Knowing what you know now, how much scholarship money would it have taken you to attend your 2nd choice med school over your 1st choice? I am married w 2 kids and deciding between UW (Seattle) and UM (Ann Arbor). Both excellent schools, but UW/Seattle was a better fit overall, closer to family (we are from CA) and a place we could envision settling down. So when it comes decision time and we are looking at the bottom line, when does $$$ matter. 10k, 50k, 100k??? BTW, I am interested in IM primary care or IM specialty. Thanks.
Seattle hands down, number one in primary care, number six overall. I met a number of their students during the AMSA conference and they were very excited about the program and it’s opportunities. Go where you’re happiest, it’s going to be tough enough without the stress of being somewhere you don’t want to be. You should be comfortable regardless of what specialty you end up in. Just my two cents…Jaysun
Hi, Ant. This is an interesting question. You are correct that both are outstanding medical schools. I think it is important that you pick the place where your family will feel most comfortable as well, as so much of your time will be taken up by your studies. With respect to money, it is an important consideration, especially in the given climate of probable decreased compensation for physicians (as much as we don’t want to believe this will be the case). Remember that the initial amount of difference will grow considerably as interest continues to get added, and what was once a $10K difference could, in the long run, easily become $20-30K. Imagine what $50-100K would become over time. For me, the cutoff would probably be a total of $20K for the four years given the quality of both of these schools, but each person is going to be different of course. Either of these schools is going to prepare you extraordinarily well for a residency in internal medicine–I wouldn’t focus too much on whether one is better than the other seeing as both are top quality and it’s going to come down to your grades, board scores, activities, and personality traits as far as where you end up for residency.
Just my thoughts. Good luck with the decision and congrats with the outstanding choices you have!