UVA vs GW

[thefirerisen]

I know the cycle isn't over yet but I thought I would make a post with some of my thoughts so far. If it changes, y'all will see me again. Right now, I'm 80% leaning towards UVA here with GW in the running and VCU kind of in the running but need some insights from y'all.

To let you know of my personal interests, I'm very passionate about refugee healthcare and research. Also not completely sure what specialty I want to pursue, but I'm really interested in surgery, specifically Orthopaedics.

UVA
Pros:

• Prestige, highest ranked
• Research powerhouse
• Best match list out of the three (their last class was almost 10% Ortho!)
• Location has huge refugee population with own refugee clinic (very passionate about this)
• Pretty decent Global Health opportunities (nothing like GW though)
• Potential to do MD/MBA from a top business school in nation
• Great student body that seems very happy and school seems to take good care of students
• In-state tuition with UVA with potential for up to a near-full ride with 3rd party scholarships that I can apply for as an instater.

Cons:

• Location is small town and I've always wanted to live in a bigger city like Washington D.C. Won't be able to do the INOVA program because I'm moving with family and the adjustment from C'ville to NOVA is too much for us after 1.5 yrs.
• Housing is tough and expensive. In the same vein, parking is a nightmare and I will be commuting to campus since I have a family.
• UVA in general does not seem very diverse
• Campus itself was a bit underwhelming for me; people warning me that there is a lot of crime in the area with thefts and such.

GW
Pros:

• Location (Foggy Bottom, Washington DC) is my dream place to live (amazing food + activities) and I feel super bad about turning this down
• Amazing Global Health opportunities
• DC is diverse with a huge multicultural immigrant and refugee center that I can work with
• Lots of avenues for health policy, advocacy
• GW students in general are very politically involved, lots of activism here which I'm really into. In the future, I want to potentially do something in this arena.
• Grew up near here, parents are a short drive away from DC
• Research with NIH?

Cons:

• Lower ranked than UVA
• Match list is nothing impressive (very low ortho numbers)
• Name and shame thread about GW - administration doesn't seem to care about their students
• Not as research heavy -> i've heard its actually pretty tough to find research opportunities here.
• Tuition will be higher here as well as cost-of-living obviously.

I think it essentially boils down to location vs a stronger education. My brain is telling me to go to Charlottesville but my heart wants to go to DC - wanted to see if I was missing anything in my assessment though

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[BenzeneToluene]

Just another fellow applicant, but I think the best choice here is UVA. It’s cheaper, which is great, especially because you have a family, and it has more resources that will set you up for Ortho. You’re interested in a super cutthroat and research-intensive speciality, so I don’t think you wanna be at a school where you might struggle to find research opportunities. Plus UVA is a solid T30, and its rep might help keep more doors open! Congrats on the acceptances!

 

[chrshug]

Full disclosure I will be withdrawing my A from GW to attend a higher ranked program-- I fully empathize with your point about living in DC. It took me a long time to be okay with turning down that opportunity that I've been dreaming of for YEARS to live in a smaller place. I think the combination of reputation + cheaper cost + family support + opportunities make UVA the choice here. Congrats to you on a successful cycle

 

[thefirerisen]

Full disclosure I will be withdrawing my A from GW to attend a higher ranked program-- I fully empathize with your point about living in DC. It took me a long time to be okay with turning down that opportunity that I've been dreaming of for YEARS to live in a smaller place. I think the combination of reputation + cheaper cost + family support + opportunities make UVA the choice here. Congrats to you on a successful cycle

Thanks, yeah it definitely is painful ahaha. Reputation and prestige of UVA is definitely high - big reason why everyone in my family prefers it for me. I guess I'll be doing a lot of weekend trips to the city!

 

[nbwaterman]

tough situation but the opportunity gap between UVA and GW is a little too big to ignore. DC is great and im probably also gonna follow suit to turn down Georgetown for a smaller city school like Wake Forest (or Pitt🤞🏽).