Georgetown vs. MCW vs. Temple

[water_princess]

Hi everyone,

I am trying to make a decision between 2 great schools and would love to hear your thoughts.

Factors that are important to me when deciding:
- urban environment and diverse patient population
- research opportunities
- early clinical exposure opportunities

I have been living in the midwest (WI) for the past few years, so I am comfortable with the area, but I do eventually want to make my way back to the east coast for residency.

I don't know for sure what I field I want to pursue, but want to leave my options open for pursuing a competitive specialty.

Georgetown
pros
- DC urban patient population
- opportunities to rotate at all Medstar hospitals, as well as other DC area locations
- mix of lecture and TBL
- east coast location
- Hoya clinic for DC homeless

Cons
- somewhat of a bad taste after interview day. My interviewer was really awkward and I didn’t love some members of the admissions department. Just not sure that should color my view of the school though.
- pretty expensive area (but I could live w/ my parents if it came down to that)

Medical College of Wisconsin
Pros
- UPDATE: **full tuition scholarship
- Milwaukee is a good place to get experience in urban medicine
- Curriculum allows for early clinical experience, as well as the opportunity to focus on a pathway, like research
- Lack of an undergrad, or competing medical school allows for easier involvement in research and shadowing at the hospital

cons
- Midwest (possibly more difficult to match back east)
- school is just outside the city
- mostly lecture

Any thoughts or insights are appreciated!

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[water_princess]

Bump

 

[alcoholdehydrogenase69]

This is a toughie without the cost aspect. IMO, I would wait the ~1 month until you get your aid letters back and then re-assess. I am in similar boat with two schools pretty even but no financial aid letter. Trying to be patient.....

 

[nucleispins]

Tough decision. Good luck. You'll get diversity of patients with DC, Philly, and Milwaukee, so I would consider all these schools on-par. For research, Georgetown is more known in the national community, although a paper is a paper in a decent journal, even from lesser known schools for research. Don't let a bad interview day color your view of the school, given the hundreds of students and other faculty with whom you'll interact. If you have the funds, perhaps a second-look would solidify or taper your first impressions. For these schools, it does look like it would come down to money given the factors you mentioned. Best of luck in your future, and career. Lastly, general internal medicine and pediatrics are considered primary care.

 

[_Nightlight_]

if you care about research choose between MCW and Georgetown

 

[water_princess]

Thanks guys! I guess I should probably just be patient and wait for fin aid.

What do you all think about the difference in opportunity to match back east from a (more) regional school like MCW?

 

[WhittyPsyche]

Biased Alum here. But just want to say that all your pros are definitely strengths of Gtown, and the cons may just be one experience. Area is more expensive than the midwest or something, but it is a large metro area where you can live across the river in Arlington/Rosslyn VA for cheap, or in NE, near GW, basically anywhere and be well connected to campus. People talk about the fact that the metro station isn't in Georgetown, but the campus shuttle system solves this problem with several lines going to the VA side, downtown, the Medstar hospitals, DuPont, etc in a 10 minute ride. So look for cheaper housing outside of Gtown if you don't want to live with parents.

As an ugrad student I had a lot of interaction with the med school because they offer many channels for helping ugrad students prepare for the application cycle. I've never had a bad experience with anyone there. So I do feel safe in saying that may have been one off day.
If you are interested in working with the underserved and diverse populations, DC is definitely the place to be, but also Gtown is a great place to be specifically. Most faculty are dedicated to serving the underserved and bridging the gap in care. It really isn't just something they put on their website. I worked in three labs with the medical school faculty on disparities research. The list is long for faculty that pursue that focus. There is also GHUCCTS which is joint "task force" between Gtown and Howard for clinical and translational research that funds research in the DC community and offers community engagement projects on a very regular basis. I worked on a few grants from the center and really liked being able to tap into the faculty at Howard and the differences in the micro communities.

Any info you want about the non-academic side, happy to give input. Living in DC (living in Gtown), night life, food, hobbies, etc.

Hopefully some others can give more detailed info on MCW and Temple, I don't know anything about either.

 

[water_princess]

Update - recently received news that I received a full tuition scholarship from MCW. Just looking to hear peoples thoughts on whether this changes things between Georgetown and MCW. I had set my mind on Georgetown, with the distinguishing factor being that, all things equal, I want to be back on the east coast, but feel now that I can't walk away from a full scholarship.

What do people think about how the reputation of MCW will fare against that of Georgetown in the eyes of residency programs? Should I be worried that it will limit me in any significant way in matching back to the east coast?

 

[ishiningstar]

Have heard only good things about MCW. I would take the full scholarship and run with it. The difference in finance would be huge for Georgetown, not sure if it's worth that.

 

[Soccer55]

In a similar situation, but will you leverage your MCW scholarship with Georgetown at all?

 

[deev04]

Take the $$$$$. There is nothing Georgetown offers you worthy of turning down a full scholarship to a perfectly good school. Some people would choose MCW over Gtown sans money. Turning down MCW and 200k would be silly.