UCLA vs UWSOM vs Vanderbilt

[PlopPlop]

All three schools cost within 60K of each other with UW being cheapest and Vandy being most expensive, so cost should not be a big factor. While I’d prefer a location outside of Seattle (where I did my undergrad), I want to ensure I’m not making a wrong choice by not attending UW. I’m not sure what I want to specialize in but want to keep all my options open. I’d love to hear others' opinions on these schools!

UCLA
Pros

• P/F fully for 3 years, no AOA
• 3rd year fully open for research
• LA is awesome and I would love to match in California eventually

Cons

• 1 year preclinical curriculum is still pretty new and there seem to be problems with it
• Older student population

UWSOM
Pros

• P/F fully for 2 years
• Strong Clinical Training
• Family close by

Cons

• Less dedicated research time
• More of a primary care focus
• Internal ranking
• Less driven/motivated student body (?)

Vanderbilt
Pros

• P/F for 2 years, No AOA
• Established 1 year preclinical
• Lots of allotted research time in 3th and 4th years

Cons

• Most expensive option (by about 60K over 4 yrs)
• In the South and I wasn't a huge fan of Nashville

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[quinone1234]

Congrats on the A’s! Disclaimer: I got rejected from Vandy and UCLA but have an A at UWSOM.

One important thing to note for UW is that starting 2025, clerkship grading will change to P/F. So it’s now P/F all 4 years for when you start clerkships.

Clinical Assessment System Change - UWSOM Intranet

I also thought UWSOM had a primary focus. I personally am not interested in primary care so I too was concerned about their primary care focus. After doing my own research and talking with students, this is not true. UW basically has a home program in every specialty, which is plus when making connections, shadowing, research, etc. They seem really supportive in non-primary care specialties.

Also, you said you’d prefer a location outside Seattle. Well I guess, this is where the WWAMI travel during clerkships come in? As you can see, I am a biased since I got accepted here and UWSOM has an impressive match list with lots of competitive specialties matching into CA.

UCLA is also an amazing choice (traffic sucks majorly though). You are correct about the older student population (my older sibling got accepted there lol) in a sense that most students took many gap years.

Tbh, I don’t know much about Vandy so can’t comment on that. But I think all of these schools offer great opportunities. Personally, given family support and cost, I would say UWSOM > UCLA >>> Vanderbilt.

Good luck!

 

[PlopPlop]

Thanks for your response! And yeah it's good that all three of the schools have P/F clinicals. Tbh I wasn't a huge fan of the rotation schedule at UW, which was another con I forgot to add. Ideally, I'd be able to live in a big city for all 4 years of med school, but you raise some good points!

 

[FFforM1122]

sounds like UCLA or UW is most appealing for you. UCLA and UW are going to open similar door as Vanderbilt and they are cheaper so either UCLA or UW would be great options for you!