I had the opportunity to choose between more than one school. I ended up choosing a 4y over 3y program, and it was a really difficult choice. The most important factors that went into my decision were:

- Heard much more 'complaints' or 'dissatisfactions' with the 3y program (from the 3y program students themselves, and attending physicians)

- When I mentioned the 4y programs name to physicians, they always expressed how strong the upper-year students and residents from this program were clinically and how impressed they were with these students/graduates on rotations.

- The 4y program had an older and more diverse (in terms of experiences/backgrounds) class than the 3y program, which I liked.

- The 4y program was known to have a fantastic clinical skills program + involves you in patient-care/experiences earlier and to a greater degree.

- The 4y program had a much smaller class and I heard medical students were often able to do more and build more connections as there are fewer students + residents.

I wanted to choose the 3y program for a lot of reasons (more flexible schedule, a curriculum built around self-directed learning (which works well with me), cheaper, closer to my significant other, closer to a lot of connections I made prior to medical school). However, I ultimately felt that the 4y program would better prepare me to be a good doctor.

To make the decision, I had to figure out which deciding factors were most important to me personally and my future career. These will vary slightly between people.