lower/mid/upper tier schools

[discusdan]

I am applying to enter med school in 2005. I have read on this site about the lower/mid/upper tier schools but have really no idea which schools fall into these categories. Can anyone enlighten me on this subject. A short list of schools in each category would be great. Congrats to all those who have been accepted.

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[Heal&Teach]

Lower, middle, upper...

Well, I won't give you an exact list, but you could start by using the relatively arbitrary ranking system of U.S. News & World Report... they give rankings for research and primary care. You can pretty much bet on the research rankings being in the upper tier of all US medical schools. For the most part, this may be a good list to go by since many schools list on their websites that they have been ranked (i.e., UVA #26) by US News. To see the rankings, go to http://www.usnews.com and go to the left-hand sidebar to "Rankings & Guides", and then to 2004 Grad School Rankings.

Best of luck to you!

 

[burlypie]

Rather than dividing schools into high-middle-low tier, I would look at your own stats, then at the average stats for all the schools (the Princeton Review Guide to the Best Medical Schools -- something like that) has them layed out nicely as a sidebar on each school) . And because numbers do not make the person, apply to schools with average stats like your own, schools w/ higher stats and w/ lower average stats.

that's what I did, and so far I've had good responses from schools w/ numbers similar to my own.

 

[topherius]

you know, that's a tough question, actually. If you've got three categories to choose from, I think people will disagree about where lots of schools get placed. Probably no one would disagree with putting Harvard in the upper tier and the Carribbean schools in the lower tier (I mean, I don't know, maybe someone would disagree with that), but a lot of the others, who knows? Different people will have different criteria for where a school gets placed, and not everyone would rely on a ranking system like U.S. News.

An example: I saw a Wall St. Journal article recently that was discussing "prestigious" medical schools, and among the five or six it mentioned was Dartmouth. Now Dartmouth comes in at #34 on the U.S. News list, which a lot of people would probably call mid-tier, yet whoever wrote this article considered it a top school. So the interpretation of the tiers will probably vary based on who's talking and what they're considering important.

 

[Heal&Teach]

I agree with all of these responses, and I would add that you should also look into how well the schools are doing on their boards and shelf exams... these are ultimately going to determine the residency you get, which will direct your medical career. So, you probably might shy away from a school whose students are only passing at a rate of 70%... you'd typically want schools where >90% of their students have passed.