Penn, Yale and UofT

[Guest lucky applicant]

I've recently been accepted to UPenn and Yale, and am awaiting news from UofT. I am wondering what are peoples' thoughts about these schools. Is it worth the additional cost of studying in the States? Please respond not only with ranking, but also underlying reasoning.

 

My career interests include surgury, emergency medicine, international healthcare, and health care management.

 

My apologies if similar threads have already been posted.

 

Thank you,

lucky applicant

[Guest docbil]

Do you have money to go to States?

 

If money is not an issue for you.. go to yale.

 

Just the fact that you have an US MD from Yale will help you with a future in International Health. Trade mark name, will be big if you want to work with WHO or UNICEF or UN.. that kind of stuff.

 

If EM is what your interested in... you patient won't really care where you came from, they are all excellent schools.

[Guest 0T6]

I think that if I had the money and got in, I'd probably go to Penn.. money being the key factor.

 

You've probably already seen this, but checkout the US News rankings if you haven't.. they like Penn a lot more than Yale based on their criteria (Yale doesn't make the top 48 in primary care which seems odd to me :S)

www.usnews.com/usnews/edu..._brief.php

[Guest byronique]

Congrats! Just out of curiosity, what were your GPA/MCAT?

[Guest studentz]

Penn, as far as I know, doesn't give money to Canadians. If I could afford it, there is no way in hell I would turn it down, the only schools in the world I might consider taking over Penn are Stanford (I like the curriculum) and of course Harvard. The two schools you got into are simply in a league that we don't have here.

 

You'll be finished the sciences in 1.5 years, start clinical work then, get tons of electives, have protected research time and learn medicine at the continent's oldest med school in one of the world's best hospital systems...CHOP anyone? I'd take Penn in a second. Plus, regarding health care management, Penn, through Warton, has berhaps the best health systems MBA in the world and you can do the dual-degree (if you get into Warton).

 

BUT...if you're truly set on international health care, I would say look at Yale's public health school. It's not as good as Bloomberg (but nowhere is for int'l health) but they've been trying to have a strong international focus. Yale, as you know, has no grades in the first two years so if you want an absence of competition that's the place. Then again, New Haven isn't Philly. But Yale also has a great match list.

 

Bottom line: Go with Penn. Damn you're lucky, congrats!

 

**Disclaimer. I agree that if you're truly, 100% set on international health, I don't think the extra money would be worth it to go to the US for med. For public health after, definitely go to the US as Canada's "public health schools" are ridiculously underdeveloped compared to those there. But if you have even the slightest uncertainty about what you'll eventually do, pick one of the US schools. They will open doors for you for the rest of your professional life.

[Guest lucky applicant]

Thanks studenz,

 

Your post was very helpful. My inclination is towards Penn as well.

[Guest VwDubber]

I've recently been accepted to UPenn and Yale, and am awaiting news from UofT. I am wondering what are peoples' thoughts about these schools. Is it worth the additional cost of studying in the States? Please respond not only with ranking, but also underlying reasoning.

Congrats on your choices. I can confirm what someone else mentioned. Penn despite being private, does not offer financial aid to non-US citizens/perm residents. Apart from money, and in addition to what others have said, you may want to take into consideration lifestyle and location. Do you want to live in Philly or New Haven? Philly is prolly going to be a lot more exciting. If you're a LGBT applicant, both schools are fairly liberal but Penn has one of the be biggest LGBT support networks of a US medical school. It really depends on your priorities and whether or not you have additional things to consider like a spouse/partner etc. Penn and Yale are great schools and you might get the occasional oooohhh .. ahhhhhh when you mention where you did your M.D. ..... but if you are someone who is concerned about "image", then a cheaper alternative would be for you to do your M.D. at UofT, do really well on step 1 of the USMLE and apply to do your residencies at some of their hospitals and you could get the ooohhh ..... aahhhh factor without all that extra debt.

 

The bottom line (for me), if I had to choose between them, I would pick UofT. The additional 170K in debt I'd incur would make a nice down payment on a house not to mention being close to my partner and family are at the top of my list of priorities. I understand what you are going through; I had to make similar choices this year so I wish you good Luck!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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http://www.futuredoc.ca/forums

[Guest let me in]

If you want to ultimately practice in the U.S. then I would choose a US school, as I know some students who write the USMLE and go to the states for residency are generally unfamiliar with the U.S. schools and would have felt more comfortable if they had done their undergrad there. It also allows you to form a network and applications for residency are thus easier. Penn definitely has an excellent reputation.

 

If you want to ultimately practice in Canada, then U of T would be a good choice.

 

I don't think money should be the key factor in your decision, I think it's where you see your future - in Canada or the US.

 

All the best

[Guest studentz]

The additional 170K in debt I'd incur would make a nice down payment on a house

 

It's true that the $170K would be a hit...if you plan on devoting your professional life to a NGO like MSF. If not, I can't see it being much of a problem in the long run.

 

The two US schools offer so much more freedom in their curricula (the option for dual-degrees, potential time off to do a degree at another school, the chance to take courses at the undergrad schools, and the chance to extend med school for another year) and given lucky's management interests, there is absolutely no Canadian business school that can approach Warton, which is widely regarded as the world's best, especially for health care management. Rotman is NOT Warton, it doesn't even have that type of MBA or a dual-degree option with the med school, and realistically, given the projected salary of someone with an MD/MBA from Penn, 170K is nothing. Salaries for health care execs in the US are stratospheric, check forbes.com. These opportunities will not exist if lucky goes there as a resident and not a med student.

 

Toronto has a great rep, but it is not Yale or Penn. Moreover, much of Toronto's rep lies in its research strength, yet the latest LCME accredidation review pointed out the jammed curriculum in the first two years gives students next to no time to do research then. This isn't the case at Penn or Yale where a "scholarly project" is mandatory. Toronto stacks up well against a lot of schools in the US, but we're talking about two of the world's greatest universities and medical schools.

 

Congrats again...when you go to penn, I'll send you 10 bucks...mail me back a shot glass for my collection

[Guest lucky applicant]

Thank you for the wonderful responses, vwdubber, let me in, and studentz. I'm surprised by the quality of responses on this board.