hii everyone super stoked about my choices! however i’m really stumped about where to go and since april 30th is literally 2 days away i need help! i don’t think i will get financial aid for both these schools so cost honestly isn’t a HUGE deciding factor

Wake Forest

Pros:

- got a great vibe from my interview day. seems faculty is very supportive and students have only said great things about the school.

- school has lots of funds to pour back into the students

- modern/ state-of-art facilities

- has a medical spanish program that helps you get an interpreter certification

- non-mandatory lecture but with some group classes

- low COL area!

-smaller class at ~140

Neutral

- base tuition is $64K with total COA ~100K I believe

- i think they do a mix of in-house and NMBE exams

Cons:

- somewhat quiet, suburban location. really really not the biggest fan as i will be coming from southern california and feel like it might be too isolating for me

-only 2 CA matches this year which is scary.

-might be hard to find research outside of wake? although maybe could find some opportunities at unc or duke later on. however, students have said they have easily gotten research elsewhere too so idk.

Georgetown

Pros:

- location! living in a big city like DC would be such an amazing opportunity omg

- georgetown may have more colloquial name value? which could help with residency match?

- equally good match list!

- i fell in love with their health justice scholars track which seems to help students integrate policy work into their medical education

- i like the cura personalis mission and feel like i'm a good mission fit for the school

- could possibly do research at the NIH and other schools

matched 30 students back to CA this year

Neutral:

- larger class size at ~200

- majority asynchronous lectures

- heard you do rotations in other hospitals around the DC metro area which would require a car

Cons:

- tuition... georgetown has one of the most expensive base tuitions at $75K i think. which makes the COA more.

- HIGH COL area. rent is super expensive in the georgetown area

- run down facilities. i heard that the school of medicine is a bit dated compared to the undergrad campus which seems underwhelming

- have heard complaints about the school in general but not sure how true these are

- dropping step 1 pass rate?

- in-house exams

Sorry if this was long but I am torn! my goal is to match back to california. I think I will be much happier at Georgetown just based on location and health policy opportunities but I can’t deny that Wake has a great program. I am also interested in psychiatry and ophthalmology, which i know are pretty much on opposite spectrums of each other lmao. still trying to figure it out. so i guess i'm looking for a school to best set me up in case i want to match into a competitive speciality. thank you all! :)