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Tacoma vs. Spokane


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I put Spokane as my first choice, but I found the section on MEDEX's webpage about the different campuses to be extremely helpful in making my decision. They discuss much of what you're asking and more right there! 

 

Generally it appears that Tacoma is more of a military town and the campus here takes a lot of military students. Tacoma is a "suburb" of Seattle (about 40min away) whereas Spokane is it's own hub on the east side of the state. At Spokane, the PA students take classes on Gonzaga's campus. Several of my friends went to Zaga and they loved Spokane. It's affordable, safe, and has tons of outdoors activities plus it's a great place to raise a family. Check the link though....If you click on the name of the campus on the left side of the webpage it will give you more detail about each campus and city. They discuss it much better than I could here. Hope that helps.

 

http://depts.washington.edu/medex/pa-program/campus-locations/

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I live in Seattle and don't agree that Tacoma is a suburb... without traffic it might be 40 minutes, but that's never the case. It's closer to 1.5 or 2 hours drive, and I don't know anyone who regularly travels between the two cities. Tacoma historically is more of a military town (there's a base nearby), but as people are getting priced out of Seattle, Tacoma has been growing.

I'll agree with some of this.  Tacoma is definitely urban, being the 3rd largest city in the state.  I actually know several people that commute between the two cities every day for work.  It's not impossible, and is definitely getting worse as the population continues to rise in the region.  But I've driven there a couple times recently (weekdays, mid-day) and it took less than an hour.  Even right now (1pm, Wednesday), Google Maps tells me it will take 44 minutes from Wallingford to Tacoma including traffic (and 46 minutes for the return trip).  Not too shabby.  Just my two cents.

 

East of the mountains, everything is different.

 

Regarding curriculum, I'm of the understanding that the didactic year is as close to identical as they can get between campuses.  Testing is done on the same day, and at the same time.  Smaller activities and projects may be more specific to the respective sites.  For instance, Tacoma takes part in something called the Tacoma Foot Project (http://depts.washington.edu/medex/tacomafootproject/), and Seattle does some interdisciplinary activities with students from the UWSoM, UW Nursing, and Dental School.

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As far as I know the Tacoma site only does the bachelors tract.  Seattle does masters only and Spokane does Masters and bachelors.  That would be the most important distinction if it is still set up like that.  I know they have to move toward all masters level, but not certain if the next round is when they do that.  

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As far as I know the Tacoma site only does the bachelors tract.  Seattle does masters only and Spokane does Masters and bachelors.  That would be the most important distinction if it is still set up like that.  I know they have to move toward all masters level, but not certain if the next round is when they do that.  

Yeah, they're in the process of changing that.  This next round (students currently applying) will be a hybrid BCHS/MCHS.

http://depts.washington.edu/medex/medex-degree-option-changes-are-coming-to-medex/

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