Med school decision

[Unmei786]

In a good dilemma:

Hopkins med or University of Miami med (with full scholarship)

I am not sure what speciality I want to go into. I might be interested in health policy.

What school should I go to?

Thank you for any input!

[jhwkr542]

The cheaper one.

[PhysicianOnFIRE]

If health policy means having an impressive resume to rise up the ranks in our nation's capital, Johns Hopkins might be the way to go.

If surgeon general is not among your ambitions, and your goal is to be a good doctor, take the full ride to Miami.

Congratulations on both. You've obviously done very well to have these options!

Best,

-PoF

 

[Zaphod]

Unmei786 wrote:

In a good dilemma:

Hopkins med or University of Miami med (with full scholarship)

I am not sure what speciality I want to go into. I might be interested in health policy.

What school should I go to?

Thank you for any input!

Click to expand...

Free one in a heartbeat. Hopkins will look good on a resume, but in the end its you that matters.

[retinadoc]

You can do anything you want to do at either school. If you are dead-set on doing a competitive speciality, JHU will definitely make it much easier to match. Personally, I'd go to JHU and take the ~$200K in loans. Good luck.

[HLM]

Go with the scholarship. I'm 16 years out from graduating from med school and still kicking myself for not taking a scholarship I was offered because of the money I could have saved.

 

[40DayDream]

Unless you're independently wealthy or have parents to fund JHU, go with the scholarship.  I was in your position exactly five years ago but with different schools.  I took the scholarship and I have NO REGRETS.  If health policy is your interest (which could change...) you can always aim for residency in the Baltimore/DC area or do a summer project there or a break between third and fourth year.

 

[jz]

take the cheapest option.   Debt will limit your option to go  into the less lucrative field of health policy.

[lucas]

I had an analogous situation in choosing between a cheap state school and a more prestigious private school.  I chose the latter as I felt I had "earned" it after doing state school for undergrad.  Ended up paying an extra $100k over the 4 years for the tuition difference.  Maybe it helped me in matching into my specialty and in the end improving my income, but the loans are painful.  Yours is going to be an even bigger price difference which makes that full ride very appealing.  Wish I'd had that kind of option!  Congratulations!

[VagabondMD]

Going forward in life, your financial status will drive your options more than the name on the degree. If you can go to Hopkins and have the resources to graduate debt-free, go for it. If not, go with Miami. Also, consider where you want to end up. If you want to live in the Northeast or Atlantic coast, JH will all you to get a foothold. If you want to live in Florida, Miami might be the better place to get started. Of course, where you match for residency will have a much greater impact on this, too.

I graduated from Miami in 1991 (was in their 6 year BS-MD program) and found that at that time, it did limit my residency options to some degree. I was in the top 5 in my class (top 1% boards, extensive publishing research and experience, etc.) and matching in a competitive (at the time) specialty, and it was clear that one of my top choices, UCSF, was not going to give me a look. In fact, no one from Miami in recent memory had matched at UCSF for any specialty. Perhaps times have changed. At any rate, I matched at a top program and probably ended up in a better place, in the end.

Of course, going to med school in Miami had its benefits: the climate, the recreational opportunities, friends visiting, etc.

[consultpsych]

I would take the cheaper school, no doubt.

Here's my trajectory:

high school: public

college: state school, with some merit scholarship

medical school: state school, with huge in-state discount once I established residency

residency: well regarded NYC psychiatry residency that isn't "Ivy League" but is known nationally

job/affiliation: large tertiary academic medical center with faculty appointment at an Ivy League institution, with lots of time to teach residents (which I wanted), speaking at national (and once so far, I'm only 3 yrs out from fellowship, an international) conferences

Now that I am "board certified" in this and that and now that I am Assistant Professor at "so-and-so Ivy League place", no one cares that I went to a state medical school (that gave me an excellent education by the way) that isn't one of the top 10 or 20 or even 30 medical schools in ranking.

summary: I'd go to the cheaper school and kick ****************** academically so you can go to the best residency for your goals.

[retinadoc]

The obvious benefit is that you *don't* have to excel academically at JHU in order to match competitively. That is huge and it has downstream benefits. Don't if that is worth $200k or whatever, but it's worth a significant amount.

[Allonblack]

Well on a message board about finances I think you can guess the responses.

 

Medicine is a little funny in that the average doctor from Miami probably makes more than from Hopkins.

 

The doctors I have met who are crushing it in their fields, getting huge grants, becoming department chairs, etc, have generally gone to elite residencies and fellowships. These are the types of people who aren't just trying to match ortho, but trying to match ortho at MGH. Going to an elite medical school makes matching into these sorts of programs easier. If you want that sort of life you should probably go to hopkins. There's a lot to be said against that path, but if you must walk it, the way is clear.

[Hatton]

I will agree with several of the above posters.  Go for the cheaper school unless you know you want to do academic medicine. I went to my state school on academic scholarship.  I then did residency at a southern ivy.  I ended up doing private practice and rarely do patients ask about my training.  I do think your residency helps get you your first job.  I practice in a football crazed stAte so I get asked about my college mor than medical school.

[EniG]

First, congratulations on having such great choices. You have set yourself up for success which is why I also vote for taking the scholarship. You clearly are not the type of student who will have trouble doing well, honoring rotations and acing your boards. I think the full scholarship will give you more financial freedom so your residency/specialty choices are not driven as much by finances. It's not the same graduating with 300k in debt and say wanting to do family medicine or pediatrics and being debt free and wanting to pursue these choices. To a large extent, medical school is what you make of it and from your track record, you'll do great.

Also, given that you are posting here, I can assume you care about finances and that's important. How comfortable are you with debt? Do you have undergraduate debt? These are all very important considerations. If parents are willing to pay for your loans, I still don't see that as a better option because it's not free money, not even to you. That money could be used to get your next house for example.

Now, if you are one to want to do MGH or UCSF ortho as an above poster said, then pedigree matters a lot, even then though you need to ace the boards, honor rotations and have research under your belt.