Does school's reputation and ranking play a role...

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Drako

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...in matching to a residency of your choice at the end of four years of medical school?

I talked to a guy who is doing his residence at Mt. Sinai about the above topic. He thinks that regardless of where you go to school, if you do well on the USMLE exams, your chance of matching into a competitive residency is the same as that of another student who attends a more prestigious school. In short, school's reputation doesn't play a role when it comes to matching to your top choice residency and speciality, even the ones that are highly competitive.

Is this true? Or the school's US News ranking, reputation, and prestige do play a role in aiding its students to obtain residency spots and specialities of their choice?

To be more specific, I am trying to decide between UCI and U. of Pittsburgh. The specialty I would like to study is Orthopedic Surgery.

Thank you for your advice.

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dude, have u looked at UCSF's matching list?

practically all of them place great residency...

it is true to a certain extent, that ur grades and scores matter a lot, but that doesnt mean the presitege of a top 20 school is the same as a school not even in the top 50! just don't make a decision that you might regret later on, u know?!
 
To be honest i think it does, but not a lot. May be it does if you were to attend a school like harvard/hopkins/ucsf, but after that the difference is no that major. I remember going to an interview (in general surgery) and I happen to take a quick glance at a sheet that an interviewer (in a Philly school). What I saw was rather interesting. It was a tally of points and they actually assesed more points to certain schools, specially to those that were highly ranked. For me, fortunately I was at Pitt and I got full (5 points). Some schools didn't even get points. But again, programs will mainly look at your board scores and AOA status, specially for ortho. Still, if you do go to Pitt, it will help quite a bit if you do get a letter from Dr. Fu, the chairman of ortho here, he's extremely well known nationally and internationally. His center for sports medicine (UPMC Sports Medicine Complex) is absolutely incredibly and brand new, I don't think any other medical center has anything close to it. Anyway, enough of my babbling. Just go wherever you feel most comfortable and do your best, and everything will work out.
 
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Drako,

I sent you a PM that is pretty much along the same lines as PittMD's post.
 
Except for the Top 5-10 schools, I don't think it makes a *significant* difference. Your USMLE scores, grades, LORs, etc. are the major factors in determining who gets an interview, then your performance there is the major factor in determining how highly to rank you.

Another consideration - do students at Top 5-10 schools have higher than average USMLE scores and grades? Assuming the competition to get places in these medical schools is stiff, I would assume the caliber of the students there to be a bit higher, and perhaps these students obtain better residencies not because of the name of their medical school but rather because they are stellar candidates from the get-go.
 
I think it definatly helps for some of the more competative surgical residencies like ortho, plastics, derm, and ENT. The influence that the program directors have @ some of those places is signifigant.
 
hey drako..

i found this on one of the threads...and I thought it would help u out, in ur decision making...

it is the match list...

<a href="http://www.mcwmd.com" target="_blank">Match Lists</a>
 
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