2007 Texas Medical School Ranking

[tinyT]

Ok so I think it is a given to rank
Baylor as 1
UTSW as 2
and then it gets a little blurry

what school do you think takes 3rd

I Forgot UT Houston, Sorry guys, I don't know how to edit it, and well its not a fair poll now..darn

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[Dr.Watson]

.

 

[tinyT]

my bad, im trying to figure out how to edit the poll

 

[Anastasis]

I vote for UT-Houston as well.

 

[jillibean]

I went with US news rankings and voted for tcom

 

[djfir0]

one thing i've learned about sdn is.. everyone is biased towards where they were accepted, so im sure this pole would be 100% accurate. lol

 

[theunremarkable]

I went with US news rankings and voted for tcom

Indeed.

 

[Falco2525]

I would say UT Houston, UT San Antonio, and UTMB are all so close that there is little difference in ranking for the 3rd spot

 

[VR55]

Why is TCOM considered 3rd? Osteopathic medicine, it always seemed to me, took a secondary position to allopathic medicine.

 

[baylormed]

Why is TCOM considered 3rd? Osteopathic medicine, it always seemed to me, took a secondary position to allopathic medicine.

This will end badly unless everyone ignores the above comment and continues.

So please ignore the above comment and continue.

 

[VR55]

This will end badly unless everyone ignores the above comment and continues.

So please ignore the above comment and continue.

I'm not arguing for either side. I'm wondering why US News considers TCOM as 3rd. What's their reasoning?

 

[baylormed]

I'm not arguing for either side. I'm wondering why US News considers TCOM as 3rd. What's their reasoning?

I don't know but probably a better thought-out reasoning than "osteopathic is secondary to allopathic." If I hadn't gotten into UTSW I probably would have ended up in TCOM (even though I did get into another allopathic school), their program and rankings are very good, I fell in love with them during interview day.

 

[potato51]

I'm not arguing for either side. I'm wondering why US News considers TCOM as 3rd. What's their reasoning?

US News doesn't consider TCOM 3rd in anything. The point being made in this thread is that TCOM is ranked in the top some-number for primary care. Which shouldn't be surprising since those rankings partly depend on # graduates who go into primary care residencies, and DO schools typically have most of its students go into primary care anyway (for reasons we won't go into).

If you want to specialize, go MD.

 

[VR55]

US News doesn't consider TCOM 3rd in anything. The point being made in this thread is that TCOM is ranked in the top some-number for primary care. Which shouldn't be surprising since those rankings partly depend on # graduates who go into primary care residencies, and DO schools typically have most of its students go into primary care anyway (for reasons we won't go into).

If you want to specialize, go MD.

Well I want to be a surgeon...so I guess TCOM is out of the question.

 

[Sol Rosenberg]

Well I want to be a surgeon...so I guess TCOM is out of the question.

It's all about supply and demand in the end. Here in TX, there is a massive shortage of EM docs (i.e. non-primary care,) so the group of docs that I shadowed have been hiring mostly DOs now. Those DO EM docs had to come from somewhere, so the residency programs probably expanded a bit to let in DOs.

My point is that I bet that if you were a good student, had good board scores and want to be a General Surgeon (there are General Surgery residency spots left unfilled every year) you could do it as a DO.

However, if you want to be a DO Ortho Surgeon, I have just 2 words for you: Good Luck. (However, there may be some DO-only residency spots available, but I don't know how many or any other details.)

It's more likely that you don't know exactly what kind of surgeon you want to be at this point, so it's probably safer to go MD.

 

[Anastasis]

Wow - I had no idea that Texas was short on EM docs!

What other specialties are they looking for?

At my Baylor interview, the interviewer encouraged me to look into Pediatric Endocrinology because she says that's really underserved (and I had mentioned an interest in Endocrine). I'm assuming that has something to do with our high rate of diabetes.

 

[jillibean]

It's all about supply and demand in the end. Here in TX, there is a massive shortage of EM docs (i.e. non-primary care,) so the group of docs that I shadowed have been hiring mostly DOs now. Those DO EM docs had to come from somewhere, so the residency programs probably expanded a bit to let in DOs.

My point is that I bet that if you were a good student, had good board scores and want to be a General Surgeon (there are General Surgery residency spots left unfilled every year) you could do it as a DO.

However, if you want to be a DO Ortho Surgeon, I have just 2 words for you: Good Luck. (However, there may be some DO-only residency spots available, but I don't know how many or any other details.)

It's more likely that you don't know exactly what kind of surgeon you want to be at this point, so it's probably safer to go MD.

Actually last year, TCOM had people match into general surgery, one person into ortho and one person in optho (all at allopathic residency programs), so its def possible.

 

[theunremarkable]

TCOM is ranked 28th in primary care after Baylor and UTSW. They consistently score very high on their boards (I think last year it was in the very high 90s), higher than Tech and SA.

 

[siinew]

Well I want to be a surgeon...so I guess TCOM is out of the question.

Not to re-hash old threads, as this one has probably been discussed ad nauseum, but just briefly, there is no reason in the world you cannot be ANY specialty as a DO. It won't be as "easy," (relatively speaking, as the ones that won't be easy, aren't easy for allopathic applicants either) for some specialties, but there have been and will continue to be DO's as everything from FP to yes, Ortho surgery.

The surgeon general of the Army was a DO until retiring recently. There have been a much higher percentage of DO's filling chief of surgery jobs than the percentage of DO's overall (5%-6%) and that number will only increase as there are more DO schools opening and more demand for health care practicioners overall... esp. in certain areas of surgery.

It's probably a lot better idea to base your decision of where you want to go on what school(s) you like and can see yourself being very happy at, than what you think you want to become right now. If you don't really know much about osteopathic medicine though, then you probably need to either do some reading, or leave TCOM out of your list. Of course if you've already been accepted there, then disregard that last statement... you just kind of sound like you aren't too familiar with osteopathic medicine, is all.

Honestly, these rankings and this thread don't really mean a hill of beans anyway... If you are fortunate enough to get to choose between schools, then go to the school that fits best what you think your needs are going to be for the next 4 years.

 

[Sol Rosenberg]

Wow - I had no idea that Texas was short on EM docs!

What other specialties are they looking for?

At my Baylor interview, the interviewer encouraged me to look into Pediatric Endocrinology because she says that's really underserved (and I had mentioned an interest in Endocrine). I'm assuming that has something to do with our high rate of diabetes.

Big time shortage in TX. A few months ago, I read a report that "graded" the state of ERs by state, and TX got a D+ overall. It scored very low because of long wait times, and other factors mostly related to a shortage of ER docs.

Anesthesiology is also seeing a huge shortage in docs, but this shortage may be alleviated by the time we are entering/finishing residency, so I would watch that one carefully.

I think pediatric <insert name of specialty here> generally has a shortage of docs (not talking about primary-care peds here) due to the longer training involved (1-2 years above and beyond the normal training for that specialty, I believe.) Baylor would deinitely be the right place to study pediatric <anything> but that's more of a residency statement than a medical school statement.

 

[runningmom]

US News doesn't consider TCOM 3rd in anything. The point being made in this thread is that TCOM is ranked in the top some-number for primary care. Which shouldn't be surprising since those rankings partly depend on # graduates who go into primary care residencies, and DO schools typically have most of its students go into primary care anyway (for reasons we won't go into).

If you want to specialize, go MD.

We can rehash "is DO the ugly sister to MD?" all day - its been done ad infinitum on many other threads....

The being said - when it comes to primary care and if I have the option - I chose the DO.... my PCM and my OB were both DOs. But then I also prefer natural child birth and drugs as a last resort.... my $.02 and just to throw some fuel on this fire.

 

[DrSwede]

Sorry for hijacking the thread, but does anyone know of a previous thread where people compared the texas schools to each other?

I'm looking for some insight into TCOM and Texas A&M that I did not receive from the interview day.

Thanks

*end of hijacking*