Tulane vs LSUS?

[Missorleans]

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Tough decision. How good is Tulane's reputation in the medical community? It has name recognition among laymen because of the undergrad, but is the med school any good? From what I've heard their students are not well prepared for clinical years and do equally well on step 1 as lsu students. How much does name recognition really help when match comes around? When I see myself in med school, I see myself at LSUS, or vandy. But I don't want to follow my gut instinct if it will not help me much down the road.
Money is no issue.

 

[Anonymous01]

I hope to see myself in a situation similar to yours next year!

My understanding is that the student population at LSUS is quite a bit more homogeneous than the population at Tulane. With that said, I've noticed that match lists for Tulane tend to be more geographically spread out than the lists for either of the LSUs. I believe according to Wikipedia, Tulane also produces somewhere around 1/3 of all MD/MPH graduates. I would think this makes the school known, if not necessarily in the medical community, in the transitional community between medicine and public health. I would find this to be a bit important in terms of potentially moving up an administrative ladder or something.

With that said, you say that cost isn't an issue, but Tulane is the second most expensive medical school in the nation (right behind Tufts!). LSUS is a huge bargain in comparison. Personally, I see LSU-NO as a great compromise between cost and recognition. LSU-NO, in my very limited looks at match lists, tends to have more geographic diversity than LSUS.

Best of luck in your decision, and I look forward to following your choice!

PS...Louisiana medical students have a lot of blogs out there...and I mean pretty famous ones. PandabearMD went to LSUS. Tulane has a few blogs too, but the writers that I know of these blogs don't directly state that they go to Tulane, so I'm not going to list them here.

 

[TheMightySmiter]

Tulane is pricey, but IMO you can't beat the clinical opportunities that New Orleans has to offer. For that reason alone I'd choose it over LSUS. And Tulane is probably more well-known nationwide. If cost is no issue, as you say, I would pick Tulane. I have a couple of friends there who love it.

 

[MT Headed]

Where do you want to match? Louisiana? New Orleans? Looking to get outta the Deep South someday?

 

[Missorleans]

I could go away, or stay in LA, no preference there. I might like to do a fellowship after residency of which there are no positions in LA that I could find.
That reminds me, need to get this year's match list for LSUS, not just what they put in the news.
Already decided I didn't want to go to LSUNO, gave that spot up.

 

[Brachyury]

Tough decision. How good is Tulane's reputation in the medical community? It has name recognition among laymen because of the undergrad, but is the med school any good? From what I've heard their students are not well prepared for clinical years and do equally well on step 1 as lsu students. How much does name recognition really help when match comes around? When I see myself in med school, I see myself at LSUS, or vandy. But I don't want to follow my gut instinct if it will not help me much down the road.
Money is no issue.

See my PM

 

[robertch8]

I've seen you a lot in the Tulane forums since I interviewed there back in October but just from your posts on that forum, it seems like you've been finding reasons to not go to Tulane from day one and that maybe it's your parents who are keeping you from saying no for sure?

I agree with the other posters that Tulane will give you flexibility for residency nationwide and speciality wide that maybe LSU-Shreveport might not give you. But I'm sure if you're significantly happier at LSU-S, you will probably do better at LSU-S and end up rocking everything to the point that you will be in better shape out of LSU-S anyways. Do you like LSU-S a lot or do you really just not want to go to Tulane?

Hopefully you'll get into Vandy!

 

[Missorleans]

I just really can't decide. It kills me every time I think I've made a decision and then I hear from another doc that tulane just isn't worth it, or that LSUS won't get me where I want to go.
Do I want to go to school with mostly OOS, or all louisianans? Still don't know.
The hard part is that tulane might end up being free, waiting to hear if I get this scholarship or not. But I have to decide by April 15th, or I lose my spot at Shreve.
Oh ye yaille, deadlines...

 

[MT Headed]

You have heard that
1) LSUS won't get you where you want to go.
2) Tulane isn't worth it. The implication I'm hearing is that Tulane might be a slightly better school but not the tens of thousands of dollars better.

But in your OP you said that money isn't an issue for you. So the 'worth' of Tulane is irrelevant, just its quality relative to LSUS (as measured by how much either school meets your career goals).

You know I am going to Tulane. I also admit I don't know anything about Louisiana. I'm just trying to help by repeating back what I'm hearing you say, because I think it's likely the answer is already inside you.

 

[mipp0]

As a proud geographic elitist, NOLA or nothing. Plus it's nice to have a more diverse group of people to hang out with, versus residents of mostly one state--Louisiana.

 

[robertch8]

Tough decision. How good is Tulane's reputation in the medical community? It has name recognition among laymen because of the undergrad, but is the med school any good? From what I've heard their students are not well prepared for clinical years and do equally well on step 1 as lsu students. How much does name recognition really help when match comes around? When I see myself in med school, I see myself at LSUS, or vandy. But I don't want to follow my gut instinct if it will not help me much down the road.
Money is no issue.

Forgot to mention....there lies the answer to your decision. Although if you get a full ride to Tulane, then I take back this statement.

 

[MT Headed]

After sleeping on your conundrum, I'm thinking that the match lists are going to be much help. I'm sure Tulane's match list will be more exotic that LSUS's, but that doesn't mean Tulane is a better school by any means. Think about the demographics. LSUS has a bunch of locals with low debt, while Tulane has a bunch of homesick Californians and others who are all in debt up to their eyeballs and can't afford to do primary care.

When I see myself in med school, I see myself at LSUS, or vandy.

Yeah. So the only real question here is whether or not LSUS is a malevolent medical school that prevents you from following your own dreams. From reading SDN I can tell there are a few malevolent medical schools out there, but I have never gotten that impression about LSUS. Go with where you will be happiest. Earn your own Step1 score. Do your own 4th year electives in whatever field appeals to you in 2015. Who cares what the school averages are.

That's what I'm gonna do.

 

[aquarius3]

I personally know two recent LSU-S graduates who matched out of state. One in Chicago and one in Virginia. If your scores are good enough, you can get out of the state. I think it's more that people from Louisiana want to stay in Louisiana, especially since people usually settle down near where they do their residency.

I saw go where you feel most comfortable. Then, you'll be more likely to succeed and get the scores you need to get where you're going.

ALSO, Shreveport has a ton of hospitals! And they service people from Texas and Arkansas too. I was impressed by their ED when I toured. I think you'd be just as likely to see trauma in S'port.

 

[Missorleans]

I personally know two recent LSU-S graduates who matched out of state. One in Chicago and one in Virginia. If your scores are good enough, you can get out of the state. I think it's more that people from Louisiana want to stay in Louisiana, especially since people usually settle down near where they do their residency.

I saw go where you feel most comfortable. Then, you'll be more likely to succeed and get the scores you need to get where you're going.

ALSO, Shreveport has a ton of hospitals! And they service people from Texas and Arkansas too. I was impressed by their ED when I toured. I think you'd be just as likely to see trauma in S'port.

truth, their ED was amazing. Very recently remodeled. Whoever designed it is a genius IMO.
also, news this morning that helps my decision. That possible scholarship is not going to me. One more maybe in the wing, but I'm not holding my breath. So now money is an issue.
still holding onto hope for vandy though...

 

[Missorleans]

After being sent a lot of new information about tulane they neglected to mention on the interview day, or in their applicant folder, and after agonizing over this decision for days I decided I'll go to tulane.
Overall, it's closer to home, more organized rural track, more to do, more diverse patient population, and student body.

 

[MT Headed]

Congratulations on your decision. At the risk of opening a wound, may I ask if you regret your decision concerning LSUNO? Or do you still think Tulane > LSUS > LSUNO for your needs?

 

[Missorleans]

I still would have dropped LSUNO. Just didn't like the vibe there. Still a less diverse student body. Another thing that appealed to me was rotations in baton rouge, should be less crowded with other med students and residents. LSUNO rotates, or used to, at Earl k long, which is just a terrible hospital, plus I think part of it burned and they're not having certain services there anymore. I heard they're moving rotations that were there to our lady of the lake, which is a nice hospital, but a private hospital.
Not 100% on all that, this was like 2 years ago or so that I heard this, but yeah, no interest in LSUNO.