Mayo vs U.Chicago - Pritzker

[CAVESMAN]

Hello Everyone,

I was accepted off the WL at Mayo past the decision date, so now i am given an opportunity to make a decision between these two wonderful schools. I have a few days to make a final decision! They are about equal in cost, with Mayo being just slightly more expensive.

Any people who know these schools care to talk about the pros and cons of each? Experiences? Residencies? Reputation? about these programs.

Thank you!

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[ChemEngMD]

Hello Everyone,

I was accepted off the WL at Mayo past the decision date, so now i am given an opportunity to make a decision between these two wonderful schools. I have a few days to make a final decision! They are about equal in cost, with Mayo being just slightly more expensive.

Any people who know these schools care to talk about the pros and cons of each? Experiences? Residencies? Reputation? about these programs.

Thank you!

Hey Cavesman,

As you may or may not know - I am a current student at Pritzker so I will make my allegiances known to begin with.

First of all, I did not apply to Mayo, not because it is a bad school but because rural MN wasn't where I was trying to spend these 4 years. That being said, I think everyone knows that Mayo has an excellent reputation in the medical community as a hospital system, and undoubtedly students who train there are privy to the vast clinical knowledge that this institution offers. For whatever reason, by the metrics that USNWR uses Mayo has never ranked as well as its reputation would suggest, although SDN popular opinion seems to consider this a major error haha. Interestingly, a research article entitled "What Makes a Top Research Medical School? A Call for a New Model to Evaluate Academic Physicians and Medical School Performance" found Mayo to actually tie for #13 in the terms of their proposed criteria for raking research schools.

This same article, however, found Pritzker to be #4.

Let's go ahead and knock out some of the similarities between the schools:
Both well known
Both have a small class size
Both match well
Both midwest


UChicago Pros:
True Pass/Fail (actually was developed at UC in the 1960s and was a huge draw for me)
Second highest Step 1 scores in the country (it helps that the guy who makes Pathoma teaches our clinical pathophys course - last year's average was 243)
Chicago as a city
Attachment to major university gives interdisciplinary research/academic/social opportunities (this was important for me personally)

UChicago Cons:
Chicago can be expensive


Mayo Pros:
Having a homefield advantage for matching to a Mayo residency shouldn't be understated
Cheaper cost of living
Clinically the only game in town (maybe get to see more types of cases because of this)

Mayo Cons:
Pass/Pass with Remediation/Fail (call it what you will but it isn't true P/F)
Rochester

On first glance that's all I can think of, but I'm sure more people will chime in. Hopefully we can get some Mayo people in here to spread more light on what they've got going on up north.

If you have any questions you'd rather ask in private about Pritzker shoot me a PM.

 

[greenpenguin65]

Congrats on Mayo and UChicago! I'll preface this with saying that I am on the Mayo waitlist, but as someone who grew up close to Mayo, I wanted to give you some thoughts for when you make your decision!

Mayo:
It's a great school and about 40% of the 45 kids match their each year. That being said, Mayo is not the most diverse area and it does not have the most diverse patient base. Traumas typically go to the Twin Cities, so you don't get to see all of the interesting cases. However, it's small and definitely really easy to get 1-1 attention. You're in the clinic from the first day, and that's really unique.

Chicago:
I don't know much about UChicago, but I know that it was at the top of my list when I applied. You will literally see everything there, and they have a hugely diverse patient population. Chicago is so much bigger than Mayo, and I think the location here is literally incredible. It depends what type of atmosphere you want, but I think that this is the biggest thing working in UChicago's favor.

It's a hard choice. Personally, the patient diversity at UChicago (plus the location) would make me choose it over Mayo. I'm on the waitlist at Northwestern, to give you context, and I'd chose that over Mayo as well. Either way, you can't go wrong!

 

[22031 Alum]

Neither school will shut doors for you, so: Chicago vs. Rochester. Think about what you want your life outside school to look like for the next four years. Totally depends on your preference! Congrats and good luck!

 

[Tots]

I was deciding between Mayo and Pritzker 2 years ago(and in all fairness I chose Pritzker).

I loved the people at Mayo but the big downsides for me were:
1) 4 years in Rochester
2) Financial aid was less then guaranteed, they raised the tuition over 10,000$ the year I applied without increasing aid(this may not be an issue anymore but there was a lot of financial uncertainty the year I was considering it).
3) A good portion of their graduates stay at Mayo and they were very open about wanting to train future Mayo physicians. I was not ready to commit my career to Mayo. Of course plenty of people match elsewhere.

These were the big reasons I ended up not going there. I loved the school. It is truly a special place but I have no regrets choosing Pritzker over Mayo.

 

[CAVESMAN]

Thank you all!! Decision has been made ^.^

 

[greenpenguin65]

^^^ and???