U of Tulsa vs. U of Cincinnati

[stacytanner]

Could someone please give me some advice?? I've been offered athletic scholarships at the University of Tulsa(Oklahoma) and the University of Cincinnati. This would cover my school for an undergraduate degree. Which one would look better when applying to medical school? I really liked Tulsa but would it be better to go to Cincinnati since they have a medical school there?

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[baylor21]

Although I am from Oklahoma, I have no personal experience with Univ. of Tulsa.

You should keep in mind that Oklahoma only has 1 MD program (Univ of Oklahoma). In contrast, Ohio has like 6 or 7 I think? I'm not sure, maybe an Ohio native can enlighten me.

But my point is that if you can get Ohio residency, your chances of getting in state somewhere are much higher than if you are an Oklahoma resident. Of course, Ohio has more

 

[mike-ohio]

Ohio has 7 medical schools, six of which are public. In fact, Ohio is one of the best states for future medical students -- there is almost a 1:1 ratio of applicants to slots for Ohio residents.
Case Western is private and a top 20 school. It has an excellent reputation, and while it gives priority to Ohio residents, there is no tuition break.
Ohio State and University of Cincinnati are also excellent schools with low tuition and priority to Ohio residents.
Finally, there is NEOUCOM (Northeastern Ohio Universities College of Medicine), MCO (Medical College of Ohio) and Wright State. All of these are public, but not quite as good as Ohio State of Cincinnati.
Finally there is also on Osteopathic School out of Ohio University.

Although Ohio does has a much greater number of medical schools, I would select an undergrad school based on your current feelings. You have no idea what your interest will be in medicine in a few year

 

[Amitha726]

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" size="2">Originally posted by mike-ohio:
Ohio has 7 medical schools, six of which are public. In fact, Ohio is one of the best states for future medical students -- there is almost a 1:1 ratio of applicants to slots for Ohio residents.
•

Where did you hear this? Is it true? I find it very hard to believe that there's a spot available for every Ohio applicant.


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Amy
University of Rochester, class of 2001

 

[Mango]

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" size="2">Originally posted by mike-ohio:
there is almost a 1:1 ratio of applicants to slots for Ohio residents.•

This is completely UNTRUE! Yes, we have 6 state schools which means we have a slight advantage over states like Indiana which have only ONE school. But lets not forget this is the 7th largest state as far as population! So there is NOT a seat for every in state person who wants one!

I saw a chart when I was applying, and now I can't find the darn thing. I think it was in the MSAR. Anyway, it had the breakdown of applicants who applied and who were accepted BY STATE, and the acceptance rate for Ohio residents was like 1 or two percentage points higher than the average. That's not much! States with one or no school were amongst the lowest, along with California, which we all know has some serious competition.

I think I recall that nationally, the acceptance rates were around 37-40%?? (Correct me anybody), and for Ohio, it was like 41-42%. Translation - There are still 60% of the Ohio residents who apply to med school who end up without any acceptances.

Sheesh. Well, with that rant out of the way, I can answer the original poster. Yes, coming to Ohio and establishing residency may slightly improve your chances of getting an acceptance. However, you may have to run that decision by your parents, because it would mean you'd establish your independence from them, which may change their tax situation too much for them to handle. And you may not be able to establish residency if they are still footing the bills. These are things you need to check up on. I do know that it takes one full year of living here before you can change your residence. And you must get an Ohio driver's license and tags as soon as you get here.

Good Luck,
Mango MS1 (at Cincy, a GREAT school

)

[This message has been edited by Mango (edited April 10, 2001).]

 

[baylor21]

I want to backup what Mango said about establishing residency.

It can be very complicated, depending on the state. If its just living in the state for 1 year and getting drivers license and tags switched over, then thats a pretty good deal in order to achieve residency.

Compare Ohio's situation to Texas, where you have to live and work in the state for a full year WITHOUT GOING TO SCHOOL fulltime to establish residency. Consider the following (hypothetical) situation: Let's say I were to be a full time student at a Texas university for 5 years. I change my drivers license, tags, and registration over to Texas my first semester. I vote in all local and national elections as a registered voter in a Texas county. I am independent of my parents financially and submit my tax returns independently from them. Lets say I also work a part time job for all of those 5 years. Now, what does all that get me?? NOTHING. I'm STILL not a Texas resident even after going through all that. Unless I were to drop below full time for a full year, I STILL would not be a Texas resident even if I stayed in college for 10 years. That makes it much harder for an out of stater unless they are nontrad to become a Texan, but hell they ARE Texas so I guess they have to keep their standards up
Okay, I'm done ranting about Texas.

The tax situation is also well noted by Mango. Depending on your finances it might not be worth it just to get residency status.

I'm not sure what the standards for Oklahoma residency are. In the end, going to Ohio over Oklahoma won't give you a significant edge, but it might give you a little bit of an advantage. OU (Univ. of Oklahoma) typically has a very high instate acceptance rate compared to some other programs. I believe its close to 50% now. Most of the Ohio programs are lower than that, but then again there are 5 more of them so that makes up the difference perhaps, whereas OU is your only shot for an MD program. Of course, Ohio probably has 5X the population of Oklahoma as well, if not more.

I think there is also just one DO program in Oklahoma (at Oklahoma State Univ. in Stillwater) but I'm not sure about that.

Good luck, wherever you decide to go.

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"There is nothing more powerful on this Earth as a man who has nothing to lose. It does not take ten such men to change the world--one will do." Elijah Mohammed

[This message has been edited by baylor21 (edited April 10, 2001).]

 

[Mango]

Okay, I'm really procrastinating now. I crunched some numbers from this site http://www.demographia.com/db-2000stater.htm which has the 2000 census data, plus I used my MSAR.

Here's what I found. According to the census, Ohio contains 4.03% of the US population.

AND, if you take the 770 available seats in MD school first year classes in Ohio, divided by the total number of seats in all the MD schools nationwide (which is 16,200), than you get the percentage of seats in Ohio as 4.75. Now if you remember that around 150 of those seats are filled by out of staters every year, PLUS, some Ohio residents obviously go to med schools in other states, I think the numbers work out perfectly!

Also, Oklahoma has 1.23% of the US population, and one school that takes 150 students/year. That is about 1% of the total medical school seats nationwide. So it too works out okay.

So I guess my point is, there are a proportionate number of schools here considering the population of the state. In other words, the idea that there's a seat for every one who wants one is bunk. And now back to my regularly scheduled neuroanatomy...


[This message has been edited by Mango (edited April 10, 2001).]

 

[Amitha726]

Mango, I am currently on the waitlist at UC and would very much like to get accepted. Were you accepted outright, or did you come off of the waitlist? If you came off the list, when did they call you? I plan on writing a letter to the adcom telling them that I'm very interested in them, and will probably mention that they are my first choice. Do you think this is a good idea? Is there anything else I should be doing to improve my chances at all, or is my rank on the list carved in stone? Sorry if I'm overwhelming you with questions, but as you can probably guess, I've become very neurotic lately.

Also, it would be great if you could tell me your likes and dislikes about the school. Anything I can write in the letter that shows them I've done my research would be great.

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Amy
University of Rochester, class of 2001

 

[Mango]

Amitha, check out this thread: http://www.studentdoctor.net/bbs/Forum2/HTML/000232.html I think it should answer most of your questions. My situation was unique because I waited until the winter to turn my recommendations in. Why did I do such a thing? Who knows. I was, and still am, a huge procrastinator. Anyway, my tardiness pushed my interviews back, and when I interviewed at UC on Jan 18th, I was told they only had waitlist positions available. My interviewer asked, why did you wait so long, you could have been done with this stuff months ago? I just BSed something about being busy.

Anyhow, after getting the waitlist letter, I got a second letter telling me that I was in the group "at or near the top" of the list. Everyone (that I know of) in my class who got accepted from the waitlist got that same letter. So if you get it, you're pretty much going to get an offer.

As far as the letter of intent, It can't hurt. I say go for it. Mention the integrated curriculum, and the fact that patient contact begins in the first month of first year. You could mention the wonderful facilities and recourses (amazing hospitals -- especially Childrens), as well as the friendly atmosphere, and happy students

! You said you noticed how pleasant everyone is here, that's because we all love the school because of how low-stress the environment is. We have a lot of fun here, already we've had 2 formals, pub crawls, and a "Malpractice Mixer" with the law school students! All of these are sponsored by the Medical Student Association (our student gov't), and include free beer and wine. Translation -- good times for all!

So good luck!! And let me know if you have any other questions, and keep me posted as to your situation.

Mango

 

[Homunculus]

Actually, OSU-COM is in Tulsa, and it takes a large percentage of in state residents as well, being public and all... And if you want to go into primanry care, it's one of the best...

take it easy

homonculus

 

[OUaj2]

I'm from OK just outside of Tulsa. There is an allopathic school in OK City and the DO school is in Tulsa. My advice is to go the the college you like. I'm at the Univ. of OK and that hasn't stopped me from getting into the med schools I liked. I enjoyed my time here plus I have no debt from loans. If you are thinking about residency issues, the med school does accept a lot of its residents that meet their average stats.

 

[DrMunns2Be]

Being an Ohio native, I will always be an advocate for UC--despite the recent riots and chaos! I am now trying to decide if I need to move back to Ohio ASAP because in the middle of my senior year, my family transplanted me to the exciting region of South Carolina! Don't get me wrong, I love being this close to the beach and all that stuff, but my heart still lies in Ohio. I want to go to Case, which is private, but I noticed in the MSAR that there did not seem to be too much reliance on residency. Any comments on this one? Case, because of their MD/JD program, which is what I want to enter, is definitely my number one right now. Anyone have advice on what exactly they are looking for? Yes, I have read MSAR, but I would love someones "inside tip"! Anything will be helpful now!

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"If what you did yesterday seems big, you have't done anything today."
-Lou Holtz