Decided

[pengdori]

Specialty Interests: sports medicine, surgical specialty, unsure if I want to pursue highly competitive specialties like ROAD, but overall open to exploring
CA resident, Asian

Before you throw rocks at me for the obvious "choose USMD over DO" I'd like to say that I am mostly leaning towards Creighton, just trying get as many opinions as possible

Creighton (Omaha, NE)
Pros:

• USMD
• Faculty/culture seem nice
• Affiliated hospital
• Large university so I can use their facilities (nice gyms are of high interest)
• Low COL
• Well established
• Could do electives during 4th year in their Phoenix regional campus which is slightly closer to home.

Cons:

• Far from support system (family, S/O, friends). Flight tickets are expensive (~$600 round trip)
• 69k a year for tuition alone ($1900 for technology fee, which I heard is a macbook... I'd rather have it in cash)
• Possibly not much research opportunities
• Not much to do in the area, although not too bad of a problem for me since my life is mostly gym-work-gaming/indoor activities
• Not the most diverse place
• Honors/Pass/Fail so not a "true" pass/fail

Touro CA
Pros:

• Close to support system
• More stuff to do (bay area)
• True pass/fail
• Matches 100%, impressive match list (even matched 2 students into dermatology in 2022) for a DO school.
• Tuition 4k cheaper than Creighton
• Less of a hassle to move, won't have to sell my car to buy a new one or transport it for >$1000

Cons:

• Clinical rotation site is based on lottery system and spread out
• Still expensive, tuition alone is 64k
• High COL, will likely settle in Oakland or Walnut Creek
• Inconvenience that comes with DO such as comlex+usmle, OMM in addition to regular med school classes
• limited research, more so than Creighton
• Not sure if it's a con but the calendar is Jewish holiday based? Idk what to expect, didn't seem too alarming based on their academic calendar

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[alapeds]

Touro was originally established in NY as a Jewish based college where Orthodox Jewish folks could study while still adhering to their religious practices. Of course, now the majority of its students are not Jewish, but that is its origin, and it still abides by the Jewish holidays and serves kosher food on its campuses. Interesting article here -https://www.jta.org/2022/09/14/united-states/this-expanding-jewish-university-is-doing-some-unusual-things
Up until recently they had only DO schools. Now they actually own New York Medical College, having taken it over from the Catholic diocese, so they now offer an MD under that name.
Touro is a good school, definitely one of the better DO schools, and in fact, one of my Pediatric colleagues graduated from there and is an excellent physician, but as you already noted, if you’re interested in more challenging specialties to enter for residency, you are much better off with an MD. Having to take two sets of exams because of doing the DO route sounds like a nightmare to me.

Pricewise it looks to me like they’re about even given the much higher cost of living in the Bay Area.

 

[theoceanman]

Unless you’re absolutely dead-set on primary care (I mean even then still questionable), go MD. The “OMM/OPP tax” doesn’t exist, plus you’ll have an easier time matching in competitive specialties and at academic institutions. Best of luck!

 

[popoon]

Creighton

 

[chilly_md]

Creighton, especially since you have some interest in surgical specialties.

Commuting wouldn't be fun either at Touro CA.

 

[PalaceLover]

Creighton since cost difference is marginal. Can always match back to Bay Area. If you’re 100% okay with primary care and being home/close to support is vital. then I can justify Touro. Congrats!

 

[MDMechEngr]

Go Jays! you will thank yourself in the not too distant future. Going the DO route is more than just an inconvenience. You are trying to push for the summit (for a lot of us, med school is Mt. Everest) with limited help from your sherpa, limited oxygen and limited ropes to navigate the Hillary Steps. Despite this, people do make it to the top. I am overly dramatizing it, but this is my analogy as a mountaineer/engineer.

 

[Go2Mars]

I would choose Creighton. If you want to be closer to support system and you are worried about the Omaha location, you can email Creighton to request a transfer to the Phoenix location. I saw some students on the SDN thread do that, and it seems that Creighton is pretty accommodating.

 

[pengdori]

Got off the waitlist for Phoenix, even more of a no-brainer decision at this point. Thank you everyone for the input!