does it matter where you do your MD?

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ericthamonkey

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I'm from Quebec, and we have a slightly different system where you don't need an undergrad to get in medical school. In my particular situation (I finished 1 year of my bachelor's, which takes 3 years to complete in quebec), there was only one school I could apply to. I got accepted, and I'm wondering if I should just accept the offer, or finish my undergrad, and then apply more broadly.

The thing is, the school i was accepted to isnt very well known, is in a pretty ****ty location, and only has 1 year and a half of internships. This means that when I'm applying for residency, i will have a disadvantage. Therefore, I'm tempted to finish my bachelor's and apply to schools that would suit me better, instead of being restricted to this one school I don't particularly like.
I have good stats and getting into another medical school after my undergrad shouldnt be a problem!!

Am I being an idiot, and should just accept the offer? Or am I right to be worried about these issues?

Thanks!

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I think you're justified in thinking about the big picture - I'm not familiar with Canadian schools, but given the information you've provided, I think you should finish your ugrad, and open the doors to more opportunities.
 
Ask the school if they'll let you postpone for two years to complete your degree. Then if things don't work out, you can keep them as a backup. This eliminates the risk.

Canadian schools are competitive, from what I've heard, because there aren't very many of them.
 
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There's no way the school will let me do that unfortunately :(
I would love to finish my undergrad, but i dont know if it's worth doing an extra 2 years when I could just go into medical school now.

since i will have a slight disadvantage during the residency match, is there anything I can do starting this summer to increase my chances when that time comes??
 
You should probably wait until they are out of clinc........
 
I'm from Quebec, and we have a slightly different system where you don't need an undergrad to get in medical school. In my particular situation (I finished 1 year of my bachelor's, which takes 3 years to complete in quebec), there was only one school I could apply to. I got accepted, and I'm wondering if I should just accept the offer, or finish my undergrad, and then apply more broadly.

The thing is, the school i was accepted to isnt very well known, is in a pretty ****ty location, and only has 1 year and a half of internships. This means that when I'm applying for residency, i will have a disadvantage. Therefore, I'm tempted to finish my bachelor's and apply to schools that would suit me better, instead of being restricted to this one school I don't particularly like.
I have good stats and getting into another medical school after my undergrad shouldnt be a problem!!

Am I being an idiot, and should just accept the offer? Or am I right to be worried about these issues?

Thanks!

See where other students from that med school ended up going for residency. If it fits with what you want to do, then no, it doesn't matter where you go. Overall, it's pretty painful to be in a place you don't like for 4 years IMO.
 
See where other students from that med school ended up going for residency. If it fits with what you want to do, then no, it doesn't matter where you go. Overall, it's pretty painful to be in a place you don't like for 4 years IMO.

How much do match lists vary between US MD schools? I tried counting the percent that end up in more competitive specialties, and it didn't increase significantly with USN ranking at all (Drexel had more than BU). Is there any ranking that uses match lists exclusively but also looks at the ranking of each residency program?
 
See where other students from that med school ended up going for residency. If it fits with what you want to do, then no, it doesn't matter where you go. Overall, it's pretty painful to be in a place you don't like for 4 years IMO.

On the flipside, you're so busy in med school that you don't notice your environment much. The big factor is whether students from the school get into residencies you are interested in. For example, I don't think anyone from my own school has gotten into neurosurg or optho in recent years.
 
How much do match lists vary between US MD schools? I tried counting the percent that end up in more competitive specialties, and it didn't increase significantly with USN ranking at all (Drexel had more than BU). Is there any ranking that uses match lists exclusively but also looks at the ranking of each residency program?

Isn't that interesting :rolleyes: There's none that I'm aware of which rank based on match list. The US News Primary Care list does list schools by % that send students into primary care fields. You just have to google the school match list. Actually I think there's a thread listing them somewhere on this forum.

As long as you are at a solid school (ie been around for more than 2 seconds, has sent people into the field you want to go into in the past) you can break into anything with hard work.

On the flipside, you're so busy in med school that you don't notice your environment much.

Yeah, but on the evenings and weekends when you do go out you want it to be someplace you enjoy. After 2 years I moved out of the town my school is in to a much prettier, nicer, more social area because I felt stifled. It made all the difference for my psychological well-being and was well worth the 30 minute commute. To each their own, though.
 
generally, any MD school will be able to send an average student to almost any specialty (save for derm and maybe some of the surg subspecialties). It may not be to the "brand names" programs, but any bottom barrel MD program still matches people in derm, urology/ent rad onc, and plenty in rads, gas, etc
 
How much do match lists vary between US MD schools? I tried counting the percent that end up in more competitive specialties, and it didn't increase significantly with USN ranking at all (Drexel had more than BU). Is there any ranking that uses match lists exclusively but also looks at the ranking of each residency program?

As a current Drexel student, I know I'm biased. I think it might be fair to say that by and large the most competitive programs in any specialty also have a strong research focus. Where will you find strong research? It goes without saying that I would find more research opportunities across the river at Penn versus at a place like Drexel -- and what do most what we would consider top residency programs look for? Research experience.

Anecdotally, having many friends at name brand medical schools, it does disappoint me that they can shoot for dermatology residency when they have told me that they are very average in their medical school class. For me, if I were to shoot for dermatology (although I have no interest in it that I know of), I would have to achieve the best grades possible and possibly strive to obtain AOA status where I am for medical school. That said, I can't imagine being anywhere else and have loved my experience at Drexel thus far (I know I'm getting a great education), but unfortunately, that's just the way it goes.

At the same time, do I think that I won't be able to achieve what I desire out of my career because I wouldn't be able to match at [insert competitive program here]? I don't think so - there are many paths, and at times I think many of us (including myself) get tunnel vision. Yes, going to a top residency program will afford you more opportunities, but I don't think not going to one will completely shut the door of opportunity.
 
At the same time, do I think that I won't be able to achieve what I desire out of my career because I wouldn't be able to match at [insert competitive program here]? I don't think so - there are many paths, and at times I think many of us (including myself) get tunnel vision. Yes, going to a top residency program will afford you more opportunities, but I don't think not going to one will completely shut the door of opportunity.

It absolutely will not shut the door. If you match in your specialty, every door is open for you to some degree. While a better med school may definitely help you land that specialty, once you match into a specialty, you are set (except for IM where the subspecialties are the real "match.") The only "opportunities" you would miss by training at Drexel rather than Penn would be if you were trying to get a job in academics or outside of Philadelphia (and even these are attainable)
 
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