I'd beg to differ. I think the facilities make a BIG difference especially near exams when you're going to spend 10+ hours a day at library/school/study area. We have dozens of nice study spaces with key-coded doors for med student access, climate control, computers with projectors to rewatch images/go through tests, etc. Wisconsin spent/is spending 2 billion dollars on it's brand new health sciences complex that opened several years ago and the students of UW SMPH reaps the benefits of a state of the art facility that has thousands of top clinicians and researchers working in it. It's a 2 minute walk to the research building from the med school or to the hospital, which makes opportunities for students to shadow, do research, participate in grand rounds, etc, easy and convenient.
Whoa whoa this isn't a competition here. I like my school and you like your school.
Facilities depends on the person. I guess I'm someone not impressed by fancy facilities. Plus as I said before, Georgetown's Med Campus is feet away from one of the nicest undergrad campuses in the nation.
As for top clinicians, Georgetown typically has the top clinicians in the DC metro area since it is the best regarded academic center in this same area. Our hospital is also right next to our medical school, and while it's a little smaller and older, it has all the makings of your typical academic medical center. 95% opportunities at UW's hospital are probably opportunities to engage in at Georgetown's Hospital. Plus as I said, we round in the largest most well known hospital in the district, which sees a ton of interesting cases and caters to the underserved population.
As for research, yes you got me beat. UW does more research than Georgetown. But after a certain point, will there be that many more tangible differences in the amount of opportunities you could see yourself interested in, when comparing $185 million dollars of funding and $250 million dollars? GW and Howard students typically don't do much research. I haven't come across many that are interested in doing a ton of research at NIH, because they are typically more interested in the opportunities in working in the underserved areas and on the hill. Oh right that reminds me: if you have an interest in healthcare reform and policy, DC is obviously a hot-bed for that.
As for the match, the 2008 news item for UW had 42 out of 122 staying in Wisconsin. Thats a rate of 34% not 25%. The article below for the 2009 match, indicates that even more students are staying in Wisconsin (nothing wrong this), and more are picking Primary Care (nothing wrong this, just stating the facts). Case in point: more of Georgetown's class decided to move else where and also decided to go into the surgical and other specialities. EDIT*** Actually this is typically the case, but this year in the 2009 match for Georgetown, 40% went into primary care which was high for Georgetown's typical year. I would say we normally place 30-35% in primary care typically.
2008 UW match:
http://www.med.wisc.edu/news/item.php?id=2726
2009 UW match:
http://www.med.wisc.edu/news/item.php?id=4605
As for cost of attendance: I concede, UW is much cheaper than Georgetown. As I said to the OP, if he has IS at Wisconsin, or the financials are very important to him, he should take UW without question, it's a fantastic school. But.....you have to look at DC's cost of living in another light. DC is an amazing city. More amazing than NY in my eye (though this is blasphemy to some). You are paying a little more to be in a city full of culture, festivals, museums, music, and food. Plus, Georgetown University has pledged to up the cache of funds for financial aid by 18%, so some students may get some more competitive financial aid packages.
