SDN's own top ten?

[windzilla]

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here is my train of thought

There is an obvious lack of agreement over the US news's ability to make accurate medical school rankings, let alone useful ones.

Most med school hopefulls are smart, well educated and well informed, at least on par with the staff at US news. (of course we could debate this, but take the compliment)

We should have our own top ten or 25 or whatever, based only on votes list all the schools. forum members would rank 10 for the best school 9 for the second best and so on down to one. all this would be added up, Hopefully in some automatic forum polling format giving the school with the most points first place, you get the idea. then we can have our own top ten list.

I know I know obvious draw backs, major shortcomings. We could talk about those forever, but we arent making or breaking anyone here, just having fun frankly you should take your rankings less seriously. (as well as your spelling and grammer, live a little folks)

I would just like to see what the applicants think, My guess is that if we were to include a school called "any school that takes me" as a choice, it would land safely in that top ten, possibly even at number 1.

 

[Law2Doc]

here is my train of thought

There is an obvious lack of agreement over the US news's ability to make accurate medical school rankings, let alone useful ones.

Most med school hopefulls are smart, well educated and well informed, at least on par with the staff at US news. (of course we could debate this, but take the compliment)

We should have our own top ten or 25 or whatever, based only on votes list all the schools. forum members would rank 10 for the best school 9 for the second best and so on down to one. all this would be added up, Hopefully in some automatic forum polling format giving the school with the most points first place, you get the idea. then we can have our own top ten list.

I know I know obvious draw backs, major shortcomings. We could talk about those forever, but we arent making or breaking anyone here, just having fun frankly you should take your rankings less seriously. (as well as your spelling and grammer, live a little folks)

I would just like to see what the applicants think, My guess is that if we were to include a school called "any school that takes me" as a choice, it would land safely in that top ten, possibly even at number 1.

That would certainly be interesting to see. But you would see a lot of folks voting for the school that accepted them, and a lot of votes for the more popular locale schools. But the real question is who wants to type up the names of 120+ schools into a poll?

 

[windzilla]

That would certainly be interesting to see. But you would see a lot of folks voting for the school that accepted them, and a lot of votes for the more popular locale schools. But the real question is who wants to type up the names of 120+ schools into a poll?

well for the 120+ med schools im sure a list exists that could be cut and pasted somehow (i dont know how these polls work so basically im shooting from the hip incase nobody noticed). for the voting, most people arent accepted to 10+ schools (kudos if you are) and since there is no way that eveyone was accepted to the same school (has to be a spread of somekind out there, were not all going to vanderbelt) and becuase of the way points are assigned to 10 schools mutually exclisive of one another, it could work. sure popular locals have an edge, but hey we are the ones that make and break at least one half of what constitutes a school, so such a pattern matters.

anyway might be fun, though i won't be spearheading such a project anytime soon

 

[diosa428]

I think that it would be a good idea to come up with some criteria so that everyone doesn't just vote for their school. Of course, the best criteria are often not provided by schools (such as avg board scores). But maybe based on match lists, financial aid, location - things that matter to premeds that are not taken into account by US News.

 

[Medikit]

Top 10 medical schools based on my own criteria:

1. Case Western School of Medicine
2. UCSF
3. University of Rochester
4. Emory
5. University of Michigan
6. Columbia
7. University of Wisconsin
8. UCLA
9. University of Vermont
10. Pritzker

I will not reveal my secret rating system.

 

[Lests55]

Top 10 medical schools based on my own criteria:

1. Case Western School of Medicine
2. UCSF
3. University of Rochester
4. Emory
5. University of Michigan
6. Columbia
7. University of Wisconsin
8. UCLA
9. University of Vermont
10. Pritzker

I will not reveal my secret rating system.

Long name
Short name
Long name
Short name
rinse & repeat

 

[8744]

LSU Shreveport
LSU New Orleans
all the rest

 

[8744]

duplicate

 

[nimotsu]

This isn't a great idea. Clearly, some medical schools are superior to others based on many variables such as successful, quality matriculants and academics, but going to medical school is just like going to college... you need to find the school that fits well with your personal parameters. So trying to make a top ten list will only produce relativistic results because there are no tangible, standardized factors like used somewhat in US News. This task would be hard to do well.

 

[8744]

Yeah. Dumb question. But I will say that the medical students here at Duke are pretty friggin' smart. And a many of them are even decent human beings.

 

[drmota]

1)Harvard
2)UCSF
3)Stanford
4)USC
5)NYU
6)Pritzker
7)UMich
8)U Washington
9)Cornell
10)UCLA

-mota

 

[thatslife]

1)Harvard
2)UCSF
3)Stanford
4)USC
5)NYU
6)Pritzker
7)UMich
8)U Washington
9)Cornell
10)UCLA

-mota

where would you throw Yale into the mix?

 

[mshheaddoc]

My #1 is Princeton.
Beat THAT US NEWS!

 

[ChymeChancellor]

My #1 is Princeton.
Beat THAT US NEWS!

I was just accepted to Princeton with a full ride scholarship!

They must really like me there or something.

 

[mshheaddoc]

I was just accepted to Princeton with a full ride scholarship!

They must really like me there or something.

NO way! I'm totally jealous. Its my number one choice.

I think US News is full of **** because they never rank that ivy school. I swear ... Its all politics! Jersey gets no love!

 

[TheMightyAngus]

In order:
1) Harvard
2) Stanford
3) Hopkins
4) Penn
5) UCSF
6) Duke
7) UW
8) Michigan
9) UCLA
10) Columbia

WashU and Yale don't make my list.

 

[potato51]

1-Harvard
2-UPenn
3-UCSF
4-Mayo
5-Hopkins
6-Baylor
7-Stanford
8-Wash U
9-Duke
10- Yale

I have a ranking in mind for the school I'm going to, but I'm not including it.

 

[dajimmers]

I really think the parameters used by USNews are rather stupid. NIH money, NIH/faculty, faculty:student ratio, and "selectiveness" can all vary without affecting a standard medical student's education AT ALL. I agree with nimotsu that everyone has (or should have) their own personal ranking based on schools that "match" them, but I'm sure we can come up with better "objective" criteria than those used by USNews...

For the research rankings, they should look at % of students who go into academics, % of students who do (funded) research projects, 4th-year (post match) student assessment survey of their experience, happiness with board prep, and % matching into a desired residency. I think they should still use avg. GPA/MCAT and total NIH dollars, but to a lesser degree.

 

[TheMightyAngus]

I really think the parameters used by USNews are rather stupid. NIH money, NIH/faculty, faculty:student ratio, and "selectiveness" can all vary without affecting a standard medical student's education AT ALL. I agree with nimotsu that everyone has (or should have) their own personal ranking based on schools that "match" them, but I'm sure we can come up with better "objective" criteria than those used by USNews...

For the research rankings, they should look at % of students who go into academics, % of students who do (funded) research projects, 4th-year (post match) student assessment survey of their experience, happiness with board prep, and % matching into a desired residency. I think they should still use avg. GPA/MCAT and total NIH dollars, but to a lesser degree.

I'd also incorporate # of HHMI and Doris Duke fellowships awarded, and # of NIH-funded MSTP places.

 

[automaton]

1. harvard
2. ucsf
3. hopkins
4. upenn
5. yale
6. stanford
7. ucla
8. washu
9. duke
10. columbia

 

[fantasty]

1. University of Washington
2. Yale University (CT)
3. University of Michigan–Ann Arbor
4. Johns Hopkins University (MD)
5. University of California–Los Angeles (Geffen)
6. University of California–San Francisco
7. University of Pennsylvania
8. University of California–San Diego
9. Washington University in St. Louis
10. Harvard University (MA)
11. Stanford University (CA)
12. University of Iowa (Carver)
13. Columbia U. College of Physicians and Surgeons (NY)
14. Cornell University (Weill) (NY)
15. University of North Carolina–Chapel Hill
16. Oregon Health and Science University
17. University of Pittsburgh
18. Mayo Medical School (MN)
19. Duke University (NC)
20. Baylor College of Medicine (TX)

No particular scoring scheme - just a gestaldt of my knowledge of their students' success, happiness, rank lists, location, and a nice dose of my own personal biases.

 

[med21]

1. Harvard
2. Stanford
3. UPenn
4. Columbia
5. Yale
6. Duke
7. Cornell
8. WashU
9. UCSF
10. Chicago

 

[iriechic14]

1. Harvard
2. UCSF
3. Penn
4. Yale
5. Stanford
6. Wash U
7. Columbia
8. UCLA
9. Johns Hopkins

Honestly, I think it is bizarre that University of Washington and Duke are frequently considered top ten because they seem as if they are not as desired by most applicants I've talked to. UW's extremely limiting residency requirements alone make it hard to seriously consider the school top ten. The California schools may be state schools but they accept students from all over the place and there simple are more qualified Californians to choose from. Johns Hopkins is low on the list because although it receives high us news rankings, it is pretty common knowledge that the quality of life is abysmal there. Many top applicants do not apply or drop Johns Hopkins in favor of schools 1-8. These are all just my opinion and i am sure all you duke/uw people have great reasons for liking the schools.