Ranking of Texas Med Schools

[velvetcoffee]

Hi all,

The threads on this topic are all old, so I’d love opinions on the tiers of the Texas medical schools (knowing Baylor and UTSW are at the top). I also know the “top” is personal for you, but I’m more looking at people’s opinions on resources and such! Thanks!

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[Goro]

Ask 10 people, you're going to get 11 different answers.

 

[velvetcoffee]

Ask 10 people, you're going to get 11 different answers.

And that’s the best part!

 

[ese2]

I applied last year and this is how I would've ranked if I interviewed at every TX school:

1. Baylor
2. UTSW
3. Dell
4. McGovern
5. Long
6. UTMB
7. A&M
8. Tech Lubbock
9. Tech El Paso
10. TCU
11. UH
12. UTRGV
13. TCOM
14. SHSU
15. UIW

This is highly personal to me though and my goals/location preferences.

 

[velvetcoffee]

I applied last year and this is how I would've ranked if I interviewed at every TX school:

1. Baylor
2. UTSW
3. Dell
4. McGovern
5. Long
6. UTMB
7. A&M
8. Tech Lubbock
9. Tech El Paso
10. TCU
11. UH
12. UTRGV
13. TCOM
14. SHSU
15. UIW

This is highly personal to me though and my goals/location preferences.

Literally struggling between McGovern and dell rn

 

[IJUSTWANTOPARTYDOC]

*spoiler alert, this is gonna be long post bc i don't have anyone else to discuss this whole cycle with and i just need to let out my thoughts regarding my rankings and the past few months in general lmao*

helloooo, here's my working ranking of schools i've interviewed at:

baylor/utsw
mcgovern
utmb (/long, pending lol)
ttu lubbock

I recently received an ii from long so I have to shoehorn that in somewhere. Based on location and factors I can look up, prelim ranking would be tied with utmb. I'm interviewing quite late and so close to when ranks are due, so my final decision will haphazardly come down to the vibes I feel on interview/tour day.

Baylor and UTSW I'm still very much debating because of the whole Houston vs Temple thing. I visited Temple and really appreciated their transparency to the whole situation. I recall Dr. Cable mentioning that they base who goes where essentially on whether your app suggests more of a research vs entrepreneurial type. Former would likely end up at Houston and latter would go to Temple. Either way, none of it is guaranteed unless you ranked the temple campus #1 (he was also very frank to us and said that if our goal is to be in Houston, we should rank McGovern first). I really liked the Temple campus and loved the tight knit nature of the class with each other and admin/mentors, but research was a big part of my app and is something I want to have ample opportunity to take part in during med school. UTSW, to me, is basically equivalent to baylor without the added uncertainty of location.

I'll add that I work at hospital with residents and got really lucky being able to ask some of them questions about med school. One had recently graduated from UTSW and said that if they could choose again, it would not have been UTSW. Something along the lines of a very malignant culture at the clinical sites where med students were kind of expected to know everything and were reprimanded by staff when it was obvious they were still learning. However, they felt that because of the high workload of managing a lot of patients and having greater responsibility during rotations, it prepared them really well for the workload during their intern year/pgy-1 compared to other residents. This is why I've started heavily considering clinical sites and asking as many MS-3s and MS-4s for their experiences during rotations.

the rest of my list basically comes down to a mix of location, curriculum length (I was really sold on the idea of a shorter preclinical from all the current med students I've asked), and their recent match lists (I'm undecided on specialty choice, but I don't want competitive specialties to be out of the question).

ahhh that was a lot but hopefully this also helps anyone else reading. i can be somewhat pessimistic at times so sometimes my thoughts tell me that it's possible i can put this much thought into it all and end up not matching T_T

I feel like research opportunities are still plentiful at Temple, maybe @MCAThiccy could weigh in?

As far as UTSW, I know at least one (pretty recent) EM attending and a new-this-year EM attending who said they loved it and would highly recommend it.

I've also worked with several more EM residents in UTSW's program, and from what I've seen they are all rockstars clinically (knowledge, bedside manner, kind, eager to teach, etc.) and most/many of them did not attend UTSW for med school. I feel like it's probably similar for many other specialties. My point being, if you went to Baylor, or anywhere in Texas really (the EM program usually takes several students from TTUHSC every year), you'd have a decent shot of doing your residency there in one of their many nationally recognized residencies and becoming a great physician.

 

[MCAThiccy]

What can I say that hasn’t been said already? I’m spoiled in Temple. As soon as a physician here’s that your medical student, they reach out to you and they always try to work. The research is a lot different in Temple compared to Houston. Houston has more bench research and that could take some time to get a paper out. I think you would have to work on a project on average for a year to get a paper.
Temple research is more clinical based and you can get a paper within six months if you really hammer at it.
I have a classmate is currently researching the usage of ultrasounds within the emergency room on patients. Clinical research, in my opinion, is a lot more rewarding for the student, because the student often interacts with patients and sees how their research is impacting the care of the patient directly.
I think I should mention that we don’t have any overcrowding at the hospital in terms of other students. There’s enough research to go around for us. I mean, there’s only 40 of us after all.
In terms of the residency departments, the departments really take in for the students. I’m very fortunate because the Pathology Department took me under their wing and they’re really taken care of me. I’m very grateful just to have them as friends.
Last night, the head of the department forwarded an email about a potential convention opportunity, and is willing to write a letter of recommendation. I didn’t have to ask for the opportunity; it was forwarded to me.
Regardless of where you go, campus wise, you’ll be connected to individuals who want the very best for you. I’m very fortunate that I ended up at Baylor and I love every minute of it. This is my school and I love it. I’m proud to be a Baylor student.

 

[IJUSTWANTOPARTYDOC]

I already posted this in the Republic of Texas thread, but I visted a lot of threads like this one this past year while trying figure out my rank list, so I'd like to contribute for future cycles.

Here's my rank list:

1. Baylor
2. UTSW
3. McGovern
4. Long (Pre-match)
5. Texas Tech - Lubbock (Pre-match)
6. UTMB
7. TTUHSC - El Paso
8. UH

1-2: UTSW and Baylor are known to be a cut above the rest of the med schools in Texas. UTSW more so for research, Baylor more so for certain specialties/fields like pediatrics. But at either location you will have incredible opportunities. Yes, they are both "top 20" med schools per US News, but they are also "top 20" schools based on residency Program Director surveys, which is much more tangible. If you look online (SDN, reddit) many many med students and physicians seem to think that 'prestige' matters a great deal for residency apps, and that it is only getting more important w/ step 1 going P/F (and rumors of step 2 maybe going the same way). Both are P/F, will some sort of internal rankings (and AOA I believe). Also, UTSW and Baylor are either 1 or 2 for basically every residency in Texas, with several being some of the best in the US (e.g. IM at Parkland or peds at TCH).

3-4: McGovern and Long are both well respected schools, with fantastic clinical and research opportunities. Tbh I don't know how to differentiate them, other than McGovern has P/F first semester (and I believe NBME exams after the first semester). Long has been criticized by its students for its pre-clinical curriculum that is not tailored to step 1, although I've seen one post on SDN by a student who believes that w/ step 1 going P/F, the pre-clinical curriculum is better suited to prepare the student for clinical rotations, as well as step 2. No idea about this, but maybe we'll find out 🙂

5. Love TTUHSC, love Lubbock. Solid program, with a good student culture, that is not going to hold you back in any way as far as residencies.

6. Same as ^5, I just don't like Galveston. Also the opportunity for clinical rotations at TDCJ just doesn't appeal to me at all. Being either pro/anti our current criminal system seems like it would make learning more difficult, seems much less safe, especially for some med students, and ultimately I don't think I'd want to rotate here until I was at least a resident or attending. They didn't make it seem like a big deal at orientation, but idk it's one of the few things I remember about orientation. Oh yeah, the MMI wasn't fun, but at least the interviewers were personable. I did have a few interviews where it seemed like there was a bit of a language barrier (obv part of being a doctor, but not sure how fair that is for evaluation), and one where the interviewer changed the question once I got to the room (again, gotta think on your feet to be a physician, but if it was intentional from UTMB, feels unfair/bad practice).

7. TTUHSC- El Paso is very far away from home. Loved their border-health program(s), didn't love the interview day. Tons of technical issues and felt like I was being talked to/treated like a high schooler. Also (and this applies to a few of these schools even those at the top), for the LOVE OF GOD STOP MAKING US WATCH PRE-RECORDED RECRUITMENT VIDEOS LIVE ON ZOOM FFS. The audio and video quality is scuffed and I could have watched it before/after, but instead I'm sweating my ass off in my interview outfit faking a smile for 30 whole minutes while desperately needing to use the bathroom, but not wanting to hurt my chances of admission. MMI was also awful (pretty sure they told the interviewers to keep a straight face and not show emotion to be more fair but it sucked as an interviewee).

8. UH has a great focus on primary care (and I loved the president's talk about the economic argument for preventative medicine, very pragmatic), but only go there if you are sure that is what you want to do, and are comfortable sticking to it even if you change your mind. Any other specialties would likely be possible to match into, but you'd be fighting for yourself and against the curriculum. Also felt like we were treated a bit like high schoolers in this interview day, and not the adults we are, which felt jarring compared to the other schools 1-6. I'm in my gap year, and maybe I took this too personally, but it didn't feel like they respected the time and work I put in to get to this place, nor the time I took to attend the interview day. Did they have an MMI? I don't remember, I knew I was ranking them last as I sat in the mandatory info sessions that could have been an email.

 

[IJUSTWANTOPARTYDOC]

Here's my rank list if I could rank all Texas schools:

1. Baylor
2. UTSW
3. McGovern
4. Long (Pre-match)
5. Texas Tech - Lubbock (Pre-match)
6. UTMB
7. Dell - Austin doesn't appeal to me at all, and it's also a newish program so I imagine there are kinks still being worked out. I am also strongly biased against UT Austin and attending any UT school would already be getting a bit too close for comfort haha. But seriously, I don't think I would be very happy here, due to many factors.
8. TCOM - Very solid DO school. DO doesn't appeal to me because they have to work a lot harder to get to the same level as MDs (not fair, but it's true), they have to learn pseudoscience (time + energy + bs) in med school, and have to take extra exams (Step in addition to COMLEX if applying for some residencies/specialties - part of that uphill battle, which is even harder now since step 1 is P/F).
9. A&M - Don't know much but is MD.
10. TTUHSC - El Paso
11. UH
12. TCU - Expensive and not TMDSAS.
13. UT Tyler - Unaccredited, but free. But also in Tyler.
14. UTRGV - Far AF, and not great opportunities afaik.
15. SHSU - DO, unaccredited.
16. UIW - DO, unaccredited? religous affiliation (catholic?)

Ofc this is my personal rank w/ my own preferences and biases, completed to the best of my knowledge.

Edit: I feel like maybe I didn't answer thr prompt exactly lol, but hopefully this is useful to someone.