2018 Texas School Rankings (Opinion)

[jarednogeek]

what are your personal feelings on how you rank Texas schools based on where you’d be happiest/feel like you fit? I attached my list.

UTMB>Baylor>Dell=UTSW>UTRGV>Lubbock>A&M>Long>Mcgovern>El Paso

I know my list may be unconventional but I ranked schools based on where I feel I’d be happiest

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[Isoval]

If we base them solely on “fit”, my answer is as follows:

McGovern > El Paso = TCOM > UTMB > Long > Dell > Baylor >>> UTSW.

If I didn’t rank the school, I haven’t had enough interaction with them to determine how I feel I fit with their program and students.

Note that this ranking does not take into consideration ranking, research, board scores, match, or literally anything other than “fit”.

 

[MyOdyssey]

If we base them solely on “fit”, my answer is as follows:

McGovern > El Paso = TCOM > UTMB > Long > Dell > Baylor >>> UTSW.

If I didn’t rank the school, I haven’t had enough interaction with them to determine how I feel I fit with their program and students.

Note that this ranking does not take into consideration ranking, research, board scores, match, or literally anything other than “fit”.

Why do you consider Baylor and UTSW poor fits but McGovern the best fit?

 

[Isoval]

Why do you consider Baylor and UTSW poor fits but McGovern the best fit?

I feel that the environment of Baylor and UTSW are toxic, especially at UTSW. However, full disclosure, I only worked at and interviewed at UTSW and not at Baylor and can only speak from secondhand experience.

 

[jarednogeek]

Baylor was pretty chill as was UTSW on interview day, but it’s easy to be so for short spurts. I was surprised the amount of UTSW students that said they chose the school because of name and prestige and not how they’d “fit”. I pre-matched at UTMB so that’s where I’m going. I liked it there and don’t want have an overly intense med school experience. UTMB by far had the chilliest students I met that did fun stuff outside of med school often

 

[jarednogeek]

I didn’t like UTSA or McGovern because they basically do disguised letter grades in pre-clerks. I want true P/F

 

[Lomology]

Baylor was pretty chill as was UTSW on interview day, but it’s easy to be so for short spurts. I was surprised the amount of UTSW students that said they chose the school because of name and prestige and not how they’d “fit”. I pre-matched at UTMB so that’s where I’m going. I liked it there and don’t want have an overly intense med school experience. UTMB by far had the chilliest students I met that did fun stuff outside of med school often

When I interviewed at UTSW I actually felt very welcome and it just felt like a perfect fit. I don't know how much of that was me looking at things through rose-tinted glasses since UTSW is my dream school, but I honestly felt that the students I talked to were very unlike the typical "cutthroat" stereotype that is supposedly at UTSW.

I felt more or less the same feeling at UTMB and up until yesterday I was set on going there since I had pre-matched in November, but ultimately I'm picking UTSW especially since I just pre-matched there. Based purely on fit and schools that I interviewed at, I'm going with UTSW>UTMB>McGovern>Long>TTLubbock>TT El Paso> UTRGV. Interestingly enough, McGovern seemed very unwelcoming when I interviewed there which honestly surprised me, but I suppose there's always a chance that can happen at any school.

 

[jarednogeek]

When I interviewed at UTSW I actually felt very welcome and it just felt like a perfect fit. I don't know how much of that was me looking at things through rose-tinted glasses since UTSW is my dream school, but I honestly felt that the students I talked to were very unlike the typical "cutthroat" stereotype that is supposedly at UTSW.

I felt more or less the same feeling at UTMB and up until yesterday I was set on going there since I had pre-matched in November, but ultimately I'm picking UTSW especially since I just pre-matched there. Based purely on fit and schools that I interviewed at, I'm going with UTSW>UTMB>McGovern>Long>TTLubbock>TT El Paso> UTRGV. Interestingly enough, McGovern seemed very unwelcoming when I interviewed there which honestly surprised me, but I suppose there's always a chance that can happen at any school.

I would highly consider UTSW if it was closer to home, I live close to Galveston/Houston, and want to be close to family. I felt the same way at McGovern and it was initially my number 1 choice pre-interview. I was also very impressed with UTSW and thought I wouldn’t like it pre-interview

 

[Isoval]

When I interviewed at UTSW I actually felt very welcome and it just felt like a perfect fit. I don't know how much of that was me looking at things through rose-tinted glasses since UTSW is my dream school, but I honestly felt that the students I talked to were very unlike the typical "cutthroat" stereotype that is supposedly at UTSW.

I felt more or less the same feeling at UTMB and up until yesterday I was set on going there since I had pre-matched in November, but ultimately I'm picking UTSW especially since I just pre-matched there. Based purely on fit and schools that I interviewed at, I'm going with UTSW>UTMB>McGovern>Long>TTLubbock>TT El Paso> UTRGV. Interestingly enough, McGovern seemed very unwelcoming when I interviewed there which honestly surprised me, but I suppose there's always a chance that can happen at any school.

It’s not that I feel like UTSW is cutthroat. I feel like they’re elitist. When I worked there, I was told that “x article doesn’t matter because it’s not published in Science, Nature, or Cell”. During interview lunch, all the interviewees did was talk about their 4.0 from Rice or Cornell or their 515+ MCAT.

On top of that, I abhor the location, although it’s been gentrified in recent years. When I worked there, I quite literally felt like I was going to be stabbed when I walked off campus and many days carried an umbrella with me (regardless of the weather).

I also *really* don’t like their curriculum. They are not system-based. They have anatomy block. And individual classes for things like genetics and embryology. Conversely, I’ve always thought it was cool they begin rotations early.

I see why people genuinely like it, but I am not one of those people.

 

[Lomology]

It’s not that I feel like UTSW is cutthroat. I feel like they’re elitist. When I worked there, I was told that “x article doesn’t matter because it’s not published in Science, Nature, or Cell”. During interview lunch, all the interviewees did was talk about their 4.0 from Rice or Cornell or their 515+ MCAT.

On top of that, I abhor the location, although it’s been gentrified in recent years. When I worked there, I quite literally felt like I was going to be stabbed when I walked off campus and many days carried an umbrella with me (regardless of the weather).

I also *really* don’t like their curriculum. They are not system-based. They have anatomy block. And individual classes for things like genetics and embryology. Conversely, I’ve always thought it was cool they begin rotations early.

I see why people genuinely like it, but I am not one of those people.

You're definitely right about the cons of the school! Those are things I kept in mind in making my decision and I wouldn't blame anyone for choosing a different school based on what you highlighted above. I had a staff member tell me the exact same thing in regards to walking outside campus; he literally said "try to go through buildings are much as you possibly can while here, especially at night" or something to that effect.

 

[jarednogeek]

I think all the schools in Texas are great in one way or another, they just fit different people, you can’t go wrong picking any of them 😛. Galveston isn’t my favorite location but I just liked the school and it’s close to home. Already looking at places to live lol

 

[jarednogeek]

I myself am extremely conflicted cause I feel like my top 3 are tied... Long=UTSW=McGovern > Dell > the rest... I prematched a McGovern and I loved the faculty and all the students I met, which made me feel extremely comfortable. Long can’t describe the good vibes and comfort I felt, not to mention 2 of my best friends will be there for school and my other best friend can potentially go there in 2years. Out of all schools it’s the closest to home culturally and physically and I’ve always wanted to live I’m SA... plus Go Spurs Go, loved the 4 months off but personally I’ll probably do early rotations. Cons of Long is its not true P/F but in reality no school but utmb and Baylor is. UTSW is p/f but it still has AOA for pre clerk... UTSW loved the clinical power it has to offer, prestige, and p/f although not a deal breaker. Cons super far from home, no fam or friends, Dallas imo sucks lol, too serious?

Goal is IM or Peds... wondering what y’all think of my little confliction

I’d say go with your heart and it sounds like that’s Long, but McGovern prematched you so it should have a special place. Difficult decisions. Maybe rank long then McGovern on match and if you match long go there, if not go McGovern.

 

[Noni Mousse]

People are probably going to have different experiences so you should ultimately go with what you liked best especially since my experience has been a few years and the atmosphere of the schools could have changed since then with each new class added. I also didn't really know what to look for or ask when I went on these tours so for alot of them, I just have a neutral opinion of them. Here's my experience anyways.

Based on feel and fit back when I was touring several medical schools around 2012-2014, McGovern would be my #1 and Long would be last.

McGovern's class president gave us the tour and was extremely friendly and personable. Took up a lot of his time talking to us, answering our questions, giving advice, telling us all the things he loved about McGovern, took us to lunch, etc. One of my friends ended up choosing McGovern over UTSW because of this.

For Long, I just had a horrible experience. The person giving us the tour (I think it was one of their doctors) came off a little rude. In addition, I had went to Long with a student group at my university that had scheduled a tour with Long and somehow Long forgot that we were coming?? and we were overshadowed by a much bigger group from a school that Long's affiliated with (PanAm? or something like that). The student panel Long had for us didn't even know some of us weren't part of the PanAm program! So they were always answering questions related to PanAm. I can understand if people didn't initially know but this was later in the day so they should have been informed of our presence by this point.

The first impression I got from Baylor was that they seemed wealthy and modern with all the glass they had. I wasn't put off with our med student tour guide but I can see the elitist impression other people on this thread got as our tour guide mentioned her interview experience with Harvard. Maybe we had another tour earlier in the morning but for some reason, my group was tired and exhausted by the time we were sitting and talking to our tour guide so I don't remember anything else she said but there was no bad or good impression I recall.

For the city Houston itself, I liked that it had the largest medical complex in the world, providing students with much opportunity. Dislike was the traffic and the unclear HOV/express ways I encountered though I didn't intend to drive much if I had moved there.

First impression I had from Galveston was that there buildings' architecture looked really cool (I know looks shouldn't be a factor but it's just what I primarily still remember at this point). Later, the other main thing I remember is one of the staff said some kind off hand comment once. I don't recall if we had much interaction with the students there to get a better feel of the fit of it. So other than that, I don't really have anything for or against Galveston but since I didn't care for beaches and hurricanes and I don't have family there, it wasn't at the top 3 of my list.

I didn't get an elitist feel or any bad vibes from UTSW. They seemed to share notes and work together like other med students. I liked that they recorded their lectures and was thinking of staying and studying at home most of the time if I got accepted to save time and money since I lived in DFW but 35min away w/o traffic (probably an hour or more with traffic). I was basically torn between UTSW and McGovern at the time because while I felt the community of McGovern was the best fit, there were other factors that I liked UTSW better for. I may have been looking at UTSW through rose-tinted glasses a little too though since my mom praises it and it probably rubbed off on me. Also, unlike most people, I liked the idea of their curriculum where they took one accellerated class at a time because I felt like I studied better when I have one class to focus on based on my experience with 2 and 5 week summer classes vs a regular semester at my undergrad. Now, I'm thinking it's probably better if it's system based to get a better understanding of how things are integrated.

For TCOM, the main thing I remember was looking at their class schedule. It basically looked like there was class 8am-5pm every weekday minus lunch and a small break. I had seen another school's schedule before and it wasn't nearly this full so this kind of freaked me out as it didn't look like there was much time to study especially if I decided to commute and attend class. I'm thinking TCOM's schedule looked really full because it was a D.O. school and DO schools need to squeeze time in for OMM? I also didn't like the idea of weekly quizzes though I have ended up at a school where we have weekly quizzes once we were done with anatomy. At least our quizzes don't count that much of a grade.

Never been to the other Texas medical schools so can't comment on them.