In Retrospect: $$$ or Prestige?

[quideam]

For all you Med School Graduates out there...

I am interested in doing emergecy medicine or possibly truama surgery. If these were your ambitions, and you had the option of either getting a free ride to your 2nd tier state school (not CA), or going to a better, though not top-10 school, such as NYU, U. Pitt, or Einstein, what would you have done? If you got into a top-ten school, such as Johns Hopkins, Cornell, or Yale, what would you have done?

Most importantly, in retrospect, do you think that where you went to med school really made a difference in obtaining a good residency? Did going to a state school hinder you, or did going to a top ranked school help you enormously?

Please post your responses!!

Thanks a bunch!!

- Quid

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[quideam]

Please guys, a bunch of you have read the post... any thoughts?

- Quid

 

[28129]

My Dad says that in all his years practicing, no patient has *ever* asked him what medical school he went to.

 

[snaggletooth]

Going to a bigger name school will help you get a better residency. Just compare the schools match lists and that should give you an idea of how much better. I was in your same position and opted for the bigger name. Am I happy with my choice? yup. Although it probably won't make much of a difference in $ it will help if you do decide to go academic. Good luck.

 

[PimplePopperMD]

Residency training is more important than med school training... however, in order to get a "good residency" it's easier to have gone to a "good med school".

Having said that, I went to an unranked state medical school (U illinois) and obtained the residency of my choice. Both gen surg (what you'd have to do, and then a trauma fellowship) along with emerg med are middle of the road in terms of competitiveness... so my thought is to save the $$..

check out the match lists of the respective schools for the last three years, and compare in that way. I was very happy with my decision.

 

[LaCirujana]

My med school was a solid state school, no fancy ranking, just good education. I deliberately chose to avoid incurring more debt despite having been accepted to a "better" school.

The people in my class who went into general surgery (including myself) obtained residencies at Duke, Wash U, Michigan, Dartmouth, St Joe's Exempla (a solid community program), and one stayed at our school. This year's class did just as well, with folks going to Hopkins, and other excellent programs.

While going to a bigger name med school might help a little, it's more important to do well wherever you go. Take the free ride.

 

[DrQuinn]

Shoot... I went to a "no-namer" medical school (i.e. a DO program... was even further behind the eight ball than most applicants) and got my first choice in Emergency Medicine (which is above average for competitiveness). Even though USF/TGH was a brand new program (first class), I was also a very competitive applicant, with oodles of interviews.

Sooooooooooooo my feeling is just go to a medical school with the cheapest tuition.

Q, DO

 

[AJM]

Originally posted by ShantanuThakur
My Dad says that in all his years practicing, no patient has *ever* asked him what medical school he went to.

I find that very hard to believe. Now maybe it's because I'm young and am a resident, but patients ask me all the time what medical school I went to. This happens particularly in my primary care continuity clinic -- patients just want to know that stuff. I hear that patients in general never ask about where physicians did their residency (prob because they don't understand how residency works), but they do ask about the med school. They also don't often ask the physician themselves, but they will see it on their brochure, website, etc. So maybe your dad's patients already knew this info without having to ask him...

Now that's not to say that you should choose your med school based on what you think will be most impressive to your patients.


Quid -- as far as your original question, I went to a top 10 med school, and feel that it helped tremendously for my residency placement, as it did for my other classmates. My classmates ended up going to top notch programs, not only in moderately competitive specialties, but also in the highly competitive specialties. At the interviews I went to, the majority of the applicants were from top 10 or top 15 schools, with a smattering of applicants from other schools. You can definitely do very well from a state school, but I think you just have to prove yourself a bit more -- it's a little more of an uphill battle.

 

[DrQuinn]

I agree with AJM, I get asked ALL the time what medical school I went to. Since I went to a literally "no-namer," my patients dont' really have a comment, positive or negative. But it doesn't really matter to them...

Granted, I'm in the ED so they don't really have a choice...

But again I would say go to where the tuition is the cheapest. You'll likely still get your top choice in residency (as long as you're not a buffoon) and save some $.

Q, DO

 

[DuneHog]

Originally posted by QuinnNSU
Since I went to a literally "no-namer," my patients dont' really have a comment, positive or negative.

Your medical school really didn't even have a name?

 

[DrQuinn]

Nope. X-COM.

Q, DO

 

[snaggletooth]

So where does your diploma say you graduated from?

 

[DrQuinn]

Originally posted by snaggletooth
So where does your diploma say you graduated from?

University of Phoenix.

Just kidding.

DeVry Institute.

Just kidding.

Lincoln Tech.

Just kidding.

Q, DO

 

[yipeee]

From her name it looks like Nova Southeastern University (NSU).

It's the only DO school in Florida.

 

[Castro Viejo]

Cheap tuition vs. prestige? Prestige all the way.

<Thinking back to his med school days> Yeah... Prestige all the way.

 

[IN2BATE]

hum..................................................

 

[IN2BATE]

hum..................................................I would say that unless you care about academic positions, go state.

The average private school MD/DO student class of 2003 owes something like 140K on average.

It also depends on field............if you are doing path, gas, rads..............who the hell is going to ask you where the hell you went to school?

oh yeah............if you look at the name QuinnNSU it tells you he went to NSU........in FLorida. DUH!

I also went to xcom with Quinn NSU.......she is really hot!

IN2BATE
PGY1 (gas passer to be)

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>


"Hypochondria is the only disease I can say I don't have" HA

 

[quideam]

Thanks for all your responses, everyone. I am currently applying, so all of this is hypothetical, but I think that I have a very good shot at the $ from my state school. Unfortunately, exactly what I want to do with my future is up in the air - i like surgery and EM, but I would also like to do some international humanitarian relief work. I think what i'm going to do is wait and see if I get into any of the top schools i'm applying to (JHU, Cornell, Yale, UPenn, UPitt, NYU, Einstein) and if not, then i think i'll take the $ and run with it

- Quid