School Comparison Guide

[C.P. Jones]

So I want to begin comparing my schools today (in addition to those I am accepted at, I'm also going to include those I'm on post-int hold/WL so that I can decide if I will get rid of them or go for the LOIs). Anyway, I wanted to ask what I types of things I should compare, and things to point out about certain schools. I especially ask this considering if someone thinks one should look at X about a school because it is overlooked and becomes extremely important later in the academic/post-grad career. And I think this can be helpful to all to have a nice list.

The things I will be looking at myself are (in no particular order):

1) Tuition/expenses, not considering fin aid.
2) Curriculum Style (lecture/PBL/unique classes/system-based/etc)
3) Clinical experiences (diversity/quality/facilities)
4) Class size
5) Grading system
6) Competition level
7) Location
8) Admin/faculty devotion to students
9) Opportunities (clinical, research, extracurricular)
10) Vague quality of match list...maybe

what else?

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[durfen]

So I want to begin comparing my schools today (in addition to those I am accepted at, I'm also going to include those I'm on post-int hold/WL so that I can decide if I will get rid of them or go for the LOIs). Anyway, I wanted to ask what I types of things I should compare, and things to point out about certain schools. I especially ask this considering if someone thinks one should look at X about a school because it is overlooked and becomes extremely important later in the academic/post-grad career. And I think this can be helpful to all to have a nice list.

The things I will be looking at myself are (in no particular order):

1) Tuition/expenses, not considering fin aid.
2) Curriculum Style (lecture/PBL/unique classes/system-based/etc)
3) Clinical experiences (diversity/quality/facilities)
4) Class size
5) Grading system
6) Competition level
7) Location
8) Admin/faculty devotion to students
9) Opportunities (clinical, research, extracurricular)
10) Vague quality of match list...maybe

what else?

Great list! For me, research opportunities is *very* important and wouldn't be a sub-category heh. Number 8 is rather hard to quantify. The only quantitiative way I've got is to measure the quality of the facilities and whether the faculty were laid-back.
Number 6 may be related to number 5.
Other thing: you might want to score these 1-10 (relatively speaking), then give each a weight depending on how important each is to you.

 

[C.P. Jones]

Great list! For me, research opportunities is *very* important and wouldn't be a sub-category heh. Number 8 is rather hard to quantify. The only quantitiative way I've got is to measure the quality of the facilities and whether the faculty were laid-back.
Number 6 may be related to number 5.
Other thing: you might want to score these 1-10 (relatively speaking), then give each a weight depending on how important each is to you.

that's true that number 9 should really be split since they are very big topics. I just wanted to list it in general for the time being, obviously i'll look at research and joining some sports club differently This does bring me to a question. How important is reasearch in med school? I'm giving it low priority b/c research is all i've done since college, and i'd rather not do any of it in med school, but do you believe it's needed for a good residencies?

Number 9 I think i will also look at things such as mentoring/guidance programs offered by the school. Not having an idea about specialties, I will probably make use of such a mentor.

I think that's a great idea to score each category in importance, but I'll just do that on my own since we all have different ideas of what's more important to ourselves.

 

[45408]

Class size is largely irrelevant, IMO, and don't bother looking at their match list for more than just a brief glance. Tuition, grading system and location are very important. You can do research at pretty much any school you want, I bet.

 

[C.P. Jones]

1) Tuition/expenses, not considering fin aid.
2) Curriculum Style (lecture/PBL/unique classes/system-based/etc)
3) Clinical experiences (diversity/quality/facilities)
4) Class size
5) Grading system
6) Competition level
7) Location
8) Admin/faculty devotion to students
9) Clinical Opportunities
10) Research Opps
11) Extracurricular activities (clubs,etc)
12) Vague quality of match list...maybe
13) Volunteering Opps

what else?

 

[C.P. Jones]

Class size is largely irrelevant, IMO, and don't bother looking at their match list for more than just a brief glance. Tuition, grading system and location are very important. You can do research at pretty much any school you want, I bet.

Yea, I won't do much with the match list. It is nice to see good programs listed in there, but I know it's up to me to get into whatever program I want (i hope)

 

[45408]

1) Tuition/expenses, not considering fin aid.
2) Curriculum Style (lecture/PBL/unique classes/system-based/etc)
3) Clinical experiences (diversity/quality/facilities)
4) Class size
5) Grading system
6) Competition level
7) Location
8) Admin/faculty devotion to students
9) Clinical Opportunities
10) Research Opps
11) Extracurricular activities (clubs,etc)
12) Vague quality of match list...maybe
13) Volunteering Opps

what else?

I would just pick a few to really hone in on - practically everywhere will have plenty of volunteering opportunities for you, and competition might surprise you. It takes all I can muster to stay in the middle of my class, and my numbers exceeded the school averages by a reasonable amount.

Put "gut feeling" pretty high up there too - the general vibe you get is definitely going to count as well.

 

[UMP]

1) Price
2) Proximity to home
3) thug lifestyle opportunities

 

[durfen]

Research is an important factor for me because 1. I'm an MSTP applicant and 2. my research is rather esoteric and done by only a few institutions by relatively new and young faculty, which is unfortunately also the top institutions.

Second is location location location.
Third: Med school facilities and looks: The only really objective way to see if the med school cares about ya.

 

[tdd340]

3) thug lifestyle opportunities

Amazing, this is also going to the top of my list. WSU will provide plenty of this I'm sure.