Yeah it's definitely really hard to rank schools. I had to remind myself that I would really like pretty much all of them to some extent because I want to go to med school, and hey, they're med schools, so they'll all study the stuff I want to study and have the kinds of professors I'd like to work with. Plus, if I applied there, chances are there was something about the school that I liked.
I think the deal is that you have to avoid the "hey, its a med school! Med school is awesome! Therefore this school is awesome!" mentality. You can get an amazing education at any US M.D. school (after all, it is what you make of it, and YOU make yourself into a good doctor, no school will do that for you). So what I think about is this:
- How did it "feel"? How were the students? Did they seem happy? Did they seek out interviewees and tried to be helpful? Do they have a life outside of school? Are they supportive or do they seem kind of competitive and intense? How was the administration? Did they seem supportive and nice? Were your interviewers nice? Did they seem excited about the school?
- How was the campus and the location? Is it somewhere you can imagine yourself for 4 years? Is it close to home (if you're into that sort of thing) or easily reachable (i.e. is there an airport nearby)? Is the campus too rural/too urban? How are the facilities? Do lecture halls look super-cramped or are they nice? The library? Is there housing/ how is the housing? Are apartments in the area expensive? Is it easy to navigate on foot or do you need a car (gas = expensive, students = poor)? Are you totally isolated or is there stuff around it? Is the area sketchy?
- Do they focus more on research or primary care, and does that focus work for you? Is it more lecture-based or small-group based? How much PBL is there? How many hours do students typically spend in lecture? How easy is it to get notes from the lectures if you don't feel like going (are they online, is there a scribe program, are they podcasted, videocasted?). How is the curriculum set up? Is it in blocks, or do you have a bunch of classes at once? How much support is there if you're having trouble with your classes? How often are students tested? What is the grading scheme?
- How are the hospitals? Remember you'll probably do most of your clinicals there. Is the patient population diverse?
etc etc. Anyways, these are the things I think about when I start analyzing schools....
good summary!
