I agree with the two Sackler students that the differences between the Technion program and Sackler is not significant in terms of overall program quality, etc. I am a Technion student, and I was accepted to two U.S. medical schools in addition to the Israeli schools but in the end I chose to come to the Technion because of the strength of their research reputation. I don't regret my decision for a second, but I also friends at Sackler that were accepted to both schools and they are equally enthusiastic about their choice to go to Sackler. In the end, the differences between the programs are more a matter of preference than anything else.

My personal reasons were related to my interest in Neurosurgery. I have a brother who is doing his Neurosurg residency in D.C. who helped me in my decision and steered me toward schools with strong research presence. Also, it was important to me to have the option of doing an MD/PhD. Since the Ivy League schools were out of my league, the Technion was the obvious next choice. The Technion Faculty of Medicine has formal joint medical education programs in various disciplines with the top U.S. medical schools (Johns Hopkins, Brown, Mayo) and Technion grads are regularly accepted to residency programs at these schools. Additionally the Technion has a student exchange agreement with Johns Hopkins School of Medicine that allows students to do rotations at Hopkins during their 3th & 4th years... Technion is the only foreign school with formal rotation exchange with Johns Hopkins... Im not sure whether other schools have any ties to Brown & Mayo.

With that said, there are still plenty of valid reasons to choose Sackler over Technion. For example, if you plan to go into a specialty field that is less "research" dependent... especially if you want to end up somewhere in New York, then Sackler will likely give you an edge over Technion. As a general rule Sackler is more widely recognized among residency programs in general because they have a larger class size. This is important since prior exposure to medical graduates has been shown to be a very important factor in residency match rates (JAMA - 1992).

I am sure that the Sackler students could give you plenty of valid reasons why Sackler would be a better "fit" for any given student... (differences in class size, residency connections, Haifa vs. Tel Aviv, etc.) But in the end, the differences between the programs are more a matter of preference than anything else. You really can't go wrong with either of these schools.

Best of luck,
dpr