Congrats, Elana4! Scholarships make all the difference. I went to the MGH open house this weekend and ended up liking MGH a lot more than I did before. I was impressed that so many faculty members are involved in HIV/AIDS and global health projects. I was also impressed that every student and employee I asked, including those I met randomly in the hallway, loved the school. The students said they loved their clinical preceptors ("the best"), they loved getting so many rotations at MGH ("you learn how to give the best care from one of the best hospitals in the country"), they appreciated MGH's affiliation with Partners (I'm still not entirely clear on what is so great about this, though I gather that you get things like access to Harvard Med School library and hospitals affiliated with Partners like to hire you), and they said the atmosphere at MGH was warm and supportive. In particular, at some schools they do the "look left, look right, these people won't graduate" kind of speech at the beginning of a program; at MGH, they don't. I heard that faculty are very accessible, friendly, and ready to help if you need it. In fact, I contacted a faculty member this morning and she got back to me within hours (on a Sunday!). The campus is nice, right on the water, small and intimate, there's free coffee and hot cocoa all the time, and it's right across the river from the food and culture (and, alas, expense) of the North End. Also, someone made the good point that you aren't surrounded by undergrads--no offense to undergrads, but it's nice to have a more graduate-centered environment. Oh, and the schedule sounds tough but doable, with enough time for nourishing things like exercise and evenings and a day or two off a week--and even time to work. Apparently about 2/3 of students work as RNs during the last half of the program. During the first part of the program it sounds more difficult to manage, as that is the more intense portion. Anyway, I was happy with what I saw there. The one drawback I heard from several people (there and on these forums) is that scheduling can be frustrating, specifically rotation scheduling--one student said you might not know where your rotation is until a week before. If you have other commitments or have a hard time relaxing about that kind of thing, that will probably frustrate you. I've heard the same comment about other schools. Other than that, students had a hard time thinking of things they didn't like.
Still waiting to hear back from Simmons, but MGH is looking mighty nice....
