SUNY Buffalo (Jacobs) vs Nebraska (UNMC) vs SUNY Stony Brook (RSOM)

[bigyeeter]

SUNY Buffalo
Pros

• Closest to home/family
• Extremely collegial, kind, and warm atmosphere (though in fairness to the other schools, Buffalo was my only in-person interview). I cannot overstate how impressed I was with how kind everyone was, from fellow applicants to interviewers to office staff.
• Brand new building with awesome facilities
• Kind of like the setup of having multiple specialty hospitals instead of one teaching hospital
• Connections to the medical community in this area that could give me some cool opportunities while in school.
• In a really cool part of town

Cons

• Lowest ranked of the three
• I've lived in Buffalo for a good chunk of my life and would like to experience something new while I'm still young.
• Medical campus is away from the undergrad campus, so no school gym and difficult to access the resources of the bigger campuses.
• Downtown Buffalo is getting kind of expensive
• Closest to home/family (yes, this is both a pro and a con)
• I'd need to move across the country (I go to undergrad in Nebraska)
• 2 year preclinical

MSAR est. COL is $72,876 (IS) for Buffalo


Nebraska (UNMC)
Pros

• Closest to undergrad and all the professional connections I have built over my time here
• My life is in Nebraska and is relatively close by, so I could keep things like my doctor, bank, etc. Not huge but a nice perk.
• Omaha is a cooler city than many give it credit for, and is cheap
• Dirt cheap, even OOS. Could get IS after a year.
• Research powerhouse, highest-ranked of all three (by a hair, RSOM is one ranking below so it's essentially equal).
• Shorter move
• Massive campus with tons of resources, essentially the opposite of the Buffalo campus.
• 18 month preclinical

Cons

• On interview day, everyone felt really tense. It felt like a fairly competitive environment both among applicants and even kind of among the med students. But I'm trying to hold off on some judgement with this until I can visit.
• Another four years of people asking me "why the hell are you in Nebraska"
• An ortho attending who is a relatively recent grad from UNMC told me that he felt really unsupported in pursuing a competitive specialty. This is in line with the strong push UNMC has to produce primary care physicians.
• I am interested in ENT (though not dead set, but it is the most competitive thing I'm interested in) and they only matched one person to ENT last year.
• Complete lack of diversity (it's Nebraska)

MSAR est. COL is $56,729 (OOS) for UNMC, which would be the first year, then $45,766 (IS) for the rest of my time there.


SUNY Stony Brook
Pros

• Located in a place I am genuinely unfamiliar with and haven't lived before
• Medium distance from family (about ~7 hours)
• Close-ish, but not distractingly close to NYC
• Close to excellent hiking, mountains, etc
• Excellent research
• Impressive match
• Was impressed with how chill the faculty interviewer and student interviewer were, but didn't really get to interact with students much.
• 3YMD option is cool though I'm not sure if feasible
• 18 month preclinical

Cons

• Teaching hospital serves an area with relatively low population density compared to NYC, so there isn't as much action.
• Kinda rural/"out there"
• Most expensive, particularly in terms of COL.
• Don't know as much about it, particularly in terms of "feel"

MSAR est. COL is $77,342 (IS) for Stony Brook

Summary: SB is the exciting unknown, Nebraska is the "safe" choice, and Buffalo is in the balance. If Buffalo was further from home and an 18 month preclinical, it would be a no-brainer. Nebraska offers a new city and the safety of some old connections, while SB offers pretty much a whole new frontier. I'm paralyzed by the great choice ahead of me!

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[afib_atruth]

Tough choice between three great options. Based on what you wrote, it seems like it would be difficult for you to move back across the country, logistically and personally. Plus if cost is a big deciding factor for you, that would definitely sway the decision toward Nebraska. Buffalo is a great city, but it seems like you're kind of over it and more want to explore something new. Plus it can definitely be a blessing and a curse to be close to family lol. I would suggest maybe trying to get more of a "feel" for SB and the area before making a decision, since you're unfamiliar with it, but it seems like Nebraska has a lot of the qualities you're looking for. Try talking with a student or two if you can so determine if the environment really is overly competitive, especially if that's a deal breaker for you.

 

[beepbeep197]

Hi! Congrats on getting into these amazing schools. I am a Stony Brook native and just wanted to share my honest opinion about living here. I mean, you're used to Nebraska and Buffalo, places I have no experience with, but Stony Brook is not exciting. It's a stereotypical, majority-white, conservative suburb. It's also quite expensive to find rental homes, most of which are pretty old too. The only plus is the beach. They pitch being close to the city, but the truth is you're an hour and a half away by train and you'll have to transfer lmao. Stony Brook is an incredible school, and I absolutely do not want to discourage anyone from coming here. I realize you also said you wanted a change, which I totally get. I just want to be completely honest about the location! It's not a bad place to live, but I heard how they tried to sell it during the interview day lmao. Please feel free to PM me if you have any questions.

((I am not saying this for my own gain!!! I am not on a waitlist for this school.))

 

[beepbeep197]

Hey! I actually got into UB and SBU too! I am leaning more towards SB though. I am from the Long Island area and have had the chance to visit SB several times.

Stony Brook is not incredibly exciting per se, but if you have a car, there are beautiful places and parks on Long Island. The Hamptons are "near", there are famous vineyards a little out east, and the North Shore has incredible (albeit rocky) beaches while the South has soft sand. The LIRR train is a super reliable and easy way to get to the city, although it is a 1.5 hr ride. The campus is pretty (in my opinion) and they have some exciting new buildings, but as beep beep said above, it's your average cozy suburb. I do know it isn't just white, there is also a notable Hispanic population.

Overall, I think you should get a feel of it before making a final decision. Sometimes we need change, but sometimes it's good to stick to what we are most comfortable with. The COL in Nebraska is truly tempting, but if you feel like the environment may be unsupportive, I feel like you need to go where you will be so and be happy. That is just my .02!

That is true!!! Just as a POC living here all my life, I have definitely experienced a lot of racism and xenophobia from this community unfortunately :/ which is why I am trying to get the heck outta here lmao. But hey, maybe we will all be classmates in the fall

 

[bigyeeter]

Thank you all so much for the replies!! These really help me feel justified in having such a tough time picking— the school that I'm leaning towards varies by the minute. I really do love all three schools— and I don't necessarily think that Nebraska is a super competitive environment ("Nebraska Nice" is definitely a thing and most people who go there are from here). However, Buffalo's interview just absolutely blew me away as far as the "feel". It is hard for the other two to compete with that especially when they were over zoom and Buffalo was in-person. At the same time, my undergrad sends a lot of people to Nebraska— and I know a few that are going there. The vast majority are some of the best people I have ever met, though a handful are representative of people who came across as gunners (to put it lightly). I genuinely do not know if it's a good thing or a bad thing that I'll know people in my class on Day 1— part of me likes starting new, but I really do love the people around me and I really would love to spend more of my academic career with them.

I'm going to head up to Omaha to check out the campus and area soon. One big plus for Nebraska that I kind of forgot about is how they pretty much completely dominate the healthcare not only in the state but in the region. Because of how vast and rural the surrounding area is, UNMC dominates healthcare for the state and region. My understanding is Creighton is pretty irrelevant outside of Omaha and the only other school in 3 hours is DMUCOM. For Buffalo, there is Rochester, Upstate, LECOM, Pitt, and Case Western just within a three hour range. Stony Brook... all the NYC hospitals. All that said, the ability to match competitively does concern me a bit at UNMC. I'm really unsure if I will be able to or not.

If anyone has any other thoughts, please feel free to add. I know that no matter where I end up, I'll be happy— just need to figure out where will provide me the most opportunity and happiness