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Yale vs. Tufts
- Thread starter absolutezero
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honestly, it is not really worth spending any time thinking about this decision because unless you are accepted to both, you will probably never have to/get to make it. you do not choose where you will be accepted to med school by virtue of where you apply. the things that make you attractive to one school do not make you attractive to other schools. i did a lot of this "what if i got in here" thinking, and i was never interviewed at half of the places i spent time thinking about. med school admissions is a crapshoot; take a look at mdapplicants.com, people rarely get into the places they think/wish they will.
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The overall impression you got of both schools during your interview experience should give you a good idea about at which school you would most like to spend the next four years. Which people would you like to have as your colleagues? Where will you enjoy being more? Also, if this girlfriend in Boston is serious and you are planning to be together for the next four years, and she has a reason that she has to stay in Boston, it seems like an easy decision.
Good Luck,
MadC
Good Luck,
MadC
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my apologies for my first post. your first post makes it sound like you haven't even applied yet. (i now see you are perhaps referring to the fact that yale is non-rolling)
i think a lot of people consider the "non-elite" privates to be somewhat of a rip off. don't get me wrong, i would have gone to one in a second, if i didn't have any other opportunities. tufts is even more expensive than many privates when you factor in the cost of living--what did they tell you on interview day--like 55K/year budget or so? also, yale probably has deeper pockets, so the sticker price may not be the actual price, i didn't apply there so i wouldnt know.
yale is undeniably a better choice. pass/fail and a relaxed examination schedule. better reputation than tufts with residency directors. more money for research and more prestigious faculty with better connections to get you into residencies. i do not think you can kid yourself into thinking that the two schools are equal, i think that you have to decide how important this girlfriend of yours and your relationship with her is. i would have chosen my gf, over yale, but those are my priorities and everyone has their own.
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sorry i forgot to add.
for preclinical years i think these things are the most important for happiness:
grading system--true pass/fail will greatly increase your ability to enjoy your education and not go crazy
hours spent in class--the less, the better; talk to anyone on here who has 30+ hours of class and see how much they like it
exam schedule-blocks and integrated curricula will keep you much more sane than a staggered "old fashion" schedule
when i was choosing a school, i did not seriously consider these things, but now in first year, i think they are the most important factors for the ability to enjoy your first 2 years and have any free time.
for preclinical years i think these things are the most important for happiness:
grading system--true pass/fail will greatly increase your ability to enjoy your education and not go crazy
hours spent in class--the less, the better; talk to anyone on here who has 30+ hours of class and see how much they like it
exam schedule-blocks and integrated curricula will keep you much more sane than a staggered "old fashion" schedule
when i was choosing a school, i did not seriously consider these things, but now in first year, i think they are the most important factors for the ability to enjoy your first 2 years and have any free time.
this post is absolutely correct, if you are interested in academics or you are not sure....if you are definitely interested in family practice or private practice than go to Tufts and hang out with your girlfriend, because going to yale will not enhance a career in private practice all that much. but remember yale is only a couple of hours away from boston.
although this is a generalization...on the interview trail for residency you can definitely tell the people who are from yale, harvard, jhu etc, from the people from tufts, drexel, NYMC....although the medical education is essentially the same, the exposure and opportunities at the big name schools are completely different.
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whatever.🙄 when I interviewed at nymc, many of the students there told me to I should go to Tufts. I am currently halfway through 3rd year at Tufts, and enjoying it. We are generally a pretty relaxed bunch here (I didn't get this impression at NYMC, where it seemed to me that most of the CA residents were stressed-out and studying 24-7 to ensure a residency back in CA), with a few exceptions, and the pre-clinical patient exposure is top notch. Plus, >10% of Tufts graduates this year matched at Harvard affiliates (that's not including prelim matches), which is a-OK for a 2nd tier school. that being said, I would have chosen Yale if given the opportunity.. I think generally the administration at higher ranked schools tends to be kinder and more helpful towards the students. New Haven is pretty close to Boston, and 1st + 2nd years are not incredibly time-consuming (at least not looking back!😀 ). good luck!
you sound a little naive....and thus this may sound shocking to you...but not every residency at harvard is the best in the country!!! shocking, isn't it...in fact the university of iowa has better programs in ortho, optho, and urology, to name a few...
you get out what you put in when you go to med school. if you are the #1 student at tufts of nymc you will get your top choice in residency (and yes, even nymc sends people to harvard)... the difference is that the #1 to #50 student at places like jhu, ucsf, yale etc are top students in the country, who have often taken advantage of the vast resources provided by the top academic institutions, and have thus done research/published/joint degrees with national and international leaders in medicine and surgery....
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regardless. that's not the point... that is true with any school. the point is why you would rank Tufts and NYMC the same in your mind? Could you please elaborate upon why you view the schools with the same barometer?
go to "http://grants1.nih.gov/grants/award/rank/medttl02.htm"
which shows NIH funding per med school, if you want to find tufts and nymc scroll down past the 60's...what i am saying is that they both provide great medical education (like 80 or so other medical schools), but they are not in the top tier...people often equate this with meaning that the education is inferior, which in fact is not true, many of these places provide an even better clinical exposure than top academic universities,...but even though tufts and nymc have some good researchers, they are not powerhouses like jhu, upenn, umich, ucsf etc... if you think that tufts has a better "name" than nymc, and you would go for that reason, than you are making a big mistake. the big "name" places are in the top 20, and the are not worth going to just for their names, you should go to them to pursue opportunities that people at other institutions read about in journals....
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PDiddy
Not to start an argument with you...but using NIH funding as a basis for ranking medical schools isn't too helpful in this situtation. Tufts is one of the rare schools that does not own it's teaching hospital (New England Medical Center). The school's incoming president has stated that it is one of his priorities to change this.
What this means is that Tufts does not receive any 'credit' for NIH funding that goes to the hospital. If they did....then Tufts would indeed be considered a top tier school.
Not to start an argument with you...but using NIH funding as a basis for ranking medical schools isn't too helpful in this situtation. Tufts is one of the rare schools that does not own it's teaching hospital (New England Medical Center). The school's incoming president has stated that it is one of his priorities to change this.
What this means is that Tufts does not receive any 'credit' for NIH funding that goes to the hospital. If they did....then Tufts would indeed be considered a top tier school.
yale is in the same boat, all of their money is from the som, none from the hospital...
i think you guys are missing the point, the top 20 schools are at the top for a reason, and what i am saying is that when you get below it really does not matter whether you are at umass, uconn, nymc, tufts, georgetown, etc, those names don't carry as much weight ...and if you read my previous posts you will see that even the name will get you so far...it is much more important what you do in medical...it so happens that the big name places have more opportunities to do things in med school....go to the howard hughes medical institute website and look at who is getting the 1 year medical student research fellowships...year after year it is 5-7 people from each of the big schools (harvard, duke, yale, jhu, ucsf) places that stress the importance of research in the advancement of medicine...sure a couple of people from nymc and tufts get the grants as well, but not at the level of the big name schools....you will get a great education at any med school in the US, but only 20 or so places have additional opportunities that put them in a class of their own.
it is a good topic to discuss, i am glad you raised it.
I'd go to Tufts. You get to live in Beantown with your girlfriend. You get to do your rotations at NEMC. Grading is H/P/F not too much worse than Yale. Why sacrifice your entire personal life just to go to a school that probably won't make a difference in your career?
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This is pretty interesting ginza. do you know of any links to more info on this topic? thanks.
