Sinai vs. Duke

[meticulousmacrophage]

---

Members don't see this ad.

Hi! I wanted to preface this by acknowledging that I’m in a very lucky position and would receive a great medical education at either of these schools. I know to some this may seem like an obvious choice—just curious to hear others’ perspectives.

For context, I’m in my early 20s and coming into med school off 1 gap year. I grew up in Hawaii, went to school in Massachusetts, and have spent my entire life living in or visiting major cities (Honolulu, LA, Boston, & NYC). I’m mixed asian-american so having access to cultural diversity has always been important to me.

As I enter medical school, I’m hoping to keep an open mind but have an interest in orthopedics or plastics with the goal of making my way back to the west coast / California or maybe NYC for residency. I would prefer to earn my MD / MBA and a “nice to have” would be a program that supports my interest in using the visual arts to explain research and educate patients.

I attended both Duke & Sinai SLW and felt I could mesh with what I saw of each community. The crux of this choice is that I really disliked Durham / loved Duke and love NYC / liked Sinai (did not feel as strongly). I also don’t know how much of a real “difference” in competitive specialty outcomes there are between the schools beyond Duke’s match list being stronger.

With the cons / pros below, I’m not including things that are equal at both schools (ex. Both have P/F preclinical grading, even though Sinai has H / P / F clerkships I’m told that most people earn H).

Sinai

Cons

• No home MD / MBA program
• Not part of a university
• Educational spaces were OK

Pros

• 40% cost of attendance (COA) in aid
• I love NYC, offers everything that I like to do (food, cultural activities, art, shopping, fitness classes, live music)
• NYC medical school and hospital network (especially closer proximity to HSS)
• Aron Hall community: everyone lives together in the middle of manhattan for ~ $600 / month
• Amazing hospital system & diverse patient population

Duke

Cons

• I had a pretty negative, anxious gut feeling about Durham (no hate, just my personal reaction)
• Seems like dating & social scene would be tougher (I don’t drink, sports scene not super my thing)
• It would be professionally amazing to have a higher chance of matching into a Duke residency, but I’m not sure if I would want to spend 8+ years in Durham

Pros

• 80% COA in aid / scholarship
• MD / MBA program
• Extremely well-structured curriculum: dedicated faculty to 1 year pre-clinical, free third year for dual degree, research, or study abroad in Singapore
• Insane match list (especially for ortho & plastics)
• Nicest campus and most advanced facilities I’ve seen (ex. 3 da vinci surgical robots just for practice)

I know that this exact comparison has been posted in previous cycles, but I would love to hear current input especially from older medical students, residents, and attendings if they happen to see this. Thank you for reading this and good luck to everyone as the cycle wraps up!

 

[shy_hulud]

So just to double-check, assuming that both Duke and Sinai have a ~$400k CoA across four years, you'd be looking at paying ~$240k at Sinai and ~$80k at Duke for four years? If yes, then that's a pretty big factor imo, especially since you're interested in an MBA. Duke's MBA pipeline is pretty robust; essentially all MD/MBAs get funding for the MBA and a good chunk get tuition completely covered.

Living situation is obv very personal and has a cost if you absolutely despise an area. That being said, I also came from a large-city context and I've come to really, really like Durham. The region has a lot of diversity and a lot to offer if you like the outdoors, particularly because the weather is very nice almost year-round. However, that comes with the caveat that you will probably need a car vs NYC. Also re: match lists, you're not tied to home matching back to Duke if you don't want to live in Durham. BWH/MGH is usually the #2 most matched residency, usually followed by UCSF/Stanford, and then by the other big NE academic programs (Penn/JHU/NYP). The people I know in ortho that wanted to go back to the west coast or NE matched super well (UCSF x2, Harvard HCCORP x1, and Mt. Sinai x1)

 

[m1redsox]

I certainly wouldn’t pay more for one over the other, so my vote is Duke. With that said, I have a bias wherein I think NC is awesome and has a lot to offer. Coming from a Californian, I think NC is extraordinarily underrated.