Stony Brook vs. Hofstra vs. Case Western

[TPWK2024]

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[deleted972488]

Wait until you have financial aid packages and if Hofstra does indeed give you a scholarship that makes it cheaper than Stony Brook, go to Hofstra. I don’t think there are any meaningful differences in rankings.

 

[hydrophobicmed]

If you don’t like mandatory lectures, eliminate Hofstra. 8 am everyday is a lot to get used to. Mandatory lecture is completely antiquated and unreasonable.

H/P/F for preclinical is also antiquated and unnecessary. Compared with Case, Stony just doesn’t have the reputation or prestige at all, especially in the NYC area. You will always live in the shadow of big names.

Don’t decide this based on money, when the schools are not in the same league, you will regret it later. Pick case.

 

[TPWK2024]

If you don’t like mandatory lectures, eliminate Hofstra. 8 am everyday is a lot to get used to. Mandatory lecture is completely antiquated and unreasonable.

H/P/F for preclinical is also antiquated and unnecessary. Compared with Case, Stony just doesn’t have the reputation or prestige at all, especially in the NYC area. You will always live in the shadow of big names.

Don’t decide this based on money, when the schools are not in the same league, you will regret it later. Pick case.

My thing is that Case will essentially add on an extra 160K of debt, which is hard for me to justify.

 

[hydrophobicmed]

My thing is that Case will essentially add on an extra 160K of debt, which is hard for me to justify.

It’s gonna get you a much better name. For a 30+ year career, it’s worth it. 160k is a lot in your current view, but you will make more than 5 million in your career. So do the math then.

Also think like this, you can buy a place in queens for 500k or an equivalent place in manhattan for 660k. Which one would you pick? The point is that the base of your income is gonna be so high that 160k will be a small percentage of that in the long run.

 

[DevinBookerMD]

if your goal is to match in nyc/long island, i think you go with stony. whatever advantage you get with case bc of name recognition is negated by the geographical advantage and networking you get from stony. just look at stony's match list, in the nyc area it looks like a top school's match. if you wanted to match back to the west coast or something then i'd say pick case but i don't think it makes sense in your case (no pun intended). to give you an example, i've been accepted at BU and UCI. BU is the better school, hands down. It's also 120k more. I'm going to UCI unless I get serious aid because the match list in California is great. These higher ranked schools are better nationally but if you have already honed in on a region then these state schools save you money and offer you a different kind of advantage. And that 160k more from Case is going to look more like 250-300k after interest. Combined with your SO's debt that's an extra 2-5 years of a significant portion of your salary going to loans. In the end it's up to you but I don't see how it would help that much. Case isn't Harvard.

 

[DevinBookerMD]

just imagine you get paid biweekly. for you to pick case means that after every two weeks of work you see your paycheck and know that you get to keep a small fraction of it. now imagine that happening 52-130 times (2-5 years) haha.

 

[TPWK2024]

if your goal is to match in nyc/long island, i think you go with stony. whatever advantage you get with case bc of name recognition is negated by the geographical advantage and networking you get from stony. just look at stony's match list, in the nyc area it looks like a top school's match. if you wanted to match back to the west coast or something then i'd say pick case but i don't think it makes sense in your case (no pun intended). to give you an example, i've been accepted at BU and UCI. BU is the better school, hands down. It's also 120k more. I'm going to UCI unless I get serious aid because the match list in California is great. These higher ranked schools are better nationally but if you have already honed in on a region then these state schools save you money and offer you a different kind of advantage. And that 160k more from Case is going to look more like 250-300k after interest. Combined with your SO's debt that's an extra 2-5 years of a significant portion of your salary going to loans. In the end it's up to you but I don't see how it would help that much. Case isn't Harvard.

Thanks for the comprehensive answer! My SO is looking at 230K of debt herself, so you make some very good points. You’re right; Case isn’t Harvard so I also feel the cost isn’t worth it, especially considering that we plan on starting a family after graduation. I will keep this in mind, thanks again!!