If both schools are completely equal in your book, you should consider Northwestern. That would open up two regions if and when you do decide to apply for ortho and it would be good to get away from the left coast for a while and experience something else.

Congratulations, those are two great schools! As a California resident now finishing med school in Philly, I can understand why you wouldn't want to leave. However, I agree with the previous response. Unless you have stellar numbers on your boards, etc., it is difficult to break into another region of the country when you are applying for residency, and gaining a residency spot is all about getting the most interviews as possible. But if you go to school in Chicago, you will now have direct ties to two regions. Additionally, you can always do away rotations at USC and other California programs to gain letters of recommendation and shore up your chances of returning to the Golden State while also having ties to many of the strong midwest programs. Good Luck!

On the other hand, getting a good rec from Dr. Job could go a long way towards getting an ortho residency anywhere -- if you're sure ortho is your thing. )

thanks for all of your responses guys/gals.

actually, my undergrad is on the east coast. i'm here partially because i wanted to experience life apart from the west as some of you mentioned.

i was hoping for some clarification on what some of you meant by having ties to two regions. as i understand it, going to NU would connect me with the midwest and i could do aways on the west coast. but couldn't i go to USC and also achieve the same effect (ties to the west, aways in the midwest)?

and who is Dr. Job?

Please don't tell me you're going to choose which med school you'll go to because it will help with the "regionality" of the ortho match. I dispute its amount of influence on matching others have implied.
I'd choose the school you feel you'd be happiest at. If you're certain about ortho, you're going to be busting your ass for 4 years to get good grades/recommendations/etc; if you want to come out sane, you'll need to factor in things other than "regionality" to keep you happy.
Lastly, you should be reluctant to base such an important decision on the advice from some unknown stranger given on a bulletin board (irony noted).

(BTW Dr Jobe is one of the most well-known sports guys--as in developing the "Tommy John surgery"--he is at USC).

As someone who is from CA and went to undergrad at UCLA, but then to med school in the midwest, I would say that if you really want to do residency in CA then I would stay in CA for med school -- I wish I had. It is very hard to get back to Cali once you leave, even if you have these so-called "ties" to the west coast -- they certainly didn't help me much, even after having grown up there, undergrad there, and with a west coast away rotation.
Just my 2 cents....
Good luck... :smokin:

As yet another CA native who grew up there, went to undergrad there and now doing the med school thing elsewhere, I thought I would add another 2 cents to the pot. I think you need to look at a lot more than just the medical school reputation in terms of obtaining a residency in ortho (as twofingers was getting at). your ortho residency is a long long way off and many things may change between now and then. Since you are already asking such questions and are on this forum, I assume that you are driven enough to do well in medical school, but it is this medical school success that should be your immediate focus. No matter how good of a student you think you are in undergrad, there are plenty of med school obstacles than can trip you up on your way to trying to get into ortho. Both schools you have in mind are quality programs and have lots of benefits as well as downfalls and those should be weighed much more heavily than their geographic location at this point. Since you have so-called "ties" to CA by apparently growing up there but yet going to undergrad elsewhere, the whole question of regionalism is somewhat out the window anyways. My advice after all this mindless dribble: choose the program that you think will allow you to learn the most and do the best. Unfortunately the early stage of getting into orthopedics is all about the numbers game (grades and board scores). Once these open doors for you, the rest seems to be based on all the other intangibles of letters, personality, fit in a program, and the lack of any significant prison record.
Hope this helps a little. Good luck.

hooz, i too can testify to the difficulty of trying to return to ca after med school in the midwest. both programs are very good, but if your ultimate goal is to do residency and practice in ca then you may want to give usc further consideration. you'll be fine either way, however going to usc may improve your chances on the west coast by allowing you to "network" throughout your four years instead of limiting you to 2-3 months of aways in ca. just my 2 cents. best of luck.

The arguments have already been stated. Let me just say that if your ultimate goal is to get back to Cali, I would get back there now, rather than rely on your "ties." Furthermore, I don't know how strong those ties will be after undergrad in the east and med school in the midwest.

thanks, you guys are awesome. i don't know many med students (only premeds like myself), so your viewpoints were definitely helpful.