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why do people look at the research rankings instead of the matchlists... Some of the schools in the top do not seem to have better matchlists than schools that are ranked lower...
Rankings vs. Matchlist
- Thread starter Medicineman84
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because rankings are more tangible to the public eye, making it more of an ego-tickler when you say "oh yeah I'm going to a top 10 med school" instead of "oh yeah I'm going to a med school that matched 4 people into ortho last year!"
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well then people could just use the primary care rankings
To the common person this may seem to mean more...
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You cannot objectively assess whether students of a particular medical school were held back from obtaining competitive residency placements that they sought as opposed to whether they simply did not want to obtain those competitive residency placements in the first place. Not everyone wants to go to Johns Hopkins, Harvard, Yale, etc. for an ortho residency and to stack schools against one another based on their sheer number of M4's that get these residency placements is not helpful for your decision-making process (unless you do want such a residency placement). In the end it really does not matter where in the US you go for medical school as long as it is a place where you will be happy for your own personal reasons and will excell in that environment.
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So score Harvard's match list for me. Now Drexel's. It's impossible to assign a number score (more students in competetive programs is indeed a good sign, but it depends on the class's interest, and class size in general). NIH dollars, although seemingly arbitrary, provides objective, numerical data. Personally, I view match lists as a great way to help decide between schools when you have acceptances in hand, rather than choosing where to apply.
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I'm going to make it my new career goal to become head of NIH appropriations... Then I'll give all Harvard's Research money to Drexel. Just to screw with the pre-meds.
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Why not split the difference and take the "Assessment Score by Residency Directors" segment of the US News Ranking? Sure, it is a beauty contest and the proportion of residency directors who vote is low, but it does get at the inherent biases that residency directors hold about the various schools. To me, that is the only section of the US News rankings that has any relevance to the garden variety med student (to MSTP the research funding column might matter but to the rest of you...).
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well then people could just use the primary care rankings
true, I don't know why they just don't use primary care rankings. meh, whatever.
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What came first...the chicken or the egg? Is it a medical school itself that wins the favor of residency directors? Or is it the fact that top notch students may be attracted to this medical school and these students would get high marks by residency directors regardless of where they went for medical school? I tend to favor the latter...but that's just me.
The same analysis can be applied to the impressive residency match lists of students from ivy league medical schools, impressive USMLE scores of students from ivy league medical schools, etc, etc...
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Yes I agree, this is why pre meds need to get away from a preoccupation with the US news ranking.Many unranked med schools such NYMC,Temple and other have great match lists.When you graduate thats what really counts in terms of your professional options.
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But the survey question is "what is your opinion of each of the following schools". Sure, the residency directors' viewpoints are colored by the residents whom they've seen come from these schools. And the rich get richer as very talented students are attracted to schools that have accepted very talented students in the past.
So, the applicant with several offers wants to know which school is best. Do you use US News ranking or match list? We know that neither is great at identifying that je ne seis qua that makes one school better than another at preparing students for residency. This is why I suggest the residency directors' opinions, quantified on a scale of 1 (low) to 5 (high) as a measure of how "school reputation" counts in the next step on the path.
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I say use neither when making your decision. I think it should ideally come down to the little things that you have determined on your own (believe it or not) because the big things will all be somewhat equal. Ask yourself which school has the better feel for you and why? Ask yourself which school's location is a better fit for you and why? Cost of tuition and cost of living are both legit reasons to pick one over another. Ask yourself if you prefer a school that employs "high tech" resources vs. a school that utilizes transparency sheets, markers and overhead projectors as teaching tools and why? Ask yourself if you are a better group learner (problem-based learning curriculum may be ideal for you in this case) or a better independent learner (traditional lecture-based curriculum may be ideal for you in this case) and why? etc., etc., etc...
If you ultimately pick your school because of usnews rankings (of any sort) then God bless you and I hope you are not disappointed in the end.
