Lower tier Med schools?

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MorganMuscles

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What are some of the lower tier medical schools? Im trying to figure out which schools im going to apply too and want to put some back-up schools in there (along with middle tier schools of course) to make sure i get at least accepted somewhere on the first time around.

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I haven't been here long, but I know that your in for either a lecture or a flame war, be prepared.
 
from my understanding, they're all pretty tough to get in to.
 
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Im just curious what are considered lower tier medical schools, aside of osteapathic medical schools. I know that there are no medical schools that are easy to gain acceptance into, just wondering what you all consider the lower tier med schools.
 
All US medical schools are quality institutions, give or take. The two "safety" schools that I hear everyone mention is Drexel (in Philadelphia) and New York Medical College (in Valhalla, NY). Both of those schools have average GPAs of over 3.4, so if you have less than a 3.0, you better start thinking foreign. I know that there are a number of other schools with lower averages, but most are state schools.
 
MorganMuscles said:
Im just curious what are considered lower tier medical schools, aside of osteapathic medical schools. I know that there are no medical schools that are easy to gain acceptance into, just wondering what you all consider the lower tier med schools.

All med schools are tough to get into and will provide a great medical education. If you are interested in schools that have matriculated students with lower stats, you can look in the MSAR from AAMC or the US News and World Report Ultimate Guide to Medical School. Good luck!
 
MorganMuscles said:
Im just curious what are considered lower tier medical schools, aside of osteapathic medical schools. I know that there are no medical schools that are easy to gain acceptance into, just wondering what you all consider the lower tier med schools.

hey morgan "muscles",
just send in that picture and i'm sure you'll do great in the application process
 
modemduck said:
hey morgan "muscles",
just send in that picture and i'm sure you'll do great in the application process


LOL... I've never seen someone post a pic of themself on SDN, half naked that is. It's kind of weird...
 
usually constructor has something to say on this topic, but he's going to keep quiet in an effort to reconcile his differences with drguy22.
 
I don't have much experience and i am still yet to take the mcat so i have time ahead of me. As of right now my cumulative GPA is 3.6
 
constructor said:
usually constructor has something to say on this topic, but he's going to keep quiet in an effort to reconcile his differences with drguy22.

hahahaha.....interesting...u can say wat u want but just dont put any schools down.


now to the OP's question...all US skools will give a good education to practice medicine......since ur from NJ...apply to the two in state schools...both are hard to get into seeing that both have over 4-5K applicants for about 150-170 seats...but they will be the "easiest" to get into cuz ur a resident.

and one more thing...DO NOT..use US NEWS are your ranking guide.
 
drguy22 said:
hahahaha.....interesting...u can say wat u want but just dont put any schools down.


now to the OP's question...all US skools will give a good education to practice medicine......since ur from NJ...apply to the two in state schools...both are hard to get into seeing that both have over 4-5K applicants for about 150-170 seats...but they will be the "easiest" to get into cuz ur a resident.

and one more thing...DO NOT..use US NEWS are your ranking guide.

in response to your request to not consider the us news rankings as an aid in making decisions about medical schools, constructor might, once upon time, have been tempted to respond, "oh really? how convenient!". but not today, not now. noooo way!
 
MorganMuscles said:
I don't have much experience and i am still yet to take the mcat so i have time ahead of me. As of right now my cumulative GPA is 3.6


Do you have a license for those guns?

p.s. your state school (whatever state it is) always seems to be your best shot at getting in.
 
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drguy22 said:
hahahaha.....interesting...u can say wat u want but just dont put any schools down.


now to the OP's question...all US skools will give a good education to practice medicine......since ur from NJ...apply to the two in state schools...both are hard to get into seeing that both have over 4-5K applicants for about 150-170 seats...but they will be the "easiest" to get into cuz ur a resident.

and one more thing...DO NOT..use US NEWS are your ranking guide.


Well, you CAN use it if you want to use prestige as one criteria to decide what schools you want to apply to. The US News rankings can be a useful tool, despite what some may say.
 
llort said:
Do you have a license for those guns?

p.s. your state school (whatever state it is) always seems to be your best shot at getting in.

unless you live in california . . .
 
Trust me, it's not weird...for New Jersey. What, no gold chains (j/k big guy)?


SanDiegoSOD said:
LOL... I've never seen someone post a pic of themself on SDN, half naked that is. It's kind of weird...
 
And the mention of New Jersey as Location...we were just kidding, you can put both back if you want to Morgan. We promise, no more flaming.

drguy22 said:
hahaha..the pic is gone!
 
Oh, and to actually be helpful for once. I would recommend Virginia Commonwealth Univ. as a good school on the slightly lower end of the stats and also Eastern Virginia medical school if you don't mind Navy dudes.

Also, I had a 3.6 starting my junior year and managed to pull it up to almost a 3.8 by the time I graduated, so there is still time to pick up your GPA a little, and combine that with a good MCAT score and maybe you'd be a contender for some of the top tier schools too.

One more thing. I highly recommend you change your user name to BeachMuscles.
 
OSUdoc08 said:
"Lower tier" would indicate a school that has never been ranked.

does this include schools that dont participate in the US NEWS rankings? cuz they arent ranked either.
 
OSUdoc08 said:
There must be some reason they didn't participate, right?

Maybe because they know they are lower tier.


thats not necessarily true. but watever.
 
OSUdoc08 said:
Osteopathic schools can be found in the top 25 medical schools in several categories in the U.S. News & World Report. In primary care, family medicine, and rural medicine some are found in the top 10 overall.

"Lower tier" would indicate a school that has never been ranked.

This would exclude at least 5 osteopathic schools every year.

By "overall" do you mean "research". Which DO schools are ranked in the research category? I'm looking and I ain't seeing? Are you just BSing?
 
MorganMuscles said:
What are some of the lower tier medical schools? Im trying to figure out which schools im going to apply too and want to put some back-up schools in there (along with middle tier schools of course) to make sure i get at least accepted somewhere on the first time around.

As someone else said, Drexel and NYMC are usually thought of as safety schools. However, don't think that this means you will definitely be accepted. These schools receive a lot of applications and not every qualified applicant will be interviewed and accepted. My advisor also suggested Tulane.
 
OSUdoc08 said:
There are 2 seperate overall categories.

They include research & primary care.

Since the emphasis of allopathic medicine is research and the emphasis of osteopathic medicine is primary care, you can see why the schools are ranked in the primary care category.

Are you serious? Osteopathic schools are ranked with allo schools for US News? That's pretty neat. I always wondered how osteo and allo schools compared. Hmmm.. I don't suppose you have the Primary Care rankings on you?
 
tinkerbelle said:
Are you serious? Osteopathic schools are ranked with allo schools for US News? That's pretty neat. I always wondered how osteo and allo schools compared. Hmmm.. I don't suppose you have the Primary Care rankings on you?
Primary Care rankings

MSU Osteopathic 15
U or N Texas Osteopathic 26
West Virginia Osteopathic 57

Unless i missed one that is all the osteopathic schools ranked in Primary Care.
 
YzIa said:
Primary Care rankings

MSU Osteopathic 15
U or N Texas Osteopathic 26
West Virginia Osteopathic 57

Unless i missed one that is all the osteopathic schools ranked in Primary Care.

Thanks :) So does this mean that these Osteo schools are like the "Harvards and Hopkins" of Osteo Schools? Or are Osteo Schools not ranked like Allo schools are?

Do you guys know of any other allopathic med schools that have osteopathic courses? I know Gtown does. Are there any others? I always thought Osteopathic medicine was interesting, but I haven't seen any schools that give a good mixture of the two schools of thought.
 
tinkerbelle said:
Thanks :) So does this mean that these Osteo schools are like the "Harvards and Hopkins" of Osteo Schools? Or are Osteo Schools not ranked like Allo schools are?

Do you guys know of any other allopathic med schools that have osteopathic courses? I know Gtown does. Are there any others? I always thought Osteopathic medicine was interesting, but I haven't seen any schools that give a good mixture of the two schools of thought.

Harvard Med has a weekend Osteopathic Manipulation Course.
 
OSUdoc08 said:
Harvard Med has a weekend Osteopathic Manipulation Course.

Oh. Well I didn't apply there. I bet some colleges offer osteopathic-like courses. Hmmm. I should look this up.
 
To the OP:
I would think long and hard about applying to whatever you would consider a "lower tier" school if I were you. Think about this: that school's name is probably going to reside on your wall for the rest of your life. Med school in general is something to be proud of, but do you really want to boast graduation from a school you thought was lower tier?
If it's not somewhere you'd be happy spending the next four years of your life, and telling everyone that you graduated from, I wouldn't apply.

Oh, and that safety school thing doesn't always work out the way you thought. I was rejected PRE-secondary from ONLY my backup school. And then I got a phone interview with Mayo and was just accepted to another (higher ranked by US News) school. Go figure.

Good luck figuring it out! :luck:
 
dalynn said:
To the OP:
I would think long and hard about applying to whatever you would consider a "lower tier" school if I were you. Think about this: that school's name is probably going to reside on your wall for the rest of your life. Med school in general is something to be proud of, but do you really want to boast graduation from a school you thought was lower tier?
If it's not somewhere you'd be happy spending the next four years of your life, and telling everyone that you graduated from, I wouldn't apply.

Oh, and that safety school thing doesn't always work out the way you thought. I was rejected PRE-secondary from ONLY my backup school. And then I got a phone interview with Mayo and was just accepted to another (higher ranked by US News) school. Go figure.

Good luck figuring it out! :luck:

I don't care about the prestige of the school i choose. I am not trying to impress people with the school i choose, although i would like to attend a school that will leave several doors open to me when choosing my residency. I just want to be in a medical school were i can train for a career in helping patients.
 
MorganMuscles said:
I don't care about the prestige of the school i choose. I am not trying to impress people with the school i choose, although i would like to attend a school that will leave several doors open to me when choosing my residency. I just want to be in a medical school were i can train for a career in helping patients.
I think usually "safety school" is synonomous (sp?) with "state school." Typically state schools show preference to their in state students, so you are more likely to get accepted there. I think Texas and North Dakota are prime examples of this. However, as many people have stated, they would apply to their safety schools, get rejected, then get accepted at a high tiered school (ie Harvard, Stanford, Mayo, etc). But that has been attributed to those people having such high stats, that the lower tiered school just assumes they wouldn't take an acceptance there anyway, so doesn't waste time with that student. Ultimately it's all a crap shoot, and virtually impossible to tell. Just make sure you apply to alot of schools (15+), and make sure those schools are at least somewhat friendly to out of staters. That's about all you can do to "increase" your chances of getting into medical school. Good luck.
 
University of South Alabama is a good backup school.
 
I'd suggest applying to Albany Medical College, Virginia Commonwealth University (Medical College of Virginia), and Chicago Med (Rosalind Franklin). These schools tend to accept people with lower stats but are still decent and are friendly to out-of-staters.
 
MorganMuscles said:
I don't care about the prestige of the school i choose. I am not trying to impress people with the school i choose, although i would like to attend a school that will leave several doors open to me when choosing my residency. I just want to be in a medical school were i can train for a career in helping patients.

I'm not talking prestige either. I'm talking quality of education. Why would you want to go to a school that YOU consider "lower tier"?
 
SFMDBound said:
I'd suggest applying to Albany Medical College, Virginia Commonwealth University (Medical College of Virginia), and Chicago Med (Rosalind Franklin). These schools tend to accept people with lower stats but are still decent and are friendly to out-of-staters.

Agreed. I would recommend that you take a look at the AAMC website that lists all the medical schools. Other than Albany, VCU, and Chicago Med, schools that are also easier include East Tennessee, Eastern Virginia, Florida State, Loma Linda, Loyola, MCO, MCW, Michigan State, Northeastern Ohio, Southern Illinois, SUNY Downstate, East Carolina, U of South Alabama, U of S Florida, Wayne State, and Wright State. Other schools that have certain restrictions on admissions include Howard, Marshall, Mercer, Morehouse, Ponce (PR), Texas Tech, Texas A&M, UC Irvine.

Also, the osteopathic schools are generally a lot less competitive, despite the quoted fact that some of them are ranked alongside other more reputable allopathic schools (no one will ever convince me that medical teaching/students are better at Oklahoma State than at UT Southwestern). I am not sure why there is even a ranking of primary care in US News since many primary care residencies don't fill nowadays and are clearly not the desired career goals of most US seniors.
 
tofurious said:
Agreed. I would recommend that you take a look at the AAMC website that lists all the medical schools. Other than Albany, VCU, and Chicago Med, schools that are also easier include East Tennessee, Eastern Virginia, Florida State, Loma Linda, Loyola, MCO, MCW, Michigan State, Northeastern Ohio, Southern Illinois, SUNY Downstate, East Carolina, U of South Alabama, U of S Florida, Wayne State, and Wright State. Other schools that have certain restrictions on admissions include Howard, Marshall, Mercer, Morehouse, Ponce (PR), Texas Tech, Texas A&M, UC Irvine.

Also, the osteopathic schools are generally a lot less competitive, despite the quoted fact that some of them are ranked alongside other more reputable allopathic schools (no one will ever convince me that medical teaching/students are better at Oklahoma State than at UT Southwestern). I am not sure why there is even a ranking of primary care in US News since many primary care residencies don't fill nowadays and are clearly not the desired career goals of most US seniors.

Ouch, that was harsh.
 
tofurious said:
Agreed. I would recommend that you take a look at the AAMC website that lists all the medical schools. Other than Albany, VCU, and Chicago Med, schools that are also easier include East Tennessee, Eastern Virginia, Florida State, Loma Linda, Loyola, MCO, MCW, Michigan State, Northeastern Ohio, Southern Illinois, SUNY Downstate, East Carolina, U of South Alabama, U of S Florida, Wayne State, and Wright State. Other schools that have certain restrictions on admissions include Howard, Marshall, Mercer, Morehouse, Ponce (PR), Texas Tech, Texas A&M, UC Irvine.

Also, the osteopathic schools are generally a lot less competitive, despite the quoted fact that some of them are ranked alongside other more reputable allopathic schools (no one will ever convince me that medical teaching/students are better at Oklahoma State than at UT Southwestern). I am not sure why there is even a ranking of primary care in US News since many primary care residencies don't fill nowadays and are clearly not the desired career goals of most US seniors.

WOW! Who needs primary care doctors when everyone can specialize and each patient has to go to 6 doctors for 1 cold. No flames please but damn, with that attitude it is no wonder that osteopathic schools score highly against allopathic schools in primary care. I happen to be considering both allopathic and osteopathic schools and I like primary care. Every person in this country needs a primary care giver and these same care givers refer patients to needed specialized care. What you fail to comprehend is that medicine is dictated by the needs of the patients and not the whims of seniors around the country. If you don't want to go into primary care then fine, but if you cannot understand why people rank primary care by institution you need to take off the blinders and look around. Just my 2¢ ;)
 
tofurious said:
Agreed. I would recommend that you take a look at the AAMC website that lists all the medical schools. Other than Albany, VCU, and Chicago Med, schools that are also easier include East Tennessee, Eastern Virginia, Florida State, Loma Linda, Loyola, MCO, MCW, Michigan State, Northeastern Ohio, Southern Illinois, SUNY Downstate, East Carolina, U of South Alabama, U of S Florida, Wayne State, and Wright State. Other schools that have certain restrictions on admissions include Howard, Marshall, Mercer, Morehouse, Ponce (PR), Texas Tech, Texas A&M, UC Irvine.

Also, the osteopathic schools are generally a lot less competitive, despite the quoted fact that some of them are ranked alongside other more reputable allopathic schools (no one will ever convince me that medical teaching/students are better at Oklahoma State than at UT Southwestern). I am not sure why there is even a ranking of primary care in US News since many primary care residencies don't fill nowadays and are clearly not the desired career goals of most US seniors.

WOW...that was really harsh...if u can get into any MED school u have accomplished something...by claiming these are "easier" to get into you have just downplayed thousands of students accomplishments and this is wrong!
 
drguy22 said:
WOW...that was really harsh...if u can get into any MED school u have accomplished something...by claiming these are "easier" to get into you have just downplayed thousands of students accomplishments and this is wrong!
But certainly we must admit that some medical schools are harder to get into than others. Hopkins does not equal Drexel.
 
MWillie said:
But certainly we must admit that some medical schools are harder to get into than others. Hopkins does not equal Drexel.


that doesnt make a hopkins student any better than a drexel student....they both have the potential to be a great doctor.
 
.....and everyone that graduates ends up with an MD whether from Hopkins or Drexel!!
 
MWillie said:
But certainly we must admit that some medical schools are harder to get into than others. Hopkins does not equal Drexel.
Unfortunately there are some people who believe that "status" is the most important thing. They fail to understand the true meaning of medicine.
The fact is that ALL medical schools are hard to get into, if you got into a "top tiered" school then I am happy for you, but dont you dare say that my accomplishments are less worthy than yours. I am just as proud for my accomplishments as I am sure you are of yours.
I truly hope that someday you will open your eyes and see that there are things that are more important than rankings or status symbols, maybe then you will understand what being a great physicina truly entails.
 
drguy22 said:
that doesnt make a hopkins student any better than a drexel student....they both have the potential to be a great doctor.


This is true, but at Hopkins, an individual has the opportunity to learn from the greatest minds in medicine. At Drexel, this isn't always the case. Both school produce great clinicians, but Hopkins will produce more leaders in the medical field, for what its worth.
 
Dr Who said:
Unfortunately there are some people who believe that "status" is the most important thing. They fail to understand the true meaning of medicine.
The fact is that ALL medical schools are hard to get into, if you got into a "top tiered" school then I am happy for you, but dont you dare say that my accomplishments are less worthy than yours. I am just as proud for my accomplishments as I am sure you are of yours.
I truly hope that someday you will open your eyes and see that there are things that are more important than rankings or status symbols, maybe then you will understand what being a great physicina truly entails.
That's because you probably don't go to hopkins. I would not feel uncomfortable if the student at hopkins feels he has achieved more than the student whose at Drexel. If I am accepted only to Drexel I will not claim that my accomplishment is just the same as being accepted to Harvard. Your post also hints at a holier than thou attitude to which you claim to be opposed.
 
drguy22 said:
WOW...that was really harsh...if u can get into any MED school u have accomplished something...by claiming these are "easier" to get into you have just downplayed thousands of students accomplishments and this is wrong!


It's not downplaying anyones accomplishments. I would say that earning a 3.8 GPA and a 34 MCAT (as the average Hopkins student has) is more of an accomplishment than a 3.44 GPA and 28.3 MCAT (as the average Drexel student has). Both of these are excellent achievements, but to say that they are equal is both misleading and inaccurate. It's ok to rank things now and then - if you dont, mediocrity is encouraged.
 
I think the conversation kinda got sidetracked. Point was not whether Drexel=Hopkins (which in all fairness I cant agree to in general--at least not in research-- even if cases vary for individuals) but just that DOs and primary care peeps often get the shaft which I can certainly agree with. If you're interest is primary care then why shouldnt you have a ranking? I mean honestly, VH1 ranks worst celebrity breakups (oh bennifer!) so I dont see why a legitimate profession cant have one.



PS- Now that I am in my senior year, I have actually had time to see one of these "ranking/reality/I love the...." shows and am amazed by the crap thats on tv. Sorry for the stupid analogy.
 
OSUdoc08 said:
Last year, Oklahoma State was the only med school (of all allopathic & osteopathic schools) that had a 100% pass rate on the USMLE & COMLEX. Even UT-Southwestern didn't have a 100% pass rate on the USMLE.

Also, on a side note: Having a high GPA and MCAT score doesn't = the best doctor. Basing the quality of medical school product on how high their score averages are is both idiotic and misinformed.

Even though I think that OSU's 100% pass rate is great, your comparison is not valid. If ALL the students at OSU took the USMLE ONLY and had a 100% pass rate, then it you would be able to compare it to allopathic schools. COMLEX and USMLE are not the same: which one is harder is another debate.
 
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