- Joined
- Mar 29, 2016
- Messages
- 24
- Reaction score
- 8
I am down to Wisconsin and Iowa and believe that I would be happy at either. I am just curious to know if anyone has thoughts that I have not considered. I have two major considerations:
1) My career interests are in population/public health, primary care delivery, and health policy. I have every intention of becoming a general internist and would like to be involved in academia or some kind of policy non-profit. My goal is to match into an academic residency and be involved in research before graduation. Wisconsin emphasizes public health (even has it in its name) and offers a path of distinction for those interested. However, I really was not able to find students there who were all that excited about this stuff, which was a bit disappointing because I already have an MPH and really love what public health can add to clinical medicine .... maybe it was just the sample I had available or the product of a large state institution where there are many interests. Iowa has more variety of distinction tracks, many of which align with my interests. However, Iowa does not seem to name public health as a defined priority like Wisconsin does. Do you think either institution would give me an edge even what I want to do? They really seem pretty comparable in terms of career-advancing offerings, so it is hard to distinguish.
3) Grading and competitiveness. Here me out on this one...... I know that there are competitive people everywhere and given that I am not trying to match into anything super challenging, I probably should not be that concerned. However, I have been (for too long and with little benefit) in competitive academic situations and I will be the first to raise my hand and say that it does not bring out the best in me. I am not malicious or anything like that, but the internal effects are not good for me. I need to put myself in the least competitive environment possible, while acknowledging that this is still medical school. Wisconsin is undergoing a curriculum transformation and has pass/fail grading for the preclinical years. However, they still must keep track of everything internally because they are planning on marking which quartile students fall in for residency apps. Iowa has honors/high pass/pass/ fail, and may limit what percentage of students can get honors and high pass. However, they do not appear to report a class rank and instead may use descriptors to indicate relative academic performance. Iowa's system is a little preferable to me, but not by much. I am probably best suited for a true pass/fail system, but that is probably true for most and they are rare to come by.
I will also mention that Wisconsin is cheaper as I am OOS for both, but I am trying to not let that impact my decision tremendously.
1) My career interests are in population/public health, primary care delivery, and health policy. I have every intention of becoming a general internist and would like to be involved in academia or some kind of policy non-profit. My goal is to match into an academic residency and be involved in research before graduation. Wisconsin emphasizes public health (even has it in its name) and offers a path of distinction for those interested. However, I really was not able to find students there who were all that excited about this stuff, which was a bit disappointing because I already have an MPH and really love what public health can add to clinical medicine .... maybe it was just the sample I had available or the product of a large state institution where there are many interests. Iowa has more variety of distinction tracks, many of which align with my interests. However, Iowa does not seem to name public health as a defined priority like Wisconsin does. Do you think either institution would give me an edge even what I want to do? They really seem pretty comparable in terms of career-advancing offerings, so it is hard to distinguish.
3) Grading and competitiveness. Here me out on this one...... I know that there are competitive people everywhere and given that I am not trying to match into anything super challenging, I probably should not be that concerned. However, I have been (for too long and with little benefit) in competitive academic situations and I will be the first to raise my hand and say that it does not bring out the best in me. I am not malicious or anything like that, but the internal effects are not good for me. I need to put myself in the least competitive environment possible, while acknowledging that this is still medical school. Wisconsin is undergoing a curriculum transformation and has pass/fail grading for the preclinical years. However, they still must keep track of everything internally because they are planning on marking which quartile students fall in for residency apps. Iowa has honors/high pass/pass/ fail, and may limit what percentage of students can get honors and high pass. However, they do not appear to report a class rank and instead may use descriptors to indicate relative academic performance. Iowa's system is a little preferable to me, but not by much. I am probably best suited for a true pass/fail system, but that is probably true for most and they are rare to come by.
I will also mention that Wisconsin is cheaper as I am OOS for both, but I am trying to not let that impact my decision tremendously.
Last edited:
