UC Irvine SOM vs. UT Health San Antonio (Long)

[Technoblade]

Hi everyone! I’m very fortunate to have been accepted to two of my top-choice schools. I’ve been thinking about this for a while and I figure that now is a good time to get some outside input.

Long School of Medicine - UT Health San Antonio
Pros

• Great tuition ~$20k, affordable area
• Students and staff seem like incredibly nice and supportive people
• Research Ranking - 52
• I would be happy to stay here for residency

Cons

• Heat
• Area is not as nice and is a 3 hour drive from the ocean
• H/HP/P/F system

UC Irvine School of Medicine
Pros

• Perfect weather
• Beautiful location by the ocean, safe
• First-year P/F grading
• More prestigious
• Research Ranking - 48

Cons

• More expensive ~ $42k per year
• Housing is very expensive
• Worried about competition for Honors (restricted to top 15% of class in M2). I’m only interested in IM but I’m worried that people will stop being as friendly to each other in M2.
• I want to pursue residency in the South and regional bias may work against me

Summary: Both schools are wonderful, and I feel that I will be happy in either location. The tuition and COL in Texas is hard to turn down, but IDK if I'd be missing out on a great opportunity to attend a UC. My current goal is Internal Medicine/Cardiology, based off of years of research in a heart lab.

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[123OkayGoogle]

More prestigious in that UCI is only 4 spots higher than Long? They’re both mid tiers. I didn’t understand that part too much.

If you wannna end up in the south, prob long the way to go. Plus half as expensive.

 

[TheGranolaKing]

If you were deadset on matching to the west coast, I'd probably say to go to UCI. But given your priorities and the cost difference, I think Long is the better choice!

 

[Technoblade]

More prestigious in that UCI is only 4 spots higher than Long? They’re both mid tiers. I didn’t understand that part too much.

If you wannna end up in the south, prob long the way to go. Plus half as expensive.

Thank you so much for the response! I think that in general, Irvine as a city has more of a prestige factor than San Antonio, although the med schools are pretty much the same and UT Health SA has better research IMO.

 

[thatonegrrl]

On this year's rankings Long moved up, so it's a T50 mid-tier too - I'd definitely go for the affordability factor alone. You'll have so much more freedom on the other side of residency with lower debt.

 

[chilly_md]

I would also opt for Long. It is hard to beat IS tuition at Texas schools. Congratulations, it is a notable accomplishment to get acceptances to both a CA and TX public medical school. I don’t think we see that often here.

 

[scarletspeedsterMD]

Long > UCI