Mayo is no doubt a fantastic hospital that many people fly half way across the world to attend. On the other hand, I doubt private patients (paying $$$) flew that far to have med students work their case. I'd be a little worried about hands on time and procedural experience. That being said, I've never even visited mayo, so I could be completely off.
This is one of two main perceptions about Mayo that I've noted on SDN for a while. It is simply not true. Not "everything" here is zebras at all. Mayo serves a HUGE catchment area in the midwest, comprising mostly small towns in minnesota/wisconsin/iowa and rural areas. You get PLENTY of bread and butter. Additionally, Rochester has the second largest refugee population of Somali's in the US.
As a medical student I had done 4 thoracentesis, 2 paracenteses, 5 lumbar punctures, 2 central lines and that's not counting all the other little procedures too. I assure you that because medical students are a rarity here, residents/fellows/consultants love to teach us how to do procedures (as well as teach in general and offer tons of research opps). I also know that my procedure list far exceeds what my peers at other great institutions have done. And to be fair, in terms of involvement, if you expect to do well third/fourth year you MUST be functioning at an intern level. Multiple top programs that I interviewed at mentioned how much they "Love Mayo med students because X was one of the best residents they've ever had." In a nutshell, you'll be well prepared for residency as being autonomous is something that will be expected of you 3rd/4th year (which is not the case at a number of schools).
The other perception is that Mayo doesn't "match" to NE programs. I've broken down the statistics on this years match list based on tiers of programs (i.e BWH/MGH/UCSF/JHU.
Excluding the MD/OMS combined students (who automatically match at Mayo for residency)... there were 42 people this year who applied to residency. I'll break this down by tiers of programs.
Institutions matched into:
1) MGH/BWH/UCSF/JHU: 11/42 (26%)
- Most competitive programs in the country for almost everything.
2) Duke/UCLA/Northwestern/Vandy/Cornell/U Mich/Wash U: 7/42 (17%)
- Would broadly group these together in terms of competitiveness.
3) Mayo: 15/42 (36%)
- List separately because alot match here.
So approximately 80% of our class matched at the above places. ALOT of people that matched elsewhere, to smaller-name programs, did because they chose too (family, location etc...), not because they didn't get great interviews.
In terms of the super-competitive stuff:
Derm/Radiology/Rad-Onc/Ortho/Med-Derm - 11/42 (26%)
I hope this helps with some of the stereotypes that people tend to throw out about Mayo. The medical school is incredible, and most of our applications coming out of school here blow people out of the water (USMLE average of 240, almost everyone has multiple Pubs, a third of our class tends to take a years off to do JD/MPH/research year).
In the end, I think for the OP's goals (in terms of access to an HIV population) however, you should go to UCLA. UCLA is a fantastic place and a MUCH better location. I don't think it is as EASY to obtain opportunities (as a medical student) there as it is at Mayo. This is probably a function of Mayo's tiny class size. I have two close friends at UCLA med who will openly admit that they have not had the depth and breath of opportunities, as well as funding, that I've had.
I do think Mayo is a wonderful, unique place that would be difficult to pass up (especially for the price and really innovative/progressive curriculum). In the end, go with your gut feeling. Happiness influences success!
in the end, both are great so just trust your gut!
