Originally posted by Renovar
I second the above. That's sort of what my PD is telling us. I do have the priviledge of attending a high-ranking school and my PD and IM clerkship director told us that it's a pretty big advantage rolling out of a strong school, even if one is an average applicant, everything being equal, will get preferentially selected. The reason being most high-ranked med schools have strong IM department, and applicants from there usually get letters from bigger named people that are better-known in the residency circles. And the name factor is pretty important. I used to not trust the med school rankings much, but looking at what my friends at my institution and friends from other institutions are going through applying for residency right now, I started seeing how med school reputation can be an important factor in the heat of the competition.
But for us late-matchers, I would suspect, though, that many if not most high-end places (at least most places I am applying to) wont notify until dean's letter, regardless of med school. Unless, of course, you are AOA with 250+ boards and a "can't miss" tag on your forehead, I would be patient until Nov.
