I did some very basic analysis of CMS' match results, and it's not too bad to be honest. I'm considering EM as my primary choice heading into medical school, but depending on how the future shakes out I could see myself gunning for Derm or Ortho. I consider those two + Urology to be the hardest residencies to land. I also think Derm has the greatest chance of surviving a very negative climate for medicine going forward, as it's a procedure heavy (thus lucrative) specialty but with procedures that are minor enough to feasibly subsist on self pay, and also cosmetics. So there is only so much the gubmint and insurance companies can do to squeeze derms dry. With either Tulane or CMS, I'll be over 300k in debt so this is a very important consideration for me.
Anyway, in 2014, 13 out of ~180 CMS grads matched into those 3 residencies. For Tulane, that number was 11/~190, and roughly half was for New Orleans or the Military, which I wouldn't be too enthused over. For UIC's Chicago campus, it was 16/~175.
I guess the upshot of all this is that reputation aside, the proof is in the pudding. It doesn't seem like CMS students are any worse off than students at other mid-tier schools that have better reputations when it comes to the actual match results, which is the important thing.
I realize that the campus is far from Chicago and it wouldn't make sense to travel there too often, but here is the thing. That's only true during the first two years. In the clinical years I read it's common to move to the city as that is where the bulk of rotation sites are. Even in the M1/M2 years, you probably don't want to be spending too much time away from the books, so taking a few expeditions to the city every now and then is all you'd have time for regardless of the distance.
But the kicker is the sticker price. CMS costs 50k, Tulane 60k. With compounding interest taken into account this represents a difference of over 50K for the duration of med school. I'm not sure what I'm seeing from the match list justifies the premium, and when you throw in my location preference, it becomes a close call.
Anyway, I did not mean to hijack the thread. The take-away here is that CMS is not that bad.