Help - choosing a school from multiple acceptances

General Premed Discussion
1

Hello everyone!

I was lucky enough to receive acceptances from four schools, thanks to all of the advice from Dr. Ryan Gray (I have been listening to his podcasts for years), and now I am beginning the process of deciding which medical school to attend, and would love some advice!

Out of the schools I was accepted to, there are two that I am more seriously considering, so I will only discuss those here for simplicity. The first is Florida Atlantic University (FAU) in Boca Raton, FL, and the second is the University of Miami (UM).

Background: I am from West Palm Beach, FL, only about 20 minutes away from FAU, and about 2 hours from UM. FAU is a smaller, newer school, with less of a reputation than UM, but also significantly less expensive. I could live at home if I went to FAU, and my boyfriend also attends FAU for graduate school. In regards to UM, I was accepted to both the MD and MD-MPH programs there. Should I choose MD-MPH (which I am leaning towards), I would spend the last two clinical years at their regional campus in West Palm Beach, so really I could live at home at that point, too, but the first two years I would have to deal with the crazy traffic and expensive lifestyle associated with Miami, as well as spending considerably more time commuting to home to visit my boyfriend/family. I really don’t feel like I fit in more at either school, and the class size for MD-MPH is about the same as the class size at FAU. I’m just having a hard time deciding between the comfort and ease of living at home, saving money, having home cooked meals all of the time, being near my boyfriend/family (if I attend FAU), and the higher prestige, better teaching hospitals, opportunity to do a dual degree, and potential “excitement” of living in Miami, at least for the first two years (if I attend UM for MD-MPH). My boyfriend and family will support me either way, but I wonder if the slight prestige bump is worth the extra investment and headache of living further away from friends and family.

Cost of Attendance UM for MD: $65,793
Cost of Attendance UM for MD-MPH: $73,652
Cost of Attendance FAU: $57,429
Cost of Attendance FAU if I live at home: ~ $47,429

Please let me know your thoughts!

2

In my opinion, unless you want to go to a more prestigious med school and/or do medical research, I would go with FAU. The money you will save just by going to FAU will be so much more beneficial than going to UM. Plus you got all your family there too! I would choose FAU.

3

Did you leave either school’s interview with the feeling that “This is the one”? That gut feeling means a lot when there are a lot of unknown factors in your decision making.

Choosing your “Right” school is all about figuring out which one is best for YOUR future. Each school will have different opportunities that you can pursue, will have different ways they teach, will have different patient populations that you’ll see on rotations, etc. What are your goals that you want to get out of medical school? For example, I’d imagine that Miami will have a large catchment area and you’ll likely see more acute or rare disease states, though that may detract some from you seeing all of the bread-and-butter cases that smaller hospitals will be more comfortable treating. Every single one will make you a doctor, but which one will better develop you into the doctor that you want to be (ie research vs clinical, concentration in primary care, rural vs urban, opportunities to rotate in certain subspecialties, etc). You definitely don’t have choose a specialty now, but you probably have an idea as to your interests. Granted, those interests will likely change when you are able to explore other aspects of medicine.

Which school offers the curriculum that you best learn in? Which one has the resources available to you, whether it be wellness stuff or sim labs or whatever, that you think will make you a better student/physician? $8k/yr difference isn’t that drastic that I would make it a major concern, especially if Miami will give you a better education (I don’t know that it would). Miami may be more well known, but a poor student from Miami is still a poor student, and a great student from FAU is still a great student as far as residencies are concerned. Board scores have some to do with the school but I believe are mostly impacted by each individual’s drive to study and retain.

Having family support would be nice, especially being able to eat well. Living alone or with classmates who can relate to your misery also have positives though. As far as your boyfriend is concerned, would you still be happy attending FAU if you guys broke up during school? Medical school is a massive hit to your social life, and some relationships don’t survive the time/energy constraints put on them. I know someone who went to a middle-of-nowhere school despite getting into better programs so she and her boyfriend could stay together. They broke up, and she was regretful of the decision. Luckily she was able to transfer to a different school, but I think transfers are more of the exception.

Are you planning on getting deep into health policy with your career? If not, postponing your medical career to get an MPH just to add letters to your name badge isn’t a very good cost-benefit ratio. If it an interest but not a pursuit, you can easily get into an MPH program after you finish residency.

Congrats on the early acceptances. If you can outright cross a school off your list, I would let those schools know and free up the seat in the class. Otherwise, there’s nothing wrong with waiting until 2nd look to see if your feeling about the schools have changed since you were there the first time.

4

Hello Sarapmarie,

I don’t really know anything about either school, other than UM is a bigger name. Because of that, I will try to steer away from the idea of what I’d pick. This is about YOU, not ME!

Here are a couple of things that may help you in your decision making process:

  • Take a look at match rates and locations. Does one have 40% going into internal medicine? How many people go to top name residencies, or residencies in locations you would love? Do you have an interest in surgery and see people getting competitive slots?
  • What’s the cost of living in that area? If Florida is anything like Manhattan (where I live), a couple mile difference could also be the difference of 1000$ a month in rent! I know you said you may want to live at home, but there is also something to be said of having your OWN space. Something to think about.
  • How did you feel on your interviews? Did you meet some current students? How happy did they seem, or how often did you see a student interact with someone else in a positive way? What’s the food like there? What’s the playlist at their local gym? Is there a chipotle nearby?
  • Regardless of the cost of attendance, you can pay it off. It’s a factor, but not a deal breaker. More importantly, is either institution receptive to a letter of intent? “I really want to come, but I need some more financial assistance!” Some schools are very receptive to that.

Best of luck on your journey!
~McGoo