Match lists vs. 'quality' of medical school

[ixitixl]

Is there anything (aside from the obvious) that can be determined by examining the residency match lists at a med school. Does more specialty residency matches = better education or does it just mean that the med school places an emphasis on primary care? Any thoughts?

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[mpp]

Originally posted by ixitixl
Is there anything (aside from the obvious) that can be determined by examining the residency match lists at a med school.

Not really. If you do see many years of matches and they seem like they fit with your future plans, then that's great. But comparing one match list to another isn't all that valuable.

 

[johnstoner]

i thnk you need to look at not just what specialties but also where those residency programs are. If you consistently see a large proportion of students matching into top notch programs in ver competitive specialties...then you know you have a good med school.

also...some schools have really good departments for residency..that could give you a foot in the door. for example...if you were thinking of ophthalmology...and you had a choice between going to say Jefferson Med school vs. Georgetown...you'd probably be better off picking Jefferson since jefferson has Wills (which is consistently in the top 5 ophthalmology programs in the nation)..

 

[Gleevec]

Originally posted by ixitixl
Is there anything (aside from the obvious) that can be determined by examining the residency match lists at a med school. Does more specialty residency matches = better education or does it just mean that the med school places an emphasis on primary care? Any thoughts?

Supposedly you want to look at derm, rads, opth, anest to see if how many matched into those since they are competitive. I frankly think thats crap since a lot of people might have been able to get into one of those residencies, but chose a more generic field (meds, peds, surgery, etc) instead.

A match list doesnt tell you much, and oftentimes varies by class. The only certainty is that a majority of the graduates will stay at their med school for residency or in the same city or state. Well, this is at least the trend I noticed in the match lists I looked at.

 

[exmike]

another thing to look at is the prestige of the residencies. Every school sends a few to each "difficult" residency, but only great schools send students to great institutiions for residency.