How Low Will You Go?

[Blanch]

---

Members don't see this ad.

Rankings seem to be a pretty important factor in a lot of people's decisions. In order to understand just how important, I wanted to put out this poll to see how many people choose to go to a school that was not the most highly ranked of those they were accepted at. Please answer this poll according to where your acceptance schools rank on the U.S. News and World Reports Research Rank. The reason I chose the research rank is that it seems to be a better representation of which schools have better "names" than other schools. I think the Primary Care rank and Specialty Ranks are also valuable, but "big name" schools like Harvard, Stanford, or Hopkins can be found anywhere from top ten to bottom 10 on the Primary Care Rank. Also, please answer this poll regardless of the rationale for the decision you made. Please feel free to comment on your rationales in this thread.

 

[tBw]

ok, the sample size is still small but I'm amazed how many people are headed to the highest rank school...I'm sure there were reasons other than rank though...like people feeling the higher ranked have more scholarship money or something....at least I hope its not just due to rank!! 😉

 

[Blanch]

I think the same factors that go into giving a school a high rank are also looked upon very favorably by students. Like the quality of the student body and research funding and leverage with residencies. The rank must have at least some validity in measuring which schools are really "better" than others in educating future physicians. But then there are a huge number of personal factors that are added to those already computed into a U.S. News rank. Location and life style factors led me to pick a lower ranked school, but I only went down by 2 places (5 places on last years rank) so that's not saying too much.

On a statistical note, we don't know how many acceptances these responders were holding. If you only get 2 acceptances, the probability that they will be within 10 ranks of each other is actually quite low, so that makes the decision more clear cut I would think.

 

[SunnyS81]

There are a lot of things that go into considering an acceptance. I think that people first decide if they want to go to their state school or not. If they don't go to their state school, then all the schools cost roughly the same, and even difference of $5000 (when the cost of attendance is $50k) may not be a deciding factor. If you are going out of state or a private school, then you look at student happiness, facilities, location, etc. Good schools tend to have all of these because a) they have money b) they have to attract good students so it is in their best interest to have happy students c) most people probably won't go to school in a location they hate. Plus if you want to do an education/dollar ratio, the highest ranking school will beat out other private and out of state schools.

 

[Wrigleyville]

Rankings are just a starting point. Everyone makes up their own mind after visiting the schools -- often they coincide with the rankings, but sometimes they don't. I'm sure we all had experiences being underwhelmed by a highly ranked school or happily surprised by a lesser-regarded one.

Wrigley

 

[Neuronix]

Right now, 19 for a higher ranked school, 16 for a lesser ranked school. The stats are a bit deceiving beause the lesser rankings catagories are split by just how much lower, while there is only one higher ranking catagory.

This is actually not so depressing. It's better than I would have thought anyway. I did go for the higher ranked school, but then again, it was close to me so I had the location factor working for it as well.

 

[Blanch]

I definately had that experiece, and my interviews allowed me to drop some of the most highly ranked schools to the very bottom of my preference list. However, I also had the experience that as the time since my interview became greater and greater, I felt like my preferences were becoming gradually altered to conform somewhat more closely to rankings. I don't know exactly why this was, but I think it may just be because I started to forget some of the smaller details about my interview day. Eventually I went through about 2 weeks of prestige fever and then again refocused on overall impressions to come to my final decision.

 

[ccCrazie]

Hey Blanch,

I remember your name from the Yale waitlist thread. Have you made up your mind where to go already or are you still waiting on Yale. If you've chosen already, where are you headed? It's interesting to see where people are choosing over Yale. If you don't want to say publicly (since you haven't mentioned names of schools), you can PM me.

 

[Penguin Poptart]

I'm choosing a lower ranked school (also at considerably higher cost to me) because I'm excited about the location/atmosophere and believe the education is solid despite the lower ranking. Four years is a long time and life is short.

 

[tgan]

it took me a while to realize that rankings means nothing. Higher ranking does not mean better education. USandWR rankings should include such factors as learning environment, facilities, and student satisfaction. A lot of my friends went for the highest ranked schools they got into (most in the "top 50"). Many of them are unhappy where they ended up and do not believe they will be competent by the time they graduate. Learning from their mistakes, I considered the schools both to apply to, to interview at, and finally to accept, based upon where I think i can do my best work...not according to US News or NIH funding. Just my .02

Good luck to everyone.

 

[Blanch]

Another bump.

 

[Blanch]

A nice hyperbolic curve developing. Thanks guys.