US news and other rankings aside, based on your own views, which med school do you consider is the best of the best in our country?
in terms of a combination of price, prestige, quality of education and clinical rotations, location... UCSF all the way! esp for cali residents.
This question kind of reminds me of junior high school, asking who are the "cool" kids and such. The cool kids are the ones you like and think are cool, not the ones that are perceived as cool. The "best" school is the one that best matches you, in terms of curriculum, location, specialty emphasis, cost, etc. I see that Harvard and Hopkins are hands down the "best", according to the poll. I guess we're all a little more influenced by US news than we think.
Sorry, I voted for Northwestern because I know that I would not get accpeted in the schools on the list
whatup yall for those who voted "best school ain't listed by this *******" would u like to do some write in ballots?
oooo hopkins and haaaaavard are in a dead heat. Any bets on which one will pull ahead? I put $50 on hopkins, parlayed with UCSF in third.
how sad. upenn/washu/duke all ranked very high according to USnews, r getting b$*#&slapped on our little poll
No such thing as "best". This poll is childish. What's your criteria anyways? If I were to go with the weather, I'd choose U of Florida. Who wants to freeze in Harvard anyways? Listen to current docs--it DOES NOT matter in the long run where you go to school. It matters what your learn and how you develop yourself. A name is nothing if there is no substance to your education. So, don't get hung on on a name!!
WOWOWOWWOWO~~~~!!!! Who is here! Lady in Red !!! You od not know me but I have heard on SDN about you getting in med school. how is it going for you?
i just wanted to say that anyone with some tiny intelligence would automatically know this poll is opinionated and biased. it's just a poll about people's opinions, not some factual truth of which is the best school. so those who are insulting this poll are the ones that are childish.
Hey Yao Ming, They say big people have tiny brains... Besides, there's nothing wrong with responding with one's opinion to an opinionated poll, especially when the "opinion" is correct.
I would choose Mayo even though I am not going there. I think the small class size, financial aid, and hospital affiliations make for an incredible education on your way to becoming a physician. Of the choices on the list, I would say Penn. The curriculum makes their students a very happy bunch.
For me this is no longer a poll for the best medical school. Rather, this is a test to see how many times dr kevin40 can bump his own thread.
The best medical school is the one that you go to. It's the one that best fits you. So all these rankings mean nothing. I think that the best medical school is the one I go to by far! I know that I am biased but so what?!
So the winner is UCSF!! with JH and harvard as 1st and 2nd runner-up. pretty surprising. thanks to all 186 ppl who participated
Hmm... I'd say the best medical school is one where you find the learning method that suits you individually (ie PBL vs. lecture), matches people in fields or places you are interested in, and after all that, the one that is the least expensive! It's hard to justify going to an expensive private school, when you can go to a less expensive state school and match just as easily!!! But thats me... Although, I do go to a private school - (didn't get into my state school ) Airborne
so the ends justify the means in terms of med school? that you should choose a school just cause it's cheaper is oversimplifying the wide range of schools that exist. $$Money$$ shouldn' t be the only reason. There are many on here that turned down scholarships at state schools and private schools to go to one that 'best suited' (an abstract, oft-repeated phrase here) them. Even the weather isn't everything for some. Our beloved PelicanMan would've turned down sunny and cheap University of Florida for cold and expensive University of Chicago anyday because he truly felt that was his ideal match! Now that's amore! *OFT-REPEATED ADVICE AHEAD* Work hard to get interviews at all those places you remotely like and when you are at each one, maximize your opportunities to get a complete 'feel' for the school from faculty, students, more students, the administration and other students
USeF: I think you and I are in agreement... My advice (for what it's worth...) was to find the one which suited learning style, etc... then, all else being equal, go the cheaper one. Don't get me wrong. I think it is essential to find someplace where you fit in. For instance, if you like big classes, maybe Jefferson is your place - if you're into smaller classes, maybe Mayo is the one. However, I don't think it is essential that people make a rank order list of their "dream school" based on what US News thinks is the most important place to go... Where you go to medical school does not play as an important part in the residency match process as undergrad does in the med school app process. Moreover, I think that you will find when you are in medical school, and especially during your clerkship years, that what are more important than the dossier you eventually submit to NBME for the Match are the letter's from people who work with you, and how well you get along with others. In anycase, in the end, I suppose it really doesn't matter. One place you are 20K in debt, another 200K in debt. Either way, you will be able to repay it. As a side note, there are data (I can look it up, if someone is that interested) that show that medical students who acrue the larger debt burden are more likely to go into the higher paying fields. There are many conclusions that one can derive from this data, but I would hate to think that a person's choice of specialty may be biased by their student loan debt. But that's for another thread... Airborne
