SUNY DS vs Carle UofIllinois

[purpleleopard]

Hello!

I just got off SUNY DS waitlist yesterday and am also accepted at Carle University of Illinois (engineering based med school) in Urbana Champaign.

Does anyone have insight on pros / cons of either school that they would be willing to share or DM me with? I especially am looking for information on SUNY Downstate as I have never been, am OOS, and have seen several negative reviews on Reddit/sdn.

Thank you!!

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[tyke on a bike]

These are great choices! Answering these questions may help with your decision:

1. [COLOR=rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.6)]What are the differences in Cost of Living/Attendance? [/COLOR]
2. What specialty are you interested in? SUNY has more home residency programs which may be important. Both schools have great match lists but SUNY is more established which may give it a slightly better edge. Also Carle's class is 60 and is a very young program so it's tough to really understand its matching prospects (but current data is very promising!)
3. How important is the learning styles of the programs? As you said Carle seems to instil an engineering mindset. Both schools seem to start clerkship in 2nd half of 2nd year. SUNY gives 7 weeks for USMLE Step 1 studying while Carle gives 3 weeks.
4. How important is proximity to family? I assume you are from IL
5. How important is class size? Carle is 60 while SUNY is ~200
6. How important is the city environment of the school? Urbana-Champaign is a small (~250k) college town vs Brooklyn (2.7 million) in NYC. Urbana-Champaign is safer and more affordable. In Brooklyn, you may be exposed to a more diverse patient population.
7. How important is research for you (ties in with specialty question)? I would assume being in NYC will open more doors for research opportunities. That said, UIUC is considered a research powerhouse.
8. What negative reviews have you heard about SUNY?

At the end of the day, you've been accepted to great schools. You chose to stay on the SUNY waitlist, so I would ask yourself of the possible reasons why – that may refresh your mind. If you were accepted to SUNY and WL to Carle would you have stayed on Carle's WL? I wish you best of luck!