UMiami Miller v UCI

[clippers50fan]

Hi all!

Trying to decide between the following two choices. Help me decide!

A bit about me: California resident who's main goal is to 1) enjoy medical school (so living in a fun area is of utmost importance to me) and 2) match into a competitive residency (would prefer California, but would rather do a better residency nation wide rather than sacrifice just for the sake of staying in California). Also the cost is roughly the same (in state tuition at UCI = Miami with a partial scholarship but the cost of traveling and Miami makes it even, so money isn't a consideration).

UCI

Pros:

• Close to home. It's only an hour drive from my family which is awesome. Mother's health isn't the best so being close to her would be amazing.
• P/F for M1
• Ultrasound program is kinda cool. Would be cool to be so good at US.
• Newport beach is beautiful with beautiful people. Living on the beach about 15 minutes away from campus would be awesome.
• Majority of people match within California.
• Very good reputation in California (unsure about national reputation as compared to Miami).
• UCI seems very, very supportive of their students.

Cons:

• I wasn't as impressed or excited by UCI versus Miami in both the clinical training and research.
• Irvine does not excite me as much as Miami.
• Irvine's cancer center isn't as large as Miami's (oncology is a big interest of mine).
• 90 student class seems small.
• Miami really seems to focus a lot on their MPH program and public health departments.

Miami

Pros:

• Unparalleled Clinical training. Jackson is the cream of the crop for clinical training.
• So. Much. Research.
• Campus/medical center is way prettier and bigger.
• Living in downtown Miami in the high rises would be fun.
• I think I connected with the students here a little better.
• Amazing global health and public health programs that are emphasized. I already have a contact with the head of the public health department who wants to introduce me to the department and everyone at the cancer hospital. This happened after I was accepted-- kinda showed how much Miami cares for their students.
• The match list is weirdly impressive for a school ranked where it is. Lots of top-tier residency programs and a lot of competitive specialty placement.

Cons:

• Far from home.
• P/F for pre-clinical years but it's ranked and they have your percentiles, so it's not actually P/F haha
• I'm sure it'll be harder to match within California from here rather than UCI with all their regional connections.
• Miami's weather versus Irvine's (can't believe Miami weather is a con hahahha, but it somehow is).

I was overall way more impressed with Miami's match list as compared to UCI's, but being in California and close to home is worth a lot. I won't make a decision until I do second look day, but I want to see if there are some points or considerations I haven't thought of yet.

Thank you all

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[Astra]

I would choose Miami based on what you posted.