Virginia Tech Carilion vs University of Illinois - Chicago campus vs Loyola Stritch WAITLIST

[justanotherdocta]

Hello everyone,

Super grateful to be posting this as an accepted med student, pinching myself still won’t lie. Would love some help deciding between these two schools because I am truly torn.

Background on me: I graduated undergrad in 2023 and took two gap years getting research and clinical hours. I love research and have been involved in clinical and bench lab work for around 6 years now so definitely took the heavy research route haha and hoping to continue in med! I would love to do more service opportunities and participate in global med work as well at some point in my life. In my mid 20’s and dream profession would probably be peds, cardiology, OBGYN, or surgery (definitely all over the place lol but hoping med school helps me figure that out more). I am hoping for a residency and eventually fellowship in either California, Massachusetts, Chicago, DC, or Colorado since that’s where i’m from but also open to other places as well).


Virginia Tech Carilion:

Pros:

• super super friendly faculty, genuine people, and loved meeting my prospective class at second look, i already feel like i have close friendships!
• they have some amazing research opportunities and great funding which is awesome
• pro and con that research is in curriculum so you don’t have to do it outside of classes but also wonder how that will be structured
• they do true p/f pre-clinical and an honors/ high pass/ pass/ fail clinical
• High STEP scores with exam questions coming from old STEP exams which is huge
• match list i believe is p solid
• Low COL
• I am outdoorsy for sure so i love being in the mountains and being able to be active on campus
• Small class size which is a pro and con since i have heard small classes can get clicky on occasion
• very modern curriculum that is case based instead of block based with small groups which i like
• felt super supported by other students, faculty, and prospective students and that i wouldn’t need to fight to prove myself which is huge for me because medical school is hard as is already
• level 1 trauma center hospital
• definitely cheaper than UIC ~ $55k

Cons:

• more remote location and smaller town! a lil concerned about if that makes day to day hard like finding a good grocery store or gym with not as many options around.
• not sure how diverse patient cases would be in comparison to chicago
• definitely costs more to fly in or out of Roanoke which isn’t the best especially since if i wanna go home or if others wanna come visit me
• a lil afraid of not having as much to do outside of outdoorsy activities but also do wonder if people find that is a pro because med school is already busy?
• unsure if ranking matters at all but lower ranked than UIC
• wouldn’t wanna do residency at Carilion after

University of Illinois - Chicago:

Pros:

• being in chicago and having so much to do! i love living in a city rn and being able to go out or see new places all the time for sure
• residencies in chicago seem to be pretty good and i would be interested in doing a residency there
• got along with my incoming class at second look and thought they were nice and students were very friendly! didn’t have as much time to bond as I did at VTC but could see myself forming friendships here still!
• Easy and cheap to fly in and out of
• family lives in madison which is like an hour and a half away i believe which is great to have that support system close by
• friends live in the city and would love to see them on a reg basis
• have heard they are a pretty big deal research school with lots of funding which is good
• i believe they are also pass fail with H/HP/P/F clinical
• Very reputable in-house residency program that I would be interested in
• 4 hospitals attached to school which is awesome so lots of cases and opportunity
• love the chance to be part of a track program like the global med program or urban med programs and i would love to be part of student gov
• high step scores which is awesome
• lots of great matches
• campus is amazing very big and love the old buildings and a gym and food court on campus
• so many opportunities and a prestigious, old, well known institution with high rank

Cons:

• EXPENSIVE biggest con for sure around ~80k a year and i can’t tell if its worth that
• I felt a little bit nervous at second look, at second look a student did say they didn’t feel very supported by the school and I caught that vibes as well through the process but idk how accurate it is
• very disorganized from what i’ve seen. second look was super disorganized and my tour forgot about me and i felt like the whole thing was very all over the place.
• UIC writes the exams so they don’t use STEP material which ive heard students have felt doesn’t prepare them as much??
• High COL
• very sink or swim mentality, have heard it can be super competitive and cut throat which is super scary to me and that it’s every man for themselves

Loyola Stritch SOM (don’t know as much about it bc i’m still waitlisted and couldn’t visit campus)*would love to get more insights from others on their thoughts on Loyola and how it compares to UIC as potentially my other chicago option

Pros

• have heard amazing things about the program and that hospital system attached to school is amazing
• would love to do residency there
• have heard students love it there and feel super supported
• matches are great
• high STEP scores
• prestigious and old institution
• cheaper than UIC, comparable to VTC
• seems like good research availability and like service and global med opportunities

Cons

• very disorganized on admissions end, kept trying to call them to set up a tour and calls were dropped, felt like communication wasn’t v available
• have no experience visiting so don’t know the campus or people
• not in central chicago and have heard campus is not in best location of Chicago
• have never attended a Jesuit institution and was nervous about how OBGYN would be conducted if i chose that route

Any advice is greatly appreciated, Thank You so much! 🙂

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[medschoolfailure12]

On the waitlist at VTC and Illinois! Funny we have the same two 😊