Lower Tier Medical Schools?

[RoccoWJ]

There are only around 145 medical schools in the United States. I really don't see why they are being ranked into tiers like law schools, in the forums. I don't think that an MD from Ohio State vs. Michigan will give an individual an advantage in the future (given he/she is a dedicated worker).


In my opinion, a school is what you make of it. To use an old cliche, "if the shoe fits, wear it"



Does anyone agree or disagree (i am sure many of you do) with this reasoning?


There really aren't any "bad" medical schools.



Rocco

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[crazy250]

i disagree. bad med school graduate bad physicians. I heard Meharry graduates get sued a lot.

 

[NonTradMed]

As far as I know, there are no 'bad' medical schools in this country---as in a med school who had a significant portion of their class fail the boards or not match---not sure about being sued, but I guess that would be a good indicator of the quality of med school.

I'm not a med student (yet) but I did have a lot of friends who went through the process (and are now med students) and I've met some med students....and I've kind of acquired this rule of thumb. Typically, even the mediocre med student were decent students in college. They were studious and well rounded (or studied a lot and kicked ass academically!). Even the worst performing premed who got into med school I think had a good shot at getting into a good graduate programs in other fields. This is not to denigrate other programs but to point out that med school has no bottom level feeder schools (from what I can tell).


So perhaps we keep our med school applicants up to a certain standard that does not allow for truly deplorable medical schools....or perhaps residency makes sure the bad ones are either weeded out or forced to be competent....not sure.

Since you mentioned that law school was ranked, I want to point out that there are a lot of crappy law schools out there. Not to insult any law students, but the reason law schools are ranked IMHO is b/c there is a surplus of law grads every year and plenty graduated from truly bad programs (some require only passing grades in college to get in), so ranking them might be a good way for law firms to weed out the bad grads from the good ones. That's just my thought.

 

[calcrew14]

now let me see......

both school and her students are good----->good school
neither school nor her students are good-------->not too good school?
neither school nor her students are bad------->not too bad school?
either school or her students are bad, one way or another----> bad school?
both school and her students are bad ---->bad school!

i think that i am gonna have to go over these 76849443837429 times. hope that such number has not been patented though.

 

[bigbaubdi]

Originally posted by RoccoWJ
There are only around 145 medical schools in the United States. I really don't see why they are being ranked into tiers like law schools, in the forums. I don't think that an MD from Ohio State vs. Michigan will give an individual an advantage in the future (given he/she is a dedicated worker).

In my opinion, a school is what you make of it. To use an old cliche, "if the shoe fits, wear it"

There really aren't any "bad" medical schools.

Rocco

Generally speaking, I agree with you - there are no "bad" medical schools. No matter where you go, you still will be a doctor and to become one you need to pass a rigorous set of exams to prove your competence.

Also having a higher proportion of graduates who get sued doesn't necessarily mean that a med school is "bad"; it may reflect the fact that graduates of a particular medical school tend to deal with patients with more severe illnesses. This is precisely the case with Meharry graduates, who disproportionately go out and serve poor and uninsured patients with advanced illnesses.

That said, I think some medical schools provide better opportunities for research than others. This may or may not be important for some people, but to me it is very important.

Also graduating out of certain med schools provides you with better opportunities for residency spots.

 

[Adapt]

There are no bad physicians. Just bad medical schools.

I would also like to add...There are no stupid questions. Just stupid people (That wasn't directed to anyone in particular).

 

[jlee9531]

yes most of the med schools are not bad and will give you most of what you need to become a competent physician.

the difference the top and the bottom is not as large and the difference between the top and the bottom law school.

however with the schools you used in your example...i think most will agree that UofM is a good deal better school than OSU and will most likely be able to open up some more opportunities for you in the future.

 

[verbalassasin]

For the love of God, There is no such thing as a bad medical school. If a physician gets sued alot blame his residency program for not properly training him. But out of 145 medical schools in the U.S. there are 145 good medical school. If you think about it all the schools have the same curriculum. So what makes a Harvard education better then a Meharry education? The student. You have to put forth effort to succeed, and it just seems that Harvard students are more motivated then Meharry students to an extent. But that will all change because I may just become a Meharry student.

 

[exmike]

there are 146 accredited medical schools in the U.S.

 

[calcrew14]

Wait a fast break, no bad school? Does that mean that me is that badly unacceptable?

'K, 'K, no bad school. Don't know about adcoms though. Looks like only one is good so far. All /1/4/4/ 145 of the rest are , , , , , , or
whatever.... Good grief!!!!!

Thanks, SDN, for making this possible. I love you more and more everyday!!!

 

[Gleevec]

There are no bad medical schools, just bad medical students.

 

[Adapt]

Originally posted by Gleevec
There are no bad medical schools, just bad medical students.

Hey why are you putting a twist on my line.

 

[calcrew14]

bad students in medical schools?
blame the adcoms, should we?

 

[Da Vinci2]

If you are just talking about medical school, then there is not that much difference between a Harvard education and a Chicago Med education. All medical schools teach the same things, each just do it differently. Since all medical school graduates at least pass Step 1 and 2, our knowledge/competency have been "standardized". What matters is the professors who you will likely do research with, who will write your letters, and the reputation of your institution when you apply for residency. The difference, a Harvard name will open up more doors than a low tier medical school.

 

[KarateGirl]

I was just looking at one of the old issues of USNews and their med school rankings, and I have to wonder exactly what the tiers indicate? First they have the top research schools, then the top primary care, then the top specialty schools, and each list is different. When one refers to the different tiers, which are we talking about? It seems hard to construct an absolute list when there are so many variables.

 

[greatdane]

agree with it or not .... here is an article about "bad medical schools"


http://www.ctnow.com/news/health/hc-medday1.artjun29,0,1676457.story?coll=hc-big-headlines-breaking

 

[elias514]

All the allopathic medical schools in the US are prestigious from a global vantage point-- we have the best medical schools in the world. Period. So objectively the quality of medical education in the US is second to none. Being accepted to ANY allopathic med school in the US is something to be proud of, because it's a privilege afforded to a select minority in the US (just 15,000 people every year).

However, there is a correlation between the ranking of medical schools in the US and the strength of residency matching. Some people would attribute the incredible match lists at places like WashU to the quality of the student body--i.e., that highly prestigious institutions are self-selecting and, therefore, a strong match list is inevitable. However, even the most prestigious institutions (top ten let's say) have class ranking and grading systems in place. At WashU, for instance, the last three years are graded and the class is broken up into three parts for ranking (top third, middle third, and bottom third). Yet, practically every single match for the 2003 graduating class at WashU is awesome; thus, even the people in the bottom third matched well.

My point, then, is that prestige reduces the importance of class rank in residency matching. A really strong institutional reputation can compensate for a "bottom third" class ranking. Do you think that a bottom third graduate of say KU School of Medicine (an unranked medical school) could match into Stanford, WashU, or Northwestern for internal medicine? No freakin way.

World-renowned physicians tend to be faculty members at prestigious schools, which means that you can get letters of recommendation from well-known people in certain specialties--these recommendations can open doors for residency. The stronger the department, generally speaking, the better the graduates match in this field. For instance, WashU students do ridiculously well when it comes to matching into radiology, which is a very competitive field nowadays. It's not a mere coincidence that the Mallinckrodt Institute of Radiology, arguably the best radiology department in the world, is affiliated with WashU.
A similar phenomenon can be seen at UMich with ENT; Michigan has one of the finest ENT departments in the country, and not coincidentally graduates of Michigan consistently match into the very best residency programs for ENT (which is VERY competitive).

More prestigious institutions also offer a lot more research opportunities.

Yet, I can't help but think that patients really don't care about where their doctors attended medical school. The only thing that really matters is how well doctors care for their patients. Fortunately, every medical school produces altruistic, compassionate, and highly competent physicians.

And one last thing...medicine kicks ass!

 

[CalBeE]

Well since there are 140+ medical schools, whether you want to admit or not, there ARE gonna be variation in terms of the quality of basic science and clinical training. It's often a politically correct thing to say that all schools are "good", but I think that'll just be misleading.

Nevertheless, in the end it's about how you make out of your education, and...luck.