U of MN Twin Cities vs TUCOM

[MinnesotaDO]

Hello all! I am very distraught over which school I should go to. My passion is for primary care and underserved medicine, and my dream is to have a medical school where I can volunteer in free clinics and gain more experience working with Spanish speaking patients. I also have been wanting to escape the Midwest, but something inside is also telling me that U of MN is a smarter option.. please help me!

University of Minnesota Twin Cities
Pros: Top ranked primary care school, lower tuition ($40k per year) plus opportunity for scholarships/assistance, newer facilities and likely better technology for learning, close to family, I would likely take advantage of the individualized pathways if I went here
Cons: I am a pretty well-rounded person and have lots of clinical experience/real life experience, whereas many of the students here seem to be fresh out of undergrad and don't have the same breadth of experience working in underserved healthcare fields. It would seem like I am regressing a bit to be around this type of student body? Minnesota is depressing and cold, when I interviewed here last year students talked about how depressed they were and talked about some recent medical student suicides.

Touro University California College of Osteopathic Medicine
Pros: In Bay area- I love mountain biking and the sun, my aunt lives less than an hour from campus, and I would be so excited to see more of the West coast and get out of the Midwest. They have a student run free clinic and 3 FQHCs that students are very involved with, and in general lots of community involvement with the surrounding diverse community. Medical spanish course is a huge plus for me, the whole curriculum is supposed to be very public health oriented and focused on patient-centered care, I love the DO philosophy in general and am excited to learn OMT.
Cons: I read lots of bad rap here on SDN in terms of the quality of the curriculum, clinical rotation sites, and quality of the staff. I am not sure how much of this to believe, but I also feel like it is important to take these comments seriously. More expensive ($58k/year), the facilities on campus seem to be older in general, school does not provide students with basic things such as technology or a stethoscope, which could be a red flag?

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[Nontraddddds]

Why is this even a question? MD>DO, especially with an MD school like U Minnesota.

 

[DrStephenStrange]

MD

 

[deleted1009115]

I agree that MN seems like the obvious choice here! To address one of your cons: The average age of admitted students is 25, which means there are plenty of non-traditional students and folks with real life experience. With such a large student body, there will definitely be a mix of traditional and non-traditional students, but I certainly wouldn't worry about "regressing."

 

[il11epo]

I agree that MN seems like the obvious choice here! To address one of your cons: The average age of admitted students is 25, which means there are plenty of non-traditional students and folks with real life experience. With such a large student body, there will definitely be a mix of traditional and non-traditional students, but I certainly wouldn't worry about "regressing."

Speaking on this as an M1 at UMN, I personally have only met less than a handful of people that are fresh out of undergrad. My whole friend circle here all took gap years including myself. But regardless, if you are worried about "regressing" and the weather, TUCOM may be a better alternative that suits your interests outside of academics since with COVID - you will be mostly be in your apartment and it does get really cold in MN haha.

 

[popoon]

Minnesota easily.

 

[DrStephenStrange]

Unless the MD school is CNU, no other MD school is worth passing over for a DO school period.

 

[m1redsox]

Dude Minnesota is a top school in the country. And Vallejo is definitely not as great as you make it sound It’s not worth passing-up on cheaper tuition and COL, for sure

 

[MinnesotaDO]

I don't really care a whole lot for comments that are just about the rankings or prestige of the school. I am actually not going to medical school for those reasons, but rather to become a great family medicine doctor for underserved communities. If I wanted advice on which school is ranked better, I would utilize google. Thank you.

 

[parquetshorts]

Minnesotan here. Just wanted to say that UMN-TC has a fantastic family medicine program! My GP actually went there for med school and finished residency at Brown a couple years ago, and I think he's a great doc. I also worked with a fair amount of M4's from UMN when I was working in a local ER, and they all seemed more than prepared to see patients and answer questions. While I don't want to overbear on the MD > DO topic, something that I think you should consider is your options for residency after medical school. While you will certainly be able to get into a great family med program regardless of which school you choose, the quality of programs that you'll be able to match into if you went to UMN will likely be much higher. Especially if you are wanting to work with underserved patients, having the name recognition of UMN on your degree could allow you to get into a program in a large metropolitan area in the US, not just the Twin Cities. Additionally, I know from friends that UMN offers an array of resources for research and community engagement initiatives that would be very beneficial if you were wanting to match into a competitive FM program. Granted, you could certainly still have those options at Touro, but the reputation of UMN-TC WILL make a difference! Good luck and congratulations!

 

[DrStephenStrange]

I don't really care a whole lot for comments that are just about the rankings or prestige of the school. I am actually not going to medical school for those reasons, but rather to become a great family medicine doctor for underserved communities. If I wanted advice on which school is ranked better, I would utilize google. Thank you.

Dude, I'm a DO student. You don't know how much crap we're dealing with on a daily basis in the DO world. Prestige has nothing to do with why I told you to choose MD. Even the lowest ranked MD school would be a better choice than the top DO schools. That has nothing to do with prestige, and has everything to do with minimizing the hoops you have to jump through including high tuition and DO bias, avoiding the bad decisions from crappy DO leadership, and maximizing your chances at getting the career you actually want.

 

[MinnesotaDO]

Minnesotan here. Just wanted to say that UMN-TC has a fantastic family medicine program! My GP actually went there for med school and finished residency at Brown a couple years ago, and I think he's a great doc. I also worked with a fair amount of M4's from UMN when I was working in a local ER, and they all seemed more than prepared to see patients and answer questions. While I don't want to overbear on the MD > DO topic, something that I think you should consider is your options for residency after medical school. While you will certainly be able to get into a great family med program regardless of which school you choose, the quality of programs that you'll be able to match into if you went to UMN will likely be much higher. Especially if you are wanting to work with underserved patients, having the name recognition of UMN on your degree could allow you to get into a program in a large metropolitan area in the US, not just the Twin Cities. Additionally, I know from friends that UMN offers an array of resources for research and community engagement initiatives that would be very beneficial if you were wanting to match into a competitive FM program. Granted, you could certainly still have those options at Touro, but the reputation of UMN-TC WILL make a difference! Good luck and congratulations!

Thank you so much! This is very helpful. If I am not super interested in staying in Minnesota, do you know if there are still a lot of students who match elsewhere, like on the West coast? I have not seen a residency match list for U of MN. Thank you again

 

[m1redsox]

I don't really care a whole lot for comments that are just about the rankings or prestige of the school. I am actually not going to medical school for those reasons, but rather to become a great family medicine doctor for underserved communities. If I wanted advice on which school is ranked better, I would utilize google. Thank you.

That’s fine, but don’t overlook valid advice when it’s given either. DOs have to take twice as many board exams, they spend time on extra material that will not be relevant to your practice (ie cranial rhythm which has been largely de-bunked), and they still face bias in the residency match (probably even more now with P/F Step 1). High ranking MD programs will have high quality rotation sites which are far superior to the majority of DO programs that I know of. Aside from that, don’t think that just because UMinn is in a less diverse area that it does not treat patients from all walks of life or that it will provide you with a sub-par primary care education for underserved populations. Because it will do a better job than Touro would (UMinn is literally number 15 in the country for primary care). On top of that, paying higher tuition and cost of living is highly unadvisable if you are dedicated to a primary care specialty.

 

[MinnesotaDO]

Dude, I'm a DO student. You don't know how much crap we're dealing with on a daily basis in the DO world. Prestige has nothing to do with why I told you to choose MD. Even the lowest ranked MD school would be a better choice than the top DO schools. That has nothing to do with prestige, and has everything to do with minimizing the hoops you have to jump through including high tuition and DO bias, avoiding the bad decisions from crappy DO leadership, and maximizing your chances at getting the career you actually want.

So sorry that you have had that experience. Would you mind if I asked which DO program you are at, and which specialty you are trying to pursue? I guess with my experience working at an FQHC there is no difference between our MDs or DOs at all, in terms of how they are respected or anything. I suppose it is probably pretty dependent on where you go and what specialty you are in. Definitely an important aspect to consider though, thank you for that perspective.

 

[parquetshorts]

Thank you so much! This is very helpful. If I am not super interested in staying in Minnesota, do you know if there are still a lot of students who match elsewhere, like on the West coast? I have not seen a residency match list for U of MN. Thank you again

I personally haven't looked at any of UMN's match lists, but as far as I know it's still a fairly highly rated public school, so I'd assume that a decent amount of students still match outside of MN. I'd assume Touro would probably match way more students in California if that's what you're interested in, but the residency programs that you'd match into could potentially be of a lesser quality/prestige.

 

[DrStephenStrange]

So sorry that you have had that experience. Would you mind if I asked which DO program you are at, and which specialty you are trying to pursue? I guess with my experience working at an FQHC there is no difference between our MDs or DOs at all, in terms of how they are respected or anything. I suppose it is probably pretty dependent on where you go and what specialty you are in. Definitely an important aspect to consider though, thank you for that perspective.

When I say DO leadership it doesn't only stay at the school level, but also COCA, NBOME and AOA. They are always making decisions that are not in the best interest of the DO profession as a whole, and if you choose to go DO you will see what I mean.

 

[Swaglikemurph]

UMN; especially given the recent changes in medical education!