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Hi docapp201213! I'm a first year med @ Meharry and wanted to shed some light on your question, which is a great question! A lot of people ask about rankings, especially in relation to the US News rankings of medical schools that most people are familiar with here :http://grad-schools.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-graduate-schools/top-medical-schools.
The key thing to consider is methodology. Rankings are based on information collected from the schools, peer rankings by deans and residency directors in different categories about their evaluation of the strength of different programs, NIH funding, faculty research, etc.
Is there value to these surveys? Sure. Do they tell the whole story? Absolutely not. For example, research intensive schools receiving NIH R01 researching funding will always score high in the area of research, while schools like Meharry, which has a primary care focus, and may not have beacoup $$ coming in in the form of R01 grants, may rank high in other areas, such as social mission (http://annals.org/article.aspx?articleid=745836). Schools may be unranked because 1) US News did not have enough information about them in the different categories to include them on the survey, and/or 2) survey respondents did not know enough about the schools to provide an accurate evaluation. (This is all speculation on my part, since I have no assess to the survey, nor empirical evidence or statistical tests to validate my hypotheses lol).
Medical education is standardized across the nation, and we are all learning the same thing because we are all going to take the same licensing exams. Furthermore, Meharry students perform just as well as students across the nation on our subject board and licensing exams. So, no matter where you get your education, as long as the school is LCME accredited, and you pass your classes and exams, you will get your MD degree! Oh, and, you'll probably end up in residency with a handful of people who went to those highly ranked institutions, although your patients will care less about that and more about your competency and compassion as a physician 🙂 I wish you the best, and let me know if you have any other questions!
Much Appreciated!!! thanks so much!