It's really tough deciding between these 2 schools as WashU has better ranking, endowment and overall prestige. But Boston is an awesome city and they are offering a partial scholarship. Anyone has any thoughts/who go there currently that can give me some advice??? Thanks in advance!
WashU vs BU
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I can only speak for Wash U because I didn't interview at Boston. Here's my take though:
+It's the biggest-name medical school in it's city. You'll see a lot of rare/interesting cases I'm sure. I don't know how true that is for Boston, since you've got the Harvard hospitals in your same neighborhood
+St. Louis has a lot of poorer/medically-underserved parts. You'll get a lot of opportunities for community service.
+Wash U is very supportive of students who are interested in global health. At least that's the impression I got.
+Epic research opportunities, but you already knew that.
-H/P/F your second year. This made me cringe.
-The curriculum gave me some pause. It's discipline-based the first year then systems-based the second. I found that weird.
Full Disclosure: I got into Wash U and ended up choosing a somewhat lower-ranked public school over it. I was, however, very impressed with my overall interview experience there, and feel like I would have been happy had I attended there.
+It's the biggest-name medical school in it's city. You'll see a lot of rare/interesting cases I'm sure. I don't know how true that is for Boston, since you've got the Harvard hospitals in your same neighborhood
+St. Louis has a lot of poorer/medically-underserved parts. You'll get a lot of opportunities for community service.
+Wash U is very supportive of students who are interested in global health. At least that's the impression I got.
+Epic research opportunities, but you already knew that.
-H/P/F your second year. This made me cringe.
-The curriculum gave me some pause. It's discipline-based the first year then systems-based the second. I found that weird.
Full Disclosure: I got into Wash U and ended up choosing a somewhat lower-ranked public school over it. I was, however, very impressed with my overall interview experience there, and feel like I would have been happy had I attended there.
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Moving to school specific discussions
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Considering H/P/F at WashU for second year, and the scholarship at BU, I say go BU. Never visited either of them though, so this is just on paper.
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How much of a partial scholarship at BU? It would take a lot for me to turn down Wash U for BU.
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I interviewed at WashU and BU for med school. I am a WashU student and staying here for residency too (I ranked WashU #1 for residency over UCSF and Penn and a few other places). I'd have to agree with the posters above that it would take a pretty big scholarship for me to turn down my education at WashU for BU. If you are interested in doing private practice, it probably doesn't matter much but if you want to keep the door open for academics, you'll have a much better time coming out of WashU. Personally, I know that I would not have discovered my chosen specialty and my research interests if I didn't go to WashU and been exposed to the awesome faculty here.
PM me if you have any questions about WashU or St. Louis. I'd be happy to talk to you.
PM me if you have any questions about WashU or St. Louis. I'd be happy to talk to you.
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I found out 1st April, soon after my BU acceptance. For those wondering, its the Dean's merit scholarship, $15,000, which isnt much in terms of financial assistance when you look at the tuition + living expenses in Boston?
Thanks to everyone for the great feedback and suggestion. But I guess it's hard to turn down a scholarship. It's still 60k by the end of 4 years. Do the diverse patient base on Boston and the proximity to Mass Gen serve as any incentive to go to BostonU?
I still havent decided, but I do agree that WashU is generally a better school with stronger faculty and research. How much of a real impact would the prestige of the school have on residency options later down the road?
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Perusing this might help. Take a look at how many went into each specialty you're interested in, the strength of the programs, and also the geographic areas a lot of people ended up in.
Wash U's 2013 match list
BU's 2013 match list
Wash U's 2013 match list
BU's 2013 match list
Congrats on the merit award. Glancing at the total cost of attendance for WashU and BU it seems that WashU is about 10k less per year so 40k total. You're netting about 20k assuming WashU didn't give you anything. Is whatever patient base or prestige you sacrifice worth 20k? Do the specialties you want to do match that much differently at either school? If you're the kind of student who can get into WashU and get a decent award from a school that openly says they don't give out many merit awards, will you be limited anywhere you go?
With only a 20K difference, I think WashU is the clear choice. But I think the bolded part is key. You are likely to succeed no matter where you end up going so if you really liked BU when you interviewed then I don't think you can make a "bad decision". However, if you were to poll the board on these two schools at the price tags that you have given us, I think that WashU would probably run away with it (and this is coming from someone who is likely going to BU next in the fall).
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