<p>Both are 7 years. The GPA and MCAT req are higher for UCF than FSU. That sounds odd. But is is true. I am from Orlando. I am biassed to UCF. I like the housing at UCF and I love to do research at Burnham and Burnett Honors College. The only things that bothers me is the US News ranking for UCF (179) versus FSU (109). I know UCF rank will go lot higher soon. Any suggestions?</p>
<p>I thought that the UCF/USF program was being phased out given UCF has their own (albeit new) med school. You really need to compare the end results: UCF med vs FSU med. UCF med is just so new that there is little data to use.</p>
<p>Some recent press on the type of doctor FSU Med is building:
See: [Sarasota</a> campus a proving ground for Florida’s new med-school model | HeraldTribune.com](<a href=“http://www.heraldtribune.com/article/20100913/ARTICLE/9131051]Sarasota”>http://www.heraldtribune.com/article/20100913/ARTICLE/9131051)</p>
<p>Plus, this is noteworthy as it took UF Med some 35 years to have the head of AAMC address the students and faculty while FSU Med garnered a visit in 10 years:
See: [News</a> & Publications - FSU College of Medicine](<a href=“http://med.fsu.edu/index.cfm?fuseaction=newsPubs.readNewsPub&fromHome=1&id=459]News”>http://med.fsu.edu/index.cfm?fuseaction=newsPubs.readNewsPub&fromHome=1&id=459)</p>
<p>Sunnyflorida - UCF/USF is in existence. I met with the Director and I will be accepted. I am also looking into UM HPME as well. I am not sure who would I pick. I am leaning towards FSU now.</p>
<p>Yes I realize it is in existence. But word on the street is that it will be replaced with a similar program using UCF med. The only reason that UCF Honors had the program with USF was because they did not have a med school and did not want to loose talented students for undergrad. I am a grad of USF Med and on the clinical faculty of FSU Med. The UCF/USF program will NOT remain in existence for that much longer. It just won’t. The politics involved will eventually create a program where the most talented students at UCF Honors will complete the seven year program AT UCF MED.</p>
<p>I agree Sunny. Here are my choices now. UCF/USF, USF/USF, FSU Medscholar, SBU/GWU Med (8-year, no MCAT), Rice/Baylor (reasonable chance), Boston U (pretty good), RPI/Albany (good chance), U of Miami HPME (hate Miami), Univ of Cinc (good), UAB (good chance). Which one would you pick? I am not big fan to stay in-state. Did you apply elsewhere?</p>
<p>Having a daughter in the process I’d pick FSU Med over the alternatives, including UF Med and U Miami Med.</p>
<p>FSU Med for in-state students is less than half the cost of out-of-state alternatives and while MDs supposedly can earn a lot once they become established, the current environment for cleaning up financially as an MD is now somewhat uncertain, given the national flux in structure for medical care. Plus, med students (even after the enormous push just be admitted to an allopathic med school) and freshly baked MDs incur debt or are paid peanuts in the grind to become fully credentialed, trained and established. While USF (and UF Med for that matter) has a fine med school, it is traditionally organized and has less per student funding than FSU Med (UF Med whines about this incessantly). Significant financial resources are being placed on the FSU Med model, more so than the traditional schools at this point. While much is made of the medical research dollars and the ability of a med school to garner these generally federal resources, the competition for these likely increasingly scarce resources in the future will be brutal. Does anyone really think Duke Med or Johns Hopkins Med will cede research dollars to UCF Med? Really? I don’t…not ever. The days of seemingly endless federal research largess are generally over.</p>
<p>I think the best way to go is to become absolutely the best doctor (of whatever specialty) you can be, first and foremost. The rest will take care of itself.</p>
<p>MCAT scores are only important to get into med school. After that, it is all about passing the USMLE exams and securing the residency, and, not the least of which is to actually learn to be a doctor someone else as a patient wants to see. Med school admissions are eccentric and non-uniform as far as I can tell, and just plain weird sometimes. They are a world to themselves.</p>
<p>Hi parent2noles:</p>
<p>Tha’ts a bold statement. Hear this story. One of my Dad’s friend went to MSU DO program and became an ENT. He is minting money in Florida over a million per year. The other friend went to Harvard for undergrad and got his medical degree from Baylor. He did pediatrics and making less than 170K per year. Another friend of my Dad went to carribean med school and became a radiologist and making over 600K in NY. Does it really matter where you get the degree from or how much you score in USMLE? It is all location based thing. Got to be flexible. My 2 cents</p>
<p>I have no comments. Your motivations are different than mine were or are. There were no physicians in my family, nor did we know any, other than the ones that provided my family health care. I graduated from an instate school to keep my loan balance low, allowing me certain freedoms in choosing a specialty, a residency location, and ultimately a practice lifestyle. I don’t make over a million. i don’t make $600,000. I don’t even make half that. I have lived a much simpler life, gone on medical missions, teach by having students in my office for clinical rotations (which pays little, takes away from time from patient care, but is rewarding in ways that do not show up on a paycheck.) </p>
<p>My guess is that the Harvard grad you speak of and I share much in common. And likely we would not have it any other way. </p>
<p>Best of luck to you in your decisions.</p>
<p>Being an MD in NY is a costly venture. Taxes are high and it is a very litigious state. Even as a radiologist, with comparatively little patient contact (this aspect DOES attract some physicians, btw) your chances are good to be involved in litigation in NY. That seemingly fat salary is compensation for a multitude of negative aspects.</p>
<p>Bottom line is there is NO free lunch in medicine. Some specialties pay well, but they commonly have very negative baggage. Surgeons make a good buck, for example, but the hours frequently stink and harm their family life. </p>
<p>I think the best MDs simply love the work and are passionate to do the best job possible. This is what FSU Med is trying to capture and impart to students, and obviously they are doing a very credible job - due in no small part to selfless instructor MDs, who are worth their weight in gold.</p>
<p>Thanks folks. My aim is not driven by $. But it is an element. We all need to survive and live happily. I would rather work as a physician/scientist at NIH where I spent 350 hours this summer. I was very captivated.</p>
<p>My friend’s dad, who is a doctor, isn’t pushing his kids to be doctors. He told them to be lawyers! The doctor dad apparently doesn’t like all the changes and stuff he has to put up with in his practice now because of changes with insurance companies, regulators, government, litigation, hospital rules and politics, increasing expenses, decreasing income, longer and lousy hours, etc., etc.</p>
<p>I dont believe anyone should become a doctor if they are doing it for the money. If this is the case then they truly dont care the paitent and are only fulfilling their self-satisfied needs. I am a pre-med student at FSU and when I went to medical Deans day I learned that UF only takes 25 students in their accelrated program and the UCF is opening their new med school and are trying to lean more towards that (it is already opened the students were there to discuss). FSU has their own policies as well. FSU also has satilitte campuses where you could do your M.D. I would suggest reading everyone’s mission statement and figuring out which place can get you the best opportunities.</p>
<p>Did anyone get the application for the FSU med. program? </p>
<p>Can someone tell me the questions asked?</p>