For those of you that are gung ho on the usnews rankings...

[Ahmed786]

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Here's a reason to not consider going to a school based on what the USNews thinks about them. They just made a survey on the "most popular" schools and it has to be one of the most fundamentally flawed ways of creating statistics I have ever seen. 🙄

http://www.usnews.com/education/bes...es/2011/05/17/10-most-popular-medical-schools

So before you consider where to attend next year because USNews decided to rank it number 1 for that year for whatever (research, popularity, primary care) rethink your decision again, really.

 

[Person0715]

I like how USNews is trying to highlight other aspects of the data medical schools provide them with, but I don't see how higher yield necessarily means higher popularity. I think it's a skewed way to look at yield since, as the article says, "each school on the list of most popular medical schools is a state institution, which likely contributes to the popularity of each."

In the end, there really is no way to gauge popularity of a medical school since so many factors go into choosing which one to attend or even which ones to apply to.

 

[FunnyCurrent]

Gee I wonder what's behind the "popularity" at Kansas and Reno.....🙄

Maybe that they reject everyone except those with significant ties to the state (speaking from personal experience). The same people who would likely matriculate if offered...

This ranking is ridiculous. USNews should get slammed for this.

 

[alwaysaangel]

Just wow...I can't believe this made it to publishing without SOMEONE in their office realizing how dumb it is.

 

[Barcu]

So, OOS-friendly state schools have high matriculation/acceptance rates.

Shocking.

 

[Diallelus]

Unfortunately, the US News rankings have acquired a life of their own, and are now more prescriptive than descriptive.

 

[nctw]

I've never trusted their rankings, but this is just ridiculous.

 

[Myuu]

There's a reason I have the first comment on that article. What utter BS.

 

[chronicidal]

I decided to multiply the yield by number of applications for schools that ranked in the top 60 for research:

1. GWU
2. Georgetown
3. Jefferson
4. UCLA
5. Boston
6. UCSF
7. Wake Forest
8. Harvard
9. U of Miami
10. Temple

Then I decided to normalize by class size:

1. Mayo
2. GWU
3. Wake Forest
4. Stanford
5. Georgetown
6. Brown
7. UCLA
8. U of Vermont
9. UCSF
10. Boston
11. U of Chicago
12. Harvard
13. Columbia
14. U of N. Carolina
15. U of Pennsylvania

Any suggestions that make more sense?

 

[raltima07]

Very interesting...

 

[bassvp]

This does seem pretty ridiculous. I grew up in Kansas and had I originally applied to medical school while there, I would have applied to and gone to U of Kansas if accepted. Not because it was a "better school", but simply because I wouldn't have known there were other options. I think many of these have a high matriculation rate because people growing up in these states (Kansas, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Nevada, South Carolina, North Dakota, New Mexico) didn't know that they should apply anywhere else or that there are other good options. I sure wouldn't have known several years ago. i just thought you went to your own state's medical school if they had one. *shrug*

 

[Tapepsi]

Well... I didn't rely on rankings to determine my school choice (and actually the school I decided to go to doesn't even participate in the US News).

What should be the most important factors for premeds: cost, a good "fit" school that best serves their interests, curriculum, specialty emphasis or lack thereof, research opportunities, location, clubs and extracurricular activities, etc...

If you're a good student, you will get into the specialty you want regardless of which med school you went to.

 

[Narmerguy]

Here's a reason to not consider going to a school based on what the USNews thinks about them. They just made a survey on the "most popular" schools and it has to be one of the most fundamentally flawed ways of creating statistics I have ever seen. 🙄

http://www.usnews.com/education/bes...es/2011/05/17/10-most-popular-medical-schools

So before you consider where to attend next year because USNews decided to rank it number 1 for that year for whatever (research, popularity, primary care) rethink your decision again, really.

In their defense, just because whoever's idea this list was is incredibly stupid doesn't mean every other ranking they publish is equally rubbish. There's a lot of flaws with their rankings, but I think it has become far too trendy to trash them completely on SDN without considering that they are not pulled from thin air but based on very real data that might be useful for some students.

 

[Catburr]

At one point, whoever wrote the article forgot what they were doing...

"Of the 10 most popular medical schools, all have yield percentages of more than 70 percent, while the national average among the 121 schools that provided yield data to U.S. News is 50.2 percent. Below is a list of the 10 most popular law schools, sorted by percentage yield among new students in 2010"

 

[Andnosoupforyou]

Fools! Don't you all realize you are playing right into their hands by viewing the article! That's all the rankings are their for! This is one case where turning a blind eye is the best policy.

 

[ozzi22]

thats absurd

 

[GangstaDr]

how does the tuition on the ranking system work for state schools? Why is there such a large discrepancy between them and private schools?

http://grad-schools.usnews.rankings...gs/sort+c_rank_final_overall_sort/sortdir+asc

 

[bassvp]

how does the tuition on the ranking system work for state schools? Why is there such a large discrepancy between them and private schools?

http://grad-schools.usnews.rankings...gs/sort+c_rank_final_overall_sort/sortdir+asc

Wait...I guess I didn't realize...but why is the tuition quoted for Cali schools on this list $0 (IS) and $12,245 (OOS) when the MSAR has quite different numbers?

 

[snickydoody]

Wait...I guess I didn't realize...but why is the tuition quoted for Cali schools on this list $0 (IS) and $12,245 (OOS) when the MSAR has quite different numbers?

These are the OOS costs that are added to the registration fees for classes. Not sure why they don't just use the numbers with reg fees included, though 🙄