zigzagzinger
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- Jun 28, 2024
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Hi everyone! My fiancé and I are currently choosing between the above three medical schools. I would appreciate any insight/additional information you all might have to help us make this decision, as these schools don't seem to have major differences, which is making the decision harder! We are in a very fortunate position where finances for school are not the main concern. That said, rent/food/going out will still be our responsibility but none of these options are in egregiously expensive areas so I'm not sure how much of a concern that will be. Thank you all for your help!
UMSOM
Pros:
Pros:
Pros:
Overall, these all seem like great options and I'm a little overwhelmed by trying to compare all of the curricular, research, and clerkship details. Thank you all again, if you've made it this far!
UMSOM
Pros:
- Closer to home (approx 1.5 hrs)
- I think Baltimore would be a fun place to live for a few years (big Ravens fan)
- UMMC/Shock Trauma see a lot of really sick patients/good cases
- Recorded lectures (as far as I know) + attendance is not mandatory.
- Good selection of in-house residencies + strong match rates across all specialties
- Medical Spanish elective, Global Health elective (both important to me, particularly Spanish)
- Most exams are on Fridays (with a few on Mondays)
- High honors/honors/pass/fail grading system-- literally just ABCD, with no signs of change (current students say it's been discussed but will not be changed in time for my class)
- Baltimore is not the safest place to live (obviously one just needs to be careful but I think the other two schools listed are in objectively "safer" locations)
- I haven't been overly impressed with UMSOM during the entire interview process, it doesn't feel like they tried very hard to sell the school or impress applicants (at least not as much as the other schools I interviewed at), it kind of feels like they're just riding on the shock trauma/UMSOM legacy? i don't know
Pros:
- Ruby is an incredible hospital where all of the patients in the region are brought to, so there will be a huge variety of patients and cases
- Honors/pass/fail (not perfect but better than UMSOM's)
- Friday exams with the weekend off-- huge pro to me.
- Global health track sounds very cool to me
- Closer to hiking/outdoors stuff (big hobby of mine)
- Larger list of in-house residencies than UMSOM
- 3 year accelerated tracks for lots of specialties
- Students seem very very supported and happy.
- students also say it's super easy to get involved in research.
- Morgantown seems like a total college town and I worry I wouldn't be able to escape the undergrad chaos
- 2 hrs from home (not really a con but it is further than UMSOM)
- less "prestigious" than UMSOM (technically lower ranked but I'm not sure how much that actually matters)
- I worry Morgantown would also seem too small town to me-- I'm trying to escape the small town life at this point.
- 7 students matched into a transitional year last year, which I'm not totally sure how to interpret, but I don't think it's good?
- No sort of medical Spanish track or anything.
Pros:
- I have friends in Richmond, so I'll have at least some sort of a community already.
- Richmond seems super fun and like the perfect size.
- About the same number of in-house residencies as WVU, which is great
- TRUE PASS/FAIL (big deal for me)
- Global health track
- They talked a lot about their research availability, so hopefully that's true?
- Furthest from home (3 hours or so)
- No true medical Spanish track (i don't think)
- Is less "prestigious" than UMSOM, I think.
- 40% of the graduating class matched into primary care, which I don't think I want to do? However, they also had grads match into very competitive specialties so I'm not terribly concerned about this.
Overall, these all seem like great options and I'm a little overwhelmed by trying to compare all of the curricular, research, and clerkship details. Thank you all again, if you've made it this far!
