Quote:
Speaking from my perspective with classes with and around med students, I’ve learned that it’s so important how old the students but how they act. I find the “traditional” students at Hopkins (both med and grad)to be a lot more mature than I thought they would be and I’m pleased to see others in my classes with a few gray hairs as well. I just don’t get that “nontrads don’t belong here message” from Hopkins or UMaryland for that matter, the way I did at Chapel Hill. The exception at Chapel Hill would be the school of public health.
I guess I am more interested in the social environment of the school in general, as well as the city it’s located in, than in the actual age of other non-trad students or even the number of non-trads in the class. The reason for this is that I will basically have to make all new friends when I start med school. I really want to find some people who are ate least AROUND my age.
I am really having a hard time trying to decide what would be better: a school within a university campus in Chicago (I like the on-campus thing!), a school that’s completely separated from the rest of the campus but is located in Manhattan, or Hopkins, which is in Baltimore and a few miles from the rest of its campus. (This is not counting any of the schools I’m waiting to hear from
)I have been living in Minneapolis for 3 years and I want to go to a city that’s more cosmopolitan. I mean, I could stay here, but I feel like I’d just continue to be bored. On the other hand, I know how hard it is to live in New York when you don’t have many connections there. (I do have some, just not a lot. And my boyfriend lives there, but I’m not ready to move there for that.) Chicago could be fun, but I’m kinda in the mood to get out of the midwest entirely.
I don’t know the Baltimore or DC areas at all. I wonder what they’re like? Also, I’ve got my fingers crossed for schools in Boston, Montreal, and Philly. But then I have questions about each of those cities…
I am so perplexed. Even when I have all my final options known, I don’t know how I’ll ever figure this out. I am very happy to have some choices, but I’m feeling overwhelmed. It’s hard to focus on comparing the schools, when there are so many other factors.
I think I will make an equation where I weight all the variables in this, and see what that tells me.