Wayne State vs Creighton

[sadie22590]

Hi all! To provide some background information, I have lived in warmer climates all my life and went to undergrad in Southern California. I have close relatives near Detroit (30 min away) but will have to take flights to see my immediate family from both schools regardless. I am interested in pursuing a competitive residency like dermatology and hoping to match to the West Coast (preferably somewhere in California).


Creighton SOM (Phoenix branch)
Pros

• Students seem very happy with the faculty and administration and the environment seems very collaborative and supportive.
• Phoenix branch might give me an edge for matching West Coast.
• Warm, similar vibes to Southern California in terms of lifestyle (many outdoor hiking and road trip opportunities)

Cons

• First M1 class at Phoenix so there might be less established engagement opportunities.
• No M2 class at Phoenix so less opportunity to network and get guidance.
• Lower ranked and less established than Wayne State in general.
• Match to few competitive specialities (no plastics this year and only 1 derm) - seems like the focus is on primary care residencies.
• Not as much familiar with Phoenix as a city.
• No home-program for competitive residencies like plastics and derm

Wayne State SOM
Pros

• Very established and well-known in the state of Michigan and midwest
• Many years of collaborations with rotation sites and many opportunities for gaining clinical research experience
• Close to family - will allow me to have a strong support system
• More established engagement programs, student orgs, wellness programs etc.
• Strong match list (Although a large % of students match to Michigan residencies and not as much to West Coast)
• Population served is very diverse (Hispanic, Middle Eastern, etc)

Cons

• Student/administration relationship has been a bit rocky as I’ve heard
• Rocky relationship with one of the rotation sites (DMC) but still has other sites to fall back on.
• Very cold and definitely not used to this whether
• Large class size (might be more difficult to build relationships with faculty)

Cost of attendance is the same for both (90k in loans) unless I can get in-state residency or scholarships from Wayne which then Wayne would be cheaper.
Currently, I am leaning towards Wayne State, but it is a difficult decision and I want to be absolutely sure I'm not missing anything.

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[sadie22590]

If the warm climate and matching into West Coast in a primary-care specialty is something you want, I would urge Creighton Phoenix. If you don't want to risk not matching into a more competitive specialty and you want a better brand name/better rotations, Wayne State is the place to go.

Based on reading your thoughts and your pros and cons list though, Wayne State seems like the safer and more established option. A new school like Creighton Phoenix can have a lot of kinks and issues, so you don't want to be the guinea pig class.

My advice: you can always come back to California later in life! It should be no rush for you to immediately end up in the West Coast if Wayne State can give you a good chance for competitive specialties (which it sounds like you want basing on your cons list) 🙂

Thank you for your advice! It makes me less worried about what I'm going to choose 😀

 

[Cyhawk_98]

Thank you for your advice! It makes me less worried about what I'm going to choose 😀

Creighton Phoenix may seem like a "new" school but it is not. Creighton has been established in Phoenix for many years and has sent M3s and M4s down there for a long time. You would not be anywhere close to being a "guinea pig" class since Creighton is simply moving their current and proven effective curriculum used in Omaha to Phoenix with a brand new medical school facility. This year's match list may seem like there are not a significant number of competitive specialties represented but more than 90% of M4s still matched into their top choice which just shows that maybe this year not too many M4s applied to competitive residencies like Derm and plastics. If you want to see an example of how well Creighton matches take a look at last year's match list. 8 orthopedic surgery, 3 urology, 11 radiology, 11 general surgery, 2 ENT, 2 ophthalmology, 1 plastic surgery and even a direct match into interventional radiology adds to a 2020 match list that can compete with top 20 medical schools. If you want the best chance to achieve your goals and not be stuck in Detroit for 4 years (or possibly more if you are stuck in Michigan for residency), I think Creighton is the obvious choice.

 

[sadie22590]

Creighton Phoenix may seem like a "new" school but it is not. Creighton has been established in Phoenix for many years and has sent M3s and M4s down there for a long time. You would not be anywhere close to being a "guinea pig" class since Creighton is simply moving their current and proven effective curriculum used in Omaha to Phoenix with a brand new medical school facility. This year's match list may seem like there are not a significant number of competitive specialties represented but more than 90% of M4s still matched into their top choice which just shows that maybe this year not too many M4s applied to competitive residencies like Derm and plastics. If you want to see an example of how well Creighton matches take a look at last year's match list. 8 orthopedic surgery, 3 urology, 11 radiology, 11 general surgery, 2 ENT, 2 ophthalmology, 1 plastic surgery and even a direct match into interventional radiology adds to a 2020 match list that can compete with top 20 medical schools. If you want the best chance to achieve your goals and not be stuck in Detroit for 4 years (or possibly more if you are stuck in Michigan for residency), I think Creighton is the obvious choice.

Very true! I did take into account the number of people matching into competitive specialties and relative class size of both schools. Creighton definitely has an impressive match list and their relationships with the rotation sites around Phoenix is very solid. Do you know about the research opportunities for the Phoenix campus? I know there are many residents around Phoenix so I believe it would be fairly easy to hop on a project by Phoenix faculty or residents at sites like Barrow.

 

[Cyhawk_98]

Very true! I did take into account the number of people matching into competitive specialties and relative class size of both schools. Creighton definitely has an impressive match list and their relationships with the rotation sites around Phoenix is very solid. Do you know about the research opportunities for the Phoenix campus? I know there are many residents around Phoenix so I believe it would be fairly easy to hop on a project by Phoenix faculty or residents at sites like Barrow.

Research is actually surprisingly easy to find in both Omaha and Phoenix campuses. M2-4s love to get ahold of M1s to help with research projects and will even team up to start new ones. The faculty love to involve medical students in their research also. Creighton provides its medical students with so many opportunities for research (and any other sort of extracurriculars) that no student has enough time to do all of them.