SUNY Buffalo / SUNY Upstate / MCW / U Cincinnati

[NYR56]

First off, I sincerely appreciate any info/opinions/advice that any of you can offer me about this situation. I'm currently accepted to both SUNY Buffalo & Upstate, and in the top grouping on the waitlists at MCW & U of Cincinnati. I figured with the 5/15 date coming up, I need to pick between the SUNYs, and should realy figure out if I would want MCW or UC over the SUNYs in case I do end up hearing back from them.

I'm leaning heavily towards UB over Upstate - the campus seemed nicer and the people seemed happier. That said, being right next to Syracuse U is pretty cool. UB also seemed motivated to be the up and coming SUNY, whereas Upstate seemed to lack that motivation. Upstate seems to have some controversy regarding a med lit class, and one student went as far as telling me I shouldn't go there.

I also liked MCW & UC a lot, but both will cost about 45K and 60K more respectively over the course of four years. I feel like that additional expense is reasonable if (and only if) the schools are truly worth it over the SUNYs. Part of me wants to check out life off the east coast, and I spent a weekend in Milwaukee and had a great time. The students at both schools seemed to love it, although the students at MCW seemed to have the most fun out of any of the med schools I've interviewed at. I'm a big fan of having a balanced life, and that definitely includes going out on weekends whenever possible, which seemed to be pretty common there.

I'm not very picky, and I'm sure I'll be happy at any of the schools, so it really comes down to which would be best overall. I'm thinking I would like to enter surgery, so would any of those schools be better for something like that? One slight advantage of the SUNYs is they are effectively ABCF, whereas UC & MCW are ABCDF. Unfortunately none are P/F, which I definitely would have preferred. Are there any other factors that stand out between these schools? Thanks again for any input!

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[BigEast55]

I would probably take UB over Upstate (which really disappointed me on second-look, a faculty told me to go elsewhere as well) and then probably Cincinnati over UB. I've heard really good things about Cincinnati, and 60k isn't that much in the long-run (and you'll avoid the terrible upstate winters). But take the cincinnati advice with a grain of salt, I know nothing really about the program.

 

[Maxwell7301]

First off, I sincerely appreciate any info/opinions/advice that any of you can offer me about this situation. I'm currently accepted to both SUNY Buffalo & Upstate, and in the top grouping on the waitlists at MCW & U of Cincinnati. I figured with the 5/15 date coming up, I need to pick between the SUNYs, and should realy figure out if I would want MCW or UC over the SUNYs in case I do end up hearing back from them.

I'm leaning heavily towards UB over Upstate - the campus seemed nicer and the people seemed happier. That said, being right next to Syracuse U is pretty cool. UB also seemed motivated to be the up and coming SUNY, whereas Upstate seemed to lack that motivation. Upstate seems to have some controversy regarding a med lit class, and one student went as far as telling me I shouldn't go there.

I also liked MCW & UC a lot, but both will cost about 45K and 60K more respectively over the course of four years. I feel like that additional expense is reasonable if (and only if) the schools are truly worth it over the SUNYs. Part of me wants to check out life off the east coast, and I spent a weekend in Milwaukee and had a great time. The students at both schools seemed to love it, although the students at MCW seemed to have the most fun out of any of the med schools I've interviewed at. I'm a big fan of having a balanced life, and that definitely includes going out on weekends whenever possible, which seemed to be pretty common there.

I'm not very picky, and I'm sure I'll be happy at any of the schools, so it really comes down to which would be best overall. I'm thinking I would like to enter surgery, so would any of those schools be better for something like that? One slight advantage of the SUNYs is they are effectively ABCF, whereas UC & MCW are ABCDF. Unfortunately none are P/F, which I definitely would have preferred. Are there any other factors that stand out between these schools? Thanks again for any input!

From reading your post, it seems like you are leaning towards UB over Upstate. I think UB is definitely the up and coming SUNY, and they have plans to build a brand new building downtown for the med school by 2015. This would put the med school right in the heart of the Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus, next to Buffalo General Hospital and the new vascular center building. All of the med students I know at UB are happy with their decision.

Can't say much about MCW or UC, but why not save some money and stay in-state?

 

[NYR56]

Good to hear UB is generally considered above Upstate. I think in older threads this wasn't always the case. I haven't heard too much about Cinci, but I do feel like it was a pretty good reputation. I'm likely sticking to UB to save the money, but looking to see if anyone thinks UC or MCW are worth the extra money, which to be honest, isn't a total deal breaker. I already threw out BU, but that was 100K more than UB.

 

[hpfan]

I know a few people at Cinci who really like it and applied for in state tuition after the first year. They did receive it which made the school more affordable.