UCLA DGSOM vs. Weil Cornell

[AquaticallyInclined]

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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!

 

[Avada Cadaver]

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.

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 such 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!

+1

 

[mega_]

"Im from an immigrant, low-income family, so diversity of class is important to me" - > NYC is an immigrant city through and through though.

"New York: I'm such an outdoorsy person and would probably feel crowded living in the concrete jungle, but after thinking about it Ithink I can get used to it and do more an urban exploration" -> It will take you at least 2hours to get anywhere outdoorsy from NYC. That might be very important.

Also having family near I think is super important for support.

"-Weather: believe it or not, I'm tired of sunny, 70 degree weather year round. It'd be nice to have some change." -> It seems you are looking for just some change of scenery. The question is, would 4 years of change be maybe a bit too lengthy? I mean you could probably go for some other places while in UCLA.

Both choices are great. Unless you want to go for "adventure", UCLA seems like a safer choice.

 

[AquaticallyInclined]

Hey Mega,

Thanks for the response! When referring to diversity, I'm referring to the diversity of the SOM. From my impressions of the schools and speaking to current students, UCLA seems to be made up of students from more diverse backgrounds, while Cornell appears to have a larger chunk of students from more affluent backgrounds and is more ethnically homogeneous. Not that it's a bad thing, but I think it might be easier for me to relate to students from UCLA.

And yes, I'm looking to live somewhere different to experience a change in pace of life and culture. I'm thinking that if I do matriculate at LA, to take full advantage of away rotations and electives.

 

[mega_]

you are right about students background.(I just checked MSAR, also UCLA students are slightly older on average).

 

[The Unburnt]

The good news is that either choice will you give you the opportunity to match wherever you want. I'm not from Cali but from what I've seen most students from Cali want to stay for med school/residency so that probably explains UCLA's match list, although I'm sure if you decided you wanted to go out of state I don't see UCLA holding you back at all in that regard.

While Cornell's class may not be/seem as diverse, I'm quite sure you'll be able to find people to relate to and hang out with, and you'll have a diverse patient population in both places (which was more important to me when deciding as I was in a similar situation/from a similar background).

I think this decision will really have to be based on whether your desire to go somewhere new outweighs your desire to stay close to family. I was kind of in the same situation and decided for the adventure because I know that even if I stayed close to home I would likely only have time to hang out with my family over the holidays anyways, I wanted a change of scenery and figured this might be my last chance to really choose to do something new since you don't get as much say during the match, and being somewhere new will allow me to have new experiences in my free time (hiking, museums, etc) that will definitely lift my mood since it will all be new to me (as opposed to staying close to home and only having the option to do things I've already done for fun if that makes sense). I am also tired of not being able to wear pants and sweating immediately when I walk outside (thank you Florida). I think med school is a good time to be in a new city since you will be studying most of the time anyways, it doesn't really matter where you are (a study room at cornell = a study room at UCLA), but in your (limited) free time, you do have the option to explore new things. I guess what I mean is that even though you claim not to be in love with NYC, you won't really be experiencing the city much since you'll be studying all the time, and when you do experience the city you will obviously choose to do things that are interesting to you.

Either way you really can't go wrong (although I know that isn't helpful), both schools will open doors for you to do whatever you want in the future if you put the work in! Good luck!