UABHSOM vs USA (South AL)

[tellmeaboutit00]

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Hi all! I am really trying to weigh pros and cons of two medical school and was wondering if anyone had any insight. I know decision is ultimately up to me. I deferred to start 2026 upon successful completion of the 11 month MSBHS Masters. I was also accepted to start Fall 2025 at USA. On one hand I’ve been out of school for a minute and a masters could help me throughout med school, and on the other hand I just want to go ahead and start MD. Any thoughts? Does med school ranking matter for residencies? I have also been accepted to multiple DO programs. I wanted to see if potentially anyone had gone through this scenario and could provide insight. TIA!!!

 

[tellmeaboutit00]

For context MCAT 503 and GPA 3.58

 

[Mr.Smile12]

You have the option of starting your medical education without jumping through a hoop. I would take it, leveraging the full resources of your institution to help when anything becomes challenging academically.

 

[GoSpursGo]

Go straight to MD

 

[Mr.Smile12]

Also, I presume you will not be charged tuition for the master's degree, so you only had to add cost of living for an additional year to the 4-year cost of attendance if you went to UAB?

Just pay attention that your academic preparation was in question. As I said, choose a place where you can leverage all resources to succeed academically.

 

[tellmeaboutit00]

I believe the masters will add another 20k + living. I am okay with this considering it as an investment, but am confused because I know UAB is a more established school than USA, but both will give an MD degree regardless. So the question really becomes is the masters worth doing to go to a “higher ranked” school with more networking/ resources and could potentially set me up better for residency and beyond. I am interested in pediatric endocrinology at the moment if that helps! I was able to speak to some students who went through this program, and they said while it’s difficult, all the students in the cohort went on to matriculate the following year.

 

[jvquarterback]

If peds or IM are what you’re looking at it would be a poor decision to defer.

I say call up uab and tell them you really want to come this year for the MD program. Ask them if there’s anything you can do to show you’re ready this year.

 

[tellmeaboutit00]

I did email when I first got the decision in Feb, but they just mentioned my app is no longer being considered for reg MD acceptance of 2025.

 

[hydroflaskhomie]

Go to USA in a heartbeat.

 

[tellmeaboutit00]

Go to USA in a heartbeat.

Seems like the consensus. Bham was in a better, busier location versus South AL and tends to be more diverse than Mobile, which is what I had hoped to be around for for the next couple of years. Regardless I know both schools will give quality education and it’s up to me and my performance there.

 

[Real McCoy]

South Alabama has a much smaller class size, a solid match list, adequate research opportunities, and they have a fantastic children's and women's hospital with patients who come in from all over the gulf coast region. I would go there and not look back if it were me.

 

[tellmeaboutit00]

I was able to scope out and compare the match lists. UAB def has more matches to places I’m interested in in the south but less so for south. Definitely not impossible which makes sense in the long run to just go ahead and do MD with less hurdles. Also, has Step 1 becoming P/F made it more difficult for residencies to asses candidates?

 

[Real McCoy]

I would encourage you to peruse the data found at the link below to see what residency program directors appear to value.

2024 NRMP Charting Outcomes

 

[tellmeaboutit00]

I have officially decided to go to South. Thank you all!