Competition in medical schools

[tay409tay]

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I am in the process of applying to medical school and I am at a bit lost as to what to look for in a school.
I have come across things that mention the competition once you are already in the school, for example John Hopkins med school is extremely competitive while Yale doesn't have rankings and is more cooperative.

I was wondering if there is a resource that mentions whether or not a school is very competitive amongst the students. I am looking for a more cooperative and less competitive school so if you know of any let me know!

Thanks for the help!

 

[chaim123]

That's a hard "metric" to measure, since it is going to be more about your class - hence why second look is so important.

From my experience, WashU and Case students were super nice to each other. Harvard/Stanford/Yale don't rank, which eliminates that type of competition.

But seriously - focus on getting in. Then you can be picky.

 

[narutoverse13]

Most schools that are TRUE P/F (no internal rankings) like Temple & Tulane tend to be more cooperative as everyone is not gunning to get the highest score since the main goal is to learn as much as one can, not know every tiny minute detail (which is what Step 1 is for). The MSAR has a wealth of information which will tell you which schools are like this. If a school does do A-F or a variant of that, then that will more than likely cause some competition during pre-clinical years, but (correct me if I'm wrong) residency directors don't really care as much for pre-clinical things as much as your Step scores, M3/M4 grades, research, etc.

 

[Lawpy]

for example John Hopkins med school is extremely competitive

This isn’t even true and I don’t know where this myth came from. I’m sure @efle has plenty to say about this

 

[efle]

Hopkins med is fully unranked pass/fail, the only places still grading during my cycle were Penn and WashU and I think those have both switched now as well. Hopkins also doesnt give AOA until after the match is done. I think the reputation for misery now comes from the cut throat undergrad premed culture. I havent found it gunnery at all.

 

[DZimmy16]

When applying your first priority should be getting in somewhere. There are plenty of examples of students who thought they were amazing and no medical school could them down yet once it was all said and done they had to reapply next cycle. Or they were too selective and didn't apply to enough schools. It is good to perform some research before applying to medical schools but make sure that you don't limit yourself, still apply broadly. Once you have earned an acceptance then really begin to determine which school will be the best fit. My best advice is to talk to current medical students during your interview day, they will most likely be able to give an honest description of what the culture at the school is like.