How important is med school attended

[JBlue]

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I am currently applying to med school right now and for personal reasons I do not want to leave my current location. The problem is that the med school that is in my city does not have a very good reputation. If I do well on my step 1 and step 2 will the institution that I get my MD from matter that much during match?

 

[mikecwru]

Originally posted by JBlue
I am currently applying to med school right now and for personal reasons I do not want to leave my current location. The problem is that the med school that is in my city does not have a very good reputation. If I do well on my step 1 and step 2 will the institution that I get my MD from matter that much during match?

Reputation of the school may help a little. More importantly and probably more frequently is the personal biases people have for or against schools. In the end, it probably doesn't matter where you go to school, and after incuring about 180k in debt, I say go to the cheapest place you can get into that doesn't train you in grass huts.

As far as a school being weak in emergency medicine, that's fine... just make sure you do an away rotation at a strong program (or two) and work your ass off.

mike

 

[tonem]

Its hard to paint every residency program with a broad brush. Some places try to judge the whole person rather than the person's school, board scores, grades etc...
But i suspect that school attended does play some role. I recently rotated through a prestigious west coast surgery program. I was told that part of the screening criteria included the applicant's medical school. Something like 5 points for top ten, 4 points for top 20 etc... While that is a small part of the criteria, it could mean that a faculty member never sees that you're a great candidate because you decided to go to your state school instead of Harvard. On the other hand if you were accepted at Harvard your grades at your state school are probably great and your board scores are up there too. So who can really say.

 

[bigfrank]

Hi,

Given the 1,200 or so spots that are available each year, your school really doesn't matter in the end. I mean, if you have a sincere interest in EM, you'll match somewhere.

Personally, I go to a state school, and while it is a "top 20" school, it is just that -- a state school. Last year, 9 people wanted to to EM and 9 people matched in EM.

Good luck.

 

[overnight]

While there might be ~1200 spots nationally, most applicant would like to attend one of their top three choices. (Or at least one of their top ten.)

Re. top three choices, it's likely that 600 people will be applying for those 30 spots.

So, yes, med school name actually does matter to some degree in the end--the same way college attended played a role in med school admissions.

 

[JBlue]

Do all 1200 spots typically fill each year?

 

[m and m]

They sure do fill up. In fact, that is why EM is considered a competitive specialty, even though most of us will match (as opposed to derm where most applicants do not match).


You can find the stats at http://www.saem.org/inform/match.htm