Wayne State vs. Oakland Beaumont

[throwawayhasaquestion]

I'm trying to decide between WSU SOM vs. OUWB

Here are the pros and cons:

Wayne Pros:

• Established (150 year old) and has a fine reputation, at least inside Michigan.
  
  
• Cheaper. Tuition is about 34K a year, plus I received a 16K need-based scholarship for the first year. (Tuition does not include parking fees, medical insurance, or a laptop). Also, not sure if I'll receive more need-based scholarships in the following years.
  
  
• Urban Clinical Experience in Detroit - Will see a ton of gunshots and other cool stuff.
  
  
• Tons of student organizations due to being the biggest single-campus medical school.
  
  
• Non-mandatory attendance except for the required ones of course.

Wayne Cons

• Huge class size of 290 students. I feel like this is negative as less attention will be provided to each student.
  
  
• Semi non-responsive administration and I don't blame them as there are too many students and old bureaucracy. Change happens very slowly and sparingly.
  
  
• Traditional Curriculum
  
  
• I am bored of Detroit - I went to Wayne for undergrad and would like to experience some new environment.
  
  
• Commute time is around 30 mins if the roads are clear. 45 minutes if congested.

OUWB Pros

• Systems-Based curriculum is a better way to learn.
  
  
• Class size of 125 students
  
  
• Friendlier environment as I really enjoyed my interview day and felt important to them.
  
  
• Suburban area is a plus for me and the girls there are hot.
  
  
• Shorter commute of only 20-25 minutes
  
  
• Newer facilities as the school is new
  
  
• Beaumont is one of the best hospital systems in the country.

OUWB Cons

• New School opened in 2010 and has only graduated 2 classes, although the placements were not bad at all.
  
  
• Expensive - It's 57K a year (have no information about any scholarships as the school is private) .. however, the 57K includes medical insurance and a laptop, plus parking is free.
  
  
• More than half of the students come from OOS - It's likely that many of the friendships will dissolve when people choose to go back to their state for residency.

Thank you!

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[Ismet]

Moving to School X vs Y forum

 

[deev04]

Wayne, hands down. It's the better school and while prestige doesn't matter too much at this tier of school, I think the difference between Wayne/OUWB, especially combined with OUWB give Wayne a definite edge. Only more so when you consider the added advantages of Wayne's research and residencies. I can't see a reason why you'd take on a significantly higher debt load to go with a lower ranked school.

Also, your pros for OUWB seem very insignificant. The newness of facilities has almost no impact on the quality of your medical education and certainly will not impact your residency outcome (which is what matters). I'm sure you'll be able to find your people at Wayne. You might have just met friendly people you connected with at OUWB and not at Wayne on your visits.

You'll be super busy in medical school. Like super busy. This will not be like undergrad where you have the opportunity to get super bored with your surroundings. Pre-clinical you'll live in the library and during clinicals you'll live in the hospital. But, at Wayne, you'll probably feel less guilty about spending your limited time off in Fiji/Thailand/Peru, since you're saving so much $$$.

The cost of medical insurance, laptop and parking is a drop in the bucket and does almost nothing to alter the cost differential. Just add 2k for the laptop one year and a few thousand per year for parking/health insurance. Wayne still comes out ~20k cheaper. Even without the tuition scholarship, Wayne is so, so much cheaper.

 

[shna2326]

Wayne definitely has some serious pros--lower cost, much more established, diverse patient populations, etc. but I interviewed at both of these places and would personally choose OUWB. The people I know who go there are so much happier and the administration was so incredibly responsive and seemed like they genuinely cared. I did not get that vibe from Wayne--they have good residency placement overall but it does not seem like the administration is that helpful or responsive. I really did not like that the class size was double that of most med schools, and it doesn't seem like they cared about making sure every single student was succeeding nearly as much as other med schools I interviewed at.

Though OUWB is newer, the affiliation with Beaumont means that you'll still get an excellent clinical education. Yes, you won't really see as much of urban medical issues as you would in Detroit, but I still think it's valuable. I also liked the curriculum at OUWB much better than Wayne, but at least Wayne got rid of their A/B/C grading system. They still have internal rank while OUWB and the vibe I got was that people at Wayne are still more competitive and less collaborative when compared to OUWB.

However, all that being said, 57k vs. 20k per year is a huge difference. I would contact OUWB and let them know of your scholarship at Wayne. It seems like you want to go there more, so let them know that and politely ask if they can offer a scholarship to make the cost more feasible for you. The financial aid department was very responsive to me, and since you're close I would ask if you can even set up an appointment with them to talk about your situation.

 

[Vitamin-D]

I would choose Wayne over OUWB, primarily because its a lot cheaper. But honestly, just choose the school where you think you would be most happy at. Sure, you'll be 80k more in debt or something like that in the end if you choose OUWB, but if debt doesnt bother you that much, then it would be worth it if you were happy those 4 years vs feeling meh all the time. If having less debt and knowing that you're attending a more established school makes you happy, then go to Wayne.

 

[throwawayhasaquestion]

I contacted OUWB and was told that they allocated all of their budget.

I really dont think that being 100K more in debt is worth it to go to a less established school with mandatory attendance..

 

[MedicalWaste]

I seriously considered both schools. I liked OUWB significantly more (i.e., the "feeling" of the school).

Wayne had two advantages that initially mattered to me: (i) research opportunities/funding (OUWB has numerous opportunities at/through Beaumont, but not the same funding as Wayne), and (ii) cost of attendance - Wayne is less expensive for in-state applicants.

These advantages were not enough for me to ignore my gut feeling about OUWB. To be fair, research is not my priority and OUWB was generous enough with financial aid that the cost difference became a non-factor.

Wayne had one major flaw that I just couldn't get over. The atmosphere of the school. Students didn't seem to form close bonds with the majority of their classmates (future medical peers). People seemed less happy, administration seemed to care less about the students (and had a punching the clock mentality). Staff was not helpful and disorganized (at OUWB they bent over backwards to assist). Part of this is likely due to class size (Wayne is over 2x larger than OUWB), but some of it is just Wayne State (I know people who attended and/or worked at Wayne State's law school, and it had a similar disorganized/not-caring feeling).

Wayne also has an advantage for those who want to stay home at stream all of their classes. OUWB is designed to foster a professional community, so attendance is much more important (once again, this was a non-issue for me).

Many people make a large issue out of the "newness" of OUWB, but they have matched well in their first three classes. I will be part of their 7th class, so it will be almost a decade old by the time I graduate (not 150 years old, but old enough to begin to solidify their reputation). Additionally, reports back to OUWB have praised the preparedness of the OUWB students - so I think the reputation will continue to rise. Additionally, Beaumont Health Systems has been training fellows, residents and medical students (M3s and M4s from UMich, Wayne and MSU) for years, so to me its almost like the third and fourth years aren't at a "new school."

Just my thoughts. I had Wayne ranked above OUWB on my choice list when I initially applied, but once I spent time at each school and with the student bodies, it became clear to me that I needed to revise my ranking.

 

[wayneBMSpremed]

Wayne easy choice