UCSD or USC?

[DZM]

---

Members do not see this ad.

I've been seeing more of these- so here's my pickle
Which school would you choose between UCSD or USC.

What's your take?

Again-any and all factors (academic and non-academic) are welcomed and appreciated!

 

[lola]

why the mad face?

 

[Dr. Dodger Dog]

IMO, usc is the better school in every regard... however due to the disparity in cost, ucsd might be the better choice.

 

[DZM]

Originally posted by lola
why the mad face?

sorry Lola,
I thought it was more of a look of confusion at first
but i changed it

 

[Jalby]

Hey there. If you do a search for USC and Jalby, you will get a lot of my thoughts on the subject. Also, I would like to point out this thread in the allo forum:
http://www.studentdoctor.net/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=42357

My take on it, USC is better than UCSD in almost every way, except for 2. Cost, as you know. I also think UCSD has more oportunities to get involved with research than USC (but you won't have any problem getting research at either place)

Things that I think USC beats UCSD at is clinical training, location, curriculum, faculty, student happyness (by a LONG shot), teaching (except immunology. We just read a 10th grade level book), living environment at school (Have own desk and room). And that's all I can think of right now.

 

[Jalby]

Let me also add that USC prolly has better faculty response to student input. Last year, the first of a new curriculum, the class complained about how much gross anatomy they had (twice a week). So for our class, they cut the amount of gross anatomy in almost half, which made everything else a lot easier.

(To you second years, the Nuero lady thought that is why you guys hated nuero, so hopefully it will be better for us.)

 

[Cambrian]

No offense but I'm going to give you a balance input because the two previous posts were written by USC alumni 😉

There are a few things to consider:

1. Location: UCSD is in La Jolla, which is a great place to live. La Jolla is safe, fun, and full of beaches. I've never been to the neighborhood around USC but I heard it's ghetto (correct me if I'm wrong). But you definitely won't go wrong with La Jolla.

2. Education: UCSD is ranked high (if that matters to you) and has a reputation for amazing research and faculty. UCSD incorporates the Salk and Scripps faculty into its own. They are all high caliber researchers with Nobels and Howard Hughes left and right. The curriculum here is great but a little hardcore and stressful. Research and preceptorship opportunities are endless. I'm only a first year medical student but already I'm shadowing with a surgical oncologist and doing research with him on pancreatic cancer; all of this is due to the way the curriculum is structured. UCSD requires that all of its graduates finish an independent research project with the school of medicine faculty. This compels students to be more involved in research and sets them apart from the rest of the residency applicants.

3. Tuition: Like the USC alumni have indicated, UCSD is a bargain. You get a great education for a great price.

Now that I have given you a very biased view of UCSD since I'm a first year medical student at UCSD, I hope you will take that into consideration and see it as a balance of opinion.

If you are deciding between these schools because you are already accepted, congratulations!

 

[AznTrojan]

usc has a better curriculum..

 

[Jalby]

Originally posted by Cambrian
No offense but I'm going to give you a balance input because the two previous posts were written by USC alumni 😉

He's right, but the thread I posted had no alumni. And I went to UCLA, so I'm not really that fervent


1. Location: UCSD is in La Jolla, which is a great place to live. La Jolla is safe, fun, and full of beaches. I've never been to the neighborhood around USC but I heard it's ghetto (correct me if I'm wrong). But you definitely won't go wrong with La Jolla.

All the student live in Pasadena, South Pas, or Monterrey Hills, which is very comparable to La Jolla. And we are normally only 10-20 minutes from Hollywood, 3 from dodger stadium, 10 from Staples center. I would pick this location over San Diego and day of the week. But the hospital itself is in the ghetto, but that does give you a lot better patient population and more chances to learn diseases.



2. Education: UCSD is ranked high (if that matters to you) and has a reputation for amazing research and faculty. UCSD incorporates the Salk and Scripps faculty into its own. They are all high caliber researchers with Nobels and Howard Hughes left and right. The curriculum here is great but a little hardcore and stressful. Research and preceptorship opportunities are endless. I'm only a first year medical student but already I'm shadowing with a surgical oncologist and doing research with him on pancreatic cancer; all of this is due to the way the curriculum is structured. UCSD requires that all of its graduates finish an independent research project with the school of medicine faculty. This compels students to be more involved in research and sets them apart from the rest of the residency applicants.


Yeah, UCSD has better researchers, but that doesn't mean you will work with them. There are only like 5 of them. If your goal is to be a researcher or a medical researcher, then you should go to UCSD. But for what is open to you as a medical student, the opportunities are about equal, with UCSD having an edge.

USC also requires you to do a research project or a community service project. That is one difference. If you just want to be a clinician, you are not forced to do research.


3. Tuition: Like the USC alumni have indicated, UCSD is a bargain. You get a great education for a great price.


No arguement. Not sure I would be able to pass by all the savings.


If you are deciding between these schools because you are already accepted, congratulations!

I concur. Congrats.

 

[AznTrojan]

we didn't hate neuro.. it was just loooooooong.. taught very well.. u can't miss too many lectures or else you get lost.. and you really have to stay on top of your stuff..

btw.. i hope you guys like the heme book (the british one.. haemotology) recommended this year.. i recommended it to the faculty last year.. and it looks like they integrated into your curriculum..

2 more days til spring break..

Originally posted by Jalby
Let me also add that USC prolly has better faculty response to student input. Last year, the first of a new curriculum, the class complained about how much gross anatomy they had (twice a week). So for our class, they cut the amount of gross anatomy in almost half, which made everything else a lot easier.

(To you second years, the Nuero lady thought that is why you guys hated nuero, so hopefully it will be better for us.)

 

[DZM]

SC People
- How many people get scholarships from the school?- do they still give them out after they admit you?
- does graduating with so much debt worry or stress you guys out? Do people generally try to be more conservative with other expenses?
- Approximatley how often do you guys have exams
- Jalby- coming from ucla do you find the faculty to be better in terms of teaching style


Cambrian (or any other SDers)
-Do you feel the graded system makes the class any more competitive?
-Is it the pace that makes the curriculum more "hardcore and stressful"?
- How hard is it to get campus housing?
- how'd you find that surgical oncologist your working with- does the school set it up- or is it up to you to go hunting around?


Thank you all for the great input,
I feel privileged to have the chance to attend both- this is turning out to be a much harder decision then I thought I'd have to make.

 

[Cambrian]

Originally posted by DZM

Cambrian (or any other SDers)
-Do you feel the graded system makes the class any more competitive?
-Is it the pace that makes the curriculum more "hardcore and stressful"?
- How hard is it to get campus housing?
- how'd you find that surgical oncologist your working with- does the school set it up- or is it up to you to go hunting around?

-There's no "graded system" at UCSD. It's only P/F/Honors. But if you consider the honors a step closer to graded then I suppose it is graded. But, really, all medical schools have some sort of system to distinguish between the "pass" people and the "top of the class" people; whether it is by honors or dean's letters, they all serve the same purpose. For schools that supposedly don't have the Honors system, they instead have a letter written by the dean to distinguish you and your classmates. This letter is filed every quarter and ranks you relative to the class. And if you are on the top 15%, you are recognized as such.

-Both the curriculum and pace make it stressful. There's a lot of stuff packed into a small amount of time.

-There's a long waiting list for campus housing. But I was lucky to get one before school starts. $348 a month for your own room with free cable, HBO and ethernet.

-The school is great when it comes to hooking students up with professors. They have a website dedicated to listing professors who are interested in doing research with students and who have done so in the past. Since I'm interested in surgery, I just looked under the department and saw a bunch of names. His name was first so I chose him 🙂

Hope this helped.

 

[tBw]

Cambrian - or other UCSD people of whom there appears to be a sparcity (too busy? 😉 )...

At residency matching time, residency directors at very competitive programs often like to see people who have strong Dean's letters, high class rank, and AOA.

As far as I'm aware UCSD does not do any form of class rank or AOA. I am also interested in UCSD but this seems to be a disadvantage (someone with AOA from somewhere else will just sound better...). Is there a mechanism of assessment/means by which the school compensates for this in evaluations sent out for residency?

 

[mrpeters714]

I just went through the whole residency application thingee, so I guess I can field this one.

Yes, UCSD does not participate in AOA. I can't say why, but I'm actually pretty glad that they do not, from what I have heard. And come to think of it, not a single person on the interview trail brought up the fact that I was not in AOA.
Program directors know that your school does not participate, and they don't discriminate against you because of this fact. It really has been a complete non-issue.

Regarding class rank: also true, UCSD does not order the class from the best student through the worst student. However, in our Dean's Letter (and in all other school's dean's letter), a sense of where we stand in the class is given, via "code phrases". Eg "one of our most outstanding" correlates to the top 5-10%, "an excellent student" is in the top 10-20%, and so on. I don't know if these are the exact phrases or percentages, but you get the idea. These phrases were actually officially recognized a year or two ago when the faculty responsible for writing the letters across the country met and decided that the Dean's Letters need to be standardized.

So, in summary, true, UCSD does not participate in AOA or class ranking, but in the end it hasn't mattered a bit. I'm actually pretty glad we don't do either of these things--it'd be just one more thing to freak out about and worry about.

-mrp