residency director ranking

I got this from another thread a while back, I assume it's legit/correct.

neurofreak said:

can anyone who has a subscription to the current US news list post the residency program directors rankings?

before i get flamed for this, i just want to say that im not using this as the deciding factor for med school, im just curious since ive never seen this list before.

thanks!

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Bear in mind it is meaningless unless it is specialty specific. You don't get evaluated by residencies as a group, you get evaluated by the specific residency you are applying for. If a top school's residency director for optho thinks a school is great, that doesn't mean that the same school's residency director for neuro would agree. So such a list kind of tells you nothing, because it ignores how these decisions get made.

is anyone willing to transcribe this for people who don't have excel (probably just me) gracias

veaselhaufen said:

is anyone willing to transcribe this for people who don't have excel (probably just me) gracias

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Here it is as a PDF.

neurofreak said:

yeah but isn't this an average of the different ratings. so it be useful to those who aren't sure what they want to do right?

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No -- you average out the extremes, so it is the worst of all worlds. If you want to go into rads, you need to know what the rads folks think. If you want to go to ortho you need to know what the ortho folks think. If one thinks a school is great while the other dislikes it, the average won't reflect this. And so eg in this situation if you eventually decided you really wanted ortho, this kind of grouped data screws you -- you will think the place better than the residency directors you care about do. You'd be much better off picking a school based on other parameters.

Truth of the matter is you can get into any specialty from any allo school -- most of it is going to be based on your board scores and rotation performance and research etc. So this kind of data is not so meaningful. But if you are going to look at this kind of data, you at least need to know its shortcomings, and why you shouldn't really be basing a decision on it. Bad or misapplied data is generally worse than no data.

Law2Doc said:

No -- you average out the extremes, so it is the worst of all worlds. If you want to go into rads, you need to know what the rads folks think. If you want to go to ortho you need to know what the ortho folks think. If one thinks a school is great while the other dislikes it, the average won't reflect this. And so eg in this situation if you eventually decided you really wanted ortho, this kind of grouped data screws you -- you will think the place better than the residency directors you care about do. You'd be much better off picking a school based on other parameters.

Truth of the matter is you can get into any specialty from any allo school -- most of it is going to be based on your board scores and rotation performance and research etc. So this kind of data is not so meaningful. But if you are going to look at this kind of data, you at least need to know its shortcomings, and why you shouldn't really be basing a decision on it. Bad or misapplied data is generally worse than no data.

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So is there anyway we can find out how residency directors from specific specialities view different schools.

amwatts0322 said:

So is there anyway we can find out how residency directors from specific specialities view different schools.

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Not really, unless you know a lot of them personally. But my point is this kind of data really shouldn't be part of your decision process at all. You don't know what specialty you will be excited about or hate once you have your rotations. Most med students will change their mind at least once. But even if you did know for sure, you have to bear in mind that you can't lump "residency directors" into a single group. This kind of data is useless. When it becomes residency application time, you might ultimately care about what one or two directors in a particular specialty think. In which case the dozens of others from other programs or in other specialties votes can steer this kind of data horribly away from the target. Bad info leads to bad decisions. Ignore this kind of data. Worry about what schools are in a desired geography, offer research opportunities, seem to have desirable curricula, schedule, etc. Things like residency directors, board scores and other things like that, which really don't matter as much as finding someplace you can thrive and do well, should be left out of the process.

njbmd said:

Your medical school attended is a non-factor in selection for residency programs. Your grades and board schools along with your letters of recommendation (MSPE) are huge factors. Top graduates from any medical school in this country are most competitive when it comes to residency selection. If you don't perform well, your school isn't going to be able to make the difference for you. Get into the medical school where you can perform best and do well.

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The most important thing is just to catch someones eye. Its hit or miss really. For example RD X has a concentration in endocrinology..well all the people who did alot of endocrinology stuff well..you get the point...its just about as much as a crap shoot as applying to medical school...rotating at the place you want to do your residency helps usually.