Vandy Vs. UCI?

[lalala445]

I'm a CA resident so UCI is my home however, Vandy is a great school. I'm still so unsure what to think so ANY opinions would be SO SO appreciated! Also, keep in mind, I would love to match in CA if possible!Also to edit: luckily financial issues are NOT a concern, so this wouldn't be why I chose UCI

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[Appless]

I'm a CA resident so UCI is my home however, Vandy is a great school. I'm still so unsure what to think so ANY opinions would be SO SO appreciated! Also, keep in mind, I would love to match in CA if possible!

is staying close to home important? What about financials? Personally if it was me, I would choose vandy in a heartbeat. Did my undergrad at UCI and had a lot of experience at the med school and i just dont think uci is all that great. Especially when you have a school like vandy wanting you. If UCI is way cheaper by all means id go there, but if financials are close or in vandys favor it should be an easy decision as long as you dont mind not being near home. The whole cali residency thing doesnt matter. Vandy is a top school and if you do well there it will be simple to end up back in cali. UC school doesnt equal auto cali residency. Remember that its more of a geographical and selection bias in that all kids who go to cali schools typically want to stay there for residency, therefore we do. Where schools like vandy obvi many people could care less about being in cali but most could easily end up somewhere in cali if they wanted.

 

[jbz24]

If I were to guess, I would actually think you would have an easier time matching into a top caliber Cali program from Vandy than you would from UCI.

 

[MiniMoo]

I am very happy about my decision to attend UCI. I have several friends who have graduated from the school and are now in competitive residencies at UCLA, UCSD, USC. They have no regrets about attending and felt the school did a solid job of preparing them for clinical practice. It all depends on your preferences though and how well you feel each "fits" you and your needs. How important is staying in CA during med school for you (Nashville is very different from Irvine)? Are you interested in a career in research or academic medicine (in which case Vandy would be a better choice)? Did you talk to any current or past students to see what the pros/cons of each school are?

 

[zebalong]

I interviewed at both and am waitlisted at both. My bias is that I do want to go to UCI but I'm giving my opinion as unbiased as I can.

From my limited interview experience it seems to me that if location (wanting to be in Cali, perhaps proximity to friends and family) matters to you then that is the only reason you might consider choosing UCI. This is the case for me. That coupled with the fact that I do not want to get involved in academic research/medicine and don't have a specialty choice of derm, plastics, ect.

I really echo everyone else's thoughts on this board that Vandy is just in a different league and is one of the top schools- even just doing "average" there you will have no problem coming back to Cali and landing a GREAT residency. Hell if you just get within their average board score which is something INSANE like mid 240's, you will be a rockstar. If you have a really competitive specialty in mind I think Vandy would be a better platform even more so if you were to take advantage of all the school has to offer.