Perhaps I'm the only one who wonders whether you are referring to Penn State or U Penn?
If you felt like a good fit at a top tier school like U Penn, I kind of can't fathom considering Pitt or USC (and notice I'm going to USC). If it's Penn State you're talking about then, consider away...I think there's more of a toss-up on reputation between the 3 of them, and then if you felt like a good fit and like you'd be happy at all of them, you're really not going to be hurt by your choice.
Now, regarding NYU. I work at MSSM, and have worked at Columbia and Einstein's med schools prior to going through this whole process. I've met enough profs and students from all of the NY schools to know that I just wouldn't enjoy myself at NYU b/c it's generally more high strung than USC--they're basically on opposite ends of the high-strungedness spectrum, if you will. The only Manhattan school I don't think is totally high strung is MSSM, and that's b/c of its emphasis on teaching. Some of the profs are type A's but some are cuddly bunnies. I really haven't had a good experience with anything/body from Columbia or NYU--people will argue, and some people won't feel it, and if you felt differently when you visited, more power to you. In general, however, that is something that I do think pervades NYC medicine in general--the fast pace and the high intensity. The physicians I work for are really highly regarded, but so are my parents. My parents practice in LA. The demeanor of my parents and like physicians around whom I was raised is totally different and more relaxed than those in Manhattan. Personally, as a somewhat older applicant, I just don't want to be hazed and suffer extra b/c "that's just the way it's done here." So...I'm headed back West. Med school's going to be stressful either way; I'm not going to add more stress on top of it.
Now, one downside of Pitt that I do see, is the patient population. Pitt is an excellent school, and one of our fellows went there--he's gone on to a highly specialized fellowship at my work and is now going tenure-track at JHU...so he definitely coudln't have been too deprived 🙄...but the one thing I think of as the benefit of learning in a big city after working here, are all the crazy medical cases I've seen--we see Tuberculosis and Ricketts, and I don't know if you see that in smaller cities. And then, you see more severe cases of diseases. People travel to experts in NYC and LA to get treatment if they have the most severe form of their disease--so if you're learning at a med school there, your profs will have the greatest scope of experiences to share with you and you will see the most interesting things in rotations, which I think is important (1) to help you pick your specialty and (2) to give you the greatest experience in elective rotations you choose that you think are in your specialty. E.G: if I had "shadowed" a GI in Arkansas, I would have thought the field was confined to routine colonoscopies, but working in Manhattan, I've worked with nationally recognized experts and seen the worst-of-the-worst refractory cases of inflammatory bowel disease...when we go to conferences, I realize that I've already seen more than some practicing GI's in smaller cities, and that's quite amazing. I definitely chose to stay in a big city for my education accordingly. Philly is only a slight scale down from NYC (it would be a big hub if it weren't so close to NYC), but it has its own great medical strengths and a huge # of people who commute there for treatment as well.
If you want to do family or rural medicine, I bet Pitt & Penn state have better stuff set up; Pitt probably offers more individualized attention, just guessing...I just don't know that much about either.
You've got some great choices...you can't go wrong 🙂
Consider going to at least one of the 2nd looks if you can afford it!
Feel free to PM me if you have any questions--namely about why I chose USC...although I can speak to NYC in general.
Good Luck!
