Criteria for selecting schools

[Califlower]

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How do you select which schools to apply to? If you get accepted to more than one (hopefully) how do you decided which one to go to? It would be great if we could all afford to visit every med school and spend a day or two to look, but that is not possible. How do you know if the school you plan to attend is somewhere you can thrive for 4 long years? For those already in med school, can you tell me why you chose the school you go to?

List good reasons... not something like "I went there because of all the hot babes~"

 

[umass rower]

As for choosing which ones to apply to, I had a list of a few that I was interested in, and then put in a bunch of other schools mostly to help my odds.

As for making a decision after acceptance, usually the interview day will consist of a tour and a look at a couple classes, I think. From what I've been told, it's essentially a full-day event. I'll let you know myself as soon as I get an interview somewhere.

 

[Califlower]

Good luck to you, Umass. I hope you can get some good news -- and also help me with my question! 🙂

 

[finnpipette]

there are a few questions that you should ask.

does their philosophy of education jibe with yours? are they too conservative, etc. whatnot.

Do you like their style of teaching. lectures, PBL, organ based, individual learning, etc.

What kind of clinical experiences do you want? rural, inner city, etc.

What are the research options, especially if you want to enter a competitive residency.

Would you be happy there location wise? near family/girlfriend. big city/small city. weather. etc.

Last but not least. how much does it cost. You can give a ranking to each of these criteria, and then give each school that you're thinking of points. then you do the math. hope this helps. 😱

 

[Califlower]

finnpipette --

Thank you for your info. That is exactly what I wanted, only better! Just one more Q... how do you know what kind of lectures/PBL etc. they have, and how do you know about their research programs? Is that stated explicitly in their websites? Should I go to aamcas?

 

[finnpipette]

You can usually find information about curricula in books such as MSAR or review books like princeton review's complete book of medical schools. For research, it's a little bit more complicated. You can look at NIH dollars, research institutes affiliated with the school. For example, take a look at a school like Georgetown. Their research is pretty strong, but if you ever wanted to do something different, you could do something at the NIH. Or a school like cornell, where they do joint ventures with rockefeller. In general, look at which research centers they have. For something more specific, you can look up fields that you're interested in researching...find specific people, etc. you can even do a journal search of these people to get a better idea of what kind of work they do. That should give you a pretty good idea of the research that takes place. Last thing, there's always SDN. Go on the allopathtic forum and list questions about specific schools. You'll get responses. Ok, I think that's about it. rock on.

 

[Califlower]

Thanks! The info you gave me are just so valuable as I am just beiginning to mold my interests in medicine. I think now I can start working toward a direction rather than just run around doing prereq's! Thank you so much!

By the way~~ where did you come from... you sound like a wise saint!😀

 

[finnpipette]

LA 🙂

 

[Adapt]

Originally posted by Califlower
How do you select which schools to apply to? If you get accepted to more than one (hopefully) how do you decided which one to go to? It would be great if we could all afford to visit every med school and spend a day or two to look, but that is not possible. How do you know if the school you plan to attend is somewhere you can thrive for 4 long years? For those already in med school, can you tell me why you chose the school you go to?

List good reasons... not something like "I went there because of all the hot babes~"

For me it's
1. Location
2. Cost

Califlower,
I see that you are from CA. I am also from southern CA. As you know it is hard to stay in CA for medical school because it is so competitive. I read in your other posts that you are having gpa problems and so forth.

I would recommend looking into DO schools specifically COMP. For COMP, the average gpa is a 3.3 and MCAT around a 26. Plus, it is located in southern CA so if location is important to you as it is to me, you may want to look into this school especially since it is actually attainable unlike those crazy UCs.

 

[Califlower]

Thanks for that info. California schools are pretty crazy. I didn't even know that there was a DO school here. That shows how much research I still need to do. What are the major differences between an allo school and osteo school? I know the differences in their approach to medicine, but as far as cost, method of teaching, number of schools perhaps? Or is there no difference?

 

[Adapt]

Originally posted by Califlower
Thanks for that info. California schools are pretty crazy. I didn't even know that there was a DO school here. That shows how much research I still need to do. What are the major differences between an allo school and osteo school? I know the differences in their approach to medicine, but as far as cost, method of teaching, number of schools perhaps? Or is there no difference?

The costs and education are similar. DO schools emphasize primary care but alot of graduates do specialize. There are 20 DO schools in the US. You can look at the pre-DO forum and look at the sticky there about what a DO is. There's lots of information there.

 

[calebho501]

For me, my selection criteria in order are:

1. Location of school & reputation w/ residency directors
2. Lifestyle (I prefer cities like NYC, Chicago or Atlanta)
3. Opportunities for international rotations/ public health
4. Student Satisfaction/ Curriculum
5. Cost of Tuition

I remember one thing I heard from my tour guide at Columbia which I thought was true. Wherever you go for school, you'll gradually adapt to it, so if a school has a few negative stuff you don't like (Traditional Curriculum, non-ideal location), if overall you like the school, go for it.