- Joined
- Jul 27, 2017
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I'm not sure what I want to go into yet, but I'm definitely interested in global health. Potentially pediatrics or emergency medicine. Not quite sure about how interested I am in academia or research either. I will graduate with a similar debt load from both schools.
(EDIT: wrong about the debt load. I just did number crunching with more realistic estimates and I'd have ~50k less debt from Cornell)
If I go to UCLA, I'd like to pursue residency either OOS or norcal to get out of socal, but if I go to Cornell, I'd probably want to return to California or somewhere on the west coast. I know UCLA is 2 year pre-clinical while Cornell is 1.5 year, but I don't really have an opinion about either one.
Another big difference, which I'm not sure is a pro or con since I don't know what I want to do, is that UCLA graduates about half their students into primary care residencies. Cornell, on the other hand, is not very primary care oriented and has more students that go into specialty based residencies.
UCLA
Pros:
-Global health opportunities
-On the undergrad campus with other graduate programs which allows for more intermingling, both socially and academically
-Class diversity: Geffen scholars, Drew, PRIME, so a whole range of students that are passionate about social justice while also being academically driven. I'm from an immigrant, low-income family, so diversity of class is important to me
-Family: I love em and all, but don't mind getting away for medical school although I might be underestimating how nice it is to have family close by
Cons:
-I'm from socal, went to undergrad at UCLA, worked at UCLA for 1.5 years after, so I'm ready to leave! So ready.
-70% of their class match into California residencies: not sure if this is just a function of personal preference for their graduates, but if I'm wanting to leave California this is a problem.
-Weather: believe it or not, I'm tired of sunny, 70 degree weather year round. It'd be nice to have some change.
Cornell
Pros:
-New York: might be fun place to live in my 20s with all the foods and museums and no shortage of city things to do
-I've heard culture of medicine is different regionally, so it'd be neat to see what east coast culture is like
-Global health opportunities abound, which I can do during the Area of Concentration period
-Loved my interview day and interviewers
Cons:
-New York: stinky, crowded, my first instinct after I visited was that I disliked New York City although I loved the school
-New York: I'm an outdoorsy person and would probably feel crowded living in the concrete jungle, but after thinking about it I think I can get used to it and do more an urban exploration
-Not much class diversity
-No support system: although I'm pretty sure I can build one up relatively quickly
-Not on an undergrad campus
I've been speaking with students from both schools, and it seems like I can't go wrong at either school, but I can't help but feel like I'm making a life vs death choice. I thought it'd be good to get a some more opinions from the SDN community since I've been lurking here on here for so long. Thank you!
(EDIT: wrong about the debt load. I just did number crunching with more realistic estimates and I'd have ~50k less debt from Cornell)
If I go to UCLA, I'd like to pursue residency either OOS or norcal to get out of socal, but if I go to Cornell, I'd probably want to return to California or somewhere on the west coast. I know UCLA is 2 year pre-clinical while Cornell is 1.5 year, but I don't really have an opinion about either one.
Another big difference, which I'm not sure is a pro or con since I don't know what I want to do, is that UCLA graduates about half their students into primary care residencies. Cornell, on the other hand, is not very primary care oriented and has more students that go into specialty based residencies.
UCLA
Pros:
-Global health opportunities
-On the undergrad campus with other graduate programs which allows for more intermingling, both socially and academically
-Class diversity: Geffen scholars, Drew, PRIME, so a whole range of students that are passionate about social justice while also being academically driven. I'm from an immigrant, low-income family, so diversity of class is important to me
-Family: I love em and all, but don't mind getting away for medical school although I might be underestimating how nice it is to have family close by
Cons:
-I'm from socal, went to undergrad at UCLA, worked at UCLA for 1.5 years after, so I'm ready to leave! So ready.
-70% of their class match into California residencies: not sure if this is just a function of personal preference for their graduates, but if I'm wanting to leave California this is a problem.
-Weather: believe it or not, I'm tired of sunny, 70 degree weather year round. It'd be nice to have some change.
Cornell
Pros:
-New York: might be fun place to live in my 20s with all the foods and museums and no shortage of city things to do
-I've heard culture of medicine is different regionally, so it'd be neat to see what east coast culture is like
-Global health opportunities abound, which I can do during the Area of Concentration period
-Loved my interview day and interviewers
Cons:
-New York: stinky, crowded, my first instinct after I visited was that I disliked New York City although I loved the school
-New York: I'm an outdoorsy person and would probably feel crowded living in the concrete jungle, but after thinking about it I think I can get used to it and do more an urban exploration
-Not much class diversity
-No support system: although I'm pretty sure I can build one up relatively quickly
-Not on an undergrad campus
I've been speaking with students from both schools, and it seems like I can't go wrong at either school, but I can't help but feel like I'm making a life vs death choice. I thought it'd be good to get a some more opinions from the SDN community since I've been lurking here on here for so long. Thank you!
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