UIC (University of Illinois)

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Vdawg

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does any one have opinions on the advantages/disadvantages of each of the locations (chicago, rockford, peoria, champaign)? Most people tend to pick chicago right away but what about the other campuses....

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they're all great places. UIC is my top choice! go UIC! go! They have great hospital affiliations, I know a few people at pretty much all the campuses. theyre happy with them. the other two campuses are geared towards primary care but you can specialize just the same. the only thing i can imagine is there would be a rural enviornment if that affects your decision. good luck!
 
I'm very interested in primary care but not necessarily rural med... if you had to choose between the other campuses (other than chicago) where would you choose do you think? thanks and good luck to you too also
 
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peoria is in the cornfields, i would pick rockford. its closer to the city. but thats just my deal. theyre both good.
 
Well, It looks like Chicago is closed...I got my placement today for Peoria...
 
is any one else having trouble setting up an interview? they only have 3 dates available....the lady told me to call back when more dates become available...so then I ask when more dates will become available? she says when they get released.... so I ask what determines the release date? Then she just says that she doesn?t know! Nice eh
 
aaaarrrrrrrgggggghhhhh!!!

drjo,

was peoria your top pick after chicago?

shorrin
 
Yeah, I picked peoria second. I was really hoping I would get Chicago though. I know I saw someone else post that they got accepted around the same time as me and got Chicago, I guess I just wasn't quite fast enough...I had to buy stamps, damn it! :) I guess I can live with Peoria if I end up there though, at least I know I got in, so I shouldn't be complaining too much. I don't know how I feel about a year in Urbana though...my impression is that it is a total college town.
 
Well, I dunno. I think all the other three locations sound pretty bad. I've heard terrible things about the Urbana campus. But, most of the people who stay there are MD/PhD anyhow, so they're doing research. My brother in-law goes to school there, and he doesn't exactly rave about the place. Rockford is consistantly named one of the worst places in the country to live. It's the largest city in the country without a four year university and I hear that they have lots of problems with crime etc (which isn't all bad for med school). It's also an incredibly boring place to be. I don't know much about Peoria.

The chicago campus is by far the best, but I've heard mixed things about that too. I have a couple of friends who are students there and another who's already graduated. They all hate it, and discouraged me from attending.

Anyhow, I don't mean to be as negative as I sound. It's just that I haven't heard anything good about the UIC system. I'm sure that there are plenty of people that love it...I just haven't met them.

Good luck,

Adam
 
See, I've heard the opposite, I have a friend at UIUC (going to Rockford next year) and she absolutely loves it. She said her class is really great and that they all really get along and she thinks it is a great learning environment and not too competitive (although she admitts that the one year there is enough, she doesn't like the area well enough to stay there a whole four years). I have heard mixed reveiws about Chicago's campus, but wanted to go there anyway due to the environment...I love the city and would love going to school there. Who knows if I get accepted somewhere else I don't know if I'll choose UIC.
 
ok, just one more problem to add to the mix: Because all the UICOM schools are really one school and considered so by the the gov't the fin-aid is very messed up for the chicago students. The cost-of-living allowances are based on the peoria campus for some reason and so the UICers have to do some sneaky extra fin-add stuff.
What this all means is that if you pick UIC you'll end up paying more for tuition than at the other campuses.
I think the rent allowance was 400.00. someone please correct me if I'm wrong. Rockford and peoria are cheap places to live and great for families but you cannot live in chitown for less then 700.00 in my opinion and then that's even pushing it.
 
•••quote:•••Originally posted by shorrin:

I think the rent allowance was 400.00. someone please correct me if I'm wrong. Rockford and peoria are cheap places to live and great for families but you cannot live in chitown for less then 700.00 in my opinion and then that's even pushing it.•••••i just got my UIC financial aid info in the mail today, and i can confirm that they allow a whopping $10,850 per year for living expenses. you can definitely live off that in peoria and rockford, but in chicago?!?! obviously current chicago campus students manage somehow but do they all have working spouses or ten roommates or what?!
 
i just got my UIC financial aid info in the mail today, and i can confirm that they allow a whopping $10,850 per year for living expenses. you can definitely live off that in peoria and rockford, but in chicago?!?!

Gracious! Guess they assume that you're going to live in one of those "in"-efficiencies that are 8x9 ft, come with a hot plate, mini-fridge, and bathroom down the hall! :D
 
Booooo!!!!!!! That's sucks! 10 grand to live in Chicago?!! Are they serious?!!!! Shoot, most of the apartment's rent for a $1000 or more per month, so if my math is correct, you'll be able to afford 10 months of rent...and that's it! Not even a bag of Cheetos more! :D Hmmm....that seems troublesome? Anyone else find it hard to imagine life in Chi-town on 10 grand!? Hmmm...I knew I should have taken that offer to play minor league baseball!! :) Take it easy.
 
I am a M1 assigned to Rockford for my 2-4 years. I have already checked out the school in Rockford a couple of times and talked to med students there and I have to say that my whole opinion about the UPR ( Urbana, Peoria, Rockford) track has changed from a year ago. When I first got accepted to med school I was praying to get Chicago. I didnt want to get assigned to these small cities which were in the cornfields for all I knew. I wanted to be assigned to Chicago because it was my home, and because I knew that the med students rotated through 7 or 8 big Chicago hospitals which were all bigger that the largest hospitals in Urbana, or Rockford. However numerous things have changed my opinion: yes the students get to rotate through big chicago hospitals but they dont get to do anything. In Chicago there is so much competition to do procedures not only from University of iLlinois med students, but also from Rush students. You have a overabundance of medical students, and an overabundance of residents. By the time you go through the chain of attending doctor, residents, and med students your lucky if you can say when your done when med school that you observed a childbirth much less say you delivered a baby. In Rockford there is only one residency program, Family Medicine. That means that for all the other rotations such as Surgery, Pediatrics, Internal Medicine, and any other sub-specialty you want to do in your Fourth year, there is only one attending doctor and maybe 2 or most times one medical student. You do many procedures and have a lot more responsibilities. I have talked to many M4's from Rockford who have rotated through an elective in chicago with chicago track students. They say that most of the Chicago students havent actually done half the procedures the Rockford students have done. And this goes a long way in imppressing your attendings and receiving a good recommendation. IN addition, in your second year in Rockford you do a family medicine oriented program in which once a week you go to a clinc and you have your patients and you treat these patients throughout your 3 years there. This is also an added expereince which is very benefical before starting your third year.
This whole question about that in Rockford or Peoria your trained for Primary Care is totally false. It is true that if you want to do Priamry care you have a lot better resources than if you were in Chicago. And about 60% of the students will probably do primary care.However if you want to specialize in something else I believe you have better chances of matching in a good residency: first of all because since there is less competition and less people doing it and the doctors who are in surgery for example are going to get to know you better and write more personal letters of recommendation.
And before I go I would like to say that Peoria and Rockford students score well above the average of the CHicago track students on the step 1 USMLE. At first I thought that it was just a small difference but I found out it was a considerable increase. I dont want to go into numbers though. Mabye its because there are more distractions in Chicago ,I dont know. Well I have to go but if you have any other questions feel free to ask. Sorry about all the grammer errors I had to write this quickly.
 
Do you know anything about the differences between Peoria and Rockford or have you only really looked into Rockford? I'm scheduled for Peoria right now and I'm curious if it offers the same opportunies as Rockford or if it is better or worse? thanks :)
 
I think the Peoria OSF hospital is really state of the art for central ill, is has many residency slots, and is really nice and growing, i would rather be in Peoria than rockford, rockford is kind of dingy.
 
Sorry I dont really know to much about peoria. I can say though that many people are switching from peoria to rockford. Rockford by the way is the second largest city in Illinois with a population of about 1 million. Peoria is third or fourth in terms of population.
 
That is funny, I've always heard that Peoria was the second largest city in Illinois. But, I looked it up, and you are right, the population of Rockford is larger!
 
I don't know much about Rockford, but I know that Peoria at least looks like a big city in that they have fairly large buildings. I don't know if Rockford can claim that they have any large buildings to their credit. In my opinion, Peoria has the larger city appearance/feel.
 
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