UPENN or MARYLAND?

[griller]

Advertisement - Members don't see this ad

upenn vs maryland?

aside from cost....

im looking to possibly specialize yet get great clinical experience. I want to live in a fun city and be able to live close to campus. overall, i want to take advantage of the best program possible.

what do you all think?

is a more intense curriculum at penn going to open more doors? or will the depressing basement drive me crazy, lol.

the downsides that i see from penn are that it might be an extremely competitive environment, which could either annoy the hell out of me, or make me want to better myself more. At maryland, the area is no where near as nice as the campus in philly, but i can bet the atmosphere is less competitive (in terms of specializing).

please give your advice or points of views, especially if you attend either of these universities

 

[beannaithe]

I applied to both programs, got accepted and ultimately turned them both down.

I liked Penn and I think it's a fantastic school. But the price range put it way too out of the ballpark for me. That adds up quickly, with the interest rate we're facing now. Plus, it was (and is) incredibly and ridiculously competitive. I know someone who's married to a grad and she always talks about all he did was study. He graduated with a great GPA, knowing tons of stuff...but he really had to work for those grades. Plus the waxing is ridiculous hard there. I think for the price though, the facilities are outdated and the basement was kind of depressing. The competitiveness will be anywhere, but at Penn ti seemed like it was almost cutthroat.

Maryland has the new building (which was amazing when I looked at it). But I thought the area was incredibly shady...like really shady. That's the reason I ultimately decided not to go there, because I didn't feel safe walking down the street. Though the people there were nice and the entire place was fantastic.

Don't go to Penn solely because you want to specialize. Go there because you think you would thrive and shine there. When you apply to a specialty program (if you even decided you want to specialize after you get into school), going to Penn will turn heads. But also will going to a state school, getting involved and doing well.

You know yourself better then anyone else. So you need to ask yourself the same questions that you asked us.

For me, it came down to Penn being far too competitive (people at my interview made it sound like the classes weren't friendly) and Maryland was in too bad of an area.

Those are just my thoughts. Good luck with your choices. 🙂