Choosing Between Med Schools

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What is the most important factor in choosing a med school?

  • Grading scheme (H/P/F, letters, etc)

    Votes: 13 9.9%

  • 3rd year curriculum emphasis

    Votes: 15 11.5%

  • Pre-clinical curriculum (PBL, traditional, etc)

    Votes: 10 7.6%

  • Particular associated institutions

    Votes: 4 3.1%

  • Dual degrees offered (PhD, MPH, MBA, etc)

    Votes: 2 1.5%

  • Prestige/rank

    Votes: 48 36.6%

  • Class profile (size, diversity, etc)

    Votes: 8 6.1%

  • Match statistics (Step 1 avg, 1st choice %, etc)

    Votes: 31 23.7%
  • Total voters
    131
aSagacious

aSagacious

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If you were fortunate enough to receive more than one acceptance offer and had to identify the single most important criterion in contrasting the schools what would you choose?

Since cost and location are generally recognized as the two most important considerations I intentionally excluded these from the poll (I'm interested to see what sneaks into the third spot on the priority list). I've also listed a few controversial, yet frequently mentioned criteria to see if they are popular despite their apparent lack of merit.

Feel free to elaborate on your choices below.
 
Cost and location excluded, it would come down to whether or not the schools had a condensed pre-clinical phase. After that I would probably prioritize based on the way I liked the feel of the campus and its buildings (which should be an option IMO). 🙂

Cool poll, I will be interested to see what other people have to say!
 
do schools even publish match statistics these days?
 
Last edited:
Top vote-getter so far is "Prestige/Rank."

Figures :laugh:
 
UnclePhil said:
do schools even publish match statistics these days?
Click to expand...

Yes, almost all of them do either a pie chart with general categories or simply publish match lists. Additionally, the US News publishes the % of NRMP participants for each school who matched into their top choice residency (though not all schools submitted info on this statistic).
 
aSagacious said:
Yes, almost all of them do either a pie chart with general categories or simply publish match lists. Additionally, the US News publishes the % of NRMP participants for each school who matched into their top choice residency (though not all schools submitted info on this statistic).
Click to expand...
ah... ok, I thought you were talking about stuff like average step I, and % matched into top choice. I haven't actually looked at USNWR since I was a college freshman, I might go take a look (not that I really care, I already started school).
 
aSagacious said:
Schools are pretty good at keeping Step I averages on the DL, but I think there's a running list floating around SDN somewhere (you'll have search for it).
Click to expand...
Of course the data is all anecdotal though, no sources to check against. (not to say it isn't valuable, but without multiple members who've interviewed there validating it, it's not the most reliable data)
 
This is a tough call. I would say my overall impression of the school would be the most important, but I guess we're assuming we liked both schools equally for this debate since it's not a choice. I'm leaning towards curriculum.

FWIW, while I do think match lists in general are pretty useless, if they actually included what % of the class matched into their top choice, I would consider that a really helpful statistic. The problem is it never seems to get listed anywhere on the school websites. My school told us at interview day (IIRC, they said almost everyone matched into one of their top 3) but I wish it was something shared more readily.
 
Geekchick921 said:
This is a tough call. I would say my overall impression of the school would be the most important, but I guess we're assuming we liked both schools equally for this debate since it's not a choice. I'm leaning towards curriculum.

FWIW, while I do think match lists in general are pretty useless, if they actually included what % of the class matched into their top choice, I would consider that a really helpful statistic. The problem is it never seems to get listed anywhere on the school websites. My school told us at interview day (IIRC, they said almost everyone matched into one of their top 3) but I wish it was something shared more readily.
Click to expand...

Yeah. I certainly got the vibe that all those stats (Avg step 1, % matched into first choice, etc) are subject to some manipulation, which is why they are not readily available (and thus readily scrutinized).

I ended up picking third year rotations, which sort of fits in with affiliated institutions too. Getting into the hospital is where the real learning starts, or so I've heard.
 
Barcu said:
Yeah. I certainly got the vibe that all those stats (Avg step 1, % matched into first choice, etc) are subject to some manipulation, which is why they are not readily available (and thus readily scrutinized).

I ended up picking third year rotations, which sort of fits in with affiliated institutions too. Getting into the hospital is where the real learning starts, or so I've heard.
Click to expand...

this
 
Barcu said:
I ended up picking third year rotations, which sort of fits in with affiliated institutions too. Getting into the hospital is where the real learning starts, or so I've heard.
Click to expand...

Good point, I suppose I should have clarified. By 'associated institutions' I meant research institutes, partner hospitals, etc. By 'third year curriculum' I meant the time allocated to each rotation (12 weeks vs 4 weeks for internal medicine, etc).
 
Barcu said:
Yeah. I certainly got the vibe that all those stats (Avg step 1, % matched into first choice, etc) are subject to some manipulation, which is why they are not readily available (and thus readily scrutinized).

I ended up picking third year rotations, which sort of fits in with affiliated institutions too. Getting into the hospital is where the real learning starts, or so I've heard.
Click to expand...

I've read on SDN numerous times that schools fudge average Step 1 scores, like they only report the scores of people that pass and such. I feel like % of first choice match almost never seems to come up, just where people matched.
 
Lol kinda like how Ross brags about their step 1 scores.

But they don't tell you that the only students allowed to take step 1 are those that did well on Ross's practice test first. haha.
 
Location played a pretty important role for me. Along with the research opportunities in my fields of interest and how good the clinical training (M3 & M4) were (ex. rotation sites, how much students are expected to contribute to the team, etc).

Didn't really care much about the pre-clinical curriculum or match stats. How well you do in school and on Step 1, IMO, are very individual-dependent, so I didn't see the point in looking at schools' Match stats, Step 1 averages (every school has an average Step 1 score that's higher than the national average apparently...), etc.
 
Beyond cost and location, the P/F grading system and the preclerkship curriculum (including a shortened one and systems based) tied for third for me.

Actually, when it came to choosing between my acceptances, those two factors were the most heavily weighted (in my case, they were lumped; the P/F and systems based school were the same, so I can't tell which would have made more difference to me). I probably ended up choosing the more expensive school, and neither was the location that I particularly wanted. But location was one of the heavy factors in choosing where to apply; I wasn't as discriminate with the other factors.
 
vasca said:
My opinion probably won't matter much because I already lived through med school and this poll is aimed at people that haven't even gotten in yet, but I say curriculum hands down.

Prestige and name brand sound nice at first but a good school curriculum that teaches you what is relevant to become a doctor in the real world is what you will take with you forever. Your school might have a high rank, but if they don't assign any time to teach you how to explore a patient, you will get screwed epic time in the real world.

The school I went to is high ranked but I don't like the new curriculum. They reduced Anatomy lab to just 1 hour 3 times a month, got rid of the subject of embryology and are pretty much about to get rid of physiology in favor of a gazillion religious and nutrition based courses that should be electives at best.

I do however put a bit more emphasis on the quality of the clinical rotations since some clinical courses will compensate and repeat knowledge of the core subjects you see in the first 2 years of med school. A really sucky rotation at a hospital where nobody teaches you anything will probably be the only time in your med student career you will ever rotate in x specialty. I wished I had more emphasis on interpreting ultrasounds when I rotated Radiology as a med student.

It's also true that a sucky rotation of x specialty might give you a bad impression of s specific specialty. I had a really poor OB/GYN rotation in my 3rd year and hated the specialty, had a second OB/GYN rotation at a different hospital where the teaching was better and liked it and really enjoyed rotating the real bling bling as an intern where I learned a ton of stuff.

School rank and average exam scores might not matter too much because school ranking is usually subjective (either because the list only cares about how much research a school does or ask people on the street that know squat which school they think is good so they only choose the most famous schools) and exam scores don't mean as much because while it means they have a strong curriculum, it also means the school has a huge attrition rate. Going there means you have a 50/50 chance of either getting great scores or failing out of med school which usually depends on how good of a test taker you are.

Fun thread though. Interesting results.
Click to expand...
Please keep in mind that vasca attended med school in Mexico, not the US.
 
Location and tuition cost, but that's not on the poll. I'd be happy to go to any school that accepted me.
 
All of those things are important. I would be (extremely) hard pressed to pick any one of them as the most important factor.😳
 
vasca said:
My opinion probably won't matter much because I already lived through med school and this poll is aimed at people that haven't even gotten in yet, but I say curriculum hands down.

Prestige and name brand sound nice at first but a good school curriculum that teaches you what is relevant to become a doctor in the real world is what you will take with you forever. Your school might have a high rank, but if they don't assign any time to teach you how to explore a patient, you will get screwed epic time in the real world.

The school I went to is high ranked but I don't like the new curriculum. They reduced Anatomy lab to just 1 hour 3 times a month, got rid of the subject of embryology and are pretty much about to get rid of physiology in favor of a gazillion religious and nutrition based courses that should be electives at best.

I do however put a bit more emphasis on the quality of the clinical rotations since some clinical courses will compensate and repeat knowledge of the core subjects you see in the first 2 years of med school. A really sucky rotation at a hospital where nobody teaches you anything will probably be the only time in your med student career you will ever rotate in x specialty. I wished I had more emphasis on interpreting ultrasounds when I rotated Radiology as a med student.

It's also true that a sucky rotation of x specialty might give you a bad impression of s specific specialty. I had a really poor OB/GYN rotation in my 3rd year and hated the specialty, had a second OB/GYN rotation at a different hospital where the teaching was better and liked it and really enjoyed rotating the real bling bling as an intern where I learned a ton of stuff.

School rank and average exam scores might not matter too much because school ranking is usually subjective (either because the list only cares about how much research a school does or ask people on the street that know squat which school they think is good so they only choose the most famous schools) and exam scores don't mean as much because while it means they have a strong curriculum, it also means the school has a huge attrition rate. Going there means you have a 50/50 chance of either getting great scores or failing out of med school which usually depends on how good of a test taker you are.

Fun thread though. Interesting results.
Click to expand...

This is generally true but it's difficult for most pre-meds to evaluate something like this...(unless they click the link in my sig 😀)

Myuu said:
All of those things are important. I would be (extremely) hard pressed to pick any one of them as the most important factor.😳
Click to expand...

This too!! 👍
 
Why isn't "price" on the list? That'd be my vote.
 
Class profile. I think it says a lot about the school apart from the other stats.
 
Cost is definitely the #1 factor, but it's not even in the poll 👎
 
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