Univ of MD or private school??!

[premed2]

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I got into Univ of MD, my state school. I can't decide between going there which is $15,000 tuition (and ranked 21st by USnews) or a private school like Wake Forest or UPENN. Does it really matter in the end, or should I just save money?

 

[XxRocKxX]

by saying its ranked 21 i believe u are talking about primary care


if u want to go into primary care, then goto univ of md...cant beat the tuition

no need to goto a private school for primary care

id only take a private school over umd if you are going into academic medicine, and only if that school was far superior

btw, tuition got bumped up this year, its around 9k a semester now 🙂 gotta love budget cuts

 

[Catalyst]

MD is ranked 21? Since when? Last time I checked it was ranked 41.

Anyways, I also just turned in my app there as it's my state school (damn question on what it means to be in a profession). I too am grappling with whether to spend a hefty amount of money to attend a school which is ranked higher (e.g. UVA). I think in a lot of ways it's like choosing undergrad--some people pick their cheaper, lower-ranked state schools while other put in the big bucks to go to a higher-ranked private school. I personally am inclined towards making the investment in the better school, because I figure I'll work hard wherever I go and it's always beneficial career-wise to have the added, institutional prestige added to one's hard work. If you get into UPENN, I think you'd be hard pressed to turn down that school for MD.

Then again, Maryland does send quite a number of their graduates to Hopkins residencies from what I hear, so in what area you're interested in doing your residency should probably influence your decision as well. But again, if you went to Penn, I doubt you'd have a problem doing your residency in MD if that's where you want to be.

Sachin

 

[bigbaubdi]

Congrats on getting into UMD! You should be a bit more excited!!

If you are interested in academic medicine, then I would definitely go to UPenn over UMD. If you are interested in primary care, then UMD is probably the better option. Even still, UMD gets solid NIH funding so you could easily get into academic medicine if you went to UMD.

Tuition aside, I'm not sure why you would go to Wake over UMD.

 

[Lux Aeterna]

This situation is a tough call. I work at a top 5 med school and the docs I work with all have graduated from amazing schools- Yale, Vandy, Duke, Penn, etc. But as docs in academic medicine, they are swimming in debt right now, and though they will all be able to pay it off, most if not all of them tell me that they have started to feel the "crunch" i.e. paying off the debt in face of wanting / having a family, mortgage, etc etc etc. Most of them said they could have probably landed in the same place if they went to their state school and put in a strong effort. But of course, there is no denying that pedigree is important in academic medicine, and the Harvard grads (w/ good scores and grades of course) obviously have a easier time landing a top notch residency versus State U (you probably have to CRUSH the boards to land a top notch residency at a prestigious institution [i.e. derm, rad onc, opth... etc].)... I may be pigeonholing it a bit, I'm sure there is some leeway, but that's the general consensus I've gathered from SDN.

 

[TheFlash]

Originally posted by SachinG
MD is ranked 21? Since when? Last time I checked it was ranked 41.

Anyways, I also just turned in my app there as it's my state school (damn question on what it means to be in a profession). I too am grappling with whether to spend a hefty amount of money to attend a school which is ranked higher (e.g. UVA). I think in a lot of ways it's like choosing undergrad--some people pick their cheaper, lower-ranked state schools while other put in the big bucks to go to a higher-ranked private school. I personally am inclined towards making the investment in the better school, because I figure I'll work hard wherever I go and it's always beneficial career-wise to have the added, institutional prestige added to one's hard work. If you get into UPENN, I think you'd be hard pressed to turn down that school for MD.

Then again, Maryland does send quite a number of their graduates to Hopkins residencies from what I hear, so in what area you're interested in doing your residency should probably influence your decision as well. But again, if you went to Penn, I doubt you'd have a problem doing your residency in MD if that's where you want to be.

Sachin

I'm assuming UMD is your state school, SachinG. If you personally are comparing UMD as an in-state applicant versus out-of-state to UVa, I'd think UMD would definitely win out. UVa has a mere 13 spot ranking advantage according to US News (which should be taken with a giant grain of salt anyway) and I'd say the "prestige" of the these two institutions is negligibly different. Once you're out of the top 10-15 med schools, the relative prestige of institutions isn't nearly as stratified. Remember, ALL accredited med schools provide a stellar education. That's just my 2 cents.

To the OP, as far as UPenn is concerened, you should consider attending if you really want to get into academic medicine as a career. UMD is a great school, but it's no UPenn. However, if you want to save money and get a great education, go to UMD. No matter the school, you can always get that supercompetitive residency if you work hard in class and dominate Step 1.

Cheers,

Flash

 

[premed2]

Originally posted by SachinG
MD is ranked 21? Since when? Last time I checked it was ranked 41.

Sachin

Actually...MD is ranked 23rd primary care, 41 research. tuition is half that of a private school, and im looking into fields like ER, not optho or ent. what do you guys think?

 

[Childe]

If youre looking at ER and not academia, then go state. This is my situation too essentially.

 

[XxRocKxX]

UMDs got number 1 shock trauma center in the nation if thats gonna sway you any...gotta love Bmore

also, from what ive seen, most peopless minds change about their residency goals over the course of four years in med school

 

[mimi1]

Hey Premed2,

When did you interview at UMD? I interviewed on Sept. 29 and am anxiously awaiting a decision.

Thanks!

 

[premed2]

mimi - i interviewed on 9/29 also! my letter was dated the 15th and i received it on the 19th. i am instate.

xxrockxx - do you currently go to UMAB? if so..how do you like the curriculum? how do the students do on boards and residency matching? and...is it true there will be brand new on campus housing next year? any other info you could share would be great! im really interested in MD...but only if i stand a shot at still getting really great residencies....

 

[XxRocKxX]

Originally posted by premed2
mimi - i interviewed on 9/29 also! my letter was dated the 15th and i received it on the 19th. i am instate.

xxrockxx - do you currently go to UMAB? if so..how do you like the curriculum? how do the students do on boards and residency matching? and...is it true there will be brand new on campus housing next year? any other info you could share would be great! im really interested in MD...but only if i stand a shot at still getting really great residencies....

premed -- yeah I am a first year here now.

Curriculum: it's nice, from what Ive read in the allopathic forum about other curriculums, UMAB seems to have a very nice one. 2 hour lectures from 8 - 10am, and then anatomy lab from 10am - 12pm....and every monday we have a clinical class lecture from 1 - 2pm and then small groups once a week for about 1.5 hours. Thats just for our block right now, not sure what happens when we start biochem in about 3 weeks.


Boards and Residency: I am not sure, didn't really check those out. Just like all interviews I went to, I am sure like 80%+ of students get into one of their top 3 choices. Its what you put into it. I went to a private undergrad (which I believe has some prestigious value) and I ended up at the same place that many state school kids did (just goes to show you that if you put the work in, you can get in anywhere, regardless of attending a private or public school). Yeah I know residency is a tad bit more challenging and whatnot, but same principle.

Housing: They are opening a new apartment complex in summer of 2004 I believe.

In the end, like i said before, if you are going into academic medicine, pick the most prestigious university you get into. Primary, goto your state school. Overall, UMAB's rep is pretty good. My bro's in-laws have many doctors in their family who went to private med schools (both who are now orthopedic surgeons, one doing his fellowship at Cleveland Clinic and the other already a hand surgeon; one went to Gtown med, and the other Hopkins med) and they both advised me to take UMAB over ANY school. They are still paying off their loans....

only negative thing about UMAB....grades! but I believe its no real big difference from other schools who grade on high pass/pass/fail ect.

 

[premed2]

wow...thanks a lot!! that was some great info...