WashU vs Baylor

[MacGyver]

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OK, give me the goods. What are the pros and cons of each school and which would you pick if accepted to both?

 

[grasshopper]

I've interviewed at both. They're SO different. Lilycat has an opinion on this issue too, I think. Anyhow, Baylor people are REALLY happy and have a lot of fun. I didn't parciularly care for the location (the city as a whole or the "campus" of the med center), but they have awesome facilities. All in all, I think a very extroverted and up-and-comign type of place. WashU is MUCH quieter. I think the students might be more concentrated on their educations, but I do think they are nice, good people, just kind of a little harder to get to know. I got a weird first impression of the place, but I'm thinking that it's one of those places where if you stay and get into the swing of it, there's probably a lot of neat things going on, including socailly. The biggest advantage I could see of them was, well, location for me, but that doesn't apply to most people (but there is NOTHING wrong with St. Louis, people!), but the amount of resources they have for students and want to dedicate to letting med students do whatever they want whenever they please. Lots of $ and willing to spend it. Have you been to/been accepted at both/either, MacGyver?

 

[lilycat]

I was considering both of these schools last year, and I went with Baylor over Wash U.

Baylor -- Amazing clinical opportunities at the Texas Medical Center; accelerated curriculum so you start clinicals 6 months earlier and have time off to study for the boards; great research opportunities; VERY AFFORDABLE tuition. This year I'm a little disappointed with some of my classmates, but I think it may just be my class, because I really like the upperclassmen that I know, and most of them have really enjoyed their time at Baylor.

Wash U -- excellent research opportunities; very supportive administration; P/F first year. The cons that I can think of are that they don't get a lot of time off to study for the boards -- at least last year, they just cut them back from 3 weeks to 2 weeks, although students predicted that if the ave. board scores started falling at all the administration would change that policy very quickly. Also, I've heard that the students don't necessarily get a lot of responsibility or hands-on experience 3rd and 4th years. Finally, I just felt like the students were a little socially "off" when I interviewed there -- I can't explain it better than that -- that was just my impression.

As for location, I also liked Houston better than St. Louis. I don't like cold weather much, and I just felt more comfortable in Houston in general. People love to bag on Houston, but with such a large city, it really is easy to find your niche -- there are lots of beautiful neighborhoods, eclectic coffeehouses, etc. -- pretty much anything to suit all sorts of different tastes.

 

[Hopkins2010]

Havent been accepted or interviewed at Baylor, and at this late date, probably wont hear from them till I get a reject notice.

Both are great programs. The TMC is awesome (been there a few times and met some Baylor med students). So I would give Baylor an edge on clinical opportunities.

For research, I'd say WashU takes a slight edge, although Baylor is close behind. I'm doing MD/PhD, and WashU is recognized as one of the best MD/PhD programs in the country (THE best by the NIH director of MSTP programs). Baylor's program is also good, but I'd say funding definitely gives the advantage to WashU. While I was on one of my interviews there, somebody from the NIH called the interviewer to tell them they were getting a huge research grant! I'm interested in biomedical imaging, and WashU has the Mallincroft Center, one of the best for imaging research in the world. WashU invented the PET scanner in the early 70s, so obviously they are a leader in imaging research and technology.

I like the location of WashU within the city better than Baylor. Houston is a cool city, but the neighborhoods and parks surrounding WashU are really nice and offer a nice living experience. Not that you cant find that in Houston, but you cant find that within the immediate vicinity of the med center. Houston is pretty humid also; I think I'd rather have colder weather than 80% humidity.

As far as students, I met mostly MD/PhD students at WashU and they all seemed really cool and laid back. I didnt meet very many regular MD students so maybe they are different than the mudphuds at WashU.

 

[SocialistMD]

Originally posted by baylor21:
•Houston is a cool city, but the neighborhoods and parks surrounding WashU are really nice and offer a nice living experience. Not that you cant find that in Houston, but you cant find that within the immediate vicinity of the med center.•••

You just haven't looked in the right places. I live within 10 minutes walking distance of TMC and my neighborhood is nicer than anything in Forest Park that can be afforded by a student.

As far as the rest of the stuff, I would have to agree in saying that the clinical research is probably a little better at Baylor because of the TMC and the wonderful opportunities it presents, and the basic science research edge goes to WashU. St. Louis is one of my favorite cities, but Houston is fun in its own way, too. In the end, both schools are good and both cities have their perks, so it just depends on if you are a basic science junkie who likes snow or are more interested in clinical exposure and like 70 degree winters.

 

[lilycat]

Originally posted by SocialistMD:
•

You just haven't looked in the right places. I live within 10 minutes walking distance of TMC and my neighborhood is nicer than anything in Forest Park that can be afforded by a student.

•••

Gotta agree with Soc. on this one. 😉 There are actually a surprising number of REALLY, REALLY NICE neighborhoods close to the med center where students can afford to live -- you just have to look a little harder than at "Condoland." All my classmates are always amazed/impressed when they come over to my place -- huge rooms, hardwood floors, quiet residential street. They just didn't realize that such opportunities existed. And within walking distance are some of the swankiest neighborhoods in Houston, great restaurants, cafe's, and bars.

While the Texas Medical Center is impressive, I think it is somewhat unfortunate that the vast majority of Baylor interviewees don't get to see other parts of Houston -- there really are some very nice aspects of Houston that most interviewees never see or find out about.

 

[MacGyver]

Where is Baylor located at in Houston? By the downtown area or what?

 

[lilycat]

Originally posted by MacGyver:
•Where is Baylor located at in Houston? By the downtown area or what?•••

The TMC (and Baylor) is southwest of the "official" downtown area -- TMC is sort of by the Astrodome, if that helps at all.

 

[MacGyver]

lilycat and socialist,

I know you both go to different schools in Houston. I'm curious about how that works out. With both schools in such close proximity to each other, is there a lot of competition between people for clinical opportunities? Or is there so many clinical opps available at the TMC that even with double the number of med students in the area that theres not a whole lot of competition?

Also, I heard that the common perception is that Baylor is a much more prestigious school than UT Houston and that often there are Baylor people who look down on UT Houston med students and UT Houston med students that resent the snobbishness of Baylor people. Any truth to that at all?

Of course, I guess the same thing is in effect in St. Louis, where WashU is going head to head against St. Louis U. But those schools are not real close together whereas UT Houston and Baylor are right there.

 

[lilycat]

Originally posted by MacGyver:
•lilycat and socialist,

I know you both go to different schools in Houston. I'm curious about how that works out. With both schools in such close proximity to each other, is there a lot of competition between people for clinical opportunities? Or is there so many clinical opps available at the TMC that even with double the number of med students in the area that theres not a whole lot of competition?•••

The TMC is freakin' HUGE. There is no competition for clinical opportunities as far as I can tell (although I'm only a lowly MS1). Baylor's main hospitals are Ben Taub, the VA (both public), Methodist (private), and Texas Children's. UT-Houston has LBJ (public), Hermann (private), and St. Luke's with lots of affiliated hospitals including MD Anderson Cancer Center. There may be more, but those are the ones that immediately come to mind. Also, there is some overlap between these hospitals in terms of faculty appointments (dual appointments), etc. For students to do rotations at the other schools hospitals, i.e., for a Baylor student to rotate at MD Anderson, he/she has to find a UT faculty sponsor, but that isn't hard.

Originally posted by MacGyver:
• Also, I heard that the common perception is that Baylor is a much more prestigious school than UT Houston and that often there are Baylor people who look down on UT Houston med students and UT Houston med students that resent the snobbishness of Baylor people. Any truth to that at all?•••

According to USNews, there is a difference in ranking between the two schools. However, most people, including Baylor students, believe that UT-Houston is very much an up-and-coming school and I wouldn't be surprised to see it break into the top 25 in the next few years. As for any competition, in all honesty, I've never heard any Baylor student make a snide comment about UT-Houston, or be rude or snobby about the school in any way. We actually had to share our anatomy labs with them earlier this year because of flood damage, and there was a lot of respect from the Baylor students for the dissections of the UT students. From what I hear, there are some UT professors who will take cheap shots at Baylor every so often; I'm not sure about the students.

As for personal experience, all the UT students I've met have been really nice and cool, and there really isn't any nasty rivalry between the two schools. If anything, I think most of the students wish there was more formal interaction between the two programs.

MacGyver -- are you interviewing at all of these schools?

 

[SocialistMD]

I would pretty much echo lilycat on everything she says. The UT professors who take cheap shots at Baylor are the ones that used to work there and, as they say, "saw the light." They also make fun of UT/A&M students as well because many of them did their undergrad work at one or the other. We students like to rib Baylor, but it is all in fun; it is just the personality of the student body to rib people. We have no malice towards Baylor or its students; the personality of the school just doesn't really match ours. Myself and several of my classmates actually chose UT over Baylor, so it is not some sort of inferiority complex like many outside of the system like to believe, it is just good fun.

The two schools just have very different personalities and "outsiders" often misconstrue this as snobbishness and envy. Think about your source: pre-med applicants who are already on edge hear students making jokes but do not realize they are jokes because they have this preconception that med students are all serious and left their sense of humor at their undergrad institution. Nonsense. Truth be told, there really is no rivalry at all, at least as far as I have seen.