The SDN Prestige Poll (2016 Version)

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Is prestige worth an additional 100k+ of debt?

  • Only for Stanford, UCSF, Hopkins, Penn, and/or Harvard.

    Votes: 91 31.6%
  • Only for a school in the US News Top 10.

    Votes: 75 26.0%
  • Only for a school in the US News Top 20.

    Votes: 35 12.2%
  • In most cases (even for a top 30) because prestige gives me a warm fuzzy feeling.

    Votes: 18 6.3%
  • Not at all

    Votes: 69 24.0%

  • Total voters
    288
Idk what "most people" you hangout with but most people I've met are confused as to why a school is named after a condiment

Mayo Clinic is one of the best hospitals in the world. I think most people have heard of it...

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For what it's worth, answers will vary a lot depending on each person's career goals and priorities. For research and academic career goals, I'd definitely go the extra mile to attend prestigious institutions. For primary med and just practicing medicine, I would just roll with any IS institutions. I'd also take into consideration the distance from my family, however. Mayo and WashU are both driving distance from my parents, so if I wanted to do research/academics, I'd pay $100,000+ to go to WashU or Mayo, but I probably wouldn't go to Harvard, Stanford, and Yale simply because of the distance from family, not the money.
 
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My "goal" though I realize its more of a dream is to become a medical oncologist at a large academic cancer center. Given that, I think going to the best school possible would be advantageous. Not sure if I should check B or C though.
 
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Educated people who care about medicine have. Others, unless they live near it, probably don't care to know the differences between hospitals

Educated people who care about medicine are the ones decided which residency you can get into and where you can be an attending...
 
Educated people who care about medicine are the ones decided which residency you can get into and where you can be an attending...

Yes, obviously. The comment I answered to originally was referring to the post which said that WashU wasn't prestigious because lay people don't know about it. By that metric, almost no schools are prestigious, which is baloney.
 
Educated people who care about medicine have. Others, unless they live near it, probably don't care to know the differences between hospitals

I have to disagree because I live on the east coast and many of my family members are working class, have never left NY and have not gone to college (some never graduated high school) and they have all heard of the Mayo Clinic through pop culture (from watching the simpsons, house, etc) or from googling diseases. Of course not every person has heard of Mayo Clinic, but it is very well known even amongst uneducated people who don't really care about medicine.
 
Yes, obviously. The comment I answered to originally was referring to the post which said that WashU wasn't prestigious because lay people don't know about it. By that metric, almost no schools are prestigious, which is baloney.

That's not what I was referring to. I was only commenting on your post saying that most people haven't heard of the Mayo Clinic, which is the only thing I disagree with. I think most lay people have heard of Hopkins, Harvard, Mayo Clinic, etc because they appear in pop culture a lot. I absolutely do agree that it's ridiculous to think that WashU or other schools aren't as prestigious because lay people don't know about them.
 
I have to disagree because I live on the east coast and many of my family members are working class, have never left NY and have not gone to college (some never graduated high school) and they have all heard of the Mayo Clinic through pop culture (from watching the simpsons, house, etc) or from googling diseases. Of course not every person has heard of Mayo Clinic, but it is very well known even amongst uneducated people who don't really care about medicine.
I guess it's just an anecdotal thing. My family is mostly west coast working class, and the only person who's ever heard of mayo is my aunt... and only because she tried the "Mayo Clinic Diet," and had some marginal success lol.
 
I have to disagree because I live on the east coast and many of my family members are working class, have never left NY and have not gone to college (some never graduated high school) and they have all heard of the Mayo Clinic through pop culture (from watching the simpsons, house, etc) or from googling diseases. Of course not every person has heard of Mayo Clinic, but it is very well known even amongst uneducated people who don't really care about medicine.

I guess it's different in the South, People here recognize MD Anderson and Memorial City and Scott and White, telling people I might apply to Mayo everyone sort of turns their head inquisitively.
 
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I guess it's different in the South, People here recognize MD Anderson and Memorial City and Scott and White, telling people I might apply to Mayo everyone sort of turns their head inquisitively.

That's interesting, it must be a regional thing then. I mentioned MD Anderson to my mom the other day and I was shocked that she didn't know what it was because she is the type of person to look at US News rankings.
 
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I don't understand all the sarcasm here from the posters. It seems to me that it is incredibly difficult to make it into a top IM program if you aren't at a top school.
 
You seem like the type of guy that will enjoy weddings..

the color of the wedding is very important here. the devil's in the details.

plus, King geoffrey would make an interesting plastic surgeon. or urologist. slice dice customer, then slice dice colleague physicians. but in real life the actor is the little kid from batman begins. and he's an animal rescuer in real life so he's cool by me
 
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the color of the wedding is very important here. the devil's in the details.

plus, King geoffrey would make an interesting plastic surgeon. or urologist. slice dice customer, then slice dice colleague physicians. but in real life the actor is the little kid from batman begins. and he's an animal rescuer in real life so he's cool by me

He is in a theatre troupe that puts on plays for children and wants to get a PhD in ancient Hebrew. Pretty interesting dude, the old King
 
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He is in a theatre troupe that puts on plays for children and wants to get a PhD in ancient Hebrew. Pretty interesting dude, the old King

the "old" king. i'll just point out that detail which may or may not serve some meaning to those that like spoilers hehehehe
 
Penn? How the hell is Penn in the very top tier?

IMO the top tier would be (in no particular order):
Stanford
Harvard
WashU
Yale
UCSF
Hopkins
Mayo

WashU might not even count as very top either IMO because even though it's big in the medical community, most laymen won't even recognize it as a top school. I would pay a significant amount more for all those schools except WashU.

:laugh:

48669970.jpg
 
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Educated people who care about medicine have. Others, unless they live near it, probably don't care to know the differences between hospitals
Most laymen I know recognize it in some capacity. Might not be as well known as Harvard, but it seems to be decently well known, especially since googling anything medical brings up the Mayo website.
 
I guess it's different in the South, People here recognize MD Anderson and Memorial City and Scott and White, telling people I might apply to Mayo everyone sort of turns their head inquisitively.
This is in no way a shot against Texas, but could it be a Texas thing? With having a seemingly large amount of highly ranked hospitals there seems to be no need to leave the state for medical care.
 
This is in no way a shot against Texas, but could it be a Texas thing? With having a seemingly large amount of highly ranked hospitals there seems to be no need to leave the state for medical care.
Was thinking the same thing. I live in the rural Midwest and a lot of complicated cases are sent to Mayo Clinic or Barnes-Jewish in St. Louis, so mostly everyone within 500 miles recognizes the names (Barnes to a lesser extent, of course), but the names are far less recognized the further away you get. That said, Mayo clinic is pretty well known globally, so I'd always assumed anyone in the US healthcare field would recognize the name.
 
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I don't understand all the sarcasm here from the posters. It seems to me that it is incredibly difficult to make it into a top IM program if you aren't at a top school.
What sarcasm are you referring to? According to the poll results, plenty of people think it's worthwhile to shell out an extra 100k+ for a top school.
 
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So I asked this question in another thread but it was never answered. When people say "top residencies" are they referring to very competitive specialties, or are they referring to residencies at prestigious hospitals? Like if I wanted to be an ENT, which I understand is a very competitive specialty, does prestige matter? Or does it only matter if I want to do ENT at some super fancy hospital in a major city?

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So I asked this question in another thread but it was never answered. When people say "top residencies" are they referring to very competitive specialties, or are they referring to residencies at prestigious hospitals? Like if I wanted to be an ENT, which I understand is a very competitive specialty, does prestige matter? Or does it only matter if I want to do ENT at some super fancy hospital in a major city?

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I would say it's a mix of both? To be honest that is also just a guess haha.
 
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So I asked this question in another thread but it was never answered. When people say "top residencies" are they referring to very competitive specialties, or are they referring to residencies at prestigious hospitals? Like if I wanted to be an ENT, which I understand is a very competitive specialty, does prestige matter? Or does it only matter if I want to do ENT at some super fancy hospital in a major city?

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It matters for anything. There's nothing it won't help with. The more competitive a program is for whatever reason, the more it'll matter because applicants are going to become a more homogenous set of 250+/260+/aoa/strong research and it's another way to differentiate. In general, I think it matters more for "top program in field" than "competitive field", but I think that's more so a matter of people from those programs know one another
 
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What sarcasm are you referring to? According to the poll results, plenty of people think it's worthwhile to shell out an extra 100k+ for a top school.

I'm talking about the people posting words. Not the poll
 
So I asked this question in another thread but it was never answered. When people say "top residencies" are they referring to very competitive specialties, or are they referring to residencies at prestigious hospitals? Like if I wanted to be an ENT, which I understand is a very competitive specialty, does prestige matter? Or does it only matter if I want to do ENT at some super fancy hospital in a major city?

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Could be either, could be both, could be neither

Prestige matters. How much? Depends. Worth 100k? Maybe, maybe not
 
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So I asked this question in another thread but it was never answered. When people say "top residencies" are they referring to very competitive specialties, or are they referring to residencies at prestigious hospitals? Like if I wanted to be an ENT, which I understand is a very competitive specialty, does prestige matter? Or does it only matter if I want to do ENT at some super fancy hospital in a major city?

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As others mentioned, it could be any of the above. If you want to work at a prestigious academic center, you're best off coming from a "top" residency, regardless of specialty. And it definitely helps to come from a top school to get into one of those top residencies (but it is by no means a requirement)
 
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Is it more field specific i.e. matters more for academic IM and peds, but less for surgery?
Looking at match lists, I would say the opposite.

IM residencies have so many spots that mid and low-tier people get into top IM programs all the time. For something like uro, where there are 2 spots in the program, those spots are more likely to go to top school students.
 
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Looking at match lists, I would say the opposite.

IM residencies have so many spots that mid and low-tier people get into top IM programs all the time. For something like uro, where there are 2 spots in the program, those spots are more likely to go to top school students.

The people who get into top im programs aren't mid and low tier
 
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That's not true. https://medicine.ucsf.edu/education/residency/current/

http://www.brighamandwomens.org/Dep...nals/residency/Medical/Interns2015.aspx?sub=0

http://www.weillcornellmedicine.com/education/medicine_house_staff/index.html

It is just harder to do

Or were you crticizing the fact that I said mid and low tier people rather than people from mid and low-tier schools?

? I have no doubt that every single one of those people are top notch. These lists read like a who's who of medical schools
 
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? I have no doubt that every single one of those people are top notch. These lists read like a who's who of medical schools
I don't think he meant to insinuate those people are less than top notch. He just didn't feel like typing out "top notch students from mid and low tier medical schools"
 
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Most of my family doesn't even know Hopkins has a hospital. If I named all those schools (Harvard Yale Stanford Mayo Hop UCSF etc), probably only Harvard Yale and Stanford would be recognized.
Hah yes, the advantage of a simple single name and a clear general reputation ingrained in the people's mind, but if someone said, "I go to Leland Stanford Junior University", the response may be "what, is that some junior college? UCSF is hurt by its acronym in most people's mind; should have stuck with Toland 150 years ago.
 
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Hah yes, the advantage of a simple single name and a clear general reputation ingrained in the people's mind, but if someone said, "I go to Leland Stanford Junior University", the response may be "what, is that some junior college? UCSF is hurt by its acronym in most people's mind; should have stuck with Toland 150 years ago.

Agreed... They all know Stanford because we are all from California, but anytime I would say UC San Francisco, they go, "You mean 'Cal State San Francisco?'" As for Harvard and Yale... well they're Harvard and Yale.

EDIT: When I say it's because we are from CA, I mean it's because we are big PAC12 football fans lol
 
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