Residency?

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Does medical school tier matters when selecting residency?

There is a school that I really like. It has very strong research support, and students at the school have very high step 1 scores. However, the school is fairly new.

All being same, (LOR, Grades, step1, EC), does "tier" really matters?

Or should I ask does prestigious of the school really matters?

 

[kyamh]

Source: my mother is a residency adcom at a good residency program for a less-competitive specialty. These thoughts may be different for a more competitive specialty or at more/less highly ranked hospital programs.

Your school status does matter. It is not going to make or break your application, but it can make a difference. Certainly, you can go to any medical school and get into any residency from there. In order to get into a super competitive residency, however, you will have to be top of your class if you are coming from a low-tier school. In contrast, if you go to a medical school known to be more challenging then you don't have to do as well in comparison to your classmates in order to get those top residency positions. One thing that matters a lot is whether you pass certain clinical rotations with honors or not. It is assumed that getting honors is more difficult in medical programs that are higher ranked, since the caliber of students entering those programs is often higher. It's not as though they will look at the school rank and say oh, well this applicant is from the 18th ranked school while this one is from the 20th, but "tier" can make a difference as far as whether or not your application is thoroughly considered. Once you make it to the interview, however, school really doesn't matter much.

 

[mvenus929]

School name does matter, but it's not necessarily by tiers (some programs may care about the actual rank more than others). I've been told that, in general, if a program has not accepted someone from your school in the past, they are less likely to rank you highly. If they've had amazing residents come out of your school, they're more likely to take a look at you. If they've had horrible residents come out of your school, they're much less likely to take a look at you.

That said, you can certainly break the trend by having good board scores, good letters, doing away rotations, etc. VTC, for instance, is graduating its first class this year. My class rotated with them on our third year rotations, and they told me that they were highly encouraged to spend most of their fourth year away from VTC. Us at UVa, on the other hand, have much more flexibility and can choose to stay at home for the entire year (assuming we're not going into a specialty that has an unwritten requirement to do aways), because we're much more established of a program.

 

[da8s0859q]

Does medical school tier matters when selecting residency?

There is a school that I really like. It has very strong research support, and students at the school have very high step 1 scores. However, the school is fairly new.

All being same, (LOR, Grades, step1, EC), does "tier" really matters?

Or should I ask does prestigious of the school really matters?

OP, you'll get slightly varied answers to this. For ultra-competitive specialties and/or subspecialties, you'll probably find that name may mean just a bit more. It probably still has some bearing outside of said specialties but as was said, will not make or break you.

In the end, your individual application -- your Step 1 and Step 2 scores, your letters of recommendation, your Dean's letter as a senior medical student for those programs which care a little more about that, your individual research for the specialties which tend to care more about research, especially your actual interview sessions, so on -- will be what gets you in a program on match day. Not the name on your future medical degree. Recommend you step back and look at the big picture and ask trusted friends/family to provide an outside opinion. Helps to hear it from them sometimes.

 

[TooMuchResearch]

Does medical school tier matters when selecting residency?

There is a school that I really like. It has very strong research support, and students at the school have very high step 1 scores. However, the school is fairly new.

All being same, (LOR, Grades, step1, EC), does "tier" really matters?

Or should I ask does prestigious of the school really matters?

Residency programs aren't looking to hire the applicant's medical school. Go to the cheapest medical school that accepts you. Hopefully it's the one you like the most.

 

[volcomx]

I'm still premed, so take this with a grain of salt. Lots of doctors will tell you that medical school matters very little. Board scores, letters of rec, and grades matter the most. Getting into the competitive specialties requires these high stats plus research and a demonstrated commitment to the field. This is where I think top tier schools give a slight boost with a greater availability of resources. For example, I'm thinking about academic surgery. At UMich, they have a program specifically for this career - the academic surgeon development program - that provides mentorship and experience throughout the 4 years of medical school. The name of the school might not matter, but it seems like the top tier schools make it slightly easier to get into more competitive specialties by giving students more opportunities to stand out.