Warm weather medical schools?

Started by Simucal
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Simucal

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I currently live in the Midwest and I can safely say I hate the weather here. The cold saps my energy; the dark gloomy sky’s depress me during a significant portion of the school year and am simply not a cold weather person.

While I have no intention of selecting medical schools only based on location it is still a significant factor for me. I want some place with a warmer climate. This will require me to go out of state. Does anyone have any suggestions for some decent schools on the coast or the south that perhaps doesn’t place a relatively heavy point value on being an instate resident?

Thanks for in advance for any help people can throw my way, and I'm glad I've stumbled on to this valuable resource! 😎

Current List of Schools Suggested in Thread:
  1. Vanderbilt
  2. Duke
  3. Emory
  4. University of Miami
  5. Tulane
  6. Baylor
  7. University of Southern California
  8. Wake Forest
  9. University of California, Los Angeles
 
Baylor. Not as heavily in-state as actual public universities, but still somewhat tilted that way. As far as warmth, though, you can't beat Houston's 60 degree winters.
 
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Agreed on the warmth part, but I visited Baylor during this application cycle and though the school is great, Houston plain sucks IMHO. Go to Miami, you get the 60 degree winters, the beach, and everything that the city of Miami entails!
 
USC, the only place that can beat the weather in Los Angeles is San Diego, but the only med school there is public and prefers in state residents. LA is also a lot less humid than Huston or Miami, plus USC is known for being a great place to get clinical experience. Granted it often feels like the whole country hates LA, but that's for a different thread.
 
shortyganoush said:
USC, the only place that can beat the weather in Los Angeles is San Diego, but the only med school there is public and prefers in state residents. LA is also a lot less humid than Huston or Miami, plus USC is known for being a great place to get clinical experience. Granted it often feels like the whole country hates LA, but that's for a different thread.
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I've heard San Diego's weather is perfect everyday of the year!! Yeah, I'm an OOS and USC asked me to apply there, I started to and then chickened out because I was afraid of LA. haha. I'm sure the media exaggerates about LA being so horrible of a place.
 
McMD said:
I've heard San Diego's weather is perfect everyday of the year!! Yeah, I'm an OOS and USC asked me to apply there, I started to and then chickened out because I was afraid of LA. haha. I'm sure the media exaggerates about LA being so horrible of a place.
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the media says LA is horrible? thats news to me.
-mota
 
McMD said:
I've heard San Diego's weather is perfect everyday of the year!! Yeah, I'm an OOS and USC asked me to apply there, I started to and then chickened out because I was afraid of LA. haha. I'm sure the media exaggerates about LA being so horrible of a place.
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USC asked everybody with a pulse to apply - I was totally turned off by their attempt at a money grab.
 
inflamesdjk02 said:
Dear UMiami,

Please let me in. I love you.

Sincerely,

inflamesdjk02
Click to expand...

I say that to girls all the time and it never works.
 
Wake Forest (in NC) is in a pretty nice area- not as warm as other places suggested here but certainly better than the midwest. And it's private, so it takes lots of oos applicants.
 
UCSD San diego's weather is BEEEEAAAAAAAUUUUUUUUUTTTTTTIIIIFFFFUUUULLL!!!!!!!!!!
 
McMD said:
I've heard San Diego's weather is perfect everyday of the year!! Yeah, I'm an OOS and USC asked me to apply there, I started to and then chickened out because I was afraid of LA. haha. I'm sure the media exaggerates about LA being so horrible of a place.
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It's not an exaggeration...LA is miserbale. Wait, that's me. Some people like it here.

All the UC's have great weather ('cept for SF, "The coldest winter I ever spent was a summer in san francisco").

Then along the south.. arizona, NM, texas, florida, etc.

Do carribean schools count? :laugh:
 
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inflamesdjk02 said:
Dear UMiami,

Please let me in. I love you.

Sincerely,

inflamesdjk02
Click to expand...
LMAO!! Have you interviewed yet? I'm going to UMiami! 🙂
 
Flopotomist said:
USC asked everybody with a pulse to apply - I was totally turned off by their attempt at a money grab.
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I was turned off by WashU's incessant letters to apply to their undergrad too. Wish I hadn't been.
 
With two exceptions, I'm only applying to schools in the south-midwest or California.
 
Miami gives pretty significant preference to Floridians, and they screen. It might be tough to get in there OOS unless you have really good stats. Ditto for Baylor; they heavily prefer Texans. Vanderbilt, Duke, Emory and Tulane don't seem to have residency preferences. Sorry, we just don't have the number of private schools here in the South that you guys have in other parts of the country. 😛 If you are considering going DO, we have two DO schools here in FL too, and they do not have any residency preference as far as I know.
 
Zoom-Zoom said:
Then along the south.. arizona, NM, texas
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He has little chance at any of these state schools unless he becomes a state resident (maybe that's not the case at some of the TX schools), and the weather in all 3 states sucks during the summer.
 
chapel hill and ohsu seem to accept a decent number of oos. warm compared to the midwest.
 
jebus said:
He has little chance at any of these state schools unless he becomes a state resident (maybe that's not the case at some of the TX schools), and the weather in all 3 states sucks during the summer.
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True. And I would consider UC's to be equally difficult. So that leaves...eh...about zero schools with good weather.
 
How hard is it to establish residency in a particular state? I have family in California I could stay with to work if it didnt take a lot to become a member of that state.

In Missouri you just have to earn aprox $3,000 and pay taxes and apply for residency. Any info on this would be appreciated.
 
Zoom-Zoom said:
True. And I would consider UC's to be equally difficult. So that leaves...eh...about zero schools with good weather.
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ha ha! I think Reno sounds nice.... That's in the sunbelt, right?
OP, check out private schools, also hawaii (again, heavily prefers instate applicants), loma linda, and stanford have decent weather, you know, if you like sun and stuff.
 
Oculus Sinistra said:
Yes! Like shootings!
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You obviously have not lived there


to the OP Puerto rican medical schools, can't beat the weather -except come hurricane season 😱
 
I answered my own question about the Residency thing.. Would have to work there for 1 year and show intent to make California my permenant residence and not just for tution. Which is doable if it comes to that.
 
medhacker said:
You obviously have not lived there
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Not lived.

I currently live ~45 minutes north of it, I've been there, and I know people who have lived in Miami. It's not all bad... but it's not all good either.

For example, I went to Miami with some classmates in my sophomore year to visit an Art Gallery and got lost on the way back. As we were driving, I looked around and saw more barred-up store windows and billboards telling me "10-20-life for acts of violence involving guns" than I have ever seen in my life.

That's all I'm saying, really.
 
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rehanyazdani said:
Nashville's weather sucks, so Vanderbilt isn't good weather wise.
Click to expand...

Really? What don't you like about it?
 
rehanyazdani said:
Nashville's weather sucks, so Vanderbilt isn't good weather wise.
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My parents lived in TN for awhile before I was born, and my mom told me the same thing about the weather before I visited Vandy. I don't get it?!?! What's so bad about the weather? Are the winters cold and snowy? Are the summers terribly humid?

Pardon the ignorance, but is Nashville weather significantly different from Atlanta weather?

Also--what does your signature say?
 
If you like having all 4 seasons, but still prefer a warmer weather overall, come to Atlanta baby! Southern Cal and Florida don't have 4 distinct seasons. Atlanta does.

I'm not sure about the difference between Atlanta and Nashville weather, but Atlanta's weather is not too humid/dry, and we have no excess snow/rain. There's a reason why Atlanta is growing bigger and people are moving down here!
 
argonana said:
My parents lived in TN for awhile before I was born, and my mom told me the same thing about the weather before I visited Vandy. I don't get it?!?! What's so bad about the weather? Are the winters cold and snowy? Are the summers terribly humid?

Pardon the ignorance, but is Nashville weather significantly different from Atlanta weather?

Also--what does your signature say?
Click to expand...

Its not that the weather is bad, its just not that good. late November thru February is cold (well cold for a southern boy like me) then June thru September is blazingly hot and humid making outdoor time miserable during the day. TN really isnt the greatest weather, but its definitely better than Ohio
 
Here's a question for all of you coming from a 2nd year medical student: What is more depressing than gray skies and cold weather?

Being stuck in the library when it is beautiful outside!

Seriously, if you want to be depressed, go to a place like San Diego and become a medical student! 🙂 It's like being hungry and starving and knowing normal people right next door are eating steaks and cheeseburgers, LOL. What's even worse is you probably can watch people enjoying themselves from the library window at some schools. That would almost be grounds for suicide.

By FAR the most depressed I've been in medical school is being stuck inside studying when it is nice outside in the Spring, Summer and Fall months here in Chicago. Not once have I been depressed this past Winter... partly because it never showed up this year, and partly because being in the library when it is cold is great... very cozy and you don't feel like you are constantly missing out on "life."

And yes, I do realize you can study outside and have tried this, but you get way, way, WAY less done which just kills you later on.
 
Having lived in Texas most of my life (grew up in the Houston area and now in Austin), and also in Louisiana (NOLA), I can strongly recommend AGAINST moving to the deep south if you can't deal with absolute misery in the summers. And by summer, I mean late April until mid October.

Example: In Texas, it starts to get hot (not warm and pleasant, hot and stifling) by the end of April/beginning of May. It stays hot (90s-100s mostly) until October. And it's humid. True, the winter is mild, but the majority of the year is spent inside as much as possible, moving as quickly as you can from one air-conditioned place to another air-conditioned place. We choose parking spots based on shade, not proximity, since nothing sucks worse than getting in your car, burning your hand on the seat belt, and then not being able to breather for a while due to the heat. One particularly fun moment for me was this past September, at Austin City Limits music festival. My sister and I went, and on the last day we were so hot (despite chugging water and spraying ourselves with it and sitting in the shade) that I actually had to take her home to prevent heat stroke. Turns out it was 108 F outside at 5 pm. I know that's no big deal to someone from, say, Arizona, but when the humidity is also 80% it's pretty unbearable.

Just something for you to think about. I love Texas for lots of reasons, but right now I can feel it getting hot and I'm just dreading the summer. If you're really concerned with weather, avoid the Gulf Coastal states (especially TX/LA) like the plague.

👍
 
To illustrate my point: the high today (yes, it is March 7th) is 82. And it's overcast and wet outside. Gross, I hate it.
 
Yup. No way I'm living in the deep South.
 
I live in North Florida and have never seen temps over 101. Have lived here my entire life...I LOVE the summer and supposively it get JUST as hot in Iowa as it does in North Florida during the summer (in-laws in Iowa swear by it).
 
I'd like to offer the flip side to what ctwickman said.
I've been at the University of Chicago for the last four years.
I am one of those people whose mental state is strongly linked to the seasons. When it is warm and sunny outside, I am extremely motivated and productive, even if I can only experience it whilst walking between my apartment and campus. When it is dark and gray and cold (Chicago from end of October to end of April), I am extremely depressed and unmotivated. I have no problem working in the library on a summer day, because I woke up with the sun in my face and the birds chirping through the window.
 
browniegirl86 said:
We choose parking spots based on shade, not proximity, since nothing sucks worse than getting in your car, burning your hand on the seat belt, and then not being able to breather for a while due to the heat.
👍
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Wow, I had completely forgotten what that feels like over the past 5 years in San Diego (the whole no seasons 72 degrees everyday) That brought back memories of summers in the San Fernando Valley of Los Angeles. Of course, that kind of heat only occurs for about three weeks between July and August in LA. 😉
 
McMD said:
LMAO!! Have you interviewed yet? I'm going to UMiami! 🙂
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Yeah I interviewed back in early February. Dr. Hinckley said we were supposed to hear back on March 15th, but it sounds like they might be running a little behind. I felt that I brought my A-game, now it's time to cross my fingers and wait ... yarg.
 
McMD said:
I live in North Florida and have never seen temps over 101. Have lived here my entire life...I LOVE the summer and supposively it get JUST as hot in Iowa as it does in North Florida during the summer (in-laws in Iowa swear by it).
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i call shenanigans. midwesterners just don't know what hot is, the same way southerners don't know what cold is. midwesterners think upper 80s with low humidity is hot. they disparagingly compare their temps to those in the deep south, without giving a thought to humidity.

chicago is the place to be for summer. completely do-able without ac, with maybe only one or two "uncomfortable" weeks in august. i agree with ctwickman that it's easier to study when it's cold (but often bright) outside, and it makes the great summer so much better.
 
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I also have to diasagree with ctwickman. I absolutely despise studying when the weather is not good. Who said you have to study in the library? People in places with warm weather know how to take advantage of it. For example, I sometimes study under a tree when the weather is nice.

Also, it isn't the few hours of studying everyday that counts. The real question is what the weather would be like when you are done studying and ready to step out into the world outside of medicine.

I know good weather isn't everything, but I think it is often under estimated on this site. Coming from a true Californian who went to college out of state (in a very cold place. Luckily I am going back home for med school), the verdict is...Weather is of paramount importance.
 
University of Florida in Gainesville, FL is smack dab in the middle of the state giving it pretty hot summers (no coast to bring in a breeze) with a fair amount of humidity. I'd almost say it rivals miami, if not actually being hotter. The winters can be equally as rough (also due to its non-coastal location) for Florida standards. There were days in January where it would be in the 20s in the morning for a couple of hours and I would see a little ice on my car. 😱

Being a state school, they give a very strong preference to FL residents.
 
Oculus Sinistra said:
For example, I went to Miami with some classmates in my sophomore year to visit an Art Gallery and got lost on the way back. As we were driving, I looked around and saw more barred-up store windows and billboards telling me "10-20-life for acts of violence involving guns" than I have ever seen in my life.
Click to expand...

You'll have bad neighborhoods in any city. Even Gainesville, Fl, has those same signs hanging in the eastern part of the city. You are using this one example as evidence that Miami is crime-ridden. We're HIV-ridden, but not crime-ridden.
 
infiniti said:
I also have to diasagree with ctwickman. I absolutely despise studying when the weather is not good. Who said you have to study in the library? People in places with warm weather know how to take advantage of it. For example, I sometimes study under a tree when the weather is nice.

Also, it isn't the few hours of studying everyday that counts. The real question is what the weather would be like when you are done studying and ready to step out into the world outside of medicine.
Click to expand...

You forgot the part where I said I have tried what you are proposing. I'm from a warm weather climate and quite frankly I find the people here in Chicago know how to enjoy warm weather a lot more than people from hot climates--I swear when it is 60+ in Chicago I'm the only one inside. With Spring coming now and the USMLE coming up, the very thought of Spring depresses the heck out of me because I know where I'm going to be the next couple months, and it's not going to be soaking in the springtime. Not to mention what I will be doing this Summer (day long clerkships, 100% indoors mind you).

BTW are you in med school? This isn't like carrying your novel for English class to the college quad and conveniently sitting under a tree. It isn't practical to bring your laptop to access UptoDate, a 500 page Robbins and your lecture slides, all while taking path notes under a tree. Besides the fact that half of med school is spent working your ass off in the hospital ALL DAY INDOORS with a night ahead of you to study even more! You are going to have to trust me that you want NO distractions when you are studying. And yes, you will spend the majority of your weekend days in the library. Those same weekend days that everyone is outside. If you can do all that under a tree or hall all your books to the beach though, more power to you. Just giving you my experience. But I just have a feeling some of you are in for a surprise on what med school is really like if "warm weather" is at the top of your priority list.
 
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