how much weight should I put into Doximity rankings?

[mandu_cheeks]

I know rank lists aren't officially due until late Feb/early March, but I've been wondering how much I should factor in prestige/reputation of programs. I know that I want to match at a strong academic program because I'm interested in medical education. With that said, how much should I care about Doximity rankings? Do these rankings hold any meaningful value after you drop off from T10/T20/T40?

I'm asking this because I'm not particularly enthusiastic about the location of some of the Dox T5-T15 programs I've interviewed at. There are programs in bigger cities with lower Dox rankings that I'm more attracted to. But I don't know if I would be disserving my future academic career by ranking a T40-50 over a T5-T10. I don't have any close advisors in rads, so I would appreciate any advice.

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[clutch21]

In general, choose based on fit and where you can see yourself living/thriving for 4-5 years.

If dead set on academics, going to a solid academic program is important. However pretty much any academic program ticks this box, despite what anyone tries to tell you. Besides, sounds like you are already choosing between solid places to start with.

Lots of smoke is blown into the doximity rankings. There are many great programs out there. Also remember that most consider fellowship name to be more important (though still marginally so). If you go somewhere you enjoy being for 5 years, you can always choose that name brand fellowship afterwards.

 

[SeisK]

Doximity sends out polls to residents graduates to determine their relative ranking, and so generally larger programs will be weighted more heavily as their residents will rank their own programs higher.

This isn’t college or med school anymore, and so there’s not one master list to look at in terms of rank. You have to ask yourself what you want in your career. The person who wants to do ESIR vs the person who wants to do go back home and do private practice rads vs the person who wants to go into admin/lobbying vs the person who wants to do research—all these guys have different ranking lists which will look very different. There are mid-tier academic programs that are tippy-top in IR, and there are research heavy programs that can put out disappointing general radiologists needed in private practice.

The person who knows that they want their life to look like, specifically, in ten years will be better off because they can design their list based off that.

 

[Cognovi]

Doximity sends out polls not to residents but graduates. It discounts votes for your own program.

If you're interested in medical education, it is beneficial to be at an institution in which the faculty are active and known nationally in medical education, so that you have many possible role models and mentors. The Doximity ranking is a rough proxy for this.

 

[Dave1980]

They don't mean anything. Go where you want to go.

 

[deleted564680]

Doximity rankings are garbage.

The way it works:

Graduates of programs are asked to rank their top 5 programs. If they rank their own program it's "1" point. The others are weighted higher in some fashion.

Several cities (NYC, Philly) and institutions (Mayo, UPenn, NYU) have used this to their advantage to get people to vote for programs that have no business being in the top 100, let alone 20-30.

Basically, the top 10 are probably pretty accurate (in no particular order) and the rest of the rankings are crap.

 

[Ho0v-man]

What if med school class rank was a popularity contest and the only people who could vote on it were your classmates?

That’s doximity.

 

[Cognovi]

What if med school class rank was a popularity contest and the only people who could vote on it were your classmates?

That’s doximity.

That is literally the point. The Doximity ranking is based on a reputational survey.

 

[Dave1980]

That is literally the point. The Doximity ranking is based on a reputational survey.

doximity rankings are meaningless.

 

[Cognovi]

They have as much meaning as you asking a radiologist you know what they think are the best residency programs. Except they asked many radiologists.

 

[.Asterion]

It’s the best overall “reputation” metric. Not a 1:1 correlation with the best training for you as an individual.

 

[Smoking Jay Cutler]

It is survey data that can be helpful in tiers, but cannot make fine distinctions, and loses all meaning beyond program 60 or so.

As you go deeper down the list it becomes less meaningful as these programs did not likely accrue many top 5 ratings from those responding to the survey.

 

[zero0]

If recent events are any indication, "top" programs should be avoided like the plague. Best places to train overall are probably mid-tier academic.

 

[underthesun]

If recent events are any indication, "top" programs should be avoided like the plague. Best places to train overall are probably mid-tier academic.

Lol ok gunner

 

[efle]

Doximity and US News look overall pretty similar for the "top 20," and I believe the latter is ranked by survey of rads faculty. Hard to call their collective assessment totally useless

Who are the top programs that put out disappointing clinical radiologists? I see that said a lot, but I dont understand why everyone would keep lauding programs that are known to only train you well for research

 

[Ho0v-man]

Doximity and US News look overall pretty similar for the "top 20," and I believe the latter is ranked by survey of rads faculty. Hard to call their collective assessment totally useless

Who are the top programs that put out disappointing clinical radiologists? I see that said a lot, but I dont understand why everyone would keep lauding programs that are known to only train you well for research

I’m sure the 40 programs in the top 20 have some kind of edge over most. But I sincerely doubt that every community program is automatically inferior to every university program. I think these lists are really only good for the extremes of the tippity top and the bottom. I.e. no way to say #60 is really any better than #70. But #5 is almost definitely better than both of them.

 

[zero0]

Lol ok gunner

Didn't see the recent Penn study comparing rads residents to techs?

Then Yale just put out this gem Implementation of a Physician Assistant Emergency Medicine Residency Within a Physician Residency

The list goes on

 

[medradthrowaway]

Didn't see the recent Penn study comparing rads residents to techs?

Then Yale just put out this gem Implementation of a Physician Assistant Emergency Medicine Residency Within a Physician Residency

The list goes on

Regardless, the Penn name still carries a lot of weight. If Doximity didn't exist, these same top 20 or top 30 programs would still command the same respect that carries over into fellowship and when finding an attending gig. They would just be top 30 on a different list.

 

[underthesun]

Didn't see the recent Penn study comparing rads residents to techs?

Then Yale just put out this gem Implementation of a Physician Assistant Emergency Medicine Residency Within a Physician Residency

The list goes on

I saw the Penn study. I think it's in poor taste but it doesn't suddenly make Penn an awful place to do residency.

And I'm not really sure why I should be concerned about some paper from Yale that is written by a bunch of ED docs. Why is it so bad that they built a PA EM residency program? These kinds of programs are popping up everywhere, and you would have to be an idiot to cross places off your list because of things like this. There would be nowhere left to apply lol. I do share your concern with midlevel encroachment but when you're trying to get a top residency position it's not the right time to die on that hill.