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I am trying to decide between these three schools. Any information (pros and cons) would be greatly helpful. Thanks!
Tufts vs. University of Rochester vs. NYMC
- Thread starter SK2005
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SK2005 said:
It would be between Tufts and Rochester for me unless you are Catholic or want to be near NYC.
Tufts = excellent school, expensive, high debt, pretty good hospitals but you might get shipped to Maine or Springfield, great city
Rochester = excellent school, less expensive (cost of living lower in Rochester than Boston) but you'll still graduate with debt (although, you'll graduate with debt from all three schools, so that's a null point unless you want to consider how much debt, in which case Tufts and NYMC lose.) Excellent hospitals, Rochester is the only game in town so you get access to all the clinical/research resources the city has to offer, you can stay in Rochester for all of your clinical training, less great city but adequate for med student needs and quite affordable.
I would choose Rochester, personally, but can see why Tufts would win over others. Both are great. I would eliminate NYMC as it is significantly lower caliber than Tufts and Rochester.
Good luck.
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I would never consider NYMC seeing as how I was immediately put off by the school when I was there.
Other than that, I don't know a thing about Rochester but I can share why I chose to go to Tufts.
1) Out of all of my interviews Tufts was the only school I came out of saying, "I'm in love".
2) Love the clinical training opportunities. The selective program that is required 1st and 2nd year is amazing. They give you a whole book of possible physicians to shadow in every specialty imaginable. Great way to start forging relationships with faculty (will help when seeking LORs for residency apps). Also, the fact that you have many hospitals in which to train during your 3rd year. The more variety the better when it comes to clinical training as far as I'm concerned.
3) I love the fact that they ease you into the difficult coursework by postponing it until 2nd semester. Gives you a chance to adjust to everything.
Hope this helps!
Other than that, I don't know a thing about Rochester but I can share why I chose to go to Tufts.
1) Out of all of my interviews Tufts was the only school I came out of saying, "I'm in love".
2) Love the clinical training opportunities. The selective program that is required 1st and 2nd year is amazing. They give you a whole book of possible physicians to shadow in every specialty imaginable. Great way to start forging relationships with faculty (will help when seeking LORs for residency apps). Also, the fact that you have many hospitals in which to train during your 3rd year. The more variety the better when it comes to clinical training as far as I'm concerned.
3) I love the fact that they ease you into the difficult coursework by postponing it until 2nd semester. Gives you a chance to adjust to everything.
Hope this helps!
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I don't know anything about Tufts, but I was accepted to NYMC and Rochester. I chose Rochester.
Rochester Pros:
- people are so amazingly friendly and helpful
- awesome curriculum (Usually you don't have more than 2 hrs of lecture per day, we have PBL, and clerkships start second semester. I also like how you focus on the heart or something and learn the anatomy, physio, histo, etc instead of breaking all the classes up.)
- lots of international opportunies (and you can go abroad multiple times)
- diverse student body
- i'm pretty sure we have standardized patients
- housing is pretty cheap
- first two years are P/F (except for the clerkships)
- administration seems really helpful
Rochester Cons:
- COLD
- you have to buy a car (or at least this is my impression)
- the days seem kinda long (8-5pm 3 days a week or something like that)
As for NYMC, I'm sure it's a nice school. I remember they had an awesome anatomy lab. And they take a lot of shelf exams (which is great prep for the boards). But the students were so stressed out-- they reminded me of my classmates at Hopkins 😛 Plus, I just didn't feel like I cliqued with the students. However, at Rochester, I felt like I would totally fit in.
Good luck with your decision
Rochester Pros:
- people are so amazingly friendly and helpful
- awesome curriculum (Usually you don't have more than 2 hrs of lecture per day, we have PBL, and clerkships start second semester. I also like how you focus on the heart or something and learn the anatomy, physio, histo, etc instead of breaking all the classes up.)
- lots of international opportunies (and you can go abroad multiple times)
- diverse student body
- i'm pretty sure we have standardized patients
- housing is pretty cheap
- first two years are P/F (except for the clerkships)
- administration seems really helpful
Rochester Cons:
- COLD
- you have to buy a car (or at least this is my impression)
- the days seem kinda long (8-5pm 3 days a week or something like that)
As for NYMC, I'm sure it's a nice school. I remember they had an awesome anatomy lab. And they take a lot of shelf exams (which is great prep for the boards). But the students were so stressed out-- they reminded me of my classmates at Hopkins 😛 Plus, I just didn't feel like I cliqued with the students. However, at Rochester, I felt like I would totally fit in.
Good luck with your decision
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1. NYMC - Pretty campus. Cold. Weekends in NYC are fun. Terrible lack of women's health curriculum.
2. Rochester - Fancy name. Cold... VERY COLD winters. Far from NYC.
3. Tufts - Fancy name. Cold. VERY expensive. Boston is fun.
Why didn't you apply here? Philly is king.
2. Rochester - Fancy name. Cold... VERY COLD winters. Far from NYC.
3. Tufts - Fancy name. Cold. VERY expensive. Boston is fun.
Why didn't you apply here? Philly is king.
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I would only say go to Tufts if you have important reasons for wanting to be in Boston over Rochester. You'll save tons of money going to Rochester and will get (arguably) a very similar education, but with less stess due to the P/F curriculum. I would choose Rochester hands down, with the caveat being that a big-city person might not love the city there. Rochester isn't appreciably colder than Boston but gets more snow.vish57 said:
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criminallyinane said:
Try the following website. I think it would be helpful in your situation, you can choose up to 3 schools and compare them.
http://www.amsa.org/premed/medsurvey/
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I went to Rochester undergrad and am currently a 1st year MD/MBA student at tufts completing my mba courses this summer. I'll describe some things for you to give you more perspective.
At rochester I spent lots of time taking classes in the med center and worked a few times in the med school library (aka Miner) and their PBL labs. I also volunteered at strong in the ER and trauma dept. The facilities are pretty cool. The PBL labs are new i think, though not anything special. The entrance to the med school is impressive as I'm sure you remember. The actual classrooms are OK. The hospital in my opinion is way too friggin' long and narrow. It takes like 5 minutes to walk from the med center entrance to the other side of the hospital with the ER, bookstore and everything else. The hospital's a bit confusing but i'm sure it's easy to get used to. It's a great place to learn medicine for sure. I took biochem from a prof that has his office in the med center and has @medcenter.com or something as the end of his email address, so he may be a med school professor also. He was a very good teacher; rochester has a great reputation as far as professors go. I do know a few kids that are going there and they r all awesome people. You'd have some great classmates. Rochester's name goes far in the medical world. That said, I didn't even apply. I chose to apply to tufts over a ton of other midrange schools including UofR. The city is dismal to say the least. There are a few good places, but the city is ugly, spread out, and for the most part devoid of any worthwhile destination. The undergrad administration was awful (in terms of pretentiousness and helpfulness), but I can't say that would extend to the med school.
I've gotten to know Tufts pretty well, including some facilities and administration. I really love the location. I was told chinatown is ghetto and smelly, but neither are true, though late at night you want to be travelling in a group. It's a really interesting, good looking, and (as rare as this is) affordable part of Boston. It's also near lots of good neighborhoods and extremely accessible by the T (subway). I've also read opinions that the administration is bad. So far I have had only great experiences. I emailed the school about potentially working with them on something entrepreneurially related, and they sent me to the dean of public health and degree programs, who was extremely friendly and offerred to hook me up with all sorts of opportunities. The staff seems very welcoming too. I really like NEMC as well. The hospital is probably medium sized, looks cool (to me), and has an au bon pain with very convenient hours. There's also a pizzahut and dunkin donuts on the upper floors of the hospital (they promote healthy eating apparently). The circular entryway is really cool looking to me as well (I dunno which i prefer, rochester's entry or tufts' - both are impressive). I actually haven't even seen the main classes where we'll be taking med school courses, but my mdmba classmates who did seemed to like them.
Reputationwise, tufts med vs rochester med is probably pretty close to dead even. Tufts may be better known around the country, but rochester is ranked higher, but that's because tufts has low NIH funding, but rochester's mcat average is slightly higher, but tufts is an instantly recognizable name with a lower % acceptance rate, etc etc etc etc. Who cares really... they're both awesome and if you do well you'll be set at either place. Choose based on location, facilities, size of hospital you want, eating possibilities, the vibe u got a each place, and so on. do NOT be swayed by "go to tufts" responses in this forum! =)
good luck 8D
congrats on your awesome options.
At rochester I spent lots of time taking classes in the med center and worked a few times in the med school library (aka Miner) and their PBL labs. I also volunteered at strong in the ER and trauma dept. The facilities are pretty cool. The PBL labs are new i think, though not anything special. The entrance to the med school is impressive as I'm sure you remember. The actual classrooms are OK. The hospital in my opinion is way too friggin' long and narrow. It takes like 5 minutes to walk from the med center entrance to the other side of the hospital with the ER, bookstore and everything else. The hospital's a bit confusing but i'm sure it's easy to get used to. It's a great place to learn medicine for sure. I took biochem from a prof that has his office in the med center and has @medcenter.com or something as the end of his email address, so he may be a med school professor also. He was a very good teacher; rochester has a great reputation as far as professors go. I do know a few kids that are going there and they r all awesome people. You'd have some great classmates. Rochester's name goes far in the medical world. That said, I didn't even apply. I chose to apply to tufts over a ton of other midrange schools including UofR. The city is dismal to say the least. There are a few good places, but the city is ugly, spread out, and for the most part devoid of any worthwhile destination. The undergrad administration was awful (in terms of pretentiousness and helpfulness), but I can't say that would extend to the med school.
I've gotten to know Tufts pretty well, including some facilities and administration. I really love the location. I was told chinatown is ghetto and smelly, but neither are true, though late at night you want to be travelling in a group. It's a really interesting, good looking, and (as rare as this is) affordable part of Boston. It's also near lots of good neighborhoods and extremely accessible by the T (subway). I've also read opinions that the administration is bad. So far I have had only great experiences. I emailed the school about potentially working with them on something entrepreneurially related, and they sent me to the dean of public health and degree programs, who was extremely friendly and offerred to hook me up with all sorts of opportunities. The staff seems very welcoming too. I really like NEMC as well. The hospital is probably medium sized, looks cool (to me), and has an au bon pain with very convenient hours. There's also a pizzahut and dunkin donuts on the upper floors of the hospital (they promote healthy eating apparently). The circular entryway is really cool looking to me as well (I dunno which i prefer, rochester's entry or tufts' - both are impressive). I actually haven't even seen the main classes where we'll be taking med school courses, but my mdmba classmates who did seemed to like them.
Reputationwise, tufts med vs rochester med is probably pretty close to dead even. Tufts may be better known around the country, but rochester is ranked higher, but that's because tufts has low NIH funding, but rochester's mcat average is slightly higher, but tufts is an instantly recognizable name with a lower % acceptance rate, etc etc etc etc. Who cares really... they're both awesome and if you do well you'll be set at either place. Choose based on location, facilities, size of hospital you want, eating possibilities, the vibe u got a each place, and so on. do NOT be swayed by "go to tufts" responses in this forum! =)
good luck 8D
congrats on your awesome options.
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