Name brand schools and matching

[banana5]

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[Brainsucker]

I see where you're going. You should know that people do match into competitive things from most medical schools. I wouldn't feel bad about going to SUNY at all. (And don't think you're guaranteed in. I didn't get even an interview from a single UC (I'm from CA) and I got into a name brand.) Once you've seen different schools and what you'd like and seen your financial aid packages, you'll have a much better idea.

You might want to do some shadowing to see a little bit of what you're interested in. From just my first year clerkship, I know I want to avoid primary care like the plague.

 

[akaz]

When I was younger, I listened to the I wouldn't do medicine again blah blah blah. No I am much older going to medical school regretting that I listened to their whines. Never ask a resident. Residency sucks and they always whine. Ask an established attending. Yes, unfortunately to match in derm the school does matter. It is just so competitive.

Hi,

Just to preface this: yes, I am a premed.

The reason I'm posting is that I've spent considerable time reading almost all of this thread:

http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?t=195799&page=1&pp=25

To sum it up, it's a bunch of people at various stages in their education/training explaining why they would or would not go into medicine if they had to do it all over again.

An interesting (and confusing) trend that I've noticed is that a lot of residents who have posted that they would not go into medicine again have added that they would definitely have done it again if they could have matched into something more desirable. Radiology and dermatology are thrown out as examples, though I imagine there are plenty more.

The other trend is that a vast majority of people who make this argument, that is, that they would choose medicine again if they could be in another specialty, also say that one of the reason's they're dissatisfied is that they're hunderds of thousands of dollars in debt.

As a premed, this is a bit confusing. I'll be applying to schools soon enough, and I'll also be paying 100% for everything from once I graduate on. I won't have any debt from college.

I've always thought that if I get into a really great med school I'll go there, but if I only get into ok med schools I'll just go to the state school (one of the SUNYs) and skip out on the extra debt.

Even though I can speculate, I imagine I really won't have any idea what sort of residency I'd be interested in until well into medical school. The problem is that say I find out I'm interested in pediatrics, and I've just dumped a ton of cash on my fancy namebrand education. In that case, I'll (hopefully not) be one of those people from that thread saying that I have too much debt. Alternatively, say I go to SUNY and find out that I'm in love with radiology. If I don't match there, I'll (hopefully not) be one of those people saying that I would only do medicine again if I could be in the specialty I want.

Is this something that people consider when they're applying to med school, or am I reading too much into it?

Thanks.