know yet whether I want to do that or pursue a subspecialty. I hope to pick a program that leaves the doors wide open to a variety of career paths.

-research: WF gets a lot more funding. I have heard that doctors at Rush are very happy to involve med students in research despite the school's more limited funding.

- best facilities: WF seemed kind of old, while Rush has a nice new building but I'm not too sure about this factor. I have heard that WF is more tech-savvy and gives each student an IBM notebook to use.

- time spent in class: WF students seem to spend more time in class, which isn't ideal, considering that I am hoping to do research in the first two years.

- hospital reputation: Hard for me to gauge, I would really appreciate some insight here.

My 2 cents for Rush (accepted there, rejected preII at WF) is that if you want to be in an urban environment and work with underserved populations as a doc, it's pretty tough to beat. They want to train excellent clinicians so if you want to be a researcher or academic, it might not be as strong as Wake (I have no idea though, and this is very relative each person as there are opportunities for both at Rush,). Overall I thought the school was almost too laid back (not sure a better way to phrase it), but everyone seemed pretty happy overall. Preceptorship at Rush seems less than ideal, particularly if you are placed far away. 3r and 4th year at Rush are almost all at Rush Hosptial or Stronger, which is great, but they didn't seem to have many other strong hospital affiliations (no major children's or VA or rural). Awesome location too.

And then there is the fact that you would be my classmate, and that alone would make many choose Rush 😛 Good luck!

Hello, I know it's been a while but I'm just wondering where you chose to matriculate in the end!