Thank you everyone for all the replies thus far. I got a great feel from both these schools so its hard to go from gut feeling, and you guys have raised some good points.
To add a third school into the mix, how do you guys feel Einstein compares to BU/Tufts (outside of just Boston vs. NYC)?
Hey DoctwoB,
Congrats on your acceptances! I don't think you can go wrong with any of these schools and at the end of the day they have more similarities than differences. I have friends at Tufts and Einstein and they are happy there.
My 2cents... I was in a similar situation with regards to Tufts and BU last year (didn't interview at einstein) and I'm a first year at BU now and very happy here. Sorry for the long post, but I figured I have some perspective on this so...
The short version of my differential for BU and Tufts was (in order of importance to me)
clinical training: BU>tufts
research opportunities: BU>tufts
pre-clinical facilities: tufts>BU
prestige/ease of getting into a competitive residency: difficult to asses, and depends on what you want to do, more or less =, but not = for all specialties. i.e. I was interested in ortho and ER, and BU is definitely a better place to go with those interests (this should be low on your lists though because most people's interests change at some point during med school).
Most other things: BU = tufts
Some of the factors that played into my decision were ones that have been talked about above. I really wanted to have my clinical years in a safety net hospital setting for a few reasons. You get significantly more hands on training, you get to see advanced and diverse pathology from a global patient population (BMC has translators in some insane number of languages, like 30-50, on staff), and it is the busiest level 1 trauma center and ER in New England. Not to mention that there are very few places in the US where all patients get the same treatment regardless of income level/insurance status (even with the Massachusetts HCR BMC sees >15% uninsured patients). The 3rd and 4th years I know have confirmed that the clinical training is very strong, and said that they realized on away rotations how much stronger the clinical training was at BU than at the well-regarded places they were rotating at.
My general take on medical schools was that how happy and comfortable you are for your preclinical years is important, but that the schools all have to teach more or less the same thing, so your happiness ~ ability to succeed in preclinical years. The clinical experience seems much more variable and BU's strength in this area is definitely what drove my decision.
From a research perspective, BU has a lot to offer in both the clinical and basic science realms and this was a factor for me as well.
Finally, I felt like BU has its own niche in the crowded ecosystem of academic medicine in Boston and I didn't feel the same way about Tufts.
Anyways, good luck w/your decisions and feel free to ask questions. Like I said, you can't go wrong and while I'm happy at BU and feel it was the right place for me I think I would have also liked Tufts and don't have trouble seeing how people would choose it instead.
)
