Western U COMP-NW vs. MSUCOM. Please help!

[garbageman]

Thanks in advance for any help! FYI I'd like to match into Anesthesiology, EM, or Internal on the West-Coast

Western U COMP-NW:
Pros:

• Drive away from family in Seattle, grew up in PNW all my life
• SO lives in Alaska and planning on doing LD till third yr, much easier/cheaper to fly to Portland than to Michigan
• Small class-size (~100 students)
• Rotations in third yr have a location at Tacoma or Portland
  • Tacoma is with Virginia Mason Franciscan Health --- My mother knows the Chief Medical Officer and is happy to talk to me about my path
  • The Anesthesia residency program at Virginia Mason Franciscan Health (Where I ultimately would like to match if I go into Anesthesia) is very DO friendly, and has taken alumni from Western U almost each yr
• Cheaper COA, --- In debt $288,120 at COMP-NW vs. $427,618 at MSUCOM (OOS)
• Have a friend here (2nd yr) who absolutely loves attending
• 9/104 (8.7%) students matched in Anesthesiology at Western U COMP-NW vs. 14/~300 (4.6%) students matched in Anesthesiology at MSUCOM in 2020, not sure this yr
• Placement rates have been 100% since 2016
• Easy to just drive and transport furniture and other things from home

Cons:

• Less research opportunities --- I have lots of research experience already, and a faculty at an MD school that I became close with said that she is willing to collaborate w/ my school for research if I would like to start something up.
• Very rural area (I come from a city/suburban area)
• Fairly newer school (2011)
• P/F Ranked -- not sure if this is a con though actually... it might be good now since Step 1 is P/F and show that I am more competitive if I can be at or near the top of my class for these residency programs.
• Limited places to study on campus (doesn't really matter to me cause I can study in my apartment)

MSUCOM:
Pros:

• Solid Match rates
• Solid board scores
• Lots of stuff to do around the area
• Wide hospital system
• Lots of opportunities for research
• Looks like lots of breaks between their semesters for 1st and 2nd yr
• Truly P/F -- again, not sure if this is a good or bad thing now that Step 1 is P/F, may be difficult to stand out without a rank

Cons:

• Most if not all of their matches are either on the east coast or Michigan, couldn't find any on the west coast, none in Washington where I'd like to be matched in either Anesthesiology or Internal
• Far from family, SO and I will be doing LD for the first two years, so the further away the less ideal.
• Students didn't look too excited
• Very expensive COA
• No 2 month summer break between 1st and 2nd yr
• Interested in applying for the MSARF Summer Research Program, which is a 2 month research, but MSUCOM doesn't have a 2 month summer break
• Cold AF

Both give roughly 2 months of dedicated prep time for boards. They both seem to be on par as far as matching into competitive specialties (Derm, Ortho, Radiology), more urology for Western U COMP-NW than MSUCOM which had none over the past 3 yrs, doesn't really matter tho cause I'm not interested but just would like to point this out.

My family and SO are convinced that I am going to Western U COMP-NW and we're really happy with this choice and have made a deposit for a nice 1 bedroom apartment right next to the school, but I'm a little bit at a crossroads with the two programs and would like to hear what others have to say knowing all of this as I'm not familiar with MSUCOM at all, just the name. I may be wrong or am missing a lot of pros and cons about MSUCOM so please add onto it if you know of anymore. Thank you in advance!! If @Goro would be so gracious to provide input that'd be awesome!

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[Drsecondchance]

Did you pick? I'm hoping it was MSUCOM. I interviewed at both - hated COMPNW and loved MSUCOM.

 

[garbageman]

Did you pick? I'm hoping it was MSUCOM. I interviewed at both - hated COMPNW and loved MSUCOM.

Oh that's awesome you interviewed at both too. OOS for michigan too? I'm curious, how come you hated COMP-NW? I had the polar opposite experience and loved it afterwards, well I loved both of them so this was a hard decision. I chose COMP-NW cause I want to be close to home, cheaper coa, and I'm confident I'll match into anesthesia or em for either school. Would've been awesome to be classmates but we'll be colleagues either way

 

[Drsecondchance]

Oh that's awesome you interviewed at both too. OOS for michigan too? I'm curious, how come you hated COMP-NW? I had the polar opposite experience and loved it afterwards, well I loved both of them so this was a hard decision. I chose COMP-NW cause I want to be close to home, cheaper coa, and I'm confident I'll match into anesthesia or em for either school. Would've been awesome to be classmates but we'll be colleagues either way

I think I talked to the wrong student at the mixer. This one guy said they were the red-headed stepchild of the Pomona campus, had no Sim center, and not enough room to study. He seemed so negative it may have rubbed off on me. However, I ended up getting into one of my state MD schools that I've loved and dreamed about since I was a little girl, so I'm going there.

 

[garbageman]

I think I talked to the wrong student at the mixer. This one guy said they were the red-headed stepchild of the Pomona campus, had no Sim center, and not enough room to study. He seemed so negative it may have rubbed off on me. However, I ended up getting into one of my state MD schools that I've loved and dreamed about since I was a little girl, so I'm going there.

Congrats on getting into the md school that's amazing! That's really unfortunate he's helping w/ interviews.. can you pm me?