In general, PC programs are less competetive then categorical programs, particularly the community vs university programs. Most community programs are filled with IMG's only, of course a lot of university programs have a lot of IMG's too. The biggest advantage of doing a categorical program is that you are more competetive when competing for fellowship programs. Not to say that you can't get into a fellowship after doing a PC program, but you will be hard pressed to get into a competetive fellowship like cards or GI after a PC program. The biggest advantage of a PC program is less in-patient time and more out-patient training. If your goal is to be a primary goal is to be an out-patient physician, a PC program would be appropriate. If your not sure, then I'd recc a categorical program. As for rankings, US News has a ranking of the "best" primary care medical schools, if any of the top ones there have PC programs, I imagine that they'd be among the best for PC too. Other then that, you can always ask your med school faculty or IM PD director. Just realize that "prestige" is not at all important if you just want to do straight out-patient IM, and you actually may be better served by going out to a high quality community program, perhaps a rural program, that teaches you a lot of out-patient procedures and complex out-patient management that would normally be picked up by specialists at any university program.
