SF and Yale are fairly similar;
UCSF and Yale are similar in the sense that both have great reputations, attract a great student body, and have a great international focus. But the cities could not be more different.
SF has a better location, Yale is more laid back, friendly and diverse.
You're sort of shooting yourself in the foot with your unbiased claim.
First, whether SF or New Haven is better is up to you. I love San Francisco and didn't particularly like New Haven, but that's just me. I'm sure there are folks who wouldn't like SF politics and who would miss the seasons of New Haven.
Secondly, given that you don't know much about San Francisco, I can't imagine you have great insight into what their student body is like. Most of the folks I met from UCSF were pretty chill. It attracts it share of the Conquer the World types, like any top school, but it's a much more mellow vibe than most schools I've seen (helped by the P/F system). Folks are very friendly there and attracts a diverse student body too. I only kinow one Yalie so I wouldn't presume to categorize their student body (take note here) but she seemed to think folks at Yale were pretty cool too.
You will leave either school with a top-notch education and residency spot of your choice.
Agree with the first, but for the second, neither school has a special sauce. Bomb your Step 1 and do ho-hum on the wards and you'll only be getting your top residency spot if you have a passion for pediatrics in Oklahoma. Yale and UCSF get top notch residency spots because they attract top notch medical students.
Let me also point out that this is one of those areas where Yale truly, definitively, has a major advantage. UCSF is only for health professionals. At Yale you meet people at the world's best law school, not to mention amazing business, forestry, divinity, architecture, theater, music, and other schools. Yale undergrad is famous for its quality.
Lots of folks on SDN have a real passion for turning medicine into an extension of their undergrad experience. That sure hasn't been my experience, but to each their own. I go to a school that has a big undergrad and it really has had zero impact, other than the ability to get undergrad volunteers at some of our programs.
If you want to do a joint degree program, Yale probably is a better bet. I actually don't know the joint degree possibilities, but I'll take your word for it that there are great opportunities at Yale.
That said, Yale's forestry, architecture, and music program will probably not be a huge boon to the average medical student. I don't have any stats, but I would guess that at
most you have 15-20% of a med school class doing joing degrees (closer to about 10% at my school). Of those, I'd say close to 75% of those students are doing either MD/PhDs or MPHs. UCSF does these, as well as MA/MPH possibilities with Berkeley, which is a pretty good school.
Yale matched 100% last 2 years, and Stanford did as well. Too bad UCSF and Harvard couldn't do that.
Yeah. UCSF and Harvard are really hurting. Caveat emptor.
Yale is a great medical school, but you're actually not doing it any favors by trying to boost its image by trying to tear down UCSFs. It hurts your own cause. Both are great schools.
**** Disclosure: I've worked with Yale a few times and in New Haven. I've also lived in SF for a while and worked a short stint at UCSF. I applied to UCSF and was waitlisted and did not attend. I didn't apply to Yale (not due to anything about the school, only because my wife couldn't do the area).
