Originally posted by SunnyS81
1) Nashville vs. Atlanta: Atlanta is an okay city at best. I've gotten used to it, but Nashville I thought was a really nice city. Clean, compact, with a decent amount to do. People are a lot more friendly too. Don't they have a real hockey team?
Even though I don't know Atlanta that well, I have a hard time believing that Nashville is actually better. Then again, I too would not choose Emory if I had lived in Atlanta for over a decade. 10 years is simply too long at this point in my life to be spending in the same location.
2) Grady vs. Vanderbilt Hospital: I volunteered a lot at Grady, and one of the frustrating things there is the beaurocracy that will waste your time away. I've followed medical students around the hospital once or twice, and if you think diagnosing something for the first time is hard, try doing it with a language barrier and everything possible taking as long as possible (CT scans...X-rays....etc). What impressed me most about Vanderbilt's hospital is what a tight shift they run. I don't know much about medicine (yet), but I can tell you that they are pretty dang efficient (something I do know something about).
No arguments there. Academic hospitals tend to be like well-oiled cars that run smoothly. Grady, being a county hospital, does not have that kind of luxury and funding. However, this means medical students have more responsibilities... not a bad thing at this point. Besides, I feel that efficiency is not as important at this point of our medical education as is the breadth of experiences/techniques we acquire. Anyway, as I've stated above, Grady is really a matter of personal taste. Some people love it, others don't. In general though, current Emory students that I've spoken to tend to think favorably of training at Grady. Even the few who were not so enthusiastic defended Grady, saying that the Grady experience is such that students, upon graduation, will most likely end up at a more smoothily run hospital for residency....making residency an easier experience in comparison. Now... I certainly would not want to do residency at Grady, but training as a medical student there seems to me like a great opportunity.
3) Every Emory medical student I've ever talked to except one has told me to go anywhere except there.
To learn more about Emory, I emailed several current Emory students who graduated from my undergrad school, as well as a dozen or so of random students I picked out from the course bulletin (there's a list of current students at the back of the booklet). Interestingly enough, I have so far only heard very encouraging things about Emory. Current students seem to like Emory a lot. Never once was I advised to go "anywhere except there." Of course, Sunny actually lives in Atlanta so he/she may have talked to more Emory students than I have... but it's something to think about.
4) The facilitiates at Vanderbilt are a lot nicer. Did you see the lecture halls for M1/M2 at Emory? For $30k+/year, I'll give you another grand to put in a lazyboy so that at least the lecture halls are comfortable. I know they eventually want to rebuild the facility, but I don't think that will be until you are done.
True. Emory's lecture hall are dated and would benefit from a makeover.
I feel that personal preferences and individual experiences during interviews/visits/etc. really make our perceptions different from one another's. The OP really needs to dig deep within and remember what he liked/disliked about each school. Anyway, just wanted to offer a different viewpoint from Sunny's.
