How Different - Really - Are Medical Schools?

[MD.Squared]

I feel like when selecting an undergrad institution, there were so many things to consider - size of the university, schedule type (i.e. semester vs. trimester vs. quarter), grading scales (i.e. strict letter grades vs. letter grades with "-/+"), course work type (i.e. papers vs. group projects vs. tests), clubs, etc.
My question is: how different, really, are medical schools?
When trying to find the best-fit medical school, what factors make-or-break student-institution compatibility for you?
For instance, if I preferred the semester system to quarter system during undergrad, should I be looking at specific schools? Or are all med school schedules more or less the same.

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[calipremed5768]

I think that in med school admissions most people don’t have the option of choosing a “best fit.” It seems like most of the time a med school picks you. I don’t know the exact stats but I’m pretty sure most people only get one acceptance (if that)

 

[KnightDoc]

I think that in med school admissions most people don’t have the option of choosing a “best fit.” It seems like most of the time a med school picks you. I don’t know the exact stats but I’m pretty sure most people only get one acceptance

@calipremed5768 is absolutely correct. The stats are that only around 40% of applicants are successful in any given year, and around half of them receive only one acceptance, so only around 20% of applicants even have a choice at the end of the day. Then the choices come down to scholarships or financial aid, location, grading systems, teaching style, "prestige" of school, etc., but it's really not worth a lot of time to get too deeply into it until you know whether or not you are one of the one in five that even has a decision to make!!

 

[efle]

It's a different ballgame than undergrad, because with undergrad you're expected to have multiple options to choose from.

As @gonnif likes to say:

60% of US MD applicants get in nowhere.
20% get into only a single medical school.

That means only 20% actually have a choice of 2+ schools.

From there, it's minor differences like if one is more expensive, closer to family, has pass/fail for the first two years, etc.

 

[LizzyM]

Every school has to satisfy the credentialing body (LCME) and every school has to prepare its students to take the boards. How it gets from point a to point b varies by school. Most schools do not have semesters or quarters but have blocks separated by exams covering the material covered in that block. Some schools have blocks that are system based such that physiology, anatomy, even pathophysiology and pharmacology are all covered during the block covering a specific organ system.

Grading does vary among schools with grades or pass/fail with, perhaps, a warning system for those who passed by a hair's breadth and who should be aware that more effort may be needed to avoid slipping onto the "failure" side of the curve on subsequent exams.

Some schools may have exams in discrete subject areas and others may lump everything together in one mega-test covering all the material covered in every lecture and small group over a 4-6 week period.

Obviously there are big differences between schools regarding location, accommodations (dorms or other housing, or housing on your own), location of clerkships and electives (will you need a car, will you be out of the area for a month at a time at an outlying facility?), and the expectation of scholarly work such as a thesis.

 

[Goro]

I feel like when selecting an undergrad institution, there were so many things to consider - size of the university, schedule type (i.e. semester vs. trimester vs. quarter), grading scales (i.e. strict letter grades vs. letter grades with "-/+"), course work type (i.e. papers vs. group projects vs. tests), clubs, etc.
My question is: how different, really, are medical schools?
When trying to find the best-fit medical school, what factors make-or-break student-institution compatibility for you?
For instance, if I preferred the semester system to quarter system during undergrad, should I be looking at specific schools? Or are all med school schedules more or less the same.

The biggest things will be location, quality and amount of clinical education, curriculum type and amount of research going on.

 

[RJ McReady]

My question is: how different, really, are medical schools?

I was told this from my late father, a physician...(may he rest in peace)
High school is a foundation for college. Is there anyone who goes straight from HS to med school in the US? No. Why? Because you simply dont have the background, the foundation to learn or apply what is taught.
College is a foundation for med school. A lot of superfluous learning occurs in college but the basic foundations (BCPM) are critical. You cant be a physician without these basics.
Med school is a foundation for residency.
Residency is what really matters.
In the long run, It doesn't matter where you go to medical school (speaking only of US allopathic schools) because in the end all med students here basically learn the same things.
But, It does matter how you do in med school. Because that affects where you do your residency.
And residency is where you really learn your craft.
After that, though, there is still a steep learning curve in your first years as an attending physician.

 

[Engrailed]

Personally, I'd be thrilled just to get in, so I couldn't care less about grading systems or dress codes or anything. But beyond that, MD > DO, then completely location-based. Safety as a minority matters so some diversity in the region is preferred, and somewhat superficially somewhere like NYC way over rural midwest because I've mostly lived in cities and just am much happier in them. Again, zero expectation to even have that kind of option, and what you may end up liking can surprise you, but that's how I'd pick.

Oh right, and no LUCOM

Haha yes LUCOM is an absolute negatory. haha

 

[AnatomyGrey12]

IF you have the option to choose, choose the school with P/F pre-clinical.

 

[Schwifty]

IF you have the option to choose, choose the school with P/F pre-clinical.

And no/minimum required attendance for lectures

 

[Matthew9Thirtyfive]

My friend and I go to different schools and the curricula are set up differently. They have 2 years of preclinical in a traditional curriculum where all the classes are done separately. We have a 16-month curriculum that is systems based. His school is ranked P/F. Mine is H/P/F, but there’s no indication of rank on the MSPE.

So things can be pretty different even if you’re learning the same stuff.

 

[sliceofbread136]

People in this thread are short sited. What matters most is how your school does third year. Where you will be rotating, diversity of pathology, your role, time spent in each specialty etc. This will make a significantly higher impact than preclinical structure

 

[FutureSurgical]

I have helped bring in adcoms to our premed interest group in college for 3 years. The gist of what each adcom (mostly MD, 2 DO) member said was "you're going to learn the same stuff in one way or another. That's required by the accrediting board [LCME]." But what they told us differs that REALLY matters is:

1. Research opportunities
2. Quality of clinical sites
3. Student support (inside and out of academics)

Every school has something great to offer (P/F preclinical and clinical grades, opportunities to defer for a year to do research (Yale,) etc.) But really, what you should ask yourself and during interviews is the quality of clinical rotations and how the school will support your academic interests.

 

[Lucca]

In addition to what was already mentioned, some schools may not have home programs in a particular specialty which may make it more difficult to network / do research within that specialty if you’re interested. Typically this applies to smaller specialties like plastics, Derm, but when the competition is stiff every little bit counts. If you think you might be interested in specialties like those, look up the home programs at the schools you get into. That said, this is not as important as cost/location/clinical grading+Class-ranking scheme IMO.

You also will always have an advantage matching at your home institution. If you want to live in a particular location, especially if it’s a difficult one to match into from outside like NYC or CA then you’ll have an advantage going to Med school at that location. The exception to this is attending nationally recognized brand name institutions like Michigan, Baylor, WashU, Vandy etc which will have a much easier time matching at a competitive location because of their reputation/network relative to less well known state schools.

 

[RNthenDoc]

I was lucky enough to have multiple acceptances. Prior to choosing, I did a lot of talking to past and current students at some of the schools, mostly to get an idea of what the culture of the school is like and the expectations I could have.

For the first two years, having less mandatory stuff was important to me, as well as having a good amount of dedicated study time for step 1. Schools vary widely in how much mandatory stuff there is (PBL curriculum is a good example), AND in how much time you get for dedicated step study.

The other half of the equation (the more important half) is the opportunities to see and do stuff in the clinical years. A lot of that has to do with what the local medical community is like, and how proactive the faculty is. I recently rounded with a resident from the Carib who said he did 1:1 IM rotations (that is, he saw a single patient. All day. Period), so the quality varies widely. Rule of thumb is USMD>DO>>>>>Carrib, but some of the DO schools are state schools or have tertiary care centers, so I’m sure they have parity in those cases.

At every school, applicants were asking about what research opportunity is available. I think a much slicker question is to ask what research is CURRENTLY in progress or recently published from the campus. That tells you two things: 1: if research is happening, 2: if the faculty are involved enough to know. I interviewed at a lower tier DO school and even they were touting access to world-class research nearby, but the harder question was what had actually been published or documented. Med students research is often an important resume piece, so I wanted to know if I was actually going to be able to publish or get some kind of credit if I were to partake.

Ultimately, though, I was just super, super stoked to have the opportunity to choose between some really great schools. The quality of school matters, but honestly if one of the lesser DO schools had offered me a full ride I would be a bone wizard. The price of these schools is such that I personally would prioritize that over school quality, unless you’re talking about MD vs DO or a *Truly* big gulf in quality in training.

The cheapest school I was accepted to was the best choice financially, academically, and was an allo school, but had that not been the case I would have married all the above points to find the right fit for me. Which would have been KCU.

That’s my take