Most underrated medical school

Started by DoctorB
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DoctorB

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A lot of people smack schools and praise others without knowing anything about the school. Clearly certain schols have reputations. Have you applied to any "back up schools" (I have found out that this concept doesn't exist), visited the campus, researched the school, and actually been shocked at how sweet the school actually is?

I am tempted to ask if anyone has an experience with the opposite situation but I am afraid this may turn into a "trash other schools" thread. Tastefull answers please.
 
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honker said:
Any med school that accepts you is underrated.:laugh:
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That's so true. The moment they accept you, they become the greatest school of all time and clearly don't get the respect they deserve.

...unless the school is Harvard, they get plenty of respect.
 
SUNY Downstate. I think it would be hard to top their clinical training and they have the busiest level 1 trauma center in New York.
 
AECOM and USC (not the undergrad, they're overrated). let's here it for bad neighborhoods!
 
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DoctorB said:
A lot of people smack schools and praise others without knowing anything about the school. Clearly certain schols have reputations. Have you applied to any "back up schools" (I have found out that this concept doesn't exist), visited the campus, researched the school, and actually been shocked at how sweet the school actually is?

I am tempted to ask if anyone has an experience with the opposite situation but I am afraid this may turn into a "trash other schools" thread. Tastefull answers please.
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Absolutely.

SUNY Upstate. Their program and atmosphere is incredible. Unfortunately, I was waitlisted. But I felt as though they had a far more attractive program than other schools I visited, like Pittsburgh and Duke.

The students are very personable. The faculty are like parents to the students. The town is typical upstate NY bleak, but the local mall is wonderful.
 
DocFunk said:
maybe there should be a thread for most overrated medical school.
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Lol then its going to be any school that rejected you. Theres no objective approach to this lol. The only way anything would be "underrated" is if theres a med school out there that less than 75% of people on this board has heard about, but yet have the highest board scores and best match list in the country.
 
want to go there because Hood is only two hours away, and Portland is awesome, and the microbrews are great, and the women are great, and OHSU is a fabulous med school, but seriously underrated.
 
University of Nebraska College of Medicine (UNMC)

Lovely lovely school. The admissions office folks are incredibly nice. The campus is new and improved. They rank #1 on US News list for public school offering most financial aid (they aren't kidding 😀).
 
honker said:
Any med school that accepts you is underrated.:laugh:
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Maybe I'm just really messed up (or really pessimistic) but when a school accepts me I, usually have a thought of "huh, they accepted me? Maybe they aren't that hard to get into if I was able to do it." And I start doubting whether or not I want to go there. Anyone else ever have these thoughts?

Note about UNMC though is that they have a bell curve with grades for their students. Yuck.
 
The most under-rated medical school in the US is the least expensive medical school in the US, whichever that is. M.D. = M.D. for most specialties in interviewing for residency (D.O. too for the most part, but D.O. schools seem more expensive). If you have to choose between expensive private school with good rep and local public school which is cheap and limited rep, go with B. every time.
 
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cubbbie said:
Why?

Are you being sarcastic?

Most people say it's overrated.
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I thought I'd sit this one out. Whatever Pitt is, people feel very strongly about it one way or the other (I'm still trying to figure it out). I've rarely seen such intense love/hate feeling on a med school.
 
HumbleMD said:
Maybe I'm just really messed up (or really pessimistic) but when a school accepts me I, usually have a thought of "huh, they accepted me? Maybe they aren't that hard to get into if I was able to do it." And I start doubting whether or not I want to go there. Anyone else ever have these thoughts?

Note about UNMC though is that they have a bell curve with grades for their students. Yuck.
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All the time.... but I'm kind of that way with interviews too. 🙄 😳
 
Severus said:
All the time.... but I'm kind of that way with interviews too. 🙄 😳
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Are you Catholic or a Calvinist? I was raised both. Hooray for nice heaping doses of shame and guilt with a spoonfull of self-loathing while growing up.
 
cubbbie said:
Why?

Are you being sarcastic?

Most people say it's overrated.
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Their research is comparable to most of the top 1-10 schools. Their match list is also phenomenal. As is their hospital system. To me, they are better in most categories than schools like Yale, Baylor, UCSD, and Cornell, all of which are ranked higher.

Thus, they are underrated.

Those who call Pitt overrated do so because they hate the city of Pittsburgh. I don't know that I blame them, but this should have nothing to do with evaluating how "good" a medical school is (case in point--Hopkins).
 
Towelie said:
Their research is comparable to most of the top 1-10 schools. Their match list is also phenomenal. As is their hospital system. To me, they are better in most categories than schools like Yale, Baylor, UCSD, and Cornell, all of which are ranked higher.

Thus, they are underrated.

Those who call Pitt overrated do so because they hate the city of Pittsburgh. I don't know that I blame them, but this should have nothing to do with evaluating how "good" a medical school is (case in point--Hopkins).
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I agree that Pitt is underrated, and a great school, but I disagree that Pittsburgh is a ****ty place to live. Growing up in the post-industrial wastlands(Cleveland and Detroit), I'm impressed with how Pittsburgh has diversified its economy - biotech has become huge there, and their local schools (such as Carnegie Mellon) are really turning out top technology grads.

Yeah, maybe to all you folks from California, you wouldn't find Pittsburgh as 'fun', but overall I would rather live there than in the ridiculously overpriced/overrated west coast (having some experience there too).

I would also say that Case Western is underrated - probably, again, due to Cleveland (I don't think it's done nearly as well as Pittsburgh in its economy), but Cleveland Clinic is one of the top 5 hospitals in the country, and Case is very well known for its science/engineering programs.
 
Cincinnati, Rochester, Rosalind Franklin, EVMS, Drexel......and most of the DO schools.

Most of the "state schools" are underrated. They train the largest percentage of physicians but rarely get the credit they deserve.
 
sunnyjohn said:
Cincinnati, Rochester, Rosalind Franklin......and most of the DO schools.

Most of the "state schools" are underrated. They train the largest percentage of physicians but rarely get the credit they deserve.
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When people talk of "state schools" being not the greatest, do they include places like UMich, UCSF, and UCLA?
 
BellyDancingDoc said:
Ohio State.

Honestly, I only added it to my list at the 11th hour. It was a back-up, specifically chosen because they're supposed to have a good EM residency, which is my specialty of interest.

Oh. My. God. The school is amazing in terms of reserach opps and general cash flow. New buildings are springing up everywhere, you can do research with anyone, and they've got a bunch of research scholarships so that students can access funds to do their own stuff. Also, they're making a concerted and unabashed effort to climb the US News rankings. In a way, that sort of ranking-focus can be annoying, but they're doing such good stuff to move upward that I'm not gonna complain.

Also, OOS students can get in-state tuition after the first year. 🙂

Overall, I was more than impressed. I've interviewed at some top 10 & 20 schools, and got into a top 20 (well... top 22). Still, I may very well end up at OSU, especially based on the OOS tuition. I really highly recommend checking them them out. 👍
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:laugh: I've been to this interview many times, only it happened over and over at several different places (sans the in-state tuition option).

DocFunk said:
maybe there should be a thread for most overrated medical school.
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👍

DocFunk said:
haha BU is the most deceptively impossible school to get into
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That's because they get 9,000 applications.

etf said:
ucsf. it's the second best school in the country, behind stanford. at least in my humble, albeit heavily sunshine biased opinion. although it did rain in sf today...
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Don't know if this a joke or not, but I would consider UCSF to be a prestigious place. (Agree about Pitt too.)

HumbleMD said:
When people talk of "state schools" being not the greatest, do they include places like UMich, UCSF, and UCLA?
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Hope not. I'd toss a bunch of others into the class you mentioned (UVa, UW, UNC, UTSW, UCSD, others, not trying to start a flame war). Also, if you look at UVa or UMich, they take a lot more oos people than the traditional 75-80%.

The best thing that you can do for your children is raise them in a state with a great higher education system.

To the OP, US medical schools in general are somewhat like the way med students are ranked. There are notable schools at the top and another tier to fill out the "glorious" USN top 50. The others offer the same material without having a lot of research dollars or prestige associated with them, but students who go to the other 75 schools still graduate capable MD's who aren't necessarily less qualified.

My answer to the question--any school in which it is the only school in the state. (Okay I guess Iowa, Colorado, and UW get much respek.)
 
HumbleMD said:
When people talk of "state schools" being not the greatest, do they include places like UMich, UCSF, and UCLA?
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I meant the "state schools" that get no love, not the Ann Arbors and Calis

Podunk State College of Medicine produces good docs but gets no love because the research dollars are slim (and because us pre-med types are a tad looney).

😛
 
BellyDancingDoc said:
Ohio State.

Honestly, I only added it to my list at the 11th hour. It was a back-up, specifically chosen because they're supposed to have a good EM residency, which is my specialty of interest.

Oh. My. God. The school is amazing in terms of reserach opps and general cash flow. New buildings are springing up everywhere, you can do research with anyone, and they've got a bunch of research scholarships so that students can access funds to do their own stuff. Also, they're making a concerted and unabashed effort to climb the US News rankings. In a way, that sort of ranking-focus can be annoying, but they're doing such good stuff to move upward that I'm not gonna complain.

Also, OOS students can get in-state tuition after the first year. 🙂

Overall, I was more than impressed. I've interviewed at some top 10 & 20 schools, and got into a top 20 (well... top 22). Still, I may very well end up at OSU, especially based on the OOS tuition. I really highly recommend checking them them out. 👍
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i think i know what #22 you're talking about compared to OSU. Made that same choice. OSU is definitely a program on the rise, but I think it is adequately "rated" per USNWR. Most med schools have new buildings going up. Most med school have great research that you can dive into. Most med schools want to improve their rankings. Its hard to say from one visit if a schools is "underrated" I dont know if its just me, but their (OSU's) blatant rank whoring aims turned me off quite a bit. Well, either way, if they keep rank whoring, they'll no longer be underrated per USNWR!
 
DoctorB said:
A lot of people smack schools and praise others without knowing anything about the school. Clearly certain schols have reputations. Have you applied to any "back up schools" (I have found out that this concept doesn't exist), visited the campus, researched the school, and actually been shocked at how sweet the school actually is?

I am tempted to ask if anyone has an experience with the opposite situation but I am afraid this may turn into a "trash other schools" thread. Tastefull answers please.
Click to expand...
I have to agree with sunset823: Case Western SOM is way underrated. I was totally planning to go somewhere else when I came to interview here in January last year, and I was just blown away by their CCLCM program. I also agree with the people who said that Pitt is way underrated. Basically, I think that schools in the Northeast and on the West Coast tend to be overrated because of location, while Midwestern schools tend to be underrated for the same reason. If you can get over not being in Boston, NYC, or San Fran, the Midwest has a lot to offer. 👍
 
CCLCMer said:
I have to agree with sunset823: Case Western SOM is way underrated. I was totally planning to go somewhere else when I came to interview here in January last year, and I was just blown away by their CCLCM program. I also agree with the people who said that Pitt is way underrated. Basically, I think that schools in the Northeast and on the West Coast tend to be overrated because of location, while Midwestern schools tend to be underrated for the same reason. If you can get over not being in Boston, NYC, or San Fran, the Midwest has a lot to offer. 👍
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completely agree.
 
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honker said:
Any med school that accepts you is underrated.:laugh:
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So unbelievably true. I sometimes wonder if I end up doing private practice, in 20 years how little it will matter and I'll care that I graduated from such a such medical school and residency program. Just hope I had a good time and drank a lot of beer while doing it.
 
braluk said:
Lol then its going to be any school that rejected you. Theres no objective approach to this lol. The only way anything would be "underrated" is if theres a med school out there that less than 75% of people on this board has heard about, but yet have the highest board scores and best match list in the country.
Click to expand...

WashU is probably underrated. Who's ever heard of WashU? But then again...there they sit at #4 and all the vibe from people who've actually been there...
 
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