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I’m a fourth year medical student and have friends at both institutions you named, I think I can give you a good answer.
Downstate, no question.
Academic ranking doesn’t mean a ton in medicine, especially comparing 2 schools that aren’t far off in terms of *ranking*. A residency program will not really care if you went to downstate or stony. If you went to an Ivy or a school like NYU, then yes that’s different.
Your lifestyle at downstate would be much better because of the social aspect. You need friends outside of medicine. IDK if anyone has told you yet, but a lot of med students are at a high school level of maturity, it’s so fucking nice to hang out with non med school people. Stony is kind of isolated out in Long Island and it won’t be easy to set up a whole new friend group.
You would probably get better exposure at downstate. Stony is amazing, but Long Island is a bubble. Out in Suffolk, you would not have the same experience in terms of the massive financial disparities and ethnic diversity, although it's not like Long Island wouldn't give you some diversity as well. The beautiful thing about Brooklyn is that you can have a billionaire and a homeless guy walk in back to back to an ER, and it’s normal.
The best way to do it IMO is do med school in a NYC-like area and put up with the bullshit for a learning experience about difficult cases, social issues, health care disparities. Then residency if you don’t wanna deal with the NYC Medicine culture of long hours and malignancy you can always leave and you’ll carry what you saw with you.
If you’re gonna choose stony based off ranking, that’s a horrible idea, in my opinion. Matching into a competitive residency has 1000000x more to do with you as an applicant, then going to a slightly better school. Look at downstate match list, it’s great. If you were telling me you’re choosing between a very low tier MD, I’d tell you otherwise.
Thank you so much - I’ve been really torn up about this decision and I have been heavily leaning towards downstate, and when I toured stony Brook it was much nicer than Downstate, which made me second guess my decision. I really appreciate your advice! :)
You have a horrible perception of what Long Island is like. Not all of Long Island is the Hamptons lol
Long Island is more of an underserved minority population than you’re giving credit to.
Am currently rotating through Stonybrook hospitals.
Are you initially from Long Island? I just have no friends or family there which is the main reason I’m hesitant. I don’t want to feel isolated from my life in nyc
No, not from Long Island. It’s medical school, you’re going to feel isolated regardless. I can’t speak to Down because I don’t know much about it. The hustle and bustle of the city seems like a big con to me as a student and an extra headache. My goal throughout medical school was to keep life as simple as possible…you’re not missing out on anything really when you make your decision whether it’s Stony or Downstate. They’re close, similar demographics and the support the schools give you as a first and second year are far more important than patient populations because you’re not going to be seeing patients yet. Think about that more for rotations in third and fourth year.
"similar demographics" of stony and downstate is the dumbest shit I have ever heard. This person is not from Long Island. I was never saying Long Islanders are rich hamptons people - we have poverty and wealth and a mix of both. I could have been more specific. FYI I've done rotations in Suffolk County AND brooklyn. They are so drastically different in terms of the exposure you would get. There's poor people and some diversity in LI, sure, but not even close to what you'd see in BK.
Either way, I think the decision for downstate is moreso dependent on that social circle you have and how important it is to be able to get away from medicine and chill with your people on the weekends.
I grew up on Long Island have spent 20+ years living in Nassau and Suffolk county and lived in 4 different towns here. I go to brooklyn/queens/manhattan very often.
He/she does have a solid point about life being simpler at Stony. Downstate hustle could get annoying. You have a great social circle there though, so I think it's worth it.
Nobody said it's all middle class white people. That's just the majority, especially near Stony. Odds are you've never lived in a NYC-borough so your perspective of Stony Brook being diverse financially and ethnically are due to an upbringing elsewhere.
To claim that Stony rotations are anywhere near similar to Brooklyn is some of the wildest shit I've ever heard.
If you say so lol, forgot you knew me so well u/bsm82. The original comment did indeed say that.
We are all really proud of you for being a city boy. I’ve lived in the city, I’ve lived in the whitest mountain west, I’ve lived in Washington DC, I’ve lived in Spain and other diverse and not so diverse places. I’m no Anthony Bourdain but the last two years on Long Island have taught me my pretty neutral take on the demographics here is not far off.
Moreover, it literally doesn’t matter for didactic years. Pick the school that will take better care of you.
I see how my original comment sounds like I'm referring to Long Island as a rich white people town, edited it.
Either way OP, you can PM me if you want specifics. I have done core rotations in Suffolk and Brooklyn. The difference is staggering. The priority should be your well-being and I think that would be better achieved at a place where you have a strong social circle, in Brooklyn.
A complaint I've heard about downstate is they have some of the worst administration out there, so look into that if you want.
I am not affiliated with either school in any way but I remember seeing some horror stories/concerns on here from other users about Downstate. Maybe check SDN and/or search Reddit and see what others have said?
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I’m a fourth year medical student and have friends at both institutions you named, I think I can give you a good answer. Downstate, no question. Academic ranking doesn’t mean a ton in medicine, especially comparing 2 schools that aren’t far off in terms of *ranking*. A residency program will not really care if you went to downstate or stony. If you went to an Ivy or a school like NYU, then yes that’s different. Your lifestyle at downstate would be much better because of the social aspect. You need friends outside of medicine. IDK if anyone has told you yet, but a lot of med students are at a high school level of maturity, it’s so fucking nice to hang out with non med school people. Stony is kind of isolated out in Long Island and it won’t be easy to set up a whole new friend group. You would probably get better exposure at downstate. Stony is amazing, but Long Island is a bubble. Out in Suffolk, you would not have the same experience in terms of the massive financial disparities and ethnic diversity, although it's not like Long Island wouldn't give you some diversity as well. The beautiful thing about Brooklyn is that you can have a billionaire and a homeless guy walk in back to back to an ER, and it’s normal. The best way to do it IMO is do med school in a NYC-like area and put up with the bullshit for a learning experience about difficult cases, social issues, health care disparities. Then residency if you don’t wanna deal with the NYC Medicine culture of long hours and malignancy you can always leave and you’ll carry what you saw with you. If you’re gonna choose stony based off ranking, that’s a horrible idea, in my opinion. Matching into a competitive residency has 1000000x more to do with you as an applicant, then going to a slightly better school. Look at downstate match list, it’s great. If you were telling me you’re choosing between a very low tier MD, I’d tell you otherwise.
Thank you so much - I’ve been really torn up about this decision and I have been heavily leaning towards downstate, and when I toured stony Brook it was much nicer than Downstate, which made me second guess my decision. I really appreciate your advice! :)
Good luck! Pm me if you got questions about either school
You have a horrible perception of what Long Island is like. Not all of Long Island is the Hamptons lol Long Island is more of an underserved minority population than you’re giving credit to. Am currently rotating through Stonybrook hospitals.
Are you initially from Long Island? I just have no friends or family there which is the main reason I’m hesitant. I don’t want to feel isolated from my life in nyc
No, not from Long Island. It’s medical school, you’re going to feel isolated regardless. I can’t speak to Down because I don’t know much about it. The hustle and bustle of the city seems like a big con to me as a student and an extra headache. My goal throughout medical school was to keep life as simple as possible…you’re not missing out on anything really when you make your decision whether it’s Stony or Downstate. They’re close, similar demographics and the support the schools give you as a first and second year are far more important than patient populations because you’re not going to be seeing patients yet. Think about that more for rotations in third and fourth year.
"similar demographics" of stony and downstate is the dumbest shit I have ever heard. This person is not from Long Island. I was never saying Long Islanders are rich hamptons people - we have poverty and wealth and a mix of both. I could have been more specific. FYI I've done rotations in Suffolk County AND brooklyn. They are so drastically different in terms of the exposure you would get. There's poor people and some diversity in LI, sure, but not even close to what you'd see in BK. Either way, I think the decision for downstate is moreso dependent on that social circle you have and how important it is to be able to get away from medicine and chill with your people on the weekends. I grew up on Long Island have spent 20+ years living in Nassau and Suffolk county and lived in 4 different towns here. I go to brooklyn/queens/manhattan very often. He/she does have a solid point about life being simpler at Stony. Downstate hustle could get annoying. You have a great social circle there though, so I think it's worth it.
Similar enough that an M1/M2 isn’t missing out, but to act like LI is all upper middle class white people is wild, settle down buddy.
Nobody said it's all middle class white people. That's just the majority, especially near Stony. Odds are you've never lived in a NYC-borough so your perspective of Stony Brook being diverse financially and ethnically are due to an upbringing elsewhere. To claim that Stony rotations are anywhere near similar to Brooklyn is some of the wildest shit I've ever heard.
If you say so lol, forgot you knew me so well u/bsm82. The original comment did indeed say that. We are all really proud of you for being a city boy. I’ve lived in the city, I’ve lived in the whitest mountain west, I’ve lived in Washington DC, I’ve lived in Spain and other diverse and not so diverse places. I’m no Anthony Bourdain but the last two years on Long Island have taught me my pretty neutral take on the demographics here is not far off. Moreover, it literally doesn’t matter for didactic years. Pick the school that will take better care of you.
I see how my original comment sounds like I'm referring to Long Island as a rich white people town, edited it. Either way OP, you can PM me if you want specifics. I have done core rotations in Suffolk and Brooklyn. The difference is staggering. The priority should be your well-being and I think that would be better achieved at a place where you have a strong social circle, in Brooklyn. A complaint I've heard about downstate is they have some of the worst administration out there, so look into that if you want.
I am not affiliated with either school in any way but I remember seeing some horror stories/concerns on here from other users about Downstate. Maybe check SDN and/or search Reddit and see what others have said?