UCSF for 200k/4yrs vs. MCW for 70k/4yrs

[45408]

for $130K, you could probably avoid leaving your apartment other than exams for at least the first two years

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[45408]

princeton has a med school??

nice try, ucsf hands down

His joke











Your head

 

[HreComesTheSun]

His joke



Your head

my sarcasm



your head


don't be bitter now cause mcw doesn't rise to the challenge

 

[Gabujabu]

C'mon now, the prestigious PMS had a 0% acceptance rate last year. It doesn't get any more selective than that.

 

[Ultra7]

Where the heck did you get 200k from. Of course that is the MAX they will let you take out. However, tuition is 22k a year x 4 years is 88k. Then you can easily live in SF with sharing an apt for 1100 a month (including food etc) x 48 months = 52800. This is approx 140,000 in debt for med school, not 200k. And for the differnce betwen those schools I would choose UCSF hands down... Which I am

SF on $1100 a month?!?! You have got to be kidding me, unless you are living on a couch in an apt with 4 other people eating ramen every night. Not to mention never leaving that apartment unless it's for something free.

I mean, you can probably do it, but certainly not "easily". I'd imagine it takes a certain dedication to budgeting that is, IMHO, much too time consuming and perhaps even somewhat unhealthy.

You can't even live "easily" in Milwaukee on 1100 a month. (Especially not with all the beer you'll be drinking!)

 

[Arc]

SF on $1100 a month?!?! You have got to be kidding me, unless you are living on a couch in an apt with 4 other people eating ramen every night. Not to mention never leaving that apartment unless it's for something free.

I mean, you can probably do it, but certainly not "easily". I'd imagine it takes a certain dedication to budgeting that is, IMHO, much too time consuming and perhaps even somewhat unhealthy.

You can't even live "easily" in Milwaukee on 1100 a month. (Especially not with all the beer you'll be drinking!)

You can with a roommate. Rent alone is ~ $750-800 a month for an apt rooming with another person, and leftovers for food & enterainment. I think thats what he was getting at.

 

[Ultra7]

You can with a roommate. Rent alone is ~ $750-800 a month for an apt rooming with another person, and leftovers for food & enterainment. I think thats what he was getting at.

$1100 minus $800 = $300 (let's assume just for kicks that $800 includes utilities, internet, phone, etc.)

Living on $300 a month is not EASY. That is $10 a frickin day. You will be eating ramen and rarely leaving your small dark apartment. Vacations, weekend trips, hosting parties, going to shows, buying new clothes for the clinics, will be difficult to swing. Not impossible, but certainly not easy, and will require a fastidious dedication to budgeting.

If you live in Milwaukee, you can get away with perhaps $400 a month on rent (with a roommate, not for everyone). With utilities (it'll more for gas and electric, since you actually need heat or your a$$ will freeze to death), say $500 a month. Leaving $600, or $20 per day. Still, IMHO, not exactly EASY, but definitely easier.

 

[45408]

don't be bitter now cause mcw doesn't rise to the challenge

what is this, 3rd grade? grow up.

 

[45408]

You can't even live "easily" in Milwaukee on 1100 a month. (Especially not with all the beer you'll be drinking!)

If you already own your car, and you get a roommate, sure you can.

 

[pennybridge]

If you already own your car, and you get a roommate, sure you can.

who wants a roommate though? seriously, we're adults now, the whole sock on teh door thing gets old. real old.

 

[JJMrK]

The sound and acceleration are what would bring me happiness.

But it wouldn't be worth $300,000. You could build something to smoke that for <50k.

 

[Cirrus83]

lol I'd go UCSF too. I mean...it's friggin' UCSF, are you friggin' kidding me? And San Francisco versus Wisconsin...right...

Trust me, when you're 50 that $130K won't seem quite as important anymore since you'll be plenty comfortable either way. So screw it, sure it's more loans but it's UCSF, not something that's only marginally more impressive, it's crazy more impressive.

Anyways, if you've visited both schools and you liked UCSF better just go to UCSF. However, if MCW for some reason blew you away I guess you should save the money...but uhh...most likely I'd just suck it up.

Plus anyways, that Murcielago can't realistically be purchased for anything under 500K anyway, since you have muchos luxury and gas guzzler taxes, plus very often the cars end up being pre-purchased by fanatical collectors so you have to buy it from them at a markup.

So you see, you'd only be giving up about 1/4 of a Murcielago by going to UCSF, lol.

 

[Cirrus83]

who wants a roommate though? seriously, we're adults now, the whole sock on teh door thing gets old. real old.

Well, not a real roommate but like an apartment mate is what he means I think...you just have to put up with the fact that you can hear moaning through the walls and am annoyed that they can't keep their damned moaning down a little.

BTW, UCSF does have housing for their med students so you're somewhat sheltered from the San Francisco area rent. Med schools in Manhattan also usually have fairly cheap housing available, so it's not like schools don't think ahead about this, lol.

 

[modelslashactor]

haha, glad to see this s***storm is still raging.

i just thought of something else: OP, ask someone who's NOT a premed. perhaps a practicing physician in their 30s or 40s, and you could even ask somebody in the bay area who might better understand the value of a ucsf degree. i imagine these guys would have a better perspective on the whole thing.

and re: not being familiar with the bay area, yeah i'm well aware the average place is like 700 grand. but where the hell is the money for that place going to come from if you don't cut back on other stuff?

and here's another car to fight over that actually costs in the range we are discussing:

 

[Cirrus83]

and here's another car to fight over that actually costs in the range we are discussing:

It's ok, I'll save that money and buy a Nissan GT-R instead
(assuming it's as jokingly limited from the factory as all the previous Skyline GT-R's have been)

OK, enough fantasy car talk, we're going to be broke for a verrry long time no matter what med school we go to, so for now we can only fantasize about riding fast motorcycles and trying not to die

 

[45408]

But it wouldn't be worth $300,000. You could build something to smoke that for <50k.

wait, let me guess, you live your life one quarter mile at a time?

 

[45408]

who wants a roommate though? seriously, we're adults now, the whole sock on teh door thing gets old. real old.

Um, everybody gets their own room, and there were a few nights that all three of the us guys had our women spending the night. One bathroom. No problems. Just be adults.

 

[Cirrus83]

wait, let me guess, you live your life one quarter mile at a time?

Well, I'm not a fan of "tuning" in the street racer wannabe style, but the Lancer Evolution VIII RS does 0-60 in the same amount of time as the R8 stock... So even if you weren't into ridiculous over the top tuning it wouldn't exactly be hard to find cars where a computer reprogramming would put it on par with the R8.

Or really, just buy a 2008 Corvette since it's faster than the R8 anyway (they finally made the Corvette interior non-craptacular too, you can get it in a leather wrap 2-tone for 2008). I think it scrapes in under 50K, actually.

On top of which I wouldn't have to feel quite as guilty. Oh, and the Corvette doesn't have to pay a gas guzzler tax because it's actually quite fuel efficient (when you're not flooring the gas anyway), whereas the R8 is a gas pig (not that anybody paying that kind of money would really care about gas prices).

Or get a Lotus (or heck, get the electric version from Tesla if you're feeling particularly environmental).

But anyways, that's not really the point of super expensive cars like the R8 anyway, they're mostly just about showing off the fact that you have unbelievable amounts of money to burn and you don't care and you want people to know that you don't care, lol.

 

[JJMrK]

Well, I'm not a fan of "tuning" in the street racer wannabe style, but the Lancer Evolution VIII RS does 0-60 in the same amount of time as the R8 stock... So even if you weren't into ridiculous over the top tuning it wouldn't exactly be hard to find cars where a computer reprogramming would put it on par with the R8.

Or really, just buy a 2008 Corvette since it's faster than the R8 anyway (they finally made the Corvette interior non-craptacular too, you can get it in a leather wrap 2-tone for 2008). I think it scrapes in under 50K, actually.

On top of which I wouldn't have to feel quite as guilty. Oh, and the Corvette doesn't have to pay a gas guzzler tax because it's actually quite fuel efficient (when you're not flooring the gas anyway), whereas the R8 is a gas pig (not that anybody paying that kind of money would really care about gas prices).

Or get a Lotus (or heck, get the electric version from Tesla if you're feeling particularly environmental).

But anyways, that's not really the point of super expensive cars like the R8 anyway, they're mostly just about showing off the fact that you have unbelievable amounts of money to burn and you don't care and you want people to know that you don't care, lol.

I was thinking more along these lines: http://www.steveschmidtracing.com/engines/632-special-sportsman-1050hp.html

 

[Doctor~Detroit]

for 130k, i was thinking of a fleet of toyota camrys, each a different color for a different day of school. that's how i roll.

 

[JJMrK]

wait, let me guess, you live your life one quarter mile at a time?

That's certainly one area in which Lamborghini could have trouble, and it was what I was originally thinking of when I made the post. However, I'm sure that a well built streetbike could also give it a run for its money on almost any track. Perhaps more than $50,000 would be in order though.

 

[45408]

Sure, a street bike will give most anything a run for its money, but an F/A-18 would crush an Augusta Tamborini in the standing mile. Apples to apples, if you don't mind. R&T did it once - the Lola Champ car actually beat the F/A-18 to the one mile marker, but the Champ car was doing ~190 mph, and the F/A-18 was at 325 mph, in prime position to engage full afterburners. Mmmmmm.

A Lamborghini would be a lot more to me than just showing off my money. It's SO beautiful. Yes, I saw the Top Gear episode where the put the Evo FX220 against it and was holding its own, but an Evo? C'mon. Srsly. If you've never seen a Murcielago in person, you don't know what you're missing. It's like comparing a Cessna to an F-22 Raptor. If you really want an animal in "the twisties," go get an Ariel Atom and supercharge it. An Enzo, Murcielago, or a Veyron are a fine Tuscan wine compared to a $5 red.

 

[45408]

But back here in real life, when I'm out of residency, I'd like a Carrera 4S or a Z06.

 

[JJMrK]

But back here in real life, when I'm out of residency, I'd like a Carrera 4S or a Z06.

I've always been a Corvette fan. Have you, by any chance, seen this: "Chevy engineers can barely contain themselves as they work to top the masterpiece in the C7 (the seventh generation of the Corvette), but to tide us (and them) over, they're taking one last crack at the C6 in the form of the Chevrolet Corvette Z07, expected to launch in time for the 2009 model year. Often referred to as the Blue Devil, the super-super Corvette will serve as a sneak preview for the 2010 C7 -- a whopping 700 horsepower will likely be achieved..." -http://www.luxist.com/2007/04/26/corvette-z07-to-be-the-top-ride-for-horsepower-fetishists-in-200/

 

[JJMrK]

You're really going to compare a motorcycle to a military jet? At least my comparison used something under twenty million dollars.

 

[45408]

Fine. I could buy an RC car that could do 0-60 faster than most crotch rockets.

but srsly, comparing bikes to cars just isn't really relevant. If you want a bike, you'll buy one. It's like comparing dental school to med school. If you don't want to go, it doesn't matter how good the other side thinks it is.

 

[etf]

bmw m5. not too flashy, but it's sick.

 

[Dookter]

That's certainly one area in which Lamborghini could have trouble, and it was what I was originally thinking of when I made the post. However, I'm sure that a well built streetbike could also give it a run for its money on almost any track. Perhaps more than $50,000 would be in order though.

A stock street bike for like $15K could beat 99% of cars....motorcycles are FAST...even the slow ones. When I used to race motocross I remember the super good little kids on 60cc engines hauling @$$.... now imagine a Hayabusa cranked to the max....sick dude...totally sick.

 

[kdburton]

shouldn't there be a white tiger in this picture?? and shouldn't it be hanging on my wall, circa 1989, beside a poster of Slater, Zack, Kelly, Screech, Lisa and Jessie??

UCSF. the bay has to be one of the top 5 places to live in the entire world, in my humble opinion. top 5 school. and you'll get a really kick ass tan (but then again, that goes along with the whole white lamborghini thing...).

Oh I'm sure that the bay is a nice place to live, but unfortunately you'd have to live around a bunch of weirdos.

 

[JJMrK]

but srsly, comparing bikes to cars just isn't really relevant. If you want a bike, you'll buy one. It's like comparing dental school to med school. If you don't want to go, it doesn't matter how good the other side thinks it is.

We can agree to disagree.

Have you heard of the 2009 Z07 that I mentioned in the post above that one?

 

[berkeleyboy]

if you want a high powered competitive residency than UCSF by all means. This isn't to say that you can't get one coming from MCW but you'll have an easier time with the prestigious name when it comes time to interview for residency.

Trust me I'm a 4th year from a non ivy private lower tier school and it does hurt you to not schoool recognition when you are applying for residency.

 

[DarksideAllstar]

UCSF. the bay has to be one of the top 5 places to live in the entire world, in my humble opinion. top 5 school. and you'll get a really kick ass tan (but then again, that goes along with the whole white lamborghini thing...).

Have you spent more than 2 days in San Francisco? Aside from the last three days of temps around 80, it generally isn't much warmer than 65 and you definitely need to be in the Mission or Downtown for consistent sun exposure. I very much doubt you'll be getting a "kick ass tan" unless you live in the East Bay or South Bay (ie San Jose), where the temps are a little higher and the sun exposure is much greater. That or you could take $10 and go lay in a tanning booth for 20 minutes.

 

[JJMrK]

Have you spent more than 2 days in San Francisco? Aside from the last three days of temps around 80, it generally isn't much warmer than 65 and you definitely need to be in the Mission or Downtown for consistent sun exposure. I very much doubt you'll be getting a "kick ass tan" unless you live in the East Bay or South Bay (ie San Jose), where the temps are a little higher and the sun exposure is much greater. That or you could take $10 and go lay in a tanning booth for 20 minutes.

If you live in the South Bay, Santa Cruz is only 20-35 minutes away. From SF, its only an hour and a half or so. Plenty of warm sun there.

 

[45408]

We can agree to disagree.

Have you heard of the 2009 Z07 that I mentioned in the post above that one?

No, I hadn't heard of it. I don't think we really disagree per se. I'm just saying that throwing bikes into the comparison isn't relevant. Are they faster? Quite often so, yes. but if you want a car, you're not gonna buy a bike.

 

[JJMrK]

No, I hadn't heard of it. I don't think we really disagree per se. I'm just saying that throwing bikes into the comparison isn't relevant. Are they faster? Quite often so, yes. but if you want a car, you're not gonna buy a bike.

You could build something to smoke that for <50k.

I never said car, I said thing.

Still, I see your point. Most people looking for something like a Lamborghini are not going to buy a motorcycle, no matter how much better the power-to-weight ratio is.

Just FYI, I found some newer articles on that Corvette. Apparently they're going to call it the Corvette SS, which is pretty lame IMO. Anyway, its supposed to put out ~650HP and cost around 100k. That part is not so lame.

 

[DarksideAllstar]

If you live in the South Bay, Santa Cruz is only 20-35 minutes away. From SF, its only an hour and a half or so. Plenty of warm sun there.

True, however, most students will not be living that far down the peninsula, particularly during third year. If you really wanted to split hairs about going to the beach, Stinson Beach in Marin County is much closer than Santa Cruz and sees comparable temperatures (maybe actually a little warmer at Stinson) and sun. The post that I quoted was implying that San Francisco was somehow an LA equivalent with lots of sunny beaches and warm weather year round, which is hardly the case. You won't be strolling out of class down to Ocean Beach to get a tan.

 

[JJMrK]

The post that I quoted was implying that San Francisco was somehow an LA equivalent with lots of sunny beaches and warm weather year round, which is hardly the case. You won't be strolling out of class down to Ocean Beach to get a tan.

Yeah. San Francisco weather sucks.

 

[Dr2Bee]

I'd personally choose UCSF.

 

[Gut Shot]

So I am extremely torn with this decision. I think San Francisco would be a really cool place to live for 4 years, but I am not sure if it is worth the extra 130k. That is a significant increase in cost but then again it is a top 5 school. Just looking for some outside advice.

Thanks so much for your input!

Med school will be over before you know it, but the tab just keeps on giving. Wait for residency to go to UCSF. It's the best of both worlds (and UCSF gives residents a housing allowance).

 

[pyrois]

fine, ill be the guy who says to go to mcw. are these all loans we're talking about? why the hell would you spend 130k extra on 4 years when, if you saved that money, you could put it toward a place in SF and live there the rest of your life if you wanted to?

and because i feel pictures teach best, here is another illustration of the difference in these two sums:

So you're saying he should pass up a career-altering, and potentially life-changing 4 years that will provide unparalleled connections and future influence in the medical profession for an '04 Murcielago?

So come 3 years from now, when he's paying out the nose just to keep the darn thing running, and there's a new model out that looks/runs way better, will he be having a little buyer's regret?

Money is transient. The difference between what you will be able to do in the future, on prestige backing alone, is worth far more than a car, or a home entertainment setup, or a ps3, or whatever you'd buy with the money otherwise. If you CAN afford it, then do it.

 

[pyrois]

Med school will be over before you know it, but the tab just keeps on giving. Wait for residency to go to UCSF. It's the best of both worlds (and UCSF gives residents a housing allowance).

If it were that easy to get into UCSF for residency, we'd all go to the cheapest school we could possibly find. But the truth is that if you went to UCSF for med school, you've got a much better chance of getting into UCSF for residency.

So yeah, if you're 100% sure you can match into UCSF from MCW, then by all means go for it, and "save UCSF for residency."

 

[badasshairday]

Go to UCSF. You will probably regret it if you don't.

 

[Gut Shot]

If it were that easy to get into UCSF for residency, we'd all go to the cheapest school we could possibly find.

Meh, there's always fellowship.