SUNY Stony Brook vs U of Miami

[jaycee]

Trying to make my final decision and I'd like to hear what peoples thoughts on both schools, especially since I'm OOS for both.

Miami seemed like a great city with a very diverse experience clinically, but I hear that its a bit lacking in the teaching department due to reconstruction of the cirriculum.

Stony Brook on the other hand seems to have a great reputation for education and match very well into NYC later. Although the suburbs arent necessarily a high point.

Anyways, any personal feedback from people on their impressions and experiences at either place would be greatly appreciated!

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[Old ortho]

Are you a resident of NY, FL or neither?

 

[HreComesTheSun]

he said he's oos for both

do u get in-state tuition more easily at one school over the other?

 

[I AM FABIO]

go to the U

canes r gonna own this season

 

[Old ortho]

At SUNY's web sites, they say that you can become a state resident after the first year and pay a lower tuition. At Miami's web site, it says you will not get an in-state tuition after the first year.

The schools are about the same - none are ranked in the top 40 or 50. It seems that SUNY-Stony Brook will be cheaper for an OOS.

 

[jaycee]

yup, Stony you can apply for new york residency after a year to get tuition. So I would lose my CA residency. Anyone think thatll effect how residency matches if I so choose to go back to CA?

 

[Old ortho]

yup, Stony you can apply for new york residency after a year to get tuition. So I would lose my CA residency. Anyone think thatll effect how residency matches if I so choose to go back to CA?

There was a survey given to 1,200 residency program directors of which 793 responded (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/q...bmed_docsum ).
The Ophthamology program directors ranked the relative importance of academic criteria for selecting residents as follows:

1) Grades in required clerkships
2) Number of honors grades
3) Class rank
3) AOA honorary membership
5) Senior specialty elective grades
6) USMLE Step 2 score
7) USMLE Step 1 score
8) Academic awards in medical school
9) Med school's reputation
10) Other senior elective grades
11) Published research
12) Grades in preclinical courses

Interestingly, the medical school's reputation is ranked much lower than grades and board scores. Also there is no mention of state residency. It seems that whether you can match successfully depends mostly on your academic performance, rather than where you are from. Now if you go to UCLA or UCSF med school, you may have a slight advantage, but I don't think Miami will have any advantage over Stony Brook in that regards.

 

[jaycee]

There was a survey given to 1,200 residency program directors of which 793 responded (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/q...bmed_docsum ).
The Ophthamology program directors ranked the relative importance of academic criteria for selecting residents as follows:

1) Grades in required clerkships
2) Number of honors grades
3) Class rank
3) AOA honorary membership
5) Senior specialty elective grades
6) USMLE Step 2 score
7) USMLE Step 1 score
8) Academic awards in medical school
9) Med school's reputation
10) Other senior elective grades
11) Published research
12) Grades in preclinical courses

Interestingly, the medical school's reputation is ranked much lower than grades and board scores. Also there is no mention of state residency. It seems that whether you can match successfully depends mostly on your academic performance, rather than where you are from. Now if you go to UCLA or UCSF med school, you may have a slight advantage, but I don't think Miami will have any advantage over Stony Brook in that regards.

Thats some good info to know. Thanks

So if tuition/residency was not a factor in either school, I'm wondering which school people would choose and their reasons why. Any input?

 

[Old ortho]

Thats some good info to know. Thanks

So if tuition/residency was not a factor in either school, I'm wondering which school people would choose and their reasons why. Any input?

I believe that when two schools are roughly equal (you are not comparing Harvard with Albany here), the school with the lower expenses should win. It is always nice to save $30K-60K (not sure how much?) over three years. I say pick the cheaper school.

 

[Calliope15]

I'm in the same position for this year's incoming class -- down to Stony Brook vs. Miami for the class of 2015. I am really hoping to get into Columbia or Brown off the waitlist, in which case this will be a moot point but I need to pick one of the two schools by May 15 and I'm really torn! I would love to practice in NYC in the future but see that students from both schools matched well in the city. I'm not a huge fan of the suburbs and would love to live in Miami. However I am out of state for both and would end up paying about 75K more to go to Miami over the four years.

I know both schools are pretty evenly ranked overall, with Miami being especially strong in opthamology and trauma and having a lot of people match into anaesthesiology. Not too sure about SBU's strengths, other than its reputation for research. I'm pretty sure I want to go into ortho surgery or emergency medicine.

It seems that Miami's curriculum changes have been in place for a while so I'm not too worried about those, but don't know if I should be (?) Has anyone heard anything?

Any thoughts would be great!

 

[frescoengano]

why did you bump this

 

[NewEngland21]

why did you bump this

Classic example of, Hate if you bump an old thread, hate if you don't.

Personally, I'm glad you used the search function. Also, I hated Miami when I lived there and I wouldn't go back if someone gave me $3,000,000 and a straight ticket to a neurosurg residency. But, that's my just my hatred towards south Florida.

 

[DM3]

Edited lol

 

[frescoengano]

Yeah I agree with you. This is an example where I'm glad someone bumped an old thread.

Why make a new thread when you ahve the same question?

I gave my opinion in the 15th may thread. I agree with NewEngland21 that you should go to NY if you really want to be in NY and its cheaper. No need to waste the extra money for Umiami.
I also tend to like NYC far more then Miami and I'm a Floridian so that's saying something. I just think Miami is too cuban and not really diverse in the sense of NYC, Boston, etc.

lol

 

[blueskies333]

I can't help but laugh whenever I hear someone (who's not rich and ostentatious), especially a medical student, talk about how they think it would be awesome to live in Miami.

 

[aSagacious]

I also tend to like NYC far more then Miami and I'm a Floridian so that's saying something. I just think Miami is too cuban and not really diverse in the sense of NYC, Boston, etc.

You want diverse? Long Island is the way to go.

inb4movetoschoolspecificforum

 

[BigEast55]

Yeah which is still like very close to NYC right. Point was New york city, long island, and neighboring jersey city, NJ all more diverse then Miami. Sorry my opinion. i'm sure I'll get backlash from Miami residents.

Stony Brook is at least 90min from Manhattan. Also Long Island (at least out where Stony Brook is) is not particularly diverse, very middle-class suburban white population.

But I liked SB a lot when I interviewed there, it really seemed like a great school. No idea about Miami, but SB is very nice.

 

[Adaggiote]

Stony Hood...uhh...Brook for the win. I say this because one of my favorite book series (i.e. The Baby-Sitters Club) takes place in Stony Brook. Having said that, they have a diverse patient population and excellent facilities....plus the crime rate is lower thanFlorida....It's a no brainer...

 

[theWUbear]

The Baby-Sitters Club takes place in Stony Brook

well - that about wraps this one up. case closed

 

[235009]

Stony Brook is at least 90min from Manhattan. Also Long Island (at least out where Stony Brook is) is not particularly diverse, very middle-class suburban white population.

The first sentence is true. The second sentence is not true. The population of long island is more diverse than you'd think and stony brook, being the largest hospital in suffolk county, casts a very wide net.

 

[iniquus]

I'm in the same position for this year's incoming class -- down to Stony Brook vs. Miami for the class of 2015. I am really hoping to get into Columbia or Brown off the waitlist, in which case this will be a moot point but I need to pick one of the two schools by May 15 and I'm really torn! I would love to practice in NYC in the future but see that students from both schools matched well in the city. I'm not a huge fan of the suburbs and would love to live in Miami. However I am out of state for both and would end up paying about 75K more to go to Miami over the four years.

I know both schools are pretty evenly ranked overall, with Miami being especially strong in opthamology and trauma and having a lot of people match into anaesthesiology. Not too sure about SBU's strengths, other than its reputation for research. I'm pretty sure I want to go into ortho surgery or emergency medicine.

It seems that Miami's curriculum changes have been in place for a while so I'm not too worried about those, but don't know if I should be (?) Has anyone heard anything?

Any thoughts would be great!

Stony Brook is great for research not even counting the nearby labs, but UMiami is a "better" research school according to US News (possibly because of NIH funding).

I think UMiami's hospital system is better than Stony's, but again NYC is somewhat close enough to do away rotations in the great hospital systems over there.

In the end, go where you feel you'd be happy--then money, because you'll match fine if everything is in order.

Living near Stony is not the same as living in NYC.

 

[theWUbear]

Living near Stony is not the same as living in NYC.

wow, didn't realize how true this is until I google mapped it. Stony brook is almost as far east of NYC as the state of PA (phillipsburg) is far west

 

[farrago]

You guys really don't understand Long Island. Looking at a map isn't going to help you. No, it's not like living in Pennsylvania.

The area around Stony Brook is served by two train lines (LIRR) - the Port Jefferson branch and the Ronkonkoma branch. The Port Jeff train stops right on the campus of Stony Brook, basically, but it takes about 1 hour 50 minutes to get to Penn Station. The Ronkonkoma branch is about 15-20 minutes from Stony Brook by car, and there are trains running every hour off-peak and more frequently during peak hours. The trip takes about 60-75 minutes (peak-off peak). What people don't understand is that getting to midtown Manhattan in an hour is actually a great thing. There are plenty of places within NYC that are farther away, by subway, than that. You could live somewhere in Brooklyn or Queens, and spend 60 minutes or more on the subway getting where you need to go. Hell, you could live in Manhattan and spend 50 minutes on the subway or bus getting where you need to be in Manhattan. Thousand of people commute each day from Long Island to the city. It's no big deal. In fact, it's preferable. People move to Long Island for a reason. If you want to drive, it might take you 45 minutes with no traffic, but two or more hours at rush hour.

Now, it is the suburbs, but I'm not sure exactly what people imagine when they say that. Within five minutes of Stony Brook you have everything you need to function comfortably. Five minutes. You've got a mall with your standard set of stores. You've got a Barnes and Noble, Borders, Whole Foods, Trader Joe's, several other supermarkets, several movie theaters, and a bunch of other stores that you might need. Miles of beach are about 20 minutes away. There are research opportunities at Stony Brook, and then there is Brookhaven National Lab and Cold Spring Harbor.

Living on Long Island can be expensive. There are a lot of areas around that are fairly affluent. Apartments can be expensive. Going to the city is expensive - train tickets will run you $24-28 round trip. You need a car. But the areas around Stony Brook (from the LIE up, so within about 10-15 miles of the school, to make it convenient) are very safe and nice.

Stony Brook serves a large population. You will see all kinds of patients. If you yearn to see gang members, you'll get to see them.

If you want to go clubbing every night, then living on Long Island is going to be a bummer. But if you just want to go to the city to hang out a few times a week, or on the weekends, then you're really no worse off than people living in the five boroughs. There are always trade-offs here between money, safety and proximity/time.

And, if you have a load of cash, you could just live in Manhattan and commute to Stony Brook.

 

[235009]

I give up on figuring out who is right and wrong with stony brook or long island. All I know is I prefer New York to Miami.

i'd go with the guy who goes to school there

wow, didn't realize how true this is until I google mapped it. Stony brook is almost as far east of NYC as the state of PA (phillipsburg) is far west

hahaha ...yea, the first time i took the LIRR i looked at the map and was shocked eek at how big long island is...and how far east stony brook was

another point regarding diversity is that the stony brook affiliated hospitals (where you have the option of doing rotations) are as far east as Flushing Hospital in queens, as far south as Winthrop University Hospital (now stony brook's second clinical campus...just like upstate has binghamton), as far east as Peconic Bay Medical Center in Riverhead, and as far north as the Northport VA

 

[iniquus]

You guys really don't understand Long Island. Looking at a map isn't going to help you. No, it's not like living in Pennsylvania.

True.

The area around Stony Brook is served by two train lines (LIRR) - the Port Jefferson branch and the Ronkonkoma branch. The Port Jeff train stops right on the campus of Stony Brook, basically, but it takes about 1 hour 50 minutes to get to Penn Station. The Ronkonkoma branch is about 15-20 minutes from Stony Brook by car, and there are trains running every hour off-peak and more frequently during peak hours. The trip takes about 60-75 minutes (peak-off peak). What people don't understand is that getting to midtown Manhattan in an hour is actually a great thing. There are plenty of places within NYC that are farther away, by subway, than that. You could live somewhere in Brooklyn or Queens, and spend 60 minutes or more on the subway getting where you need to go. Hell, you could live in Manhattan and spend 50 minutes on the subway or bus getting where you need to be in Manhattan. Thousand of people commute each day from Long Island to the city. It's no big deal. In fact, it's preferable. People move to Long Island for a reason. If you want to drive, it might take you 45 minutes with no traffic, but two or more hours at rush hour.

Leaving your apartment, even taking the LIRR from the Ronkonkoma station, and ending up at Penn Station in Manhattan is not 60 minutes. I don't even think the train ride from Ronkonkoma to Penn Station is 60 minutes. It's especially a hassle because you're taking the car to the LIRR, and assuming you can still drive, the LIRR back to the car on the way home. This is also assuming everyone comes into the city to chill out around Penn Station-- I'm sure some may then transfer to a bus or subway to get where they really want to go, which adds commute time to both ends.

I'm born and raised in NYC...sometimes the longest and worst part is the waiting and transferring, not the actual ride itself. I've made the trip to Stony Brook by train and by car, and it sucks by the public commute.

But if you just want to go to the city to hang out a few times a week, or on the weekends, then you're really no worse off than people living in the five boroughs.

False, but it's nothing to gripe about. You can go into the city, but living in LI will not be the same living or convenience-wise actually in the city. Like you said, there are trade-offs.