Vanderbilt vs. MCASOM AZ vs. UVA vs. Columbia

[IAmIndecisive]

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A little about me: I’m originally from the Northeast, went to undergrad in the Southeast, and now live in the Mid-Atlantic. I am very familiar and comfortable with the East Coast. I tend to put LOTS of pressure on myself, so I’m looking to avoid a cutthroat or overly competitive environment. While my parents are covering the cost of medical school, I’m still mindful of the overall cost of attendance and would like to minimize the financial burden where possible (assuming the school is the right fit). I’m currently drawn to surgical fields like ENT, urology, ophthalmology, and orthopedics, as well as some internal medicine subspecialties. The most important factors for me when choosing a school are strong student wellness/culture, the ability to match competitively on the East Coast/Northeast, and—secondarily—the cost of attendance and proximity to family and friends. Thank you all for your insight and for taking the time to help me draw a conclusion!!

Vanderbilt (no merit scholarship):
Pros:

• Nashville is a great city with a vibrant social scene; I can see myself putting down my roots here. Have friends here and love the weather
• A nice compact 13-month pre-clinical. Frees up 2 years in the end to follow my interests
• Medical Innovators Development Program (would have to get selected for this)
• Very strong match list
• No AOA, P/F clerkships
• Class size of about 95
• Really solid research opportunities

Cons:

• Long 2-day, one-pass exams with essays (I think)
• 13-month preclinical might give me a stomach ulcer
• COA

MCASOM AZ (47k per year in merit):
Pros:

• Solid match list (although it is very West Coast leaning if not a Mayo program)
  • 31% of students matched to a program on a Mayo Clinic campus, 32% match to a surgical specialty
• Significant research opportunities built into the curriculum and strong ties to innovation/AI
• It's a great location in Scottsdale/Phoenix. If I am going to be out West, this is a good spot to be
• Mayo is investing heavily into the AZ campus...just announced a $1.9 billion investment
  • Seems to be relatively immune from recent political/funding chaos
• No AOA
• Lowest COA
• Students seem to be very happy

Cons:

• 50-person class, which is smaller than I would ideally like. Just feel like it will limit opportunities to meet new people and find a group that fits with me
• Only about 15% of M4s match on the East Coast (across all Mayo programs, so it is probably much less at AZ)
• Far from all my family and friends (3 hours behind with the time change; 6-hour redeye flight to get back home)
• 100+ degrees for months would be significantly worse than anything I have ever had to deal with
• Not directly tied to an undergraduate institution/the campus is one building...has a sort of corporate/overtly professional feel

UVA: (have not received merit information yet)
Pros:

• “Chill, elite school” + great culture
  • Went to both second-look events and met lots of great people
• P/F preclinical with no internal ranking for students
• Flexible exams (take home on the weekends)
• Relatively close to my family and friends
• Access to incredible hiking, mountain biking, and fly-fishing
• Great clinical exposure: longitudinal clinical exposure, patient-student partnership
• P/F pre-clinicals and clinicals
• Work-life balance seems the best

Cons:

• Least prestigious of my options. I don't care about prestige, but I know residency programs do
• The match list is very good, but it seems to be a slight step down from other programs
• Doesn't have research directly built into the curriculum (as far as I can tell); it seems I would have to fit this in on top of the curriculum/other involvements
• UVA hospital system is less renowned compared to others
• AOA

Columbia (have not received merit information yet):
Pros:

• A lot of extracurriculars I’m interested in with the VP&S Club, such as the five free clinics
• Has an incredible match list...it seems students get to go wherever and get to do whatever they want
• Closest to home, I have 20+ buddies who live in the city
• Had a great interview day
• I've been told that training in NYC prepares you for anywhere due to its intensity (I guess this is both a pro and a con)
• Relatively cheap housing right near the medical center, as well as a free gym
• Not sure I will have the opportunity to spend 4 years in NYC again

Cons:

• Seems to be in the news a lot lately...don't know how the next 4 years will be if the institution has a target on its back
• NYC would be very expensive, and I have never lived in a city remotely close to this magnitude before
• From what I have seen on forums and such, it seems there is a competitive culture, with students being stressed...definitely gonna get a feel for this at SLW this week
• Slightly larger class size than I would like

THANK YOU ALL!!!

 

[m1redsox]

Columbia takes the cake on prestige and your support system. I’d see if you can get any aid from them, but even if not, it may be worth attending if you won’t have loans either way.

 

[hydroflaskhomie]

I think you should go to Mayo pending your gut feeling about the culture. 47k is *huge* unless your family is extremely wealthy (especially with how the market is right now, if that money is tied up in investments etc) and I do not think Columbia will match anywhere close to that (but definitely try and ask them!!).

When you go to Columbia, I would recommend you try taking both an express and a local train downtown to where your friends live. When I went to second look, I was shocked at how far I was away from my friends in lower Manhattan or even midtown and knew it wouldn't be as easy to go out/hang out with them when I had to worry about getting so far uptown at the end of the night (expensive Uber or long train with iffy vibes). But it's an awesome school and I think would probably be my pick for you second to Mayo (although I'm pretty risk adverse per your cons, I think admin hopefully should be able to answer your questions in this area better than internet strangers who don't go there and have literally no idea what's going to happen next with this administration).

Full disclosure, I turned down a similar merit offer to Mayo (MN) to pay full price elsewhere - happy to discuss over DMs why I ended up choosing this path. I am glad I did for me personally but I think Mayo is an excellent school and Mayo AZ is a far better location. They match supremely well and I'm sure the match list looking light on east coast is both because of a small n= and student preference to the midwest/west coast respectively. You will be an incredible physician if you go to Mayo.

 

[mango_enthusiast]

I'm an M1 at Columbia! I'll just say for preclinical at least, I'm not really sure where the idea that Columbia has a competitive culture comes from. I can say that everyone is VERY chill at Columbia. Are there very self driven people? Sure. But for the first 1.5 years, there is literally nothing to compete over. I would say most people are out doing hobbies, hanging out, going out into the city, etc and are not incredibly stressed by any means. Of course that will change with rotations - but I think everyone at every school is stressed during rotations regardless of grading system... And upperclassmen have never expressed concerns that students are being topically competitive during MCY. If anything, I think people generally look very down upon doing things that make your classmates look bad on rotations for example. Just my thoughts! Living in NYC has truly been such an amazing experience, and I wouldn't take that lightly.

 

[Student2025!]

Go to the one that is cheaper! Go where you will be happy and more comfortable. That is what is most important. Congrats!