Residency director scores

[dbhvt]

So I'm a big geek and I ran some statistics on the residency director scores in the usnews rankings. I figure this will let me actually know what to do with that information. As a disclaimer, I got the numbers from an earlier thread here. It looks like they were research rankings. If anyone can give me the primary care rankings with residency director scores, I'll do those stats too.

I think it's important to note that usnews gave these surveys to "residency program directors in fields outside primary care, including surgery, psychiatry, and radiology."

Theoretically the score could take on values from 1.0 to 5.0. Compiling all the residency director scores for the 64 ranked schools gives the following statistics:

Min: 3.0
1st quartile: 3.3
Median: 3.6
3rd quartile: 4.0
Max: 4.8

Mean: 3.71
Standard Dev: 0.48

The distribution isn't normal (surprise)

There were 6 schools each with a score of 4.0, 3.5, 3.4 and 3.2.

Some comments...


Though the 3rd quartile is 4.0, there are 6 schools with a score of 4.0 and 4 schools with a score of 4.1, leaving only 11 to fill out the scores from 4.2 to 4.8. Notice the score difference between 1QR and the min is 0.3, between the median and 1QR is 0.3, between 3QR and the median is 0.4, and between the max and 3QR is 0.8. So the air gets pretty thin at the top.

Noting that 3.0 is the midway point in the theoretical scale, residency directors tend to think any top 64 school is at least midway between marginal (1.0) and exceptional (5.0).

No school got all residency directors to agree that it was exceptional (ie, no school got a 5 from everyone).

The top 31 schools (two were tied at 30) based on overall research ranking ranged from 3.5 to 4.8 on residency director score. The next 33 schools ranged from 3.0 to 3.8.

The eleven best scores (the scores before the first big bump) were had by:
Harvard and JHop (4.8)
Duke (4.6)
UCSF, Stanford and UMich (4.5)
WashU, Penn, and Columbia (4.4)
Yale (4.3)
Cornell (4.2)

2 public schools that rock:
UCSF, UMich


usnews methodology http://www.usnews.com/usnews/edu/grad/rankings/about/06med_meth_brief.php

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[Law2Doc]

The eleven best scores (the scores before the first big bump) were had by:
Harvard and JHop (4.8)
Duke (4.6)
UCSF, Stanford and UMich (4.5)
WashU, Penn, and Columbia (4.4)
Yale (4.3)
Cornell (4.2)

2 public schools that rock:
UCSF, UMich

So basically you just recreated the US News research ranking's top 11 (somewhat out of order), except that you lost UWash and bumped cornell up a few pegs. Seems like you can just rely on the original rankings list as adequate. But honestly, any of those schools would be fine launching pads for future plans. Do well on the boards and clinical grades and do some research and you will do fine. There will be negligible difference in residency opportunities from eg. Harvard versus Cornell. There are far more important things on which to base your med school decision (esp. location, price, and gut feelings).

 

[dbhvt]

So basically you just recreated the US News research ranking's top 11 (somewhat out of order), except that you lost UWash and bumped cornell up a few pegs. Seems like you can just rely on the original rankings list as adequate. But honestly, any of those schools would be fine launching pads for future plans. Do well on the boards and clinical grades and do some research and you will do fine. There will be negligible difference in residency opportunities from eg. Harvard versus Cornell. There are far more important things on which to base your med school decision (esp. location, price, and gut feelings).

Residency opportunities aren't the main thing I'm going to base my decision on, but for me, it is still important. Gut feeling is good, but can have alot more to do with what you had for breakfast, or whether your tour guide got a good night's sleep than on how well you would fit in. If relative residency opportunities are not important to you, don't pay any attention to them. But I did the work, so I thought others might be interested.

Personally, I found the statistical analysis to be much more helpful in interpreting the relative position of different schools than either relying blindly on the usnews rankings or trying to establish competitiveness from a match list (as opposed to trends in where people go and what they do). In terms of Harvard vs. Cornell, your right. That's one of the take home messages of the analysis--they're both before the first big bump.

 

[Law2Doc]

Residency opportunities aren't the main thing I'm going to base my decision on, but for me, it is still important.

Okay, I basically agree with your last post. But bear in mind that being top of the class and nailing the boards at a more middling school not on your list will far outweigh the bottom of the class at any of these schools, or tanking the boards etc. in terms of residency opportunities. You don't need to "go" to Harvard, you need to "do well" at Harvard and on the boards to get a great residency. So it's really going to come down to YOU and how YOU do, not the school. So if you think you'll do better someplace you are happier at, that's huge. Let's not delude anyone into thinking that the top dozen schools get all, or even most, of the best residencies.

 

[dbhvt]

Let's not delude anyone into thinking that the top dozen schools get all, or even most, of the best residencies.

Yes, yes. Maybe I shouldn't have even listed the schools before the first bump. Mostly I wanted help figuring out what to do when I looked up the residency director score for a school. Hrmm... Dartmouth: 3.8. What the hell does that mean? Well now I can say, "Oh, Dartmouth's residency director score is halfway between the median and the 3QR of the usnews top 64."

 

[deleted77919]

I like stats, more data about med schools is always better, thanks.

 

[happydays]

Thank you for posting the stats! I was going to look them up at the library (too cheap to buy the online version after application fees), but now I don't have to anymore. Thank you, thank you!



In-state for UMich right here. Yes, UMMS, best school ever! Go Blue!