UF vs FIU: Round 2

[FLAPPLICANT]

I understand there is a similar thread posted a year ago titled " Help me choose! UF vs FIU (reputation vs affordability)" and it can be found here. Yet, my circumstances are different and the schools have implemented some changes over the past year.

• FIU offered free tuition for 4 years and UF offered 20k/yr scholarship. After taking into account the total cost of attendance, FIU is cheaper by $3,659/yr and $15,000 at graduation.
  
• I am interested in Diagnostic Radiology and I have never lived outside of Miami.

FIU
Pros
Tuition free covering state or institution increases
Various affiliated hospitals
Clinical experience (ER, Family) is integrated from the first month.
Newer Facilities
The City of Miami
Family/Best friends in Miami

Cons
Reputation not yet established
Extensive use of Car required/ Miami Traffic
Research required; FIU's research is small
No dissection in Anatomy, all prosections (although I understand why prosections are only used, i feel as if dissecting is a med school tradition/rite of passage). Anatomy is taught over 3 years (3-touch system).

Unknown
Percentile Grading can hurt or help depending on your rank.
Class M-TR, F off, Exams on Monday
Step 1 after 3rd year. Is it worth studying/stressing about an exam for a year longer to get a projected score one standard deviation higher than the average or is it better to get it over with and not do half your clerkships in 3rd year while studying for step 1?

UF
Pros
Easy to do research (optional) between year 1 & 2 with stipend
New 1.5 year curriculum
Medical school joined with Hospital
About 6 international medical trips/yr
Top 50 (as stupid as rankings are, they "seem" to matter)
P/F for pre-clinical curriculum
Average Step 1 score is ~232, and 22% of class does better than 250 (I know this is an individual effort, but clearly the school is doing something right)
3 Preceptorships in first 2 years
Prosections (1st semester) & Dissection (2nd semester)

Cons
Gainesville

Unknown
Step 1 taken after 1. 5 year curriculum
M-TR 9-3 PM days with exams on F
Naturally more competitive classmates



Your wisdom is much appreciated.

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[Kuuaku]

Here's my 2 cents going strictly by what you've outlined:

Step 1: taking this after clinicals will suck. Step 1 is basic science stuff and although questions are clinically oriented, you'll be studying about biochemical pathways that will almost never come up during year 3. Also, this test means a lot, so taking after your first 2 years at a place with a high average is a much better option.

As far as clinical experience, having ER and family med so early when you haven't learned basic pathophys or clinical reasoning, and have nothing to help you with a differential seems pointless from my perspective. A preceptorship seems more helpful.

P/F will make your first 2 years so much better. The anatomy issue is not a huge issue.

I would choose UF not just for its reputation but also the experience they have teaching students. FIU, no matter how strong, I'm sure is still figuring things out.

As for the others, being close to family and friends would be nice so ultimately only you can really make a call there.

Good luck! PM me if you want advice from an almost MS4.

 

[DrShazam]

Is the city you live in for the next four years important to you? If yes, then I would advise against UF because Gainesville is NOTHING like Miami, and even that's an understatement. This is coming from a fellow Miami resident. If not, then UF beats out FIU anyday since FIU is still fledgling with no amazing vision or resources like UCF, and UF is established.

 

[ResIpsaLoquitur]

I interviwed and got in to both FIU and UF. I'm not sure how your 'top 50' assessment affects your situation because latest US News rankings show UFCOM was 86 in primary care and 48 in research. If your focus is research, then you have a case. I'll be turning down a full scholarship at UF to go elsewhere but if my only 2 choices were FIU and UF, I'd go to UF because I loved Dr Lynch and what the educational philosophy is he is cultivating there (hardly scientific as you can see). If you are interested in urban medicine, go to FIU, the patient population/rotations will be difficult to find anywhere else in FL. I don't know about you, but I'd much rather do Step one in 3rd year than 2nd year...there's advantages both ways, but if you made it to medical school, you can succeed with either approach if you put your mind to it.

 

[SeminoleVesicle]

Is the city you live in for the next four years important to you? If yes, then I would advise against UF because Gainesville is NOTHING like Miami, and even that's an understatement. This is coming from a fellow Miami resident. If not, then UF beats out FIU anyday since FIU is still fledgling with no amazing vision or resources like UCF, and UF is established.

Great points here.

 

[CarlATHF]

Kuuaku's advice is sound, lol at the rest of the posts.

Doesn't matter where you live or work, you'll get exposure to the same stuff. Also doesn't matter where you live (in terms of QoL) because you'll be working at the hospital pretty much all day anyway.

 

[wanderer]

I understand there is a similar thread posted a year ago titled " Help me choose! UF vs FIU (reputation vs affordability)" and it can be found here. Yet, my circumstances are different and the schools have implemented some changes over the past year.

• FIU offered free tuition for 4 years and UF offered 20k/yr scholarship. After taking into account the total cost of attendance, FIU is cheaper by $3,659/yr and $15,000 at graduation.
  
• I am interested in Diagnostic Radiology and I have never lived outside of Miami.

FIU
Pros
Tuition free covering state or institution increases

That is amazing. It's very hard to turn that down although if you're only paying 15k total at UF that isn't too bad either.

Various affiliated hospitals
Clinical experience (ER, Family) is integrated from the first month.

LOL. Every school has some clinical experience early on. It's mostly a waste of time during the first two years, especially the first year. You need to learn to walk before you can run.

Newer Facilities
The City of Miami
Family/Best friends in Miami

New facilities don't matter all that much, but location matters a huge deal.

Cons
Reputation not yet established
Extensive use of Car required/ Miami Traffic
Research required; FIU's research is small
No dissection in Anatomy, all prosections (although I understand why prosections are only used, i feel as if dissecting is a med school tradition/rite of passage). Anatomy is taught over 3 years (3-touch system).

I don't have much specific advice because I'm not from Florida although I did interview at FIU and get accepted. No dissection in anatomy is a huge plus IMO. The worst part of anatomy is that you spend hours a day doing manual labor that teaches you very little. Most of the anatomy is learned after hours if you only do dissection. Tradition be damned.

Unknown
Percentile Grading can hurt or help depending on your rank.
Class M-TR, F off, Exams on Monday
Step 1 after 3rd year. Is it worth studying/stressing about an exam for a year longer to get a projected score one standard deviation higher than the average or is it better to get it over with and not do half your clerkships in 3rd year while studying for step 1?

UF
Pros
Easy to do research (optional) between year 1 & 2 with stipend
New 1.5 year curriculum
Medical school joined with Hospital
About 6 international medical trips/yr
Top 50 (as stupid as rankings are, they "seem" to matter)
P/F for pre-clinical curriculum
Average Step 1 score is ~232, and 22% of class does better than 250 (I know this is an individual effort, but clearly the school is doing something right)
3 Preceptorships in first 2 years
Prosections (1st semester) & Dissection (2nd semester)

Cons
Gainesville

Unknown
Step 1 taken after 1. 5 year curriculum
M-TR 9-3 PM days with exams on F
Naturally more competitive classmates



Your wisdom is much appreciated.

All med school classes will be competitive. You can't really go wrong with either choice. I'd personally go with FIU because Miami >>> Gainesville. You want to have a support network while in school. If you want to stay local, I'm sure you'll be able to match into something competitive.

 

[JSU]

I'd take UF. If you were interested in primary care or community medicine it would be a different story. However, Rads is a really tough field and every advantage you can get will help. I was accepted to FIU and I love Miami, though, I turned FIU down for few a few of reasons. Two of them may apply to you.

1. They have yet to match anywhere. They have a large network setup for rotations, but without actually matching anywhere it's really hard to get an idea of how the match will turn out. Residency directors throughout the country have no idea what to expect from FIU students.

2. They still aren't fully accredited. Yes, FIU mentioned that they've been passing everything with flying colors but after the debacle with San Juan, I'd rather be safe than sorry. (http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?t=861262&highlight=san+juan+accreditation).

 

[ResIpsaLoquitur]

I'd take UF. If you were interested in primary care or community medicine it would be a different story. However, Rads is a really tough field and every advantage you can get will help. I was accepted to FIU and I love Miami, though, I turned FIU down for few a few of reasons. Two of them may apply to you.

1. They have yet to match anywhere. They have a large network setup for rotations, but without actually matching anywhere it's really hard to get an idea of how the match will turn out. Residency directors throughout the country have no idea what to expect from FIU students.

2. They still aren't fully accredited. Yes, FIU mentioned that they've been passing everything with flying colors but after the debacle with San Juan, I'd rather be safe than sorry. (http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?t=861262&highlight=san+juan+accreditation).

I hardly think San Juan B and FIU are comparable so to be fair, I'd disregard this portion entirely. The first reason is valid and warrants much consideration but is not ultimately a deal breaker...everyone has to start somewhere.

 

[TheMightySmiter]

Haha, flap-plicant is a funny username. Carry on.

 

[zherussianbear]

UF is not gonna make a reputation difference. Such considerations matter when you want to make a name for yourself in research, and you need bigger names than UF (no offense to anybody) to really do that. For getting into a residency, it's gonna be about your hard work, your recs, and your experiences.

I, personally, would take the money and the miami.

 

[docjlud]

I had to choose between UF and FIU and a few other florida schools last year and ultimately chose UF in spite of the fact that I would have saved alot more than 15k over 4 years had I chosen to go elswhere.

The fact that you have family in Miami makes the decision a lot more difficult IMO because if it weren't for that, I would have a hard time turning UF down in your position.

As I was making this decision, I came to think of UF as really standing for opportunity--- With Shands right there on campus you have access to top notch specialists and residents in just about every subspecialty imaginable so that whatever happens to tickle your fancy during the first two years, you can find someone at Shands to shadow on your free time without having to drive an hour to get to them (which most of my classmates have taken advantage of). Also, the exposure to residents and tons of free lunches/workshops like intubation clinics, suture clinics etc. taught by residents during lunch hours is really an awesome way to get exposure to a number of different fields early on to help you get a better idea of what field you ultimately want to go into. Evne though you are interested in Radiology, good advice would be to keep an open mind and explore ALL your options and UF will certainly give you an opportunity to do that--they will not push you into primary care or any other speciality for that matter. PS our first-year radiology class is taught by a Diagnostic Radiologist----shes pretty awesome and like all of the MDs that teach here, she is very open to working with students and having them shadow

A few other quick points----

1. Dissection Anatomy, while a pain in the butt, is an awesome experience and helps you to learn the anatomy in a way that you just really cant just by looking at prosections (though we have prosections to look at as well if you totally screw up your dissection).

2. Pass/Fail is huge---my stress level this first year has not been bad at all, grades would have made it ALOT worse

3. Research is VERY easy to get into and you can do research in just about any area you can think of, and it is paid for by stipend, here at UF (you can even start this summer)...(i didnt really care about this bcz research isnt that important to me, but I actually ended up getting a really great project lined up for the summer thats very clinical and leaves me a lot of free time as well)

4. 15k difference over 4 years is really a joke---you are in amazing shape with your scholarships at both UF and FIU......wanna loan me some money??

5. Time is money in med school--especially third year---I personally would NEVER want to add the stress/time of having to commute through Miami traffic for rotations

6. Gainesville is actually a lot of fun----plenty of cheap places to go out, we have multiple mission trip fundraising events literally every week that students from all four years attend so there is no shortage of opportunities to go out. Also, there are tons of beautiful springs and crystal clear spring fed rivers close to go kayaking, canoeing or tubing down if that tickles your fancy...and a disney trip is only an hour and a half away (i actually went last weekend)

7. Our class is NOT competitive----UF had a reputation in the past for being cut throat and this really pushed me away from them, but our class is the opposite----we share notes,etc... (we have a class dropbox account)...after tests when we are going back over the questions we got wrong, people always stick around to help eachother out with difficult questions..

Ultimately, you are in a great position having to choose between these two schools and I really don't see how you could wrong with ANY med school in Florida----and what you get out of the experience will be more about what you put into it than which school you choose. Take all this with a grain of salt--Im biased, but so is everyone else in one way or another....