stony brook v. case?

[bmarms]

any thoughts?

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[geekOCD]

Um...the schools pretty much couldn't be more different. What's important to you - curriculum style & structure (traditional vs. different/pbl), cost (Case is ~20K more a year unless you get a scholarship), location (suburbs vs. Cleveland or N.E. vs. midwest), patient population & mix, prestige, research opportunities, clinical opportunities, class diversity.... ?? I chose Case over Downstate (didn't apply to Stony Brook) among others, so if you give me a better idea of what's important to you, I can give better advice. =)

 

[bmarms]

do you feel that you case education is worth the tremendous difference in price? all of my family/ friends is on the east coast, the idea of moving to cleveland is a bit daunting in my mind.

 

[MossPoh]

do you feel that you case education is worth the tremendous difference in price? all of my family/ friends is on the east coast, the idea of moving to cleveland is a bit daunting in my mind.

Cleveland isn't THAT far away and can barely be considered midwest. Keep in mind you aren't going to be traveling home or meeting with friends outside of medical school all that much anyway.

To put things in perspective. mapquest says 7 1/2 hours to nyc from cleveland. You can easily do it in less than that. They say 9 hours from state college, PA to chicago, IL. I did that in about 7 hours....for a weekend trip.

It isn't like you are moving to california here. It is cleveland. Price and education should probably factor in more. Also, there are a lot of good hospitals IN the cleveland area if you want to suck up for residency.

 

[bmarms]

do you think it would be harder to match into a ny residency?

 

[littlealex]

Go check out the Case match list, they match pretty well and they matched all over.

 

[aaj117]

Stony Brook is actually a really great school as well though, it's not like you won't get a great education there. It is the suburbs, and i don't know if that's what you're looking for (i know it's not what i wanted), but the patient population is still reeeeeeally diverse (i've done EMS in that area for years) and there is definitely still some fun to be had in the area. There are also so many opportunities for early clinical and for research, with the distinction in research available on your degree for any medically related research, even if it's in like medical anthropology or bioethics or whatever. I definitely think this school is really under-rated.

 

[bmarms]

do you think stony brook will have a more competitive vibe- because they are not straight p/f? i couldn't get a good reading on this comparison based on my interview days at both schools.

 

[aaj117]

I don't think so, because from what i understand it's not like only a certain percentage can get honors, pass, fail, whatever, it's just above/below a certain number. I'm not 100% sure about this though. Their second look weekend is April 11th so it'd definitely be worth at least checking out for you. I'm going to a stony brook snma thing on March 1st and i'll ask around there and see if i can get a better understanding of that for both of us.

 

[hp540]

I haven't seen Stony Brook, but I found Case to be pretty awesome. Amazing affiliations with world class teaching hospitals...hard to beat

 

[geekOCD]

If you want to stay very near friends/family, then go to Stony Brook, no question. Like other posters have mentioned, Case is on the Eastern tip of Ohio, so it's 2 hours from Pittsburgh, 2 hours from Buffalo, and 7 from NYC. Classmates of mine do weekend trips to those places, but it's we're talking maybe a couple of times a semester, not every weekend.

Regarding cost...it all depends on what you think of the curriculums (!! they're very different; Case's curriculum is NOT for everybody), patient & class diversity, and how important clinical and research opportunities are to you, I think. In the end, I'm strongly in favor of P/F, I felt like my opportunities would be limited at nyc schools and I worried that I might become interested in pursuing something that wasn't well-supported by my school/affiliated hospitals. vs. Case has literally unparalleled clinical and research resources...we're the only school in Cleveland with 5 AMAZING major hospitals (+ all of their satellites) that are top ranked in everything you can think of and are doing tons of research (basic, translational, clinical, public health). My class is diverse (age, background, race) and so's the patient population (almost everything).

That said, it's definitely a lot of money. I don't regret my decision at all, but it's a hard one to make and one that nearly everyone here had to struggle with.