Do you care about "prestige"?

No, you cannot eat prestige. And I like to eat little sardines, dripping with oil, with crunchy backbones, and little eyes that plop onto your tongue with the first bite.

Prestige in what context? As in, "I want to be an MD because it's prestigeous," or "I want to go to med school X because of the prestige," or just in general?

If you're asking about it in general, I'd be lying if I said I didn't care...but that's probably because I don't have any.

It would be dihonest for me to say that I do not care about prestige at all. However, I would not consider it the absolute most important factor in determing my future career path or potential medical schools. Ultimately, I chose yes, but I think this poll could have listed more answers than just "yes" and "no."

Let me ask this: if I spat in your face and called you a dumbf***, would you be unhappy?

If yes, then you care about prestige (a certain type of prestige, and at least to some extent). If you disagree with the prior statement, you are in denial - the reason you're unhappy is because you feel like you were the victim of unwarranted disrespect. One type of prestige is basically how much unwarranted respect you are given (ie: going to Harvard Med School gives you respect before you do anything for your patient - you are given unwarranted respect).

Google's definition of prestige: "If a person, a country, or an organization has prestige, they are admired and respected because of the position they hold or the things they have achieved."

Who doesn't care about respect and admiration?

Am I going into medicine so people can be in awe of my social status? No.

Will I choose a highly ranked program so people can be in awe of my academic abilities? No.

Do I care about prestige? Of course.

I care about prestige, but for me only so much. If, for example, I get accepted to UTSW (~$30k tuition) and a top 10 private school with about ~$60k tuition, that would be a hard decision to make. Money being equal, I would go with the more prestigious school.

Penner said:

Let me ask this: if I spat in your face and called you a dumbf***, would you be unhappy?

If yes, then you care about prestige (a certain type of prestige, and at least to some extent). If you disagree with the prior statement, you are in denial - the reason you're unhappy is because you feel like you were the victim of unwarranted disrespect. One type of prestige is basically how much unwarranted respect you are given (ie: going to Harvard Med School gives you respect before you do anything for your patient - you are given unwarranted respect).

Google's definition of prestige: "If a person, a country, or an organization has prestige, they are admired and respected because of the position they hold or the things they have achieved."

Who doesn't care about respect and admiration?

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I don't think getting mad that someone spat in your face indicates you care about prestige maybe you don't like having other peoples spit in your face.

stevesavi said:

I don't think getting mad that someone spat in your face indicates you care about prestige maybe you don't like having other peoples spit in your face.

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Haha, yes that's true. But if some random spit that was in a beaker just spilled somehow and landed on someone's face, wouldn't that person just feel grossed out?

Prestige could be regarded as a measurement of confidence in the education. In those terms, you'd be a fool not to care. Even if you receive an excellent education, what good will it do if no one has confidence in you because of where you trained?

I mean, why not go to a Caribbean medical school? Well (attrition aside), it is harder to get people to have faith in your training.

as a reapplicant, no i do not

I don't think it is a simple yes or no. I could care less what letters are behind my name, and I don't care that my dream school may be a safety school for many others. But about being a doctor, yep.

Only for residency. Everything else, no.

I voted no, but the highly competitive specialties don't interest me, so take it as you will.

And Cole, $120k plus interest is a big difference. Entire threads have existed on this premise. If it comes up, in 99% of cases I would pick the $30k/year school.

TooMuchResearch said:

I voted no, but the highly competitive specialties don't interest me, so take it as you will.

And Cole, $120k plus interest is a big difference. Entire threads have existed on this premise. If it comes up, in 99% of cases I would pick the $30k/year school.

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I would as well, but if the school I got accepted to was my dream school, that would make the situation more difficult. I do agree that going the cheapest route is generally the best, but unfortunately it's not so black and white.

What matters is how satisfied YOU are and your work will show good results. Also this will lead to greater respect from your colleagues and your patients. You will get prestige because medical work is difficult and those who do it well help mankind

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Ok so either I didn't understand the poll or the majority of the posters didn't understand the poll. (I think I'm right and so is Penner up there) Going from the original post he's talking about the prestige of someone recognizing that you are a doctor and respecting the education you worked so hard to get. Anyone who says they don't care about that is wrong. You should care about that. It is important for your personal practice and for the preservation of the profession as a whole. Medicine as a profession doesn't exist without the respect and trust of the public. Now of course you don't need to be an jerk about it to everyone you meet (that isn't the way to gain respect, get it through being an effective physician) but you should care.

Now if the poll *is* about what school you go to... you should care about that too. I'm not saying that should be the only thing you consider when deciding on schools (pretty much any medical school is fine, but go take a look at how law schools work and you'll get an idea) but you should definitely care about it. (especially as an alumni) Again you are associated with your school so people's opinion of it is added on to you. This is not as big a deal as just wanting people to respect the profession though.

If the poll is actually about becoming a doctor because the career is prestigious... that makes some sense. If you think about it from a biological standpoint people have a reproductive incentive to want people to admire and respect you.

Anyway to sum up: Prestige is good. You want prestige. You don't need to be a tool about it but apathy while cool as a premed is really just counterproductive.

edit: To clarify for anyone who doesn't get this caring is not the same thing as acting. My case is that you should care what people think. I'm not saying anything about what you should do to change what they think at this time. (besides be a good doctor) Also I'm trying to stress that people's opinion of the profession and you matters. Everything you do as a doctor reflects on the profession as a whole and it is vital that you make sure you are working to help people have a positive impression of it. Prestige is the end result of all your work, not the motivating factor.

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nope.

If you go into medicine for prestige, you are an idiot. There are many more careers that take less time to get into if all you want to do is impress some people. Just sayin'.

DrArete said:

Hey there einstein, take a look in the mirror. By attention whoring and calling attention to your disdain for prestige, you are seeking to establish the PRESTIGE of not caring about prestige - ie you are somehow different and special because you define yourself in opposition to some perceived dominant societal trend.

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OK Freud, calm down over there.

I assumed the poll was on whether or not you cared if you went to a prestigious medical school or not, so I could be wrong about that.

Of course prestige matters to me. It matters to everyone. All the people that go on and on about how you'll get the same education anywhere, so prestige doesn't matter--it does. Maybe not to residency directors, or patients, but to you. If you gave everyone an acceptance to HMS over the schools that they'd already been accepted to, I'd say most of them would choose HMS. Almost all of them if the cost was the same.

Personal Prestige? Yes. It matters to me that people think I'm at least competent at what I do.

medical school prestige? nah. honestly, i don't mesh well with most people who care too much about this and avoided applying to schools that are considered very prestigious knowing that 1. I wouldn't get in lol and 2. I wouldn't really do well with my classmates.

p.s. if someone spits in your face, wipe it off with their shirt

I liked The Illusionist better.

DrArete said:

Anyone who says no is lying.

This is something that is socialized into people from the moment of their birth, we are by nature competitive, prestige is just another way of keeping score.

And that is just the general population. When you look specifically at the neurotic douchebag pre med gunners that hang out on SDN all day, the tendency is amplified by orders of magnitude.

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ColeOnTheRoll said:

I would as well, but if the school I got accepted to was my dream school, that would make the situation more difficult. I do agree that going the cheapest route is generally the best, but unfortunately it's not so black and white.

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That's ok, you're going to Vandy. Awesome school, plenty of prestige, and great financial aid

ILikeDrugs said:

I know there are 2 pages worth of "prestige" threads, but none have a poll. This is a simple poll about "prestige" in general. Do you care about it. It's either yes or no.

This was actually inspired by a recent post by some dullard attending MD. It was a response to a post that I made saying I was interested in radiology.







You know where I stand. Where do you stand. Poll above. Respond if you want.

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I don't think the conversation you quoted proves you don't care about prestige. I care about prestige (not inordinately so), but I seriously wouldn't care about some idiot who didn't know that a radiologist was a doctor.

In other words, people don't care about getting respect from some random dude on the street, but from the people they work with/socialize with/etc.

I agree with stewie on this one, prestige does matter, and If I had the choice to go to Harvard or South Dakota state, I would go to Harvard for sure. Most people don't have this luxury, and will go anywhere that accepts them.

nburnett3 said:

I assumed the poll was on whether or not you cared if you went to a prestigious medical school or not, so I could be wrong about that.

Of course prestige matters to me. It matters to everyone. All the people that go on and on about how you'll get the same education anywhere, so prestige doesn't matter--it does. Maybe not to residency directors, or patients, but to you. If you gave everyone an acceptance to HMS over the schools that they'd already been accepted to, I'd say most of them would choose HMS. Almost all of them if the cost was the same.

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I wouldn't, because I don't want to live in Boston. Give me an acceptance to MSU and I will be happy as all get out.

In other words...you have no frame of reference, Donny.

Prestige is nice, but I care a lot more about a med school's location and quality of life.

ButImLETired said:

That's ok, you're going to Vandy. Awesome school, plenty of prestige, and great financial aid

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Well... I hope so at least.

I do. I'm only human .

Every doctor should know that we are all in this together. We are a part of something bigger than any of us can make out of. Humble, do you know this word?

Needs an "I don't know" option.