<p>It looks like the choice boils down to these two schools. </p>
<p>Brown is Ivy, places 1/3 of its graduates to powerhouses like Harvard, John Hopkins. But it costs $$$ (we got no scholarships), is cold and very far from home, is ranked lower by US News & World. </p>
<p>UCSD seems to be more prestigeous and much cheaper, is ranked among top medical schools by US News. But it does not have a name recognition as Brown does.</p>
<p>Since being in California and close to home is among top priorities, UCSD seems to be the choice. But is it worth it to give up Ivy League school (and a chance to have residency at powerhouse schools like Harvard).</p>
<p>i think that you are leaving out an important factor regarding residency placements...the desire of the person to remain in california:
although a student may receive a residency placement in an ivy league school, he/she may decline this offer and choose a residency in california instead. i know of one student who graduated from stanford med school and received placements in harvard and ucsd for ortho. both are great programs. since he wished to stay in california, he chose ucsd's program over harvard.</p>
<p>in other words:
when you look at the residency placements for california med schools and see that many have chosen california residency placements (and not the more "prestigious" ivy league programs), it could be that they chose to remain in california...not that these students couldn't place elsewhere. i think i read that of the 160 students from usc's med school, 140 chose california residencies!</p>
<p>something to consider:
is it important for your daughter to practice in california? if so, choosing a med school and residency program in california is an important consideration in terms of making contacts. </p>
<p>fyi :
i think that you are wrong to say ucsd does not have name recognition. in the field of science and medicine, it most certainly does. for liberal arts and humanities, perhaps not; but these are brown's real strengths, i believe.</p>
<p>if you place importance in rankings:
ucsd's world rank:#13
brown's world rank: #82</p>
<p>ucsd's us news med school rankings: #7 for primary care and #14 for research.
brown's us news med school rankings:#15 for primary care and #40 for research</p>
<p>UCSD is a top 20 med school. In CA behind UCSF and UCLA. Most Harvard, JHU Mds want to do resisency there . So if you are already in you do not need Brown. If you want to do residency in Harvard, JHU etc, UCSD will get you that. Go UCSD'''</p>
<p>UCSD's medical program is definitely the better choice for medical school. However, going to Brown isn't a bad choice either for medical school either (I know many doctors at a local clinic who are from Brown and they are excellent doctors).</p>
<p>just like in other threads, the program is more of a guarantee than an actual program. you're basically just another undergrad, although speaking with people who are in the program there, undergrad years are pretty stress free, and no one regrets their decision. med school, though not insanely competitive, is pretty tough though. it's a huge school, housing and food are okay, right next to the beach, and 30 minutes away from mexico. coming from irvine though, it's just more of the same for me.</p>
<p>for me, it's a choice between bu's accelerated med prog in boston for 7 yrs or ucsd's med scholars prog in la jolla for 8 yrs. the tuition cost is an important factor (lower for ucsd), as are the med school rankings (higher for ucsd), the geographical proximity to home (closer for ucsd), and the weather (warmer at ucsd). so in all counts, ucsd wins!
i really like how there is no elitism or segregation: a med scholar student is almost like any undergrad student at ucsd, except for working with a designated mentor and having the opportunity to attend special lectures. the transition into med school will be relatively smooth and virtually stress-free.
so are you going to ucsd?</p>