UC Davis vs UCSD

[lamboy888]

Hi y’all. I’ve received acceptances to two of my top choices and I hoping for some perspective. At the moment, I’m hoping to pursue some sort of primary care specialty (e.g. FM, IM) with an emphasis on underserved medicine/ community health, substance use med, and/or policy. I hope to match back to California, but slim chance of going out of state. I'm really stuck

UC Davis

Pros

• Close to home (Bay Area), family, and significant other
• Relatively cheaper rent in Sac
• Higher primary care rank (idk if this even matters… ranks are confusing and kinda useless)
• Department dedicated to policy research, community health
• Many more free clinics (including one for LGBTQ+ and substance using populations)
• Possibly 3 years P/F? (sounds a lot less stressful)
• Harm reduction SIG, a lot more community health SIGs
• A lot more emphasis on working with underserved populations
• It sounds like the student body is a lot more close/ happier?
• Proximity to the Capitol (would be cool for policy)

Cons

• Less prestigious
• They recently changed their curriculum a year or two ago (it looks really neat), but they cited below national average/ declining and plateauing average STEP 1 scores as one of the reasons (idk how much this matters since STEP 1 is P/F now)

Neutral

• I think I can volunteer with harm reduction through one of the free clinics, but I’m not sure (not much info online)

UCSD

Pros

• Higher research rank (idk if this is super important if I’m pursuing primary care)
• Possibly more research opportunities
• 2 year P/F might mean opportunities to distinguish myself during clinicals
• Super neat lab exploring harm reduction and substance use among elderly populations from a public health perspective
• There is a harm reduction org in SD and students who I’ve talked to have shared that they’ve volunteered in HR as well (though it might be through their free clinic)
• A lot of neat electives (idk how much this matters)
• Rank lists include including more prestigious/ OOS matches (though I wanna stay in Cali, so idk if that matters)
• A lot more policy SIGs

Cons

• Higher rent
• The driving (the I-5) and traffic
• I’m hearing rumors about people being less social (ik that shouldn’t be the straw that breaks the camel’s back, but I just wanna form a strong community)
• New curriculum, no explanation why?
• To volunteer with the free clinic, I would need to get into an elective class via lottery (also a single free clinic for the entire school)

Neutral

• Flights back are about ~$200 round trip? (Not a deal breaker, but a lot more than the ~$60 round trip train ride back to the Bay)

Other

• Tuition is comparable
• I don’t really care about the location. La Jolla is amazing but I don’t have anything against Sacramento either. I’ve been in Sac and in Davis a lot during undergrad and I’d be cool staying there.
• I have friends in Sac and in SD/ LA (area)

The biggest questions are 1) how much does rank matter, 2) how much does research matter

Thank you!!!

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[asparagus_liker]

I went to UC Davis for undergrad, it's a lovely cozy town with a cool downtown. However, UC Davis is also an old campus, with a lot of 1960s beige and wood stuffy building interiors. It does feel a bit like going to a community college or an old library.
I visited UCSD and it is very much a cosmopolitan center, lots of money flowing around and big ambition research going on. The campus also is much newer, with a lot of cold stark steel and glass structures, and sterile white interiors.

If you have kids or a wife I might suggest UC Davis, or if you want to focus on medicine and study well.
If you are ambitious and interested in money and research, and maybe being a non-physician MD or involve yourself in industry, I might recommend UCSD.