X

[deleted1129873]

XXX

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[mangowolf]

how much does prestige matter to you (specialties of interest / academic med interest)? would your partner move with you to ucsf or uw?

 

[sousa7]

I would personally go with UCSF. You would have no trouble matching back to Seattle from UCSF.

Also, Seattle isn't that far from the bay area, just a quick 2 hr flight.

 

[sousa7]

Prestige matters a moderate amount to me, because I am interest in becoming a specialist and working as an academic physician. Yes, partner would move with me.

I think UCSF would be better if you are looking to specialize in anything not primary care. They are both highly ranked for primary care, but UCSF seems to be better for other specialities as well.

 

[srirachamayonnaise]

If prestige matters, go with SF. However, if your goal is peds, UW is fine but SF will not lower your chance there either (Peds is one of the least competitive specialties.)

 

[mangowolf]

Prestige matters a moderate amount to me, because I am interest in becoming a specialist and working as an academic physician. Yes, partner would move with me.

I would go with ucsf then, unless you really need to be super close to family for other reasons. You will have a support system at ucsf with SO and friends, and the P/F grading will make your experience way better. Plus the prestige difference is notable, even though UW is amazing too …ucsf is just on another tier. Ucsf will also absolutely allow you to match back to Seattle, so no worries there

 

[deleted1065184]

Prestige differences are negligible imo, what I think would be best to focus on (pending financial aid) is how important P/F all 4 years + no AOA (but more expensive city) is vs. living near family and in the city you ultimately hope to settle down in (but H/HP/P/F last 2 years + AOA). If the prior is more important, go UCSF. If the latter, go UDub.

Then when you get financial aid, if there is a significant difference (you'll get a million different opinion on that from SDN, so whatever significant means to you lol) then I'd recommend going with the cheaper school.

 

[BritainKittenMittens]

I'd go with UCSF. This is my humble opinion, but UCSF is in the top 4/5 tier which would mean there is a drop from UCSF to UW in terms of prestige. Not a huge factor by any means, but when you couple that with P/F all 4 years and no AOA, it's huge. Not being stressed during med school and knowing you still have amazing residency matches takes a lot of weight off.

 

[voxveritatisetlucis]

Seattle must be more expensive than I thought if it’s only a 500/month difference. That is pretty negligible in the grand scheme of things, so pick where you feel most comfortable. If it was 1500 or 2000 a month difference, that is when you should seriously consider choosing one over the other due to COL imo

 

[peds_doc1]

Congratulations on these choices! I did my peds residency training at one of these institutions and peds subspecialty fellowship at the other and have some element of a 1:1 comparison with respect to pediatrics.

In an absolute sense you can't go wrong with your choice and would have ample opportunities in pediatrics and other fields coming from either med school. In a relative sense, I would recommend UCSF for this medical school step and think it would give you more edge if your current specialty plan changes. (Disclaimer: I am less familiar with any UW cache issues outside of peds, but agree with others that UCSF's top 5 status opens many doors.) You are not closing doors at UW/SCH peds if you go to UCSF and will be extremely compelling as a residency applicant for any pediatric residency program. I personally know numerous UCSF alumni who matched at SCH peds.

Please PM me if you want to talk more about pediatrics pipeline at either of these places.

 

[deleted1065184]

I'd go with UCSF. This is my humble opinion, but UCSF is in the top 4/5 tier which would mean there is a drop from UCSF to UW in terms of prestige. Not a huge factor by any means, but when you couple that with P/F all 4 years and no AOA, it's huge. Not being stressed during med school and knowing you still have amazing residency matches takes a lot of weight off.

Perceived tier is constantly changing and varies greatly from person to person. I think the idea that UW is a drop in terms of prestige from UCSF is just incorrect. UW has been viewed as both a primary care and research juggernaut forever.

It's just exceptionally hard to get into if you're not from the WWAMI area and cares so much about educating physicians to practice in the area that it isn't obsessed with MCAT/GPA like most top schools are...so it drops off of the radar early on for most premeds. But the idea of prestige in no way should be a factor for this decision, especially since OP wants to settle down in Seattle ultimately.

 

[srirachamayonnaise]

Perceived tier is constantly changing and varies greatly from person to person. I think the idea that UW is a drop in terms of prestige from UCSF is just incorrect. UW has been viewed as both a primary care and research juggernaut forever.

It's just exceptionally hard to get into if you're not from the WWAMI area and cares so much about educating physicians to practice in the area that it isn't obsessed with MCAT/GPA like most top schools are...so it drops off of the radar early on for most premeds. But the idea of prestige in no way should be a factor for this decision, especially since OP wants to settle down in Seattle ultimately.

I disagree. UW is an amazing school. But it’s too regional to have the same name recognition like UCSF or HMS or Hopkins.

 

[deleted1065184]

I disagree. UW is an amazing school. But it’s too regional to have the same name recognition like UCSF or HMS or Hopkins.

Although they correlate, I don't think prestige and name recognition are quite the same thing. But agree to disagree, I digress lol.

Good luck OP, you can't go wrong with either choice.

 

[BritainKittenMittens]

Perceived tier is constantly changing and varies greatly from person to person. I think the idea that UW is a drop in terms of prestige from UCSF is just incorrect. UW has been viewed as both a primary care and research juggernaut forever.

It's just exceptionally hard to get into if you're not from the WWAMI area and cares so much about educating physicians to practice in the area that it isn't obsessed with MCAT/GPA like most top schools are...so it drops off of the radar early on for most premeds. But the idea of prestige in no way should be a factor for this decision, especially since OP wants to settle down in Seattle ultimately.

To an extent, prestige changes, but it's a lot harder to change at the top. It's hard to quantify because it correlates with rankings like US News, but at the top there's a legacy to it that goes beyond US News--at least for people in the know. For example, it's pretty cemented that the most prestigious undergrads are HYPSM, even though you'll see Columbia and UChicago up in the rankings.

HMS, Hopkins, UCSF, UPenn (and recently Stanford, thanks to its overall name recognition) have been at the top for so long that it's hard to dethrone. HMS, Hopkins, and UCSF in particular because of the strength of their residencies. It's the strength that allows some of them to be P/F for clinical years and pioneer the P/F for pre-clinical years because they don't have to care about their students matching (bolstered by the strength of their residencies).

Where it matters is the match list. They are strong and the amount of work you have to do to stand out given the resources just makes life easier. A lot of people who graduated from there were not stressed at all about residencies.

I also factor in a lot less what people say their specialty interest and preferred residency location is (unless they have very, very strong commitments to a region). People change in med school. Someone interested in primary care going in can change to Urology or Ortho. People who want to go to the East Coast can marry someone in the West Coast and want to stay there.

The power of the top 5 is you have less stress during med school in dealing with all of that.

 

[yuhh]

UCSF Pro
-Curriculum is more aligned with my interests. Specifically, I can do all my clinical rotations at UCSF-affiliates in SF and the curriculum is more research-centric
-More prestigious?
-Entire 4 year curriculum is P/F and no AOA
-I have more friends/peers from undergrad (stanford) who will be also attending
-Better weather/more sunlight in the fall/winter, which is important to me

UCSF Cons
-The families of both my partner and I live in Seattle, so we'd be far away from them
-The UCSF Parnassus campus (where med students take classes) is pretty old and run-down
-Housing in SF is more expensive than Seattle by ~$500/month, and the apartments in SF are generally older and more run down than in Seattle

UW Pro
-Long-term, I want to settle down in Seattle so going to medical school in Seattle would allow me to make connections that could help me reach my long-term goals
-Higher chance of matching with UW/Seattle Children's for residency
-Brand new med school sciences building
-Would be close to family
-Better cost of living/quality of apartment in Seattle

UW Cons
-First 2 years is P/F, but clinical years is tiered (H/HP/P/F) and there is AOA
-Would have to do clinical rotations all throughout WA state (including Seattle and in rural areas)
-A smidge less prestigious than UCSF?
-Worse weather


*I have not gotten financial aid packages yet, but sticker prices would be about the same (+/- $10k). I am considered in-state for UW, but can be considered in-state for UCSF after MS1

dude, ucsf is P/F all 4 years and a top 3 med school…. easy choice by far. ur almost guaranteed to match back in seattle too haha