@gallentjill - i doubt that we will reach there anytime soon. Few T20 medical schools do have merit scholarships and that’s the goal for some students.
@rk2017 why do you recommend HPME over PLME?
Has anyone received further notice from Sophie Davis/City College of NY?
@rk2017 You may be lucky but one incident is too many for others. Please do not generalize. It is a real concern. It is not a TV show topic.
@HPMEhopeful
Feinberg is far better than Alpert.
Even going by just rankings, Northwestern UG is ranked higher than Brown.
@bsmdadmit can you elaborate on why Feinberg is far better than Alpert? I consider myself very fortunate as we were able to afford a coach (I know this is a touchy subject given the recent scandals). So far, I’ve been told looking at the match lists for the schools is a much better indicator and for NU vs. Brown, I would say Brown’s is better overall for more competitive specialties. There are also lots of other factors swaying me to PLME rather than HPME besides just the rankings. I appreciate any input you or others have to help me.
@HPMEhopeful If you have already made up your mind for PLME, go for it. No point in try to get an endorsement here. It is your efforts that will get you top residencies at HPME or PLME, not the residency match list. A match list is just an indication of choices made by a group of students at a particular time.
@HPMEhopeful - In SDN when people ask for X vs Y school recommendation they posts their pros and cons for each school and ask for opinion, that way people know what’s important for you.
Here is an example
Hello, everyone. I’m currently trying to decide between Yale, Columbia, and Northwestern. I’m leaning more toward Yale or Columbia, but I’m having some difficulty in choosing. I don’t have any financial aid information yet, but I’m hoping to have these schools sorted into some sort of ranking so that I can make the most holistic (I will never escape this word) choice possible. I am extremely interested in health care policy/business, as well as writing within and about medicine. Without further ado, here are the apparent pros/cons of each school:
Yale:
Pros:
Access to a fantastic undergraduate campus, where I could hopefully collaborate with some pretty interesting economics faculty
Reasonable access to NYC and Boston by train
Trained multiple high-profile physicians whose careers and perspectives I admire, especially Paul Kalanithi and Vivek Murthy, and also associated with Anne Fadiman, the writer of “The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down.”
I appreciate the history of Yale as an academic institution
Although this is not a significant factor by any means, Yale has the “biggest” name to an average person off the street. Perhaps this could make a difference (albeit a marginal one) if I someday consider running for a political office; however, I understand that all three institutions are well-respected.
Cons:
Despite how nice Yale’s campus is, New Haven doesn’t seem to be the most exciting place
Wasn’t very impressed by Yale’s hospital system
Honestly confused how the whole “no grades” thing that keeps getting thrown around actually works
Columbia:
Pros:
Living for four years in an incredibly vibrant city
Brand-new, gorgeous education complex
Dígame program would be a unique opportunity to focus on care for Spanish-speaking people. This particular element of care is pretty important to me, and for similar reasons, I appreciate the fact that Washington Heights has a large Hispanic population.
Some high-profile donors have recently given a lot of money to Columbia, and I think that this philanthropy will hopefully fuel the growth of the school over time
NewYork-Presbyterian is a very well-respected hospital system
Reasonable access to the undergraduate campus (and economics department)
Trained Walker Percy (a famous author who lived near my hometown), has an emphasis on narrative medicine, and also currently employs Siddhartha Mukherjee. Not sure if this is wishful thinking, but Columbia seems to offer a good number of opportunities to use writing as an exploration of medicine
P&S Club seems to offer the most expansive extracurricular opportunities of the three
I greatly appreciate the history of P&S in the national development of medical education
Most accessible transportation of the three cities; my significant other will be working in Ohio, so easy airport access is important
Cons:
MBA program isn’t the best, so I’d probably hold off on doing an MBA until later or try to do it at another school if that’s an option
Assuming no aid, this will probably be the most expensive option out of the three
Northwestern:
Pros:
Access to a top-tiered business program
Chicago is a nice city; although not quite as tempting as the concrete jungle where dreams are made of, it offers an enviable food scene, fantastic museums, and high-profile festivals
Was very impressed with the hospital system
The people I met at Northwestern were probably the most outwardly friendly students I met on my interview trail
Administration seems extremely receptive to feedback
Housing options were the nicest of the three
Cons:
Not quite as highly ranked as Columbia or Yale (although still a very respectable medical school)
By the way Philly is not a safe place either, so I guess you are going to take some immediate action in that regard?? 
Both Newark and Philly have big safety concerns for years and like Berkeley have homeless harassing students. Safety issues should be taken into account seriously before making a final decision especially those who are out of state and grew up in suburbs.
Let me first make it clear, I don’t have any liking or dislike for either of the institutions. Also I don’t go by USNWR med school rankings since I don’t have respect for that site or their methods.
If you love a place or/and have confidence on your own knowledge or judgment, or those of whom you hired, good for you. Go for it. You got to do what you got to do. No need of reading below comments, which I am putting forth since you asked and may help others. Some of them, I am just recycling from my previous comments here, so it may be nothing new for some regulars here.
- NU is a global research power house. So obviously attracts lot many internationally well known faculty and researchers in a multitude of fields of study. Chances are, someone studying there either traditional or accelerated route, may rub shoulders with some of these eminent figures and pioneers and learn the latest and greatest of what is going on out there which may help their career greatly whether going into full fledged research, academic medicine, fellowships, residencies, establishing contacts with other leaders in the fields, and getting LORs from their aforementioned eminent mentors for all of the above. One may want to refer to the ratings in medicine and life sciences by internationally well known Times Higher (Wall Street Journal collaborates with them for local college ratings) which evaluates institutions across the world in research volume and impact (output and citations) and other categories. (I don't remember the specifics so will leave it to those interested in).
Also one may compare the two institutions by a sample NIH research allocations using the NIH link I shared a few times in this thread. Generally higher the funding, better with the facilities and higher the chances of attracting top talent as mentioned above.
- I am not saying it is bad in any way, but the primary care match rates for Brown is rather high, almost touching 50% in some years. That is 40-50% higher than the corresponding rate for Feinberg. I am not sure what highly sought after specialties you were referring to or you may be interested in, but would guess similar will be the distribution across those specialties. Some schools may enjoy special advantage in specific areas such as Emory due to its proximity to CDC and anyone from there wanting to go to Infectious disease fellowship should have a big advantage.
- Most Ivies (except Princeton and Cornell) suffer from a chronic deficit, not having strong science and engineering departments for their medical fields to collaborate with. Harvard depends on MIT, Broad Institute, Koch Institute and similar due to the location advantage but not all can afford that luxury. You need strong backing from fields like Bio Medical and Electrical Engineering, Molecular Biology and other departments within one's own school. Hiring few junior faculty just graduating out of MIT won't raise a departments profile. A better indication would be to check out how many among the faculty are distinguished in their respective fields such as being elected fellows of well known institutions like AIMBE and IEEE.
On top of these one also needs to add additional goodies as toppings such as financial merit awards (which I am sure both won’t give any), freedom of choosing the undergrad course work based on one’s own interests and tastes, 7 year vs. 8 years, proximity, weather, vibes on campus, any specific advantages of the location etc.
Hope others will chime in as well. Hope this helps and Good luck.
All,
Is anyone familiar with the term(s)
Scramble/SOAP in terms of matching for residency.
Is it bad if a medical school is not willing to disclose how many of their students have to do this?
@bsmdadmit yes, someone I know went thru SOAP last month. I doubt any school will disclose how many went thru SOAP. The whole puropse is to fill most slots by match day event.
@101study101 , I saw someone posted they got email on Friday around 4:30 PM from Sophie Davis acceptance. My DD interviewed there still did not get any response from them. Not sure this means it is a rejection.
Hello Everyone,
I need your help in deciding.
I am a senior in high school (Straight “A” & 3.95 GPA student) and my goal is to go to med school. I might change my mind to BME in sophomore/junior year.
I got into the following schools,
Georgia Tech (BME – OOS no scholarship)
Case Western (BME - 23K scholarship)
UC DAVIS (BME – OOS no scholarship)
Vanderbilt (BME - no scholarship)
Michigan State University – OMSP (Direct Med No MCAT needed, honors college, PA (professorial assistantship and 35K scholarship)
U Toledo (BME – BACC2MD)
My top choices are (in the order),
Michigan State University – OMSP (No MCAT and 35K scholarship)
Georgia Tech (BME – OOS scholarship)
Case Western (BME - 23K scholarship)
If I choose BME route, I will be doing masters with Phd.
My worries are:
- MSU OMSP is not a MD program, its DO program. But DO also earns good? If I take MCAT in MSU, I think MSU may reject me. is it worth?
- BME with masters, not getting good salary/job (around 60K?)
What are your thoughts?
@HPMEhopeful
From a residency match list perspective, NU has a primary care ratio around 30% while Brown has about 45%.
That means more students from NU matched to specialty residences than Brown.
I am not sure why your coach says Brown matched to better specialties. Is there a specific specialty you have in mind?
BTW - you can save 1 year with HPME vs PLME.
I guess @rk2017 has already covered most of the points I was thinking. It feels like I have repeated his points. So, I will stop here.
@grtd2010 makes a valid point - if you like Brown and have decided about, go for it.
All the best.
@HPMEhopeful - Go with PLME if you like it, and do not take anything/everything seriously about some of the posts here. It is all bookish knowledge and media (I am sure you know how to see the media-bias) and no one taking here has real hands-on experience with Brown. What you perhaps might want to do is to talk to any of the current/past Plee-mee’s or HPME’s. I spoke to several HPME’s and the life there is really stressful with NU forcing the students to take certain classes, grade deflation, and pretty stressful life in general. I am yet to meet any Brown UG or Plee mee’s who are not happy (and I spoke to a lot of them). The school is what you make out of it and Brown provides the unparalleled opportunities that NU cannot.
@bsmdadmit
For more information on Supplemental Offer and Acceptance Program (SOAP), visit here:
http://www.nrmp.org/match-week-soap-applicants/
Agree with @srk2017 - schools will not disclose that. It also means they have unmatched or partially matched students who going through SOAP.
But, at this stage, do NOT worry about SOAP or how matches work.
You would know where you stand by your senior year in med school.
Ok, thank you. I appreciate all the info. I called one and they didn’t tell me, but another one told me they had nobody use it.
Thank you @grtd2010 , @NoviceDad , @OldSchoolMD , @rk2017 . I took your advice, narrow down to UPitt and Case Western .
I am waiting for expert’s response to @wowbears.
May I ask about the:
- grading system from UPitt vs Case. I want to keep my gpa >3.8
- how easy to apply/get accepted into the research, shadowing, hospital volunteering, how supportive from the undergrad advisors/counselors/health professional, etc. (An expert in this forum mentioned about Case has 4 hositals near school with # of doctors more than #students).
Thank you someone (sorry, I forgot your name), who mentioned about RutgersNB 4+4 program. I’ve never heard of this program before. I got some scholarships but not Presidential.