Advice for the lowly med school applicant

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money does matter.

plain and simple.

if you are an all-star, you will do well no matter where you go. likewise, if you're a douche, it won't matter that you went to Harvard. YOu'll just be a crimson douche.

while applying for med school, i found out that i was elligible for a full-ride to med school at my state school. once i got into my state school, and subsquently found out that i got the scholarship, I pulled my applications from everywhere else, including from what many would call "top-tier" places.

It didn't matter to me that I would "only" be getting my MD from a state school. I did help that I didn't graduate with $200,000 in loans from med school, because now I own my own apartment in NYC, something that I wouldn't have been able to do otherwise.

if you think it matters to you it probably does. don't let people try to talk you out of something that you feel. you have to live with all of your choices. we are just people with nothing better to do at 6 AM on a Sunday before going on call.

After a long season of interviews, my choice has come down to UT-Memphis and Wake Forest.

I feel like Wake is the 'better' or more prestigious school, and I really liked alot about WFU (the curriculum looked pretty innovative, longer time protected for step 1, the hospital was impressive, and it has a smaller class).

I also really liked UT; to me, its biggest strengths are its clinical opportunities (very hands-on, get to do more as a 3rd and 4th year). And it is affiliated with two ortho residency programs, one of them being the campbell clinic. I'm indifferent about the town, but you gotta love the price.

Right now, I'm leaning more towards UT, simply based on my gut instinct alone... and the thought of paying a much smaller loan repayment in a decade or so. UT also matched 9 (out of 10) in ortho this year.

While I realize that the next three *may* change my mind, I really think I want to do ortho at this point, and was wondering if I would be giving up any advantage by going to the less prestigious school.

As always, any advice would be greatly appreciated.

First of all, the crimson douche line may be my favorite quote from this forum and I think soudes should get some props for it. Second, I agree that money does matter. I don't think it should be the No. 1 factor, but if you have two quality schools that you are interested in than money can make the swing. There is a big difference between 100k and 200k of loans! As an orthopod, can you pay off your debt? yes, but you will be at least 30 before you start making any real money and by that time you will want a nice house/car/etc.
To me the most important thing you said is that your gut is telling you to go to UT. Then go to UT. I turned down what were (at the time) 3 of the top 5 US news "best med schools" for my state school, and last week I matched where I wanted to go for ortho. I made that decision because my gut told me to go there, and I liked the curriculum/students better than the ones at the "big names". I have no regrets.

I've gotta agree with gamma, I have a similar story and definitely feel like I made the right choice. Out of college I was looking at a couple of the "top" programs, or a school on the tier just below that was 1/2 the price. I had some of the same questions as you, so I asked the head of the ortho program at the place where I did undergrad (it's a top residency program frequently mentioned here) Turns out he went to a "no-name school" and basically said, it doesn't matter as much where you go, if you have the tools to do well, so go where you want and don't stress too much about small differences in prestige. Right now every time I pay my tuition for the semester I think about that decision
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The other huge factor is where will you be happy? If you're not happy, it doesn't matter how good or prestigious the school is, if you end up not doing as well because you're bummed out all the time. That was another big factor in my decision, I figured that I'd be more motivated to work hard if I was where I felt the most comfortable. I'm not saying you can't throw yourself into your work and kick butt even if you're somewhere that doesn't fit your personality as well, but it's tougher to do. One caveat though, is that you WILL have to work a little harder for grades, connections, etc if you go to a school with less prestige, so that you stand out 4 years from now.

And finally-keep in mind that if you're really thinking hard about ortho, even if UT-Memphis overall doesn't have as prestigious a program as Wake (I can't make any judgements, I didn't look into it at all), the ortho program at campbell is top notch, which will be key in the long run.

Hope that helps, and good luck!

Realize that there's a very good chance, no matter how unlikely it seems to you now, that you will end up not going into ortho. I'm not saying that in a negative way, I'm just saying that during 1st year, there were lots of guys in my class that said they wanted to do ortho, and by third year a lot realized that they would be happier in other fields that they just didn't know about before starting medical school. Go into this with an open mind! There are lots of awesome fields in medicine, not just one. Go to the school where you will be happy. Spend the first 3 years working to become the best doctor you can be...it's what separates orthopedic surgeons from podiatrists and chiropractors. After that, if you still want to do ortho, you will be in better shape to match than if you spent 3 years being the stereotypical "ortho gunner".

ps - a month is plenty of time to study for the boards. In my class, there was definitely an inverse correlation between the length of time people took to study and how well they did.

Best of luck!