School Choices? Baylor vs UTSW vs UCLA

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AspiringAndHopeful

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I've been very lucky to have gained acceptances to Baylor, UTSW, and UCLA, but now I'm having a lot of trouble deciding which I'm leaning towards. The main trouble is that Baylor and UCLA's second looks are both on the same day and I'm not sure which I should prioritize. Being from Houston, I'd love to go check out LA but I know that costs are going to be much higher in California. I was wondering if anyone had insight on pros/cons for these 3 schools. I really appreciate it!
 
I've been very lucky to have gained acceptances to Baylor, UTSW, and UCLA, but now I'm having a lot of trouble deciding which I'm leaning towards. The main trouble is that Baylor and UCLA's second looks are both on the same day and I'm not sure which I should prioritize. Being from Houston, I'd love to go check out LA but I know that costs are going to be much higher in California. I was wondering if anyone had insight on pros/cons for these 3 schools. I really appreciate it!
UCLA is T10, I would try my best to get $$$ from there first. So I would def go for second look there since Baylor is the home program.
 
UCLA is the highest ranked school of the three, and is likely to be the most expensive (Geffen aside). Of course, so much more goes into a decision of which school to attend, including how you feel about each school and its location. I would wait to see what type of financial aid you get from each school, and go to UCLA's second look (assuming that you are more familiar with Baylor and its location). If the financial aid package from UCLA is right and you like it well enough, I would go to UCLA.
 
Baylor is nothing to sneeze at. Go check out LA on a vacation, no need to commit 4 years and 250K debt to "see how life is on the west coast".

Also, Top10 =/= better education. Going to a mid tier school where you get more hands on practice as a medical student trumps standing around at the back because the attending/residents/patients won't let you touch their VIP patients regardless of what kind of zebras often show up in those "elite" hospitals. The chances of you ever seeing those zebras again vs knowing how to manage bread and butter patients as a resident and attending is not a good reason for medical school. Residency training? That's a different story but as a med student where your role is literally nothing, it makes no difference.
 
I've been very lucky to have gained acceptances to Baylor, UTSW, and UCLA, but now I'm having a lot of trouble deciding which I'm leaning towards. The main trouble is that Baylor and UCLA's second looks are both on the same day and I'm not sure which I should prioritize. Being from Houston, I'd love to go check out LA but I know that costs are going to be much higher in California. I was wondering if anyone had insight on pros/cons for these 3 schools. I really appreciate it!
How can you go wrong with Sonny Bryan's Barbecue?

Hence, UTSW.

I can't do my usual food choice dilemma, so how about:
what do you hate more?
Humid broiling summer heat?
Dy broiling summer heat?
Earthquakes, wildfires and smog?
 
All 3 schools are great choices. With no scholarships, I don't see UCLA being worth it. Then Baylor has an edge over UTSW -- but it is more of a decision about the curriculum and Dallas vs. Houston. Baylor has better step scores, an ever so slightly stronger medical school reputation, takes step near the end of 3rd year, and Houston is a better city IMO. Meanwhile UTSW has equally as strong of research, better residency programs, and takes step at the end of 2nd year... Just my thoughts

Dallas>>>Houston. I'd go UTSW if you don't get a significant scholarship to UCLA.
 
First off, congrats on your multiple offers at such great schools! Assuming financial aid is negligible, I really think that Baylor is the way to go. It is easily a Top 20 school and the COA makes attending Baylor an absolute steal. At Baylor, you will be training in the heart of the world’s largest medical center at a program that has some of the highest Step 1 scores in the nation. Best of luck on making your decision!
 
I vote UTSW!

I'm dealing with the same decision minus UCLA. I think between Baylor and UTSW, the decision comes down to gut feeling. Both offer a top-notch education at an incredibly low cost. I'm leaning towards UTSW for several reasons, a couple of which being the unparalleled clinical training they get at Parkland and IMO the weather in Dallas is much nicer than Houston. You can't beat LA weather though!
 
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Hard to say anything when you don't say where you got the best feel and what city you like. I'm not getting the feeling that you love LA and definitely want to be there, so I would pick either Baylor or UTSW depending on where you feel like the curriculum/students were the best fit for you. I don't think there's any need to compare the reputation/rank when all the schools are so great. Unless you have something very specific you really want to do at one of the schools.
 
I'm in a similar boat where I have to choose between Baylor and UTSW. No matter who I ask, I am told that both schools are near equal - which they are in nearly every metric (financial, ranking, etc.). I'm from the Dallas area, so I've spent a lot more time at UTSW and it feels a lot more like home for me, but I really, really liked Texas Medical Center, so I'm thinking of visiting Baylor once more before deciding. Although I know the Dallas area a lot better and am more comfortable with it, the wanderlust part of me wonders if a change to a completely new location will be better for me. I'm not sure, tbh; I really did not get to see much of Houston when I interviewed, and I haven't really been to the city much before that.

I will say, though, that some Reddit lurking seems to reveal that general sentiment toward UTSW is that it is very much an up-and-coming school with a lot of forward progress being made, while Baylor might be a little less innovative and have some administrative problems. The personal vibe that I got from UTSW is that the administration seems to be a lot more involved and caring for the students, just based on the way they organized interview days and second look weekends. Baylor's interview day was fine, but it was a lot shorter and I got accepted after their second look weekend, so I wasn't able to see how the school panned out there. Either way, it's definitely a hard decision. Do keep us posted on what you end up deciding!
 
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