SLU med vs MIZZOU med

[mangopr]

Hi guys! I've been so blessed to receive acceptances from both slu and mizzou med and I'm having the hardest time deciding.
A little about me: I'm from KC and would like to specialize in some type of Surgery (most likely plastics)

Slu pros:

Bigger city= more opportunities
Near WashU med, where students have gotten summer research opportunities at.
Great match rates into competitive specialties
1.5 years lecture and 2.5 years clinical which is awesome to have early experience
Easy opportunities to shadow physicians

Slu cons:
3.5-4 hours drive from home (I don't enjoy driving). I would see my family a lot less.
Private school = more expensive
I didn't really click with the people that much on second look day. I felt a bit disconnected to be completely honest.
It didn't feel like "home"
Not many organized social events to bond with the class

Mizzou pros:
Second look day, I fell in love with the people. I genuinely had a lot of fun.
I really enjoyed the PBL concept
Socially, I would thrive here. I didn't go to a big undergrad, so I'm looking forward to football games, tailgating, basketball, wrestling, etc.
The facility is so nice, it's a lot newer than SLU's!
In-state tuition
Closer to home, it's only a 2-hour drive.

Mizzou cons:
Rural city. I'm scared that this will affect my chances of being able to match into a competitive specialty.
Might have to be in Springfield M3 & M4 year.
This year, only 1 person matched into plastics (I'm not sure how many actually wanted to match)


I felt like SLU's second look day wasn't long enough for me to really gauge the personalities of my classmates as it was only 4 hours long, whereas Mizzou was two days. My heart is telling me Mizzou, but my head is telling me SLU.

My heart wants to justify that I was able to get into medical school from a tiny undergrad, then I can match into a competitive specialty anywhere I go for medical school as long as I truly give it my all.

What are your thoughts?

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[yummy_green_crayons]

Fellow future plastics applicant here (as long as I don’t screw up step 2 haha) and planning on attending SLU. For me, between Mizzou and SLU it came down to a couple things; I made spreadsheets of their match data based on historical matches over the past 6 years, and for plastics it’s extremely similar, too similar to really decide based on that. So I focused on the most important criteria for matching plastics, things like research, USMLE scores, networking, and leadership. SLU’s proximity to Wash U is definitely appealing for research, but they also just opened up a position for a full-time research coordinator to help the students find research, so if you want to get some projects going at SLU, you can do that, or you can chase down summer research at Wash U. Research isn’t too hard to come by at Mizzou from the students I’ve spoken with, but you don’t have the benefit of another T15 med school right next door to jump onto high-impact projects with. I’m also not sure if they have a “research coordinator” position, but it could just be a buzzword SLU used to sell themselves, so I won’t pretend like it’s better than Mizzou in that regard. Proximity to
Wash U though… that could make a big difference.

The 1.5yr preclinical at SLU will also give you more time to network with other plastics programs during your away rotations. Plastics residents from both schools usually match to other programs, though a few have matched to the home program on occasion. Most likely, you will match to another program in a different state, so keep that in mind when considering your clinical rotations. SLU gives you more time to visit other programs by nature of the 1.5yr preclinical. In the end though, both schools do have their home Plastic and Recon programs, and the letters of rec they will write you are extremely important, which means you could be successful at either if you are willing to put in the work.

As far as not feeling like home, I attended college out-of-state and I’ve miraculously met 3 different docs where I currently live that attended SLU SOM, and all three raved about how much they loved it. I haven’t met any from Mizzou, probably because most end up practicing in Missouri and I am not there at the moment, but I know that SLU tends to be pretty well-loved by its alumni. It’s not cheap, but they really do a great job supporting students, especially with emotional wellness/mental health resources. Also, if you do attend Mizzou and you end up at the Springfield campus, you *might* not feel like you’re at home anymore. Emphasis on *might* because you could also end up loving it 🙂 I think rural medicine is pretty cool, and I tip my hat to those willing to do it! But rural plastics is fairly uncommon, from what I hear, and if you ever decide to go into private practice, rural medicine is probably just not on your horizons.

If you want plastics, STEP also matters a lot, and it might be worth considering for your decision on schools. That was probably the last deciding factor for me that pushed me toward SLU over Mizzou. SLU is huge on third party resources, something that specifically came up during my chat with some students at Mizzou, and they all seemed pretty frustrated about the lack of support for STEP. Mizzou doesn’t pay for 3rd party resources, whereas SLU has explicitly moved to incorporate them into the curriculum. They pay for them, test you on them, and it all leads to an easier time preparing for and taking your USMLE’s. I wish Mizzou would hop on board, but until they do, I feel like SLU just makes more sense, particularly for a plastics applicant.

In short, research is available, preclinicals are shorter, there are lots of clubs and chances for leadership to stand out in your residency app, there’s more support for STEP, and the faculty and students are historically very nice. I also just prefer the city, but if you like the suburbs/rural life, Mizzou is still a great option. Both are awesome schools, and both could get you where you want to go if you work hard enough. You could be happy and successful at either. My own educated guess is that plastics might be a bit easier at SLU. If anyone else has input, I’d welcome the discourse! I definitely don’t know everything about both schools, so my own analysis could have some holes I didn’t notice. Best of luck to you, OP! I’m sure you’ll make the right choice, and in the end, do what you think is best for you and your future 🙂

 

[DoneDone3451]

Mizzou

 

[soccer_pickle_885]

You can’t go wrong with either, in my opinion. Proximity to WashU is a plus, but I do know Mizzou students that have also spent time in STL working with WashU on research projects. (summer breaks, away rotations, etc) Good luck!

 

[NotSoSlimShady]

Also currently trying to decide between these two!

 

[hydroflaskhomie]

I think as long as you're motivated, these schools shouldn't differ too much in providing a platform from which to apply plastics.

Go to Mizzou since you like it better and hit the ground running.

 

[jvquarterback]

Both great schools. I pick Mizzou. Save your money. I’m a WashU grad for med school and residency. In my residency we had one SLU grad and one Mizzou grad in five years for a competitive residency. Both were great. Check more recent data though.

SLU is no more WashU than Missouri and if you network from either school and make a good impression you should be fine.

 

[itschilly]

Current SLU student.

• I have fam in KC and I've seen them pretty often tbh. Drive does suck tho.
• Being near WashU does help, there are plenty of students who do longitudinal research across the street, not just over the summer.
• I obviously can't comment on the incoming class but SLU usually puts together a good group of people and there are plenty of social opportunities. We've done happy hours with WUSM, SLU Law, we've done bar crawls, baseball/hockey games, clurbing, etc. There are also a lot of informal events people will host. I've made a lot of lifelong pals here and I can't really think of anyone I couldn't get along with in my class which I feel is pretty rare.
• While Mizzou is much more vocal about their PBL curriculum, SLU does pretty much the same thing in TBL. It's a helpful tool for synthesizing and applying your knowledge and working with your classmates but I really would not factor this heavily into my decision if I were you. Most of your learning happens on your own time through 3rd party lectures, Anki, etc., TBL is just like a fun little game to test your knowledge and chit chat with your peers.
• By the time you enter clinicals, the new children's hospital will be open, so you will have two brand new hospitals to rotate through. I have heard rumors that they're planning to keep all 4 hospitals open (new/old SLU hospital, new/old Cardinal Glennon) but not sure what exactly that will look like.
• The preclinical facilities are straight out of the 70s. Don't know who decided to merge three buildings and build the anatomy lab on top of that mess. I have heard an all but confirmed rumor they will be erecting a new building to house the med school, but probably wouldn't be for at least a few more years. Schematics look dope, though.
• Yeah we don't have a college sports culture here unfortunately, I still just keep up with Mizzou lol

 

[mangopr]

Current SLU student.

• I have fam in KC and I've seen them pretty often tbh. Drive does suck tho.
• Being near WashU does help, there are plenty of students who do longitudinal research across the street, not just over the summer.
• I obviously can't comment on the incoming class but SLU usually puts together a good group of people and there are plenty of social opportunities. We've done happy hours with WUSM, SLU Law, we've done bar crawls, baseball/hockey games, clurbing, etc. There are also a lot of informal events people will host. I've made a lot of lifelong pals here and I can't really think of anyone I couldn't get along with in my class which I feel is pretty rare.
• While Mizzou is much more vocal about their PBL curriculum, SLU does pretty much the same thing in TBL. It's a helpful tool for synthesizing and applying your knowledge and working with your classmates but I really would not factor this heavily into my decision if I were you. Most of your learning happens on your own time through 3rd party lectures, Anki, etc., TBL is just like a fun little game to test your knowledge and chit chat with your peers.
• By the time you enter clinicals, the new children's hospital will be open, so you will have two brand new hospitals to rotate through. I have heard rumors that they're planning to keep all 4 hospitals open (new/old SLU hospital, new/old Cardinal Glennon) but not sure what exactly that will look like.
• The preclinical facilities are straight out of the 70s. Don't know who decided to merge three buildings and build the anatomy lab on top of that mess. I have heard an all but confirmed rumor they will be erecting a new building to house the med school, but probably wouldn't be for at least a few more years. Schematics look dope, though.
• Yeah we don't have a college sports culture here unfortunately, I still just keep up with Mizzou lol

Just got a full ride at SLU so I will be attending this fall!

 

[itschilly]

Just got a full ride at SLU so I will be attending this fall!

Congratulations!! And welcome to SLU! happy to answer any questions you might have

 

[scaredstr8]

Congratulations!! And welcome to SLU! happy to answer any questions you might have

also deciding on SLU! your comment was so helpful. do you mind sharing what the pass threshold is for exams? and is there internal rank? thanks so much

 

[itschilly]

also deciding on SLU! your comment was so helpful. do you mind sharing what the pass threshold is for exams? and is there internal rank? thanks so much

65% for IP which basically just means you have to retake and pass the course but your transcript will not be affected (i.e. will show 'Pass') and 75% for Pass. You can fail any given exam so long as you score high enough on the other exams to pass the course. I think the structure/organization of our classes are pretty forgiving, very few people IP or fail a given block.

There is a quartile rank (i.e. top 25%, top 50%, etc.) that starts when you begin clerkships. Your shelf scores and evaluations factor into this rank and they use it for AOA nominations (top 30% are invited to apply, ~80-90% of those who apply are selected).