USF vs FIU vs Miller (WL)

[ftw247]

Hi everyone! As this cycle comes to a close, I’ve been lucky enough to get some acceptances and having trouble deciding. Although I don’t know what specialty I want to go into, I want to have my options open. Thank you for all the help and stay healthy!

USF Morsani
Pros

• Cheap (about 30k per year) and lower cost of living
• Has been greatly improving in ranking, reputation, and research in the past few years
• Brand new building in downtown Tampa right near Tampa General Hospital (main teaching hospital) and in a beautiful area
• Home residency program in every specialty
• Not a lot of driving in traffic required
• Student run clinics near the campus

Cons

• Tampa is a smaller city and not much to do as far as I know compared to Miami
• Family lives very close and I’m from Orlando, so I know the area
• Tiered curriculum, not pass fail
• there were 25 students who went through SOAP on this years match list

FIU HWCOM
Pros

• 50% tuition scholarship so COA would be 57k per year
• PASS FAIL CURRICULUM
• Lots of competitive residency matching
• Lots of friends and social support in the area
• High step 1 scores
• Seem to care about student wellness tremendously

Cons

• Newer school without a set reputation
• Heard bad things about the NeighborhoodHelp program being irrelevant and stressful
• Extremely high step 1 scores, but now step 1 is pass fail so we don’t know how this will affect their residency matching
• No dedicated hospital, requires a lot of driving for rotations, and might hinder my ability to get good recommendation letters
• Medical campus is only a building on the undergrad campus
• Steps taken later than usual so less time to study for step 2

Miller (WL)
Pros

• Located in downtown Miami and teaching hospital is walking distance away
  • No need to drive anywhere
  • Amazing clinical rotations and experience
• Know lots of people at the school already and have established connections
• New curriculum looks amazing and more clinical years (1 yr preclinical) and PASS FAIL
• Research is super easy to get
• Step 2 scores are above the rest of the state
• Well reputed and home residency program
• Match list had lots of competitive specialties
• Lots of student run clinics and community outreach
• Love Miami

Cons

• Expensive compared to the other in state Florida school
• High cost of attendance and cost of living
• Our class would be the guinea pigs for this new curriculum

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[deleted1044527]

Disclaimer: I got an A from USF and not the rest.

This is imho a very easy one: Miami > USF >>>>FIU, and not even close.

Miami is a dream school, and occasionally bats at the top level. USF is a solid mid-tier school, but you will have to work harder. FIU is lower tier.

Go to Miami. Not even close haha.

 

[supsurfer]

Miami- great school , great city.

 

[ftw247]

Disclaimer: I got an A from USF and not the rest.

This is imho a very easy one: Miami > USF >>>>FIU, and not even close.

Miami is a dream school, and occasionally bats at the top level. USF is a solid mid-tier school, but you will have to work harder. FIU is lower tier.

Go to Miami. Not even close haha.

That’s the ideal scenario but I’m still waitlisted at Miller so we’ll see what happens ‍♂️

 

[Detailsmatter]

Definitely go to USF if you don’t get into Miller. While FIU does have some matches in competitive specialties and places there are TONS of matches at “lower tier residences” at community hospitals. Not having a hospital with home programs is a HUGE disadvantage. at USF you have access to tons of research and you’ll get to have home programs. It may sound harsh but for competitive specialties no program director is gonna care what a private practice community doctor at a small medical center in south Florida thinks of you as an applicant. They want to hear from people in academics that they know or have heard of in their field to go to bat for you and make calls. That will be much easier to get at USF. even tho FIU has the best step scores in the state they have a significantly worse match list than UM and UF and that’s a big indicator. Just my 2 cents as an M1 at Miller who had a solid scholarship offer from both schools


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[Gaucho97]

So FIUs high Step scores were due to the students taking it after third year. Now that Step 1 is P/F, you can see that their Step 2 scores are actually near national average if not below.

USF has a dedicated teaching hospital while FIU doesn’t, that is extremely convenient and not going to waste your time driving around. I would go to USF over FIU atm, send a LOI to Miami if you really wanna go there (UM > USF > FIU, regardless of what USNWR says)

 

[ftw247]

Definitely go to USF if you don’t get into Miller. While FIU does have some matches in competitive specialties and places there are TONS of matches at “lower tier residences” at community hospitals. Not having a hospital with home programs is a HUGE disadvantage. at USF you have access to tons of research and you’ll get to have home programs. It may sound harsh but for competitive specialties no program director is gonna care what a private practice community doctor at a small medical center in south Florida thinks of you as an applicant. They want to hear from people in academics that they know or have heard of in their field to go to bat for you and make calls. That will be much easier to get at USF. even tho FIU has the best step scores in the state they have a significantly worse match list than UM and UF and that’s a big indicator. Just my 2 cents as an M1 at Miller who had a solid scholarship offer from both schools


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Appreciate the insight yall and definitely thinking USF is the better institution academics wise, FIU offered me a merit scholarship so I was leaning towards it until the Step score changes so hopefully Miller responds to my LOI. How is the research at USF for those of y'all who are there? I am kinda concerned by the number of people who had to use SOAP for residency at USF this year that's all and really like Miami as a city so I'd ideally wanna stay there over Tampa.

 

[Detailsmatter]

Appreciate the insight yall and definitely thinking USF is the better institution academics wise, FIU offered me a merit scholarship so I was leaning towards it until the Step score changes so hopefully Miller responds to my LOI. How is the research at USF for those of y'all who are there? I am kinda concerned by the number of people who had to use SOAP for residency at USF this year that's all and really like Miami as a city so I'd ideally wanna stay there over Tampa.

How do you know that so many ppl had to SOAP? that’s kinda concerning but I know someone over there and can text to see if I can find out more


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[Icebird]

I have acceptances at all three:

UM >> USF >>>>>>>>>> FIU

For the fin aid concern, my Miller MD/MPH (which is more expensive than IS MD only tuition) made it one of my cheapest IS choices; over 65% of students get some type of scholarship be it merit, diversity, and/or financial need.

 

[Icebird]

How do you know that so many ppl had to SOAP? that’s kinda concerning but I know someone over there and can text to see if I can find out more


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There is a detailed discussion a couple of pgs back in the USF school specific thread if you are curious.

I’ve contacted several M1 admins/mods on the FB pg and they’ve either left me on read or said they’re aren’t informed to comment lol

 

[ftw247]

How do you know that so many ppl had to SOAP? that’s kinda concerning but I know someone over there and can text to see if I can find out more


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I read about it on the thread but don't know how legit it is

 

[Detective SnowBucket]

I read about it on the thread but don't know how legit it is

I was the OP on that. Someone affiliated with USF reached out to me abt it.

Anyways, UM vs USF it really just comes down to the person but no way would I take FIU over USF. Strongly recommend USF.

 

[supsurfer]

Five of the top administration people at FIU just left en. masse. to go. to new school in Henderson Nevada.

 

[Detective SnowBucket]

Five of the top administration people at FIU just left en. masse. to go. to new school in Henderson Nevada.

Do you have a link to a news article or smthn? I wanna read more on that lol

 

[supsurfer]

Read it in Miami Herald about ten days ago. It's there if you Google it.