School Selection Spreadsheet

[ekmf27050]

Hi All-

I'm in a fortunate position to be selecting between a few acceptances, and I am definitely not complaining. However, my acceptances are all to schools that seemed similar up front (with similar "gut feelings"). So I did what I do best when making tough choices-- analyzed the crap out of it.

I came up with general categories of interest (curriculum, location, student support), and then broke it down further from there (preclinical years, clinical years, housing prices, travel to clinical sites, etc).

I then assigned each subcategory a weight- how important is this factor (ie, grading) to me? I used weights between 1-3.

Then, each school got a score for that section between 1-3. For example, if school 1's preclinical years are great, they get a score of three.

Since preclinical curriculum has a weight of 3, and school 1 got a score of 3, the total points for that entry are 9.

I then used a function (with difficulty, after remembering what a function was), to get a total score for each school based on all of these factors big and small. I'm not basing my decision solely on this score, but the process of filling in the spreadsheet has really helped me move towards a decision.

I figured I would put it up here, if it would be useful to anyone else. You can change the categories to what matters most to you (though you may have to adjust the function). If you want to leave the categories, you can use weights and scores of your choosing and the function should automatically adjust. Hopefully it's helpful for some of you also trying to make a decision!

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[DokterMom]

Gee, they all look pretty equal to me -- so just go with your gut.














Just kidding

 

[ekmf27050]

Gee, they all look pretty equal to me -- so just go with your gut.














Just kidding

Actually, I ended up having two with almost identical scores....
But the process of doing the research to fill in the spreadsheet was super helpful, even if med school websites are the WORST to navigate

 

[ekmf27050]

*** Also to note- if you switch out a category topic, but keep the row numbers the same, you shouldn't have any issues with getting a total score

 

[Alejandro]

I think you also need to go based on your gut feel. If you're feeling they're all equal, then you may also consider how close/far you are from family, traveling back home, ethnic diversity, etc. I dunno if scoring everything is what needs to be done. Its trying to make an objective decision that ought to be largely subjective.

For me, I think location made a huge difference, especially if you're single vs married. Single-bigger cities are more fun and probably better for your social life. Married, maybe a cheaper city is more important. What can suck if you're single in a non-single city. Thats what happened to me and i really feel my social life took a major hit over 4 years.

I think with the exception of a few elite elite schools, its not the wand, its the wizard. People from no-name places can match at elite programs, having good steps and clerkship grades. Plus, what specialty you might go into muddies the waters anyways as not every specialty is going to be equally good at every school and so is mentorship too.

 

[ekmf27050]

I think you also need to go based on your gut feel. If you're feeling they're all equal, then you may also consider how close/far you are from family, traveling back home, ethnic diversity, etc. I dunno if scoring everything is what needs to be done. Its trying to make an objective decision that ought to be largely subjective.

For me, I think location made a huge difference, especially if you're single vs married. Single-bigger cities are more fun and probably better for your social life. Married, maybe a cheaper city is more important. What can suck if you're single in a non-single city. Thats what happened to me and i really feel my social life took a major hit over 4 years.

I think with the exception of a few elite elite schools, its not the wand, its the wizard. People from no-name places can match at elite programs, having good steps and clerkship grades. Plus, what specialty you might go into muddies the waters anyways as not every specialty is going to be equally good at every school and so is mentorship too.

I think the problem with gut feeling is that I may possibly have a defective gut. (Is it too much Easter candy? It's probably too much Easter candy). I don't know if this is unique to me, but for literally every interview my gut feeling was "Wow, this school is great!". And then, when I got accepted: "Wow, this school is great!" My gut is not the most discerning, apparently.

Since I have the luxury (and I do realize it is a luxury) of deciding between four schools, I want to make an educated decision. As I mentioned above, the spreadsheet and the scoring is not how I will make my decision, unless the legally binding Microsoft Excel license has changed recently. The spreadsheet was useful for two main things:
1) The process of researching and writing notes for the different schools on the details-- clinical rotations, location, specialty mentorship opportunities-- all things that you mentioned above as being important. Looking into these in an organized way for each school was very informative
2) The scoring, while not an exact science, did help me figure out my "top two"- aka, when I broke things down, I realized that there were actually multiple things about the "bottom two" schools that I didn't like, and seeing that objectively was helpful

I don't at all disagree that "it's not the wand, it's the wizard" (love the HP reference)-- I understand that medical school is what you make of it, however, I want to find the school that's the best fit for me to make it/do well/etc.

So, TL;DR- the spreadsheet might not be everyone's cup of tea, but filling it out is a useful exercise to objectively/categorically research schools and help you to make a decision.