UMDNJ vs. TOURO-NY

[Postal]

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Hi sdn friends

So,as the title suggests, I got into both schools. JUST got off the waitlist for UMDNJ. I loved Touro-NY. I wanted to stay in NY because I wanted to stay close to home. I had planned for 8 months to got there, was really excited, was counting down the days (37, 12 hrs!).

But I got a call today from UNDNJ-SOM, and now I'm quite confused. Because I feel like I *should* go there because it's a top notch school but I really like with Touro.

I'm talking to my friend who's in med school and she's telling me that the most important things are board scores and evals from 3rd. And that I can do well in those from any school. She said the most important things she considers is:class size and the infrastructure of the school.

So , you UMDNJ med students out there, I've got some specific questions for you:

1) Do you feel like you get support from your administration?
2)How do you feel about the infrastructure of your school (how easy is it to get administrative things done, set up rotations, deal with administration, etc)
3) For the life of me, I couldn't find the class size. What is the class size?
4) Where do you guys study, what are library hours? Where do you eat? Is it cheap?



I welcome all opinions!

And yes, I know that I should do what's best for me but I just can't quite figure out what that is right now.

 

[DocEspana]

I'll just be sitting here watching.

 

[NontradICUdoc]

1) Do you feel like you get support from your administration?

absolutely. The administrations listens to the students. Every now and again the Dean of Academic Affairs will have a brown bag lunch and an open forum. The Dean of the school has an open door policy. A student sits on just about every committee, including curriculum and airs out issues with the curriculum and gives real time feed back to the class. Any questions or problems, go to the administration. They are there to help you.

2)How do you feel about the infrastructure of your school (how easy is it to get administrative things done, set up rotations, deal with administration, etc)

Basically for 3rd year, you select a schedule and the clinical coordinate sets up the locations. Except for radiology. They help you find one and give you the paper work to fill out and turn in. For 4th year, all you need to do is find the location for the rotation, fill out the paperwork and turn it in. The rest the clinical coordinator handles.

3) For the life of me, I couldn't find the class size. What is the class size?

150-151

4) Where do you guys study, what are library hours? Where do you eat? Is it cheap?

Study: Library (http://www.umdnj.edu/stlibweb/), eating you can either eat at the cafeteria or go to the hospital or a variety of restaurants in the area or bring from home. Compared to NYC, very cheap.

 

[Scorcher31]

UMDNJ-SOM was an excellent program. The education was great, the tuition was cheap, the administration was supportive, and they had four of their own hospitals locally which meant I could do all my clinical rotations there with little to no work setting them up. Of course you can do away electives during 4th year to audition if you want. I can't speak highly enough of the program and would recommend it to anyone. The one down side is that it is now significantly more expensive than when I started in 2006.

With this said, what you stated is very true. If you can do well on your boards and get good evals/letters of rec in your clinical years, you will be fine wherever you go. If you are confident in the NY program (I'm just not familiar with it), and either you are more partial to the NY area or going to the NY program would save you money, I would say go to the NY program.
Don't forget you are going to be in medical school for four years. You want to fit in and be happy wherever you end up.

 

[Postal]

Thanks guys for your responses so far...

 

[ksmajmudar]

absolutely. The administrations listens to the students. Every now and again the Dean of Academic Affairs will have a brown bag lunch and an open forum. The Dean of the school has an open door policy. A student sits on just about every committee, including curriculum and airs out issues with the curriculum and gives real time feed back to the class. Any questions or problems, go to the administration. They are there to help you.



Basically for 3rd year, you select a schedule and the clinical coordinate sets up the locations. Except for radiology. They help you find one and give you the paper work to fill out and turn in. For 4th year, all you need to do is find the location for the rotation, fill out the paperwork and turn it in. The rest the clinical coordinator handles.





150-151




Study: Library (http://www.umdnj.edu/stlibweb/), eating you can either eat at the cafeteria or go to the hospital or a variety of restaurants in the area or bring from home. Compared to NYC, very cheap.

Just wanna say, UMDNJ-SOM was my top choice even before I read this post, but reading that was really reaffirming. Thanks for the info!

 

[DwightSchruteDO]

Unless you are on parole and can't leave the island of Manhattan...go to UMDNJ.

Touro is a decent school atm, UMDNJ is an excellent school...in terms of board pass rates, residency affiliations, reputation, infrastructure, etc. The only thing is its in south jersey...it's not nyc; it is less than an hour from Philly. Your board scores and eval letters are the most important factors but the quality of education u get during the first 2 years is also an important factor leading to the above 2 factors.

I understand being close to family is a very important factor but south jersey is not that far from NYC.

 

[DocEspana]

Unless you are on parole and can't leave the island of Manhattan...go to UMDNJ.

Touro is a decent school atm, UMDNJ is an excellent school...in terms of board pass rates, residency affiliations, reputation, infrastructure, etc. The only thing is its in south jersey...it's not nyc; it is less than an hour from Philly. Your board scores and eval letters are the most important factors but the quality of education u get during the first 2 years is also an important factor leading to the above 2 factors.

I understand being close to family is a very important factor but south jersey is not that far from NYC.

K since no one has addressed it im going to. Does anyone want to comment on the fact that UMDNJ deans from 2/3 years ago are currently in jail because their money situation (the whole UMDNJ system, not just the osteopathic school) is so dire they falsified documents and bribed state senators to kick extra cash their way.

I honestly do not know the impact of it on the academics. There may be none. I just know that most of my friends are at the allopathic UMDNJ and they cannot stop repeating how lucky I am to have avoided it. They're personal understanding was that the osteopathic school was particularly hard hit by it. But they are, again, in newark not camden. So they're hearing through their grape vine about the impact at each of the schools in the system.

 

[anthroguy]

K since no one has addressed it im going to. Does anyone want to comment on the fact that UMDNJ deans from 2/3 years ago are currently in jail because their money situation (the whole UMDNJ system, not just the osteopathic school) is so dire they falsified documents and bribed state senators to kick extra cash their way.

I honestly do not know the impact of it on the academics. There may be none. I just know that most of my friends are at the allopathic UMDNJ and they cannot stop repeating how lucky I am to have avoided it. They're personal understanding was that the osteopathic school was particularly hard hit by it. But they are, again, in newark not camden. So they're hearing through their grape vine about the impact at each of the schools in the system.

I think it was more like 6 years ago. i started in 2007 and ended in 2011 and I felt no aftermath of this there. No one starting now would be effected.

UMDNJ-SOM is a great school. There are times people bang heads with the registrar and fin aid,but that's everywhere. The only complaint I would have is the need for more accountability on the part of students and more active teaching my attendings during some core rotations.

In terms of it being compared with Touro. The only reason you should go to Touro is if you want to stay in Manhattan, which could be reason enough for some. Umdnj has the reputation and track record of placing students. And you are like 20 min from philly.

 

[DocEspana]

I think it was more like 6 years ago. i started in 2007 and ended in 2011 and I felt no aftermath of this there. No one starting now would be effected.

UMDNJ-SOM is a great school. There are times people bang heads with the registrar and fin aid,but that's everywhere. The only complaint I would have is the need for more accountability on the part of students and more active teaching my attendings during some core rotations.

In terms of it being compared with Touro. The only reason you should go to Touro is if you want to stay in Manhattan, which could be reason enough for some. Umdnj has the reputation and track record of placing students. And you are like 20 min from philly.

Well there you go. I know it was huge in the news in late 2009 and early 2010. I always wanted to ask about that. glad I did.

 

[hitchhiker]

some really good responses, especially from residents. Your input is valued.

 

[DocEspana]

This is New Jersey -- what do you expect?

All kidding aside, those students sound like drama queens. I've never once heard someone even mention any of it, except maybe the administration during orientation. If I understand correctly, it's because of what happened that we have the wonderful dean that we do. It could not have worked out better for SOM. 🙂

Also, I don't know what goes on at NJMS, but from what I can tell, everyone here loves our school.

Hahaha I went to undergrad in jersey. Its nothing new to me. I just felt like it was a huge thing for UMDNJ that no one was mentioning. I know multiple deans went to jail (admittedly 2/3 years back) over it. But yea. I am really glad to see you got the better of it. RWJ did alright too. NJMS didnt do so well and they implied SOM had it worst, but rebirth into a stronger administration is the best thing you could possibly ask for.

 

[UBCvan]

how about tuition difference? which one is cheaper?

also if you decide to go to UMDNJ, remember that you can go back to NYC for your rotations. So basically you're away for 2 years, which is only 1 hour away from NYC.

 

[Postal]

. There are times people bang heads with the registrar and fin aid,but that's everywhere. The only complaint I would have is the need for more accountability on the part of students and more active teaching my attendings during some core rotations.

In

Do you mean students need to take more responsibility in learning the information? Could you expound on that please. And stuff like getting my finaid on time is something that I'm worried about since my acceptance is so late. I would hope that the finaid office is helpful.

I wish a third year Touro student could comment on their experience with their rotations. Any out there? I wonder how they feel about the quality of their rotations.Is it significantly advantageous to do all your rotations in one system rather than to bounce around at different hospitals?

Yeah guys, I'm still undecided. I don't want to switch up schools for only for a good reputation if reputation of a school doesn't really help me anyway. I want to make sure that the program is actually better and that I'll get support if I need it. I would assume the older more established program would be more supportive but coming from an undergrad that was huge and very established I know this isn't an assumption I can make.0How much does reputation matter when I'm applying for residency? I just want to set my self up for success and be happy where I am so I can look back 4 years later and be satisfied with my situation.

Unless you are on parole and can't leave the island of Manhattan...go to UMDNJ.

Touro is a decent school atm, UMDNJ is an excellent school...in terms of board pass rates, residency affiliations, reputation, infrastructure, etc. The only thing is its in south jersey...it's not nyc; it is less than an hour from Philly. Your board scores and eval letters are the most important factors but the quality of education u get during the first 2 years is also an important factor leading to the above 2 factors.

I understand being close to family is a very important factor but south jersey is not that far from NYC.

DwightSchruteDO,( haha I love Dwight!) are your from Touro? It matters to me if you are.

 

[Postal]

how about tuition difference? which one is cheaper?

also if you decide to go to UMDNJ, remember that you can go back to NYC for your rotations. So basically you're away for 2 years, which is only 1 hour away from NYC.

Well I live in Long Island, so I'm more like 2 and a half hrs (without traffic). Totally wondering if I'll have time as a med student to commute home on the weekends if I wanted to. I know I can do third year rotations in Jersey City,which is totally closer. I don't think/ don't know if they do any rotations in hospitals in NYC. I think that to do rotations in NYC, it would have to be during my fourth year.

I do believe UMDNJ is cheaper because I would get instate tuition after 1 year. I'm trying to not let money play a huge role in this. I'm of the naive mindset that I'll pay it all off one day and it won't be a problem.lalalalala

 

[anthroguy]

Do you mean students need to take more responsibility in learning the information? Could you expound on that please. And stuff like getting my finaid on time is something that I'm worried about since my acceptance is so late. I would hope that the finaid office is helpful.

I wish a third year Touro student could comment on their experience with their rotations. Any out there? I wonder how they feel about the quality of their rotations.Is it significantly advantageous to do all your rotations in one system rather than to bounce around at different hospitals?

Yeah guys, I'm still undecided. I don't want to switch up schools for only for a good reputation if reputation of a school doesn't really help me anyway. I want to make sure that the program is actually better and that I'll get support if I need it. I would assume the older more established program would be more supportive but coming from an undergrad that was huge and very established I know this isn't an assumption I can make.0How much does reputation matter when I'm applying for residency? I just want to set my self up for success and be happy where I am so I can look back 4 years later and be satisfied with my situation.



DwightSchruteDO,( haha I love Dwight!) are your from Touro? It matters to me if you are.

Hey what I meant was: During third year IM, the attendings didnt actively teach as much as I wanted them to. During away rotations I saw how IM faculty took students aside for 2-3 hours twice a week to go over topics over the course of a 6-8 week IM rotation. By the end of those 8 weeks, you had 16 in depth lectures on teh most hard hitting IM topics. At UMDNJ, we had 5 sessions during the Im rotation. These were all amazing. We also had a reading list with about 15-20 topics. What I would have liked is an attending go over the reading list. Ie say on Monday how he/she will go over Anemia for wed so we should read. What happened was we were left to our own devices to get through the shelf, where as at other schools I saw how students were taught enough to pass a shelf from the attendings and that they didnt even need to read.

 

[NontradICUdoc]

It really depends on who your attending is. Apparently anthro and I were classmates based on his/her dates of attendance. With my IM attending, we had topics that we had to review daily and twice a week there were teaching rounds with her ( in Cherry Hill). And I found that it was really attending dependent. When I did an away rotation I was on a service for 2 specialties. The Renal did a lot of teaching and the pulmn did none.

 

[Postal]

Thanks guys,
I'm choosing UMDNJ-SOM🙂

 

[theone1979]

Thanks guys,
I'm choosing UMDNJ-SOM🙂

You have chosen wisely!

Congrats again and good luck!!

 

[koala37]

if u dont mind me asking what were ur stats? UMDNJ-SOM is my first choice

 

[DocEspana]

Thanks guys,
I'm choosing UMDNJ-SOM🙂

drats