Is Southern IL a legitimate Med School?

[*fatmike*]

Does anyone have any info on Southern IL's Reputation? Especially folks from IL, what do you think of this school and how do you think it ranks among other IL med schools.

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[chloe5]

What I've heard:

The majority of SIU folk are IL residents.
They have a heavy focus on rural medicine and tend to take people who are interested in such careers. They give preference to people who plan to have med careers in underserved parts of S. IL. My impression is that they are not a premier research institution and therefore do not rank in the USnews top 50 research or primary care lists (not that this is too imp). Their rural med program is good clinically, tending to train family physicians, and is on par with the UIC-Rockford rural program I believe.
chloe

 

[crazyA]

last i checked, in the 2002 rankings, SIU stood 25th in the country in Primary Care schools, which I think would make it tops in IL

but yeah, i doubt a lot of research comes out of there

 

[Medical123]

I have a friend that goes there. She is very pleased with the curriculum overall, but there is little emphasis on research. They will only take Illinois residents, unless you apply EDP or through the MD/JD program. She is very happy there!

 

[opus03]

I am from Southern IL and I applied there...it definitely a legitimate school. Everyone is right about the whole research thing though. They really want people who will practice in S. IL but it is my last choose in IL schools....this is b/c I really, really don't like Carbondale. I know it is only one year there but I had tons of friends in undergrad there and I honestly don't know if I could stand the place for that long...I guess it would make a great excuse to just study all the time though!

 

[siempre595]

I'm from Illinois, and SIU residents feed into our city commonly. Unfortunately I think they've got the rep of being kind of the "backwoods" residents. I've heard mixed reviews of the social life there. The people I know there that really like it are used to a small town life and generally love pursuing rural medicine. It's most certainly a legit school, but it's geared to a certain lifestyle and aspirations.