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So I'm from NY and looking to match into EM, IM, or possibly something more competitive like anesthesiology or radiology, but no surgery. I'm looking to match somewhere close to home in upstate NY. Originally I was set on Touro but I was honestly blown away with Duquesne at their admitted students day. Overall I'd say for touro it's the proximity to home+likelyhood I could match close to home vs the better facilities and staff of Duquesne with GradPLUS for 3 years
Touro Middletown
Touro Middletown
- Pros
- 2 hour drive from home
- Flipped classroom+3 days of classes/week means I could go home often
- Good match list and matches many students where I'd like to match
- Has Garnett Hospital nearby where about 1/3 of students rotate, most of the other sites are relatively close too
- More established school and good reputation
- Faculty seem good and students there seem very happy
- Fairly low attrition, like 5-10 drop out per class
- No dress code
- I think I'd be fairly happy at this school but being close to home would be very nice
- Kind of a con but could be a pro: I feel I don't know much about this school since they haven't had any admitted student days or anything while duquesne has told me absolutely everything and been very responsive
- Cons
- 70k tuition and middletown is expensive
- Campus is pretty depressing from the outside (old hospital) and inside is decent but not great
- Not many choices for renting due to it not being a college town
- Lecturers lecturing for both campuses and may not be at the school
- Can only take 50k/year fed loans, rest will be private (I do have good credit and a good cosigner)
- Board pass rates are relatively low ~85-90%
- New curriculum change, I think its just making the tests more spread out as they used to be almost every week
- Not many options for research besides the projects the school does
- Graded and mandatory attendance
- School isn't very responsive overall and financial aid hasn't been helpful in the slightest
- Pros
- Will have access to Grad PLUS loans for the first 3 years which is very very nice
- 66k tuition and I got a 10k/year merit scholarship
- The campus was super nice and I'd have access to other Duquesne buildings including a private floor in the library for COM students
- While rotations haven't started yet, they have an extensive network at many strong hospitals (UPMC, AHN) and all rotations are within 2 hours of the school. Pittsburgh is also a big healthcare hub
- Surrounding area and Pittsburgh overall is very nice
- Lots of options for renting and relatively cheap for a city
- Faculty is great overall, including the dean from CUSOM which was extremely strong from the start. They also poached a bunch of experienced faculty from other good schools
- I was super impressed with their admitted students day, staff seemed very organized and supportive. Genuinely couldn't find many negatives about the school during it
- Students seem to absolutely love it and are very happy with the school
- Relatively strong class profile (506 MCAT avg) and many seem to be going for competitive specialties
- 4 blocks/year with a week off in between seems like a nice and well made schedule
- I think I'd genuinely be very happy at this school but I wouldn't be able to visit home much
- Provide lots of resources for students and board studying (Uworld and Kaplan comes in person for 4 week board prep course)
- More access to research and shadowing opportunities
- Cons
- 7 hour drive from home
- Graded and mandatory attendance
- New/less established school (not that I think its gonna lose accreditation, but I've heard this could make it more difficult to match competitively)
- Dress code (shirt and tie) for lecture
- Would likely be more difficult to match close to home
- Can't think of many cons but I think the cons are much bigger if that makes sense
