Choosing a Medical School

Nontraditional Premed Discussion
1

I’ve been thinking about this lately. Say you got accepted to more than one medical school. What would make you choose one over the other? How would you prioritize the following? Are there other aspects you would consider?

  1. Cost

  2. Class Size

  3. Reputation (Residency Matches, etc)

  4. Environment (Urban or Rural)

  5. Location (Close to home, significant other, etc)

  6. Learning Style (Problem Based Learning, Traditional Classroom)
2

I sure you’d get a 101 personal preferences to this question but as for me…


Learning style and how their prep and pass rate is with the USMLE.


A close second is the student relationship with the faculty and class size. Are the teachers and faculty available to help out and answer questions or is this an elitist school that is only used to pad professor’s academic resumes?


Location and cost would be my third point in deciding if this was the right one for me. Do I love the place and can I stomach 4 years in the city, town…village?


Not much on reputation on a national level. Just as long as it’s a good fit for me. Oh! and one more thing, close proximity to things that I like to do during my escape time; say road biking, Mt. Biking, hiking trails, etc. Stuff like that.


Ok and lastly how do the student’s treat one another (I guess this goes with class size). Meaning is this a gunner school where students crawl all over each other to get to the top or is the school more of a family atmosphere where there is bonding and camaraderie within the student population.


Hope this helps!



3

Your list replicates a list I put together recently for something else:

  • In reply to:


My advice on this is to go to a school that will give you the best chance to succeed. That doesn't necessarily mean that the more prestigious school will give you the best chance to succeed.

Things to think about:

1) Location-will you be happier closer or further away from home or other family or friends

2) Facilities-is the school associated with a large medical center where you'll be able to get a diverse exposure to all the medical fields

3) Residency/Specialty-does the specialty that you want to go into have a residency program at the same medical facility where your school is, allowing you exposure to the right people that will help with your residency selection

4) Curriculum-does the school have a more traditional-based curriculum or an organ-based curriculum, and which one do you think you'd be better with

5) Money-the whole reason for this post is that you seem like you might be worried about money, so this is a valid consideration and I applaud you for even thinking about it. if you think that worrying about finances may impact your ability to study and focus on school, then by all means go to the less expensive school.

In the end, your ability to match in residency falls on your success in your classes and on the USMLE. Those two things have nothing to do with what medical school you go to.

4

Now that I am out of med school 6+ years, if I could go back to look at med schools again, I would look at opportunities to gain exposure to less common medical specialties in the first three years, probably as shadowing as a first and second year, then in clinical rotations as a third year. While getting the medical basics down is important, your specialty choice is likely a one time choice, so getting it right is important. Getting exposure to both the academic and community practice of a specialty is also important.

5

Thank you, tec. This is a useful piece of advice from someone who’s gained some experience. So, inserting the “we should only have this problem” caveat and the “other things being equal” caveat:


What do we do to realistically compare clinical exposure? Make a list of what rotations are offered and compare? Look at 4th-year electives?


Thank you for your thoughts.

6

Thanks everyone for your comments. They are very helpful!


tec - Can you define what you mean by “less common medical specialties”?

7

You will not likely be exposed to specialties such as radiation oenology, occupational medicine, public health, ophthalmology, radiology, anesthesiology, neurology, etc. As med student you have core rotations tht are required during third year, typically internal medicine, family medicine, peds, surgery, Ob/Gyn, psychiatry. There is typically no outside time o experience other specialties outside of your core curriculum classes during first and second year.

8

Thanks tec for the clarification. It’s something I’ll have to look into.


Doc Gray - What made you choose New York Medical over others?

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For me, it’s family and cost. The logistics of my situation are unique, but I simply have to consider how to get 4 years done with the least amount of strain on my girls and my husband…and with the least amount of debt at the end.


A close second is just simply how I fit in that program, combined with the overall vibe I get from the students.


Four years of work and effort–the experience, anywhere you go, will make you a doctor at the end. I agree with Doc Gray…passing boards, etc. is up to you. I also like Tec’s point about digging in and making sure you get your specialty choice right. Even if you have to go the extra mile because your program doesn’t hand you opps for exposure. Even keeping those in mind, I’m left considering whether the overall atmosphere of the program, happiness of its students, cost/quality ratio, and affect on my family work for me or not. If they don’t? I’m not going.

10

Not there… YET but for cost is important. I have one osteopathic & allopathic school I’m pretty confident about. Since they are equal in cost, my next variable is learning style, systems vs “not sure.” if they both teach the systems modality then it’s coming down to feel. The osteopathic school already feels like home to my wife. The allopathic school has my mentor and my mentors mentor…which would be kind of cool.


So not that I even have the decision to make but my wife and I were talking about how we would decide IF we are in that position.

11
  • syr_eng2md Said:


Doc Gray - What made you choose New York Medical over others?



I applied broadly, but NYMC was an area I like because I had a lot of family in the NY/NJ area that I never lived around before.

I also like the ability to split hospital exposure between the burbs and the city.