UMD vs Brown

[Binnie5337]

Hello everyone, first-time poster here! I have been fortunate to receive acceptance from UMD and Brown. But I am struggling to decide between the two.

UMD
Pros:

• In-state tuition (~40k per year)
• Close to home (15 min commute) and support systems
• The school is affiliated with a large, busy medical center
• Wide range of residency programs

Cons:

• Tiered pass/fail system for pre-clerkship (Honors, High Pass, Pass, Fail -> essentially ABCD system)
• Already lived in MD throughout my life -> want to explore and be independent

Brown
Pros:

• Unranked pass/fail system for pre-clerkship
• More prestigious (?) than UMD (which may help stand out during residency app)
• I genuinely love the atmosphere here (non-competitive, supportive faculty members, many students I talked to did not regret picking Brown)

Cons:

• More expensive tuition (~65k per year)
• Will have to relocate (5 hours away from home; will be living with my partner, but mother will live along in MD)
• Does not have an affiliated large teaching hospital like UMD -> less diverse residency programs

Summary: Right now, I'm interested in internal medicine and urology (which are offered by both schools' residency programs). I don't really care about where I will go for residency. Setting the costs/tuition aside, which option will be the most beneficial in the long run (i.e., which will help me more should I choose to pursue more competitive specialties in the future)?

Thank you so much for your help!

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[chilly_md]

Brown isn’t considered more prestigious than Maryland at the medical school level. And residency placement is on you. If both have a urology program, I don’t think you have anything to gain at Brown, though P/F is nice and can make things less stressful. UMD is right there where you are now though and is a great school.

Take the 100k in savings.

 

[Ole_Toe]

Putting aside costs I might say Brown given that you liked the culture and that it’s pass fail until clerkships. However, UMD does have a track record of matching several students into excellent urology programs each year, whereas Brown in recent years has only had a few students go into Uro. Of course we take match lists with a grain of salt, but UMD simply produces a lot more urologists than Brown, so it’s worth doing more research into the programs. Perhaps Maryland has more productive researchers, more funding, or something else that could be important if you want to practice in that field.

Congrats on the acceptances. Taking the costs and proximity to family into account, Maryland seems like a great choice unless you had another compelling reason to pick Brown.

 

[voxveritatisetlucis]

UMD

Brown and Dartmouth medical schools aren’t at the same tier as their affiliated colleges. (whereas Harvard, Yale, Cornell, Columbia and Penn med schools are equivalent or higher in prestige than affiliated colleges)

 

[JohnJacobJingleheimer]

UMD and Brown are equally as prestigious in the field of medicine. In fact, as you likely know, UMD is ranked higher. For this reason, I think this really comes down to whether or not it's worth 100k (plus interest, possibly) just to impress laymen by saying you went to Brown (most ppl in the medical field know that Brown med does not hold the same clout its undergrad does). It's totally ok to want to feel good about saying you go to xyz school, but I don't think it's worth the price differential when they're on the same level in the medical field. Outside of this, looking at your own pros v cons list, the only other advantage is the P/F system. While I'd pay extra for a true P/F school, I'm not paying 100k extra.

Btw, not taking a jab at you about the laymen prestige thing. I, too, am deciding between a few schools; one of which has an undergrad program that is also more prestigious than its upper mid-tier medical school. I've struggled w the idea of choosing a lesser known institution layman-wise that has a top 20/25 med school. Clearly, I should be choosing the latter career-wise; but, when I talk to friends and family, they're all more impressed by the one that's actually not as prestigious in medicine. It sucks bc after our hard work and stress, we want all of the praise and ensuing dopamine we can get, but I think UMD is the prudent decision here. Brown might be a bit shortsighted and is really just paying for a name.