happy thanksgiving everyone. so i got in to a medical school without a department of neurosurgery, this medical school also lets me have tuition free and also free textbooks, i still have to take loans to cover fees and living expenses. but everyone i talk to is like when it comes to neurosurgery, prestige of medical school matters especcially clinical curriculum and access to neurosurgeons in neurosurgery department. this medical school is a public school that does not have a department of neurosurgery, and also their dean likes to talk about "primary care" so i feel like i am lying for going there because i want to become a neurosurgeon, which is not primary care. i do not know what to do! i am still waiting on a decision from a school that is very well known and also has their own department of neurosurgery.
I wish I could tell you it will not matter to anyone, but there are is a sizeable portion of PDs that do chase school name. I would wait to hear back on the other schools then make a decision. I can tell you that when we review applications we are plenty wary of the fact that you do not have a home department. There are plenty of applicants we get from top med schools who did not take advantage of the access they had.
Overall, I’d go with the cheaper med school, whatever that means to you financially. The stress of loans is a lot, and not to be discouraging but you don’t know if neurosurgery will work out. Also, dean can yammer all he wants, you don’t owe it to anyone to go into primary care unless you’re in NYUs 3 yr program or are funded by a special primary care scholarship. You can seek out local neurosurgeons, or the next closest department and make connections. If you are seriously considering choosing this school, look at their match lists and see if anyone prior has matched neurosurgery, contact them and ask about their journey.
^also wanted to add, you can contact the prestigious medical school and explain your financial constraints and the offer you have at this other school. Its delicate but there’s a way to do it. Many have gotten significant finaid offers at top schools using this approach.
go with the free tuition. Today you want to do neurosurgery, but you may not want to in a few years. If you do end up wanting to go into a primary care specialty not having 100's of thousands of debt will help you move forward and help you get to a place you want to be in life. Despite what the site may make you think, neurosurgery is not life. It's a job. You will work for a corporation and just do what you're told. For every "super star" neurosurgeon there are another 100 who just show up, do their job and go home. And bitch and complain like everyone else with a job.
free tuition very good
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If you want to end up in neurosurgery the correct choice is the school with a neurosurgery program, regardless of prestige. If you have a third option that is somewhere in the middle in terms of prestige and cost, that may be a reasonable alternative.
Speaking as someone who turned down a full ride from my state school to go to a much more expensive and prestigious program, you can use the prestige of your school to make money on the side tutoring. I paid my debt down to 1/4 by aggressively tutoring, especially during my additional research year. I continued to tutor intermittently in residency early on to supplement my resident income.
The one caveat is that I went to college on a full ride, so I had no undergrad debt.
OP. Don't listen to the Carribean grads up top. Take the school with prestige if you are serious about neurosurgery. I got comments about my excellent pedigree at multiple schools. It matters. Also, not having a home program will screw you over.
Take the school with a home program, that’s more important to make sure you get good research opportunities and meaningful letters from people that know you well.
Let’s be honest, unless you’re talking about a school like Harvard or UCSF, prestige doesn’t matter that much. It’s rare to find a PD that cares about someone who went to NYU instead of Kansas. The school at that level only matters insofar as it provides access to good research opportunities and well-known letter writers.
Its not fair that school matter so much.
Fuck it.
Waaah! Someone who gets into great med school has better shot at competitive residency, so unfair. Boo hoo.
^ I thought we are supposed to aspire to meritocracy. Instead the NS establishment is openly embracing corruption.
I mean you could argue it is meritocracy just one starting before medical school…. Merit of getting into a higher tier medical school puts you on a path of less resistance to competitive residency.
