<p>S is fortunate enough to get into both of these great programs. Could someone who has had experience with either one of them or both of them give us some insight which can help us decide which one to select?</p>
<p>This is what we know:
1) HPME is 7 year program against PLME which is eight year
2) In medical schools NU is ranked 19 while Brown is 29 (Research ranking)
3) In Primary care the ranking for NU is 41 while Brown is ranked 28.
4) Brown is an Ivy League School and better known worldwide
5) NU HPME program has better reputation overall.</p>
<p>There is no financial aid involved in either and we are trying to make the decision just based on the merits of the programs. Any help will be greatly appreciated.</p>
<p>We will take everything that compares the two programs. Overall what is the general view. Does anyone have a preference? Can anyone think about a preference we should give to one over the other. Right now we are leaning towards NU as S has a connection with the research team there and it is 7 year program. Brown is closer to home and is comfortable environment with friends going there.</p>
<p>Location:
Northwestern has the benefits of being right next to Chicago. You get the benefits of both the college town, Evanston, but have easy access (shuttles/train that are either free or $2.25) that take you right into the heart of Chicago. </p>
<p>Financial:
I guess you’d be paying for 7 years of tuition instead of 8.</p>
<p>Academics:
I’m sure both programs are incredible, but from experience I know that Northwestern’s program molds you into an incredibly well rounded person. Their curriculum makes you fulfill the pre-med requirements and then allows you to study and major in whatever your heart desires. There’s so much flexibility in the program, especially since Northwestern is on the quarter system. You have a lot of room to take classes that you want to take.</p>
<p>Other Program People:
HPME students are a very close knit group. They support each other academically and in life in general. They each are studying different things so they are taking variety of classes that are across the board. They’re all involved in different things. This makes them have their own group of friends that are not solely based off of HPME students. My point in making this is that the way the program is set up allows each HPME student to immerse themselves in different aspects of campus. They can establish their own lives and passions and always have other HPMEs extremely supportive and standing along-side them.</p>
<p>Have to go to class now, but I truly hope that this helps for now.
If your son did not visit campus before/after his interview, consider coming to wildcat days. It truly makes a difference whether you like the campus and the environment a lot. I believe there is a panel that many of us are helping out at during this day where you can ask questions and here other HPME students’ experiences. </p>
<p>Let me know if you have any other questions.</p>
<p>I’m going to second everything the poster above me said and add my own two cents. Northwestern’s HPME is like a gigantic family - we all support each other in every way possible and, although we all have our own lives and own friends, we remain extremely close. I know I have a circle of 20 other freshman I can reach out to if anything goes wrong, and it’s a wonderful feeling. </p>
<p>In terms of academics, Northwestern is more than superb academically. I have great classes with great professors, and I can guarantee that Northwestern will provide every challenge and opportunity an entering freshman needs.</p>
<p>If you’re truly stuck, come to Wildcat Days! A lot of us will be helping out during the time you meet with other admitted HPME students, and we absolutely love meeting the new freshman :)</p>
<p>Just getting postings from two students who obviously think great of the program and who has taken the time to respond, speaks a lot for the program. </p>
<p>Though S has visited Northwestern couple of times he is looking forward to go for the wildcat days and meet the group.</p>
<p>Other question I had were:</p>
<p>How many students do you have each year in the HPME program?</p>
<p>Did you get credit for all/some of your AP courses? </p>
<p>Can you give some points that you have over PLME? I agree with the team and good education. But I am fighting with the name. Every one says it is IVY, a no brainer. According to many, the name is important. But my and my S’s (I think) gut feeling is saying to go with HPME.</p>
<p>How many students do you have each year in the HPME program? The year above us has 14, we have 20. </p>
<p>Did you get credit for all/some of your AP courses? You’re able to, but for the most part you don’t have to. I took 12 AP courses/tests throughout high school and used credit for two: Chemistry and Calc BC. For the most part, you’ll see that you don’t have to, but you can.</p>
<p>Can you give some points that you have over PLME? I agree with the team and good education. But I am fighting with the name. Every one says it is IVY, a no brainer. According to many, the name is important. But my and my S’s (I think) gut feeling is saying to go with HPME.
There are many people that attend Harvard for UG and don’t even get into Feinberg (these statistics were shown to me while I was doing my interview at Feinberg). The medical school is supposedly more renowned.</p>
<p>If you consider Medical School ranking at all, from what I understand, Research ranking is the one that counts. Look at Harvard’s Primary ranking, Harvard is still #1 Med. School.
My D. has been to Feinberg (NU Med. School) and really liked it. Her major criteria might not be the same as yours though. She liked location (it is in down town Chicago) and medical students. She is considering it for Med. School along with some others. But she is 21, and might have completely different outlook. We do not know anything about PLME and Brown.</p>
<p>Twilightxoxgirl: We are not sure about the date yet. But will keep you posted. Thanks for your info. I am sure Feinberg is very competitive. The ranking shows that.</p>
<p>MiamiDAP: I agree and was told later that Research ranking is what counts. Do share with us what are the other issues you are looking for while comparing medical schools. And any more information about the benefits of Northwestern will help.</p>
<p>@op, ask norcalguy and bluedevilmike in the premed forum about their opinions on the two medical schools. I suspect they will say definitely Feinberg. norcalguy may even say there is a slight advantage of NU in residency placement (such as +5 for NU, CWRU, and other top tier schools; and +4 for Brown, Rochester, etc. in the 2nd tier schools).</p>
<p>As to the UG reputation, one of my children attends Ivy, but its namevalue and reputation really does not matter. The middle-to-bottom tier Ivies don’t count at all in job search or grad school apps, includ. dartmouth, or even columbia. who really cares about the name? Only highschool kids and their parents. My child got accepted to NU but went elsewhere for premed purely because the cost of attendance was lower there and there were more kids in that school from our region, not because of name or anything. Having said all that, I consider the quality/reputation about the same among Brown, Cornell, NU, UPenn, Dartmouth, Duke, etc. Upenn’s higher ranking is solely due to Wharton. NU has good business school. CAS is about the same in Cornell, Upenn, and NU. I think Engineering is much better in NU and Cornell than UPenn. Anyway, as kids move on and speciallize more, the names and overall rankings become less meaningful.</p>
<p>MedicalMom2,
Well, my D. is an adult, so as I mentioned, she has a different prospective. She considers location and she compares medical student body. Although most people are very nice, according to her, there are variations. She has withdrew from 2 Med. Schools for these 2 reasons: location and certain characteristcis of medical students that she did not care much. She happened to meet few med. students at Feinberg that came from her state UG, so that definitely was very positive experience which is NOT appilcable to everybody. So, some of it depends on what has happened during D’s interview visits. D. went to state UG on full tuition Merit Scholarship. We will consider Merit packages that hopefully will come at the end of April, at least 2 of her Med. Schools indicated so. There is no hope for any kind of need based, she will not qualify. Feinberg is NOT her most expensive school, but the most expensive one promised some Merit award. She is going to Second Look visit and unfortunately before that we do not know any more details.</p>
<p>Toughyear: Thank you for your suggestions. I will follow up with the people you have suggested. I agree with the name being less meaningful in medical. And more and more we have talked to people, we are getting the same feeling. </p>
<p>MiamiDap: I understand everybody deals with different situations while making a decision. Hey, whatever works! I am sure she has worked hard to be where she is.</p>
<p>Medical education is not cheap and demands us to look at every corner to scrape the aid.</p>
<p>I do understand the whole ivy-league name thing, but if you look at the undergraduate rankings, Northwestern is actually ranked several spots above brown, and in terms of medical school rankings, Feinberg is definitely ranked above Brown’s medical school. plus our medical school is in Chicagoooo :)</p>
<p>and also, when it comes to match list, having that ‘ivy league name’ definitely isn’t going to help a student coming out of brown, as a student coming out of feinberg went to a stronger -medical- school, and that’s definitely what’s more important</p>
<p>i would very very strongly encourage your son to visit both schools. we have a couple of kids here who chose hpme over plme, so i’m sure they’ll be able to offer more help. :)</p>
<p>It looks like you’re really concerned about rankings. That’s a perfectly valid concern.
Either way, they’re both fantastic schools, but medical school rankings can be arbitrarily skewed by NIH funding for that year etc. So it doesn’t speak too much about their reputations. </p>
<p>I completely agree with what twilightgirl and hideandseek say about NU, so I won’t repeat what they said. It’s fantastic. I love it.</p>
<p>I’ve never been a Brown student obviously, so I can’t and won’t pretend to speak confidently about it. However, one thing your son should consider is that he will be spending 8 years in the same place should he decide to matriculate into PLME. That might seem bearable and okay, but the people I know who have been in PLME said that 8 years felt like “too long”. HPME, on the other hand, involves 3/4 years in Evanston and 4 years in Chicago. They’re completely different settings, so going to med school will involve a refreshing change of scenery.</p>
<p>1) There are several kids at Brown who choose PLME over HPME, for different reasons. In general, Providence is cheaper than Chicago. </p>
<p>2) If you choose PLME, 4 years in Brown’s main campus for undergraduate - college hill, 4 years at new medical school (about 2-3 miles away) with state-of-the-art facility, and the main affiliated hospitals are 1-2 mile away. So you would not feel you stay in the same place for 8 years. </p>
<p>4) Brown’s medical school rank is climbing up fast each year, she will do so in the coming years, because the resources put in, and its very talented student body with plenty of research opportunities. </p>
<p>Both schools are great, so i suggest visit both schools, get a feel.</p>
<p>Don’t worry, even though the current research rank is 29, its match list is tier 1. Besides when you graduate, i assume 8 years from now, the research and primary care rank will be tier 1. </p>
<p>choose PLME is choose future, Ivy icon, may be cheaper, and its undergraduate experience is unbeatable. </p>
<p>choose HPME, close to Chicago (but very cold in winter), a little higher price, current rank is higher. </p>
<p>Very difficult to compare, but fit is most important.</p>
<p>Thank you, Big Fire for your opinion about Brown. I understand it is going to be a touch and feel and S is going to make the most of that. He is planning to visit both for overnight stay. We understsnd it is a very tough choice as both the schools are pretty good in their own way. Where is the new medical school of Brown?</p>