Can anyone who either is currently in the programs or recently decided between the two give some insight into their decision making process? I feel like theres some bits and pieces of this on this board already, but just kinda a little bit about why you chose one over the other? thanks!
I was accepted to both programs last year. I ended up choosing Fort Lauderdale for a few reasons, but they may not weigh as heavily with everyone.
1) I was coming from a good-sized university, so the big university campus feeling was more familiar than the office building campus of the Tampa program.
2) The anatomy lab at Tampa is virtual, which is cool for people who want to avoid cadavers. At Fort Lauderdale, there is an awesome cadaver lab. I'm a hands-on learner, so that was attractive to me.
3) I connected with the faculty and students at Fort Lauderdale right away on my interview day. I also met some other parents of with young kids like mine (built-in friends).
4) Fort Lauderdale Beach.
Most of that probably doesn't matter, in the end. We're in clinical/classroom hybrid mode now, and I'm sure we were all just as prepared for the OR when we started clinical time in January. Last I heard, ~70% of dual-admits choose Ft Lauderdale, but that doesn't mean it was a better choice. That's something you have to decide for yourself.
Honestly it was a difficult decision because the programs are so similar and the atmosphere at both is so friendly. I decided to go with Tampa because it is a smaller class size and I liked the area better. Someone mentioned too that it is a bit cheaper to go the Tampa route, but apparently not too big of a difference. Anyway! I'm not sure that helps much, but I just knew that the Tampa campus was the better choice for me!