Vanderbilt (with scholarship) vs. Hopkins vs. Yale

[Appoggiatura]

(note: I'm an ancient SDN member posting on behalf of my sister who doesn't have an account)

Hi everyone! I recently got off the waitlist at Yale and Hopkins, and now I'm trying to reach a decision about whether to stay at Vanderbilt (I accepted an offer there on traffic day) or take an offer at one of the two new acceptances!

About me: I'm an engineering major from California who's interested in health tech/innovation and biocomputation (but I'm also interested in medical humanities on the side) Potentially interested in ENT or ortho. Would ideally like to match back to California.

Yale
Pros
- Yale System
- students seem pretty relaxed/happy as a result of the curriculum
- have upperclassmen friends at the school
- great match list (I'm potentially interested in ENT or ortho, would like to match to California)
- on East coast where many of my friends are
Cons
- traveling to New Haven is a nightmare
- heard that Yale's hospital system doesn't provide the greatest clinical training?
- unsure about research opportunities in biocomputation or tech/innovation

Hopkins
Pros
- great hospital system, top ENT program
- lots of research/there's an innovation center
- sibling attended Hopkins, knows mentors/the school well
- on East coast
Cons
- fellow people interviewing there seemed kind of aggressive, so I'm unsure about the student culture there
- Ortho faculty mentorship apparently not that great

Vanderbilt
Pros
- got a scholarship there (75% tuition)
- everyone is super nice there
- 1 year preclinical
- good computational research/innovation
Cons
- Nashville is far from family
- Comparatively worse clinical training/facilities than Hopkins
- Not many people seem to match back to California in the specialties I'm interested in

Thank you for any insight!

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[thenucleusaccumbens]

Congrats on your acceptances! you really can't go wrong!

just wanted to also say that I would caution against judging Vanderbilt's match list based on how many people match to CA in ENT or Ortho. You listed this as a con, but you don't actually know how many people even wanted to match in CA in those specialties. What's important is whether people matched where they wanted to, which unfortunately you just can't know. I just checked their match list and it looks like maybe 10-15% of their class matched to CA. That makes sense to me given that Vanderbilt is a top tier private school in the South with students coming from all over the country. I imagine only so many are from/would want to end up in CA

 

[tbonez71]

Hi there! I also was apprehensive about Vandy matching to CA, but I eventually chose it. I emailed a current M4 there about how it was matching back... Here is what I got as a response, I figured I'd share it.

"Sure, it was my first time coming to Nashville too. My experience is that your school geography does not impact where you get interviews for residency. If you have a strong connection to California, people will see that on your application (e.g. city of birth, hometown, or undergrad) and that get’s you the “in”. I don’t think you will have trouble getting interviews applying from Vanderbilt.

At your residency interviews, you have abundant opportunity to make it known that you are strongly interested in coming back to California for residency. Program directors are interested in where you want to do residency, not where in the country you are coming from. Also remember that your character, academics and medical school institution are much greater indicators of your potential to succeed in their program.

No, you don’t have to do a ton of away rotations, and it doesn’t create “extra work” trying to get back to California. Honestly one away rotation in California is generally fine. It depends on the specialty; some don’t even require away rotations. I did (SUPER competitive specialty, redacted for privacy) and did one rotation in Philadelphia and the other in Los Angeles. I got interviewed at nearly every California program I was interested in and was able to match at my top choice.

If you loved Vandy and the vibe, I would recommend coming here. You only do medical school once, and you can become a great physician and leader at Vanderbilt. Students are genuinely happy here, every single year of med school. In my opinion, Vanderbilt creates very good options for its students. So if you want to go to California afterwards, that shouldn’t be a problem. I hope that helps answer some of your questions!"​

From what I heard anecdotally, the students who want to match back to CA almost always do so, there just aren't that many that want to coming from Vandy.

I also was choosing between this school and some that had a "nationally ranked" hospital with amazing facilities. General consensus is that it doesn't matter at all for med students since clinical training is done mostly in residency, which is where it will matter. You will have essentially equivalent education at any place - VUMC is still a very strong hospital, so the difference as it relates to you as a med student (between that and Hopkins) probably isn't that big. Even if it was, prob not worth the 200k extra in tuition lol.

PM if you want to talk more or want to know the specialty - otherwise I hope to see you in July

 

[mw18]

(note: I'm an ancient SDN member posting on behalf of my sister who doesn't have an account)

Hi everyone! I recently got off the waitlist at Yale and Hopkins, and now I'm trying to reach a decision about whether to stay at Vanderbilt (I accepted an offer there on traffic day) or take an offer at one of the two new acceptances!

About me: I'm an engineering major from California who's interested in health tech/innovation and biocomputation (but I'm also interested in medical humanities on the side) Potentially interested in ENT or ortho. Would ideally like to match back to California.

Yale
Pros
- Yale System
- students seem pretty relaxed/happy as a result of the curriculum
- have upperclassmen friends at the school
- great match list (I'm potentially interested in ENT or ortho, would like to match to California)
- on East coast where many of my friends are
Cons
- traveling to New Haven is a nightmare
- heard that Yale's hospital system doesn't provide the greatest clinical training?
- unsure about research opportunities in biocomputation or tech/innovation

Hopkins
Pros
- great hospital system, top ENT program
- lots of research/there's an innovation center
- sibling attended Hopkins, knows mentors/the school well
- on East coast
Cons
- fellow people interviewing there seemed kind of aggressive, so I'm unsure about the student culture there
- Ortho faculty mentorship apparently not that great

Vanderbilt
Pros
- got a scholarship there (75% tuition)
- everyone is super nice there
- 1 year preclinical
- good computational research/innovation
Cons
- Nashville is far from family
- Comparatively worse clinical training/facilities than Hopkins
- Not many people seem to match back to California in the specialties I'm interested in

Thank you for any insight!

I recognized your username from your clutch quizlet decks.

 

[turtlenecksweater]

(this is the OP's sister, I just made an account yesterday)

Thank you for the replies so far! I appreciate the input since I'm having a tough time deciding. I know that there's a really strong pull for Vanderbilt right now, but I'm concerned that I don't have a very unbiased perspective on each of the schools, since I only went to Vandy's SLW and thus know the most about their student body/curriculum. Do any current students from the schools have any feedback?

I'm still waiting on financial aid from Yale and Hopkins, but other than cost, I'm probably deciding based on student culture and research opportunities.

 

[fdgjfg]

If you made your initial decision in large part based on the 75% scholarship, then money is an important consideration to you (i.e. you're not from a crazy wealthy family who will bankroll you and you're not going to instantly defer to prestige - you probably chose your current school over others with a better "fit" because of the money), so it will be pretty hard to figure out your choice until you get your FA packages.

I will say though, that Yale's system seems like a particularly good option if you're super serious about achievement in research that doesn't alight super strictly with the normal benchtop/clinical biomedical research umbrella that is most commonly pursued, or doing anything "weird". It kind of seems like it's not as straightforward to integrate compsci/engineering with medical school curriculums since there's a little bit less subject matter, PI, and workflow overlap, and that people benefit from the ability to take extended amounts of time for enrichment opportunities. I know there was a poster in the med student/specialty boards (named something like Naijaba I think) who was into computer science and machine learning, and the flexibility of Yale's curriculum let him take two gap years to get a masters in computer science at Stanford and do a lot more research while at Yale. Not sure how the compsci opportunities actually are at Yale itself though, and the other institutions probably have plenty of strong labs. I'm not sure if any of them really separate themselves out as being really strong in the field. It also probably depends on how focused you are on research; if you just want a few months here or there, you can get that any any of the places.

 

[zanzizic]

I went to med school in the University of Texas system but did internship at Yale and residency at Vanderbilt so I some some familiarity with these programs (although none with Hopkins).

I would just say that as far as medical education, facilities, quality of students and faculty, and opportunities, you just cannot go wrong at Vanderbilt. It really is a top notch institution and will by no means limit your ability to match anywhere. It is infused with a Southern sensibility but of course is a nationally recognized program.

The students and faculty are friendly and people are happy in a way that I just didn’t experience at Yale. That may be partly a culture thing too because I’m Southern and just seemed to fit better there, but it’s more than that. The facilities and hospital system and ancillary staff were also better than at Yale.

Nashville is a nice place to live. Less crime and urban blight compared to Baltimore and New Haven for sure. It was clean without a feel of industrial decay. Despite how you feel about country music, Nashville is full of artists/musicians of all stripes and has a more hip vibe. And the weather is nice with four seasons/year.

And, if you have a big scholarship to Vandy, that’s huge. I just don’t know how you could pass that up.