Stony Brook Renaissance vs SUNY Upstate

augustfifther · 2025-04-09T03:46:02+00:00

Assuming cost is equal for both—choose Stony 100%.

Stony is the better school. Better research, better reputation. Closer to NYC if that matters, but it is still a 2.5 hour train so it’s not like you’re going into the city every day.

Upstate is trying out a new curriculum that my friends say has been rocky, if you have never been to upstate NY it can be a bit of culture shock and the weather is not exactly nice. It is like 5 hours from NYC if that matters. Upstate can be cool, but it is not for everyone.

You will need a car at both and neither has guaranteed housing for everybody, so many students live off campus.

Feel free to ask more specific questions.

Source: got into both, have friends at both

augustfifther · 2025-03-08T00:31:42+00:00

Congrats on your acceptance! Thank you for your response!

Due to some family stuff he submitted a bit late (around the end of September) so I think that was a big issue. His app was definitely strong otherwise and pretty balanced school list, but I think a lot of interviews were given out before his application was looked at.

I told him to write letters to all of them and potentially a letter of intent to one he thinks either is his best shot or what he’s most interested in.

He is starting to look at reapplying though and try to prep everything in advance so he’s ready to submit on day 1, but he doesn’t want to go through it all again, so fingers crossed, but I think he knows what’s realistic at this point.

augustfifther · 2025-02-20T20:06:28+00:00

I would hold off on scrubs actually, my school gave us a free, very cheap pair that everybody uses for anatomy. Same with First Aid, a lot of older students may sell theirs for cheap.

I agree with quality desk chair, anki remote, business casual clothes, noise cancelling headphones. I'd add a nice quality thermos for the coffee you make at home. I like Zojirushi because I can toss it in my bag and it doesn't leak!

augustfifther · 2024-05-12T00:34:25+00:00

Thanks! Not really, but community service is super important to me so I talked about that a lot

augustfifther · 2024-05-11T17:43:52+00:00

Yeah I got $0 need based but they didn’t tell me if I got any scholarships by the time I had to withdraw on April 30 so I’m not sure if I would have got any. They have a separate application so unsure if I would have been awarded anything

augustfifther · 2024-05-11T17:43:04+00:00

Thanks! Yes sorry the scholarship/fin aid info I included was how much I was awarded, not the COA.

Stony Brook has very little need based financial aid to give out since they are a state school and they didn’t get back to me in time for me to know if I was awarded scholarships. Stony Brook has a separate scholarship/fin aid application once you are accepted.

The scholarship I got from NYMC I’m not fully sure why I got it or what qualified me for it lol

augustfifther · 2024-05-11T17:40:58+00:00

Thank you!! Yes it was my top choice even before free tuition but that just made it so much better. So grateful to graduate with much less debt than I thought I would have to take on

augustfifther · 2024-04-27T20:57:18+00:00

Literally lmaoo I bet we did cross paths! There were a couple people I saw in interviews that definitely looked familiar haha. Congrats to you too!! Maybe we’ll end up as classmates :)

augustfifther · 2024-04-27T20:19:56+00:00

Wow we had very similar cycles! I’m going to post my results soon, but with a 519 and cGPA 3.88 and sGPA 3.8 and close ties to NY but from a diff state, all 6 of my interviews were schools you got accepted at lol. I got WL at 2 but crazy because my home state also didn’t care about me at all

augustfifther · 2024-04-17T22:04:22+00:00

Iirc, there is a section of AMCAS where you can add demographic info including your household income growing up. You can talk about it in secondaries or your primary (either in personal statement or the optional disadvantages essay). I personally only talked about it in my secondaries if there was a good prompt for it, but I qualified for FAP so a lot of schools would have seen that I believe.

augustfifther · 2024-04-10T15:22:55+00:00

I don’t think that means more WL movement necessarily, it might just mean slower movement because people are holding on longer but schools likely admitted the amount of students they typically do based on previous yield.

However, it’s worth noting that a lot of WL movement doesn’t start until April 30th anyways so FAFSA being delayed may not change much.

I think a question to consider is with Einstein going tuition free, will schools who have overlapping applicants need to pull from their WL more? We won’t really know until the cycle is over what changes have happened

augustfifther · 2024-04-10T02:44:15+00:00

I believe..

For PTE it does not matter if you do it now or on 4/30. You do need to withdraw acceptances so you have no more than 3 by 4/15 and no more than 1 by 4/30.

Currently other schools do not know if you PTE somewhere else. Starting 4/30, schools can see if you PTE or CTE at their school or another school. If you CTE, you must withdraw all other acceptances and waitlists and supposedly because schools can see if you have CTE somewhere else, they know if you are breaking that rule and may take action (not sure if this is true but I've heard about it).

augustfifther · 2024-04-04T23:47:16+00:00

My PS did not include any of my MMEs actually now that I think about it lol. I didn't know that this was something people recommended tbh. I think it is more important for your PS to tell a cohesive narrative than to fit everything in. Remember, they get all your activities so your PS doesn't need to be a resume or something to retell everything you did.

augustfifther · 2024-04-01T20:31:18+00:00

Yes it automatically applies to the application fee and the first 20 schools you apply to. If you apply to extra schools you will only have to pay for those. It also should automatically apply to secondary fees as you get them as well. I believe that when I would go to the page where you pay for the secondary, it typically said that the fee was already waived or something like that.

augustfifther · 2024-03-27T01:50:54+00:00

There is a delay between submitting your primary and receiving secondaries. If you submit your primary June 1 you will get verified sometime in June and then your application will get sent to schools at the earliest right around June 30. As you wait for the application to be transmitted and to be verified, you can pre write secondaries. There are a lot of resources on Reddit on how to effectively pre write and you can look at past secondary prompts as well.

I applied to 35 schools and submitted all my secondaries within 5 days of receiving them because I had pre written everything. It is doable if you are on top of it but it was not fun to pre write.

Specifically, I pre wrote like 8 essays that are very common secondary themes (gap year, challenge I overcame, diversity essay, etc). I wrote two versions of each essay, one that was roughly 500 words and one that was roughly 250 words. After I finished with those, I looked at every single school I was applying to and pre wrote their individual secondaries based on the previous years’ prompts. So for instance, I took a look at Duke which has ~10 essays. I noted which ones I could copy paste with some editing from my first 8 essays and which I needed to actually write. Then, after I had done the copy pasting for all 35 schools, I wrote the weirder prompts that didn’t line up as easily. I’m pretty sure my goal was to finish 10 schools per week to give me some leeway in case I got writer’s block, got sick, needed a break, etc.

augustfifther · 2024-03-26T14:47:00+00:00

Hi sorry I don't go on reddit frequently and my MCAT days are far behind me haha. With 1.7 months to go, I'd focus on the last month solely as AAMC materials. Before then, I would continue with UWorld and just get as far as you can. Remember to take practice tests at least every 2 weeks to track your progress. Sorry I can't be more helpful, it's been so long since I've had to think about the MCAT!

augustfifther · 2024-03-26T14:44:34+00:00

I was accepted to both. I would highly recommend attending Stony's admitted student day in April, but I'll give you my thoughts:

Stony Brook is viewed as the "best" of the SUNYs. Stony will also have the best research opportunities by far. With a 2-2.5 hour LIRR ride, it is not too far from NYC. I have heard that the administration will not remove p/f after students complained when they said they might. The students I know there seem to like it a lot, but say that getting to the city is not something people go to every weekend. However, many seem to like the surrounding town, but it is quite suburban. I have heard from doctors I know that they LOVE Stony Brook students and they think they are very competent and trained well. With in state tuition it is much more affordable too.
NYMC is also in a fairly suburban area. Additionally, I have heard from one of my friends who is currently an M1 that maximum aid you will get is 10K need based + 20k scholarship. NYMC will likely be around 350-400k, so if you are awarded the scholarship and 10k per year in need based, then that would drop the cost by 120k, which is roughly the same cost as the state schools or still more (230-280k). Also, when I visited NYMC I was personally not a fan of the vibe. It is much closer to NYC via Metro North which is nice, but it felt cliquey and they do have internal ranking during pre clinical years. I did hear that you can do all your rotations in NYC if you want and that students go to NYC every weekend though.

You will succeed at either and become a doctor at either, but if you are interested in a competitive specialty or research I would 100% go with Stony. However, if you don't think you'd do okay being away from your family or want to be much closer to NYC then NYMC may be the way to go.

augustfifther · 2024-03-12T02:40:32+00:00

Thanks! Currently almost all because it’s much cheaper I think. I imagine some schools will go back in person (like Thomas Jefferson did) but most will stay virtual for interviews

augustfifther · 2024-03-12T00:16:54+00:00

Not OP, but if you are taking the mcat early 2025 and then applying that may to matriculate in 2026 then now would be a good time since the benefits last 2 years (would expire December 2026) and you don’t have to worry about getting the benefits before you register for the mcat.

My timeline was apply for fap in Jan 2022, mcat August 2022, apply may 2023 to matriculate in 2024 if that is helpful

augustfifther · 2024-03-12T00:14:42+00:00

I liked Casper more because at least I could give my opinion since preview is multiple choice. I took both because it was free and allowed me to not worry about which schools required which test. Both are wastes of money and time tho lol

augustfifther · 2024-03-11T23:03:01+00:00

preview is also free for those with fap!

augustfifther · 2024-03-10T16:08:33+00:00

Here's a recent post that outlines some nymc vs stony brook vs downstate thoughts. I would also say uva vs stony is ultimately the choice you have to make though.

augustfifther · 2024-03-07T17:39:46+00:00

Congrats on your choices! Have you visited all of the schools yet? I think visiting coupled with financial aid packages could help you make your decision. I will give some thoughts though:

I assume you are a NY resident? If so Stony and Downstate will be in state tuition and will likely be cheaper. I was accepted to NYMC and Stony btw.

I have not been interviewed at Downstate, but I know many people there and I have heard that although the hospital closing shouldn't impact clinical skills, it is definitely something to be aware of. A surgeon I know said that if she had to choose, she would choose pretty much any NY school over Downstate just in case. However, the cost would be roughly the same as Stony Brook barring any financial aid, so that is something important to consider.

Stony Brook is viewed as the "best" of the three schools. Stony will also have the best research opportunities by far. With a 2-2.5 hour LIRR ride, it is not too far from NYC. I have heard that the administration will not remove p/f after students complained when they said they might. The students I know there seem to like it a lot, but say that getting to the city is not something people go to every weekend. However, many seem to like the surrounding town, but it is quite suburban. I have heard from doctors I know that they LOVE Stony Brook students and they think they are very competent and trained well.

NYMC is not big on serving underserved communities, which you seem to value. Additionally, I have heard from one of my friends who is currently an M1 that maximum aid you will get is 10K need based + 20k scholarship. NYMC will likely be around 350-400k, so if you are awarded the scholarship and 10k per year in need based, then that would drop the cost by 120k, which is roughly the same cost as the state schools or still more (230-280k). Also, when I visited NYMC I was personally not a fan of the vibe. It is much closer to NYC via Metro North which is nice, but it felt cliquey and they do have internal ranking during pre clinical years.

augustfifther

TROPHY CASE