Medical School Rankings

[VanillaDLite]

So I have heard essentially two different opinions regarding rankings. One is that the quality of medical education is the same in all med schools so it doesn't really matter where you go for med school as long as you do well on your board and place into a nice residency. The other I heard is that the prestige does matter and it does factor (a lot) into getting into a great residency in the first place. And even though some people say that US Newsweek rankings are biased/incomplete/crap etc, apparently even some medical schools use it to promote themselves, I just saw a giant logo on the UCI school of medicine website with a link to its ranking on US Newsweek.

Thoughts?

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[khrisskhoras]

So I have heard essentially two different opinions regarding rankings. One is that the quality of medical education is the same in all med schools so it doesn't really matter where you go for med school as long as you do well on your board and place into a nice residency. The other I heard is that the prestige does matter and it does factor (a lot) into getting into a great residency in the first place. And even though some people say that US Newsweek rankings are biased/incomplete/crap etc, apparently even some medical schools use it to promote themselves, I just saw a giant logo on the UCI school of medicine website with a link to its ranking on US Newsweek.

Thoughts?

I think it depends on what you want to do after medical school. If you want to do clinical medicine, then rankings dont really matter. If academic medicine is in your sights, then going to a stronger research ranked school and doing research during medical school can help you get into a residency geared towards academic medicine, which tend to be more competitive. Although im not 100% sure of this so take it with a grain of salt.

 

[yehhhboiii]

all rankings are subjective and depend on the factors they used to make their determinations. if you're interested in an academic career, pedigree matters. schools with higher rankings tend to have stronger reputations and more well known physicians (which is nice for letters of recommendation). mayo is ranked 27 despite the fact that it's well known and respected.

what matters for getting into a great residency is your step 1 score, third year grades, letters of recommendation, the interview etc. being from a highly ranked school basically means that you did well in college. it doesn't mean that you're going to be a great doctor. there are people who were superstars in college but petered out in medical school and there are people who barely made it into medical school but crushed their boards and got all honors in their third year, AOA (honors society) and stuff like that. what you get out of school is what you put in.

but schools know that premeds are obsessed with silly things like usnews rankings so that's why they advertise it

 

[rudziutki]

Institutions absolutely care about ranking, it's how they promote themselves to the public. Children's Hospital Boston had a huge "US NEWS #1" banner for the past few years right above the main entrance. I'm glad they got CHOPped down a peg in the newest ranking.

 

[darkjedi]

School name certainly matters for some specialties and careers. Whether or not USNews accurately reflects the level of prestige is another discussion altogether. If your goal is to become a primary care physican, practicing alone, it likely does not matter at all where you went. If you're gunning for a top ortho position, going to a school like Cornell can certainly help.