Hey carberry, I am waitlisted at both. If I get into both it will be a difficult decision. I defintely belive the student atmosphere and collegiality and Tulane is better than at GW. I also felt that the environment of New Orleans and where most of the student's live (near Tulane undergrad) is a very relaxing environment. I stayed for 4 days with a few friends who are 2nd years there and the class seemed to be pretty social. Most of the student's lived in houses or apartments with a bunch of other students. The gym facilities at Tulane are pretty sweet too. If you like to go out and do stuff at night like the bars or listen to music, the town seemed pretty kicked back.
I stayed with a relative at Georgetown for 3 days during my GW interview but I didn't get to interact with the GW students that much. I thought the areas between GW and Georgetown were very nice, and I guess some students live by campus, others in Virginia, and others in Georgetown. Oh, there is a metro stop at the doorstep of GW's campus, so that is very very nice if you want to get around.
As far as the school is concerned, I think Tulane is a hair weaker than GW for a few reasons. One is reputation. Tulane definitely has a strong reputation as being an Ivy type of school for the South. But, GW is in DC and has a long history of providing care to populations around the capital and such. Although sometimes GW is overshadowed by the reputation of Georgetown, but most people in the medical community believe that you get better training at GW than Georgetown because of the greater patient volume and diversity of patients. You should know that Tulane's Step 1 passing rate is not that good either. I asked Dr. Pisano about this and he said that they are the only medical school in the country that grants an MD without the requirement of passing the Step 1. I guess their mission is to train people to be good clinicians, not to train them to pass the boards. I think they are working on changing the curriculum more geared towards the boards.
What GW has going for it is its location, proximity to many good hospitals for specialized rotations, and supposedly next fall, the state of the art hospital will be ready. If I do get into both I might choose GW over Tulane because I am interested in public health at the policy level and so there are many opportunities in DC. I also would rather be in a bigger city than New Orleans.
You should know that even though I have written the above, I honestly believe that the overall differences are negligible and that personal preference will prevail. Congrats on your acceptance and best of luck! Don't forget to free up one of those spots for me as soon as you decide!!!
