Toughdecisionahead
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- Joined
- Mar 6, 2021
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This week has been quite eventful. I was admitted to my dream school, Harvard Medical School, and also received notice that I was awarded the Geffen scholarship at UCLA. I am an international student with no familial wealth and few savings, so financial aid is something that is very important to me.
While I have not received a financial aid packet from Harvard, I anticipate that I would receive one that covers full tuition and I would need to take out $80,000 – 100,000 in loans to cover living expenses. My partner and I would be moving together, they having a job, so most of the living expenses would be covered by them. My future plans are to remain in academia either as an academic physician or a physician scientist, and I am also interested in competitive specialties (dermatology, ENT, neurology, internal medicine to oncology/immuno).
I received great advice from this community before and during the application cycle, so once again I am reaching out to hear (read I guess, hehe) different opinions. If anyone who has been in a similar position could chime in their $0.02 I would appreciate it.
Harvard
Pros:
Pros:
While I have not received a financial aid packet from Harvard, I anticipate that I would receive one that covers full tuition and I would need to take out $80,000 – 100,000 in loans to cover living expenses. My partner and I would be moving together, they having a job, so most of the living expenses would be covered by them. My future plans are to remain in academia either as an academic physician or a physician scientist, and I am also interested in competitive specialties (dermatology, ENT, neurology, internal medicine to oncology/immuno).
I received great advice from this community before and during the application cycle, so once again I am reaching out to hear (read I guess, hehe) different opinions. If anyone who has been in a similar position could chime in their $0.02 I would appreciate it.
Harvard
Pros:
- It is Harvard, arguably the best medical school in the world. I would also, in the future, want to go back to my country and do medical/educational outreach. I imagine the prestige would help a lot.
- The Pathways curriculum fits my learning style quite well. I actually enjoy going to class and discussing with peers.
- True P/F curriculum at all stages, no AOA.
- Take classes at MIT and even do research there (apparently Pathways students can, you just have to reach out).
- Students seem to really get along with each other. Smaller class size than UCLA probably helps a lot.
- Having years 3 and 4 to do research would be great.
- I LOVE LOVE Boston. Worked there as an undergrad and always wanted to live there for part of my academic development.
- I have close friends in Boston.
- Been a dream of mine since I was serious about academics in highschool.
- Would not need a car to move around. Boston is very easy to walk around or take public transport to most places.
- Partner could easily find a job there as they are in higher level education.
- Would leave with at least $80,000 – 100,000 in debt. I am well aware that this is still quite low for medical school, and that I can easily pay it as an MD, but the idea of debt still scares me. With interests this is probably going to end up being $120,000 – 150,000. Pretty sure HMS doesn’t match merit awards, so the cost of living expenses will be there for sure.
- Patient population seems very white and rich. I am interested in helping underserved communities, especially immigrant ones. There is the Cambridge Health Alliance clinical site, which sees lots of immigrants and underserved patients, but participation is restricted to ~12 students and it is decided by lottery.
- No direct flights to my home country.
- Difficult to judge since I have yet to visit in person, but teaching spaces seem old and not as modern as UCLA’s.
Pros:
- Geffen scholarship is probably the best and most known award across medical schools in the US. Graduating with no debt, and perhaps even some savings, would be HUGE. I grew up middle class back home, which would be considered poor in the US, and the idea of being paid to attend a T10 is almost too good to be true.
- Like Harvard, years 3 and 4 would be devoted to research and really finding my passions.
- Very diverse clinical sites with equally diverse populations. LOTS of immigrants to work with.
- LA weather is tough to beat compared to Boston.
- Direct flights to my home country. I could easily visit my parents during breaks/long weekends, more so since I WILL BE PAID to attend medical school.
- Geffen Hall looks amazing and seems like a great place to study/socialize/etc.
- Less prestige than Harvard? I know that I would get an amazing education at either school, however I have an inclination that Harvard could help me achieve my academic goals (both in the US and my home country).
- Seems like a lot of students (from YT videos and word of mouth) watch lectures at home and don't attend class. I am actually looking forward to attending lecture and discussing with peers.
- LA driving and traffic. I don’t even have a driver’s license in the US and have avoided it for nearly a decade. The idea of sitting hours on traffic and having horrible public transit systems is not appealing to me at all.
- Don’t really know anyone in LA. Pretty sure I can make new friends in medical school easily, but it would be nice to move to a city where I already have close friends.
- New curriculum could also be a con since we would be some of the first to go through it (guinea pigs). Also, if I am not mistaken, we will overlap on clinical rotations with the year ahead of us, which could be somewhat chaotic.
- Was not entirely clear if AOA is still a thing.