Texas Schools' Repuation

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Hi Everyone,

I was wondering, this post is especially for other Texas residents. Of the texas medical schools that we have, how would you rank each one, give numbers for all of them, like 1st, 2nd etc etc...also can you please highlight the good and bad points on why you rank the school as such?

by the way, does houston have a secondary, I can't find it anywhere?

thanks
 
Wathca, Here's my opinion....

1. Baylor (even though this is not a proto-typical Texas school since they admit %25 from out-of-state and do not use TMDSAS, they still bless in-state students with dirt cheap tuition)
2. UT-Dallas (Southwestern)
3. UT-Houston
4. UT-Galveston
(Three and four are basically a tie in my mind, but I will give the edge to UTH given its average MCAT and GPA, and the fact that it is in a major metro area and therefore probably better equipped to provide a more well-rounded third and fourth med school year)
5. UT-San Antonio
6. Texas A&M
(Again, five and six are very close calls, but I will give the edge to San Antonio for the same reasons I stated above)
7. Texas Tech

PS Houston does NOT have a secondary. That's not on the TMDSAS website, but I called them and found out.
 
Thanks so much gregory!

Just one quick question?

can u go through the same ranking again, and mention if they are in a urban environment, or rural environment? is texas tech or san antonia or A&M in really small towns?

your my counselor to the state of texas 😀
 
Hey Watcha, don't mention it.

1. Baylor is in Houston, which, of course, is the fourth largest city in the US.
2. UT-Dallas is, gee I wonder, in Dallas. It think the population, including Fort Worth, is something like 5 million, but I don't know. Point is, it is a major metro area.
3. UT-Houston is in.....
4. UT-Galvestion is in Galveston, which is a smaller sort of distant suburb to Houston right on the Gulf of Mexico. I wouldn't necessarilly call it a rural community, but I also wouldn't call it a major metro area. It is similar to something like Greenwich, Conneticut in relation to New York City, but nowhere near as nice.
5. UT-San Antonio. San Antonio is like Portland. It is one of those US cities that is a major metro area, but is still struggling to gain national recognition. I think the population there is something like 1.5 million, but I could be wrong. That was just my impression of the place.
6. Texas A&M is in College Station. CS is a small rural college town. Beware though, only the first two years of med school are spent there. The last two are done in Temple, TX, which is a pathetically small town in central Texas (about 100 miles north of Austin).
7. Texas Tech. In Lubbock, TX. Talk about cow tipping and big hair. Sorry to offend anybody that likes that sort of thing. Also beware, Texas Tech med students spend their first two years in Lubbock, and then their second two in either Lubbock (see above), El Paso (border town that might as well be in central Mexico), or I think, Amarillo (see the movie "Tin Cup" with Kevin Costner if you want to know about West Texas), but I'm not sure about this last one. I hear where you end up is luck of the draw. Not to say that anyone who ends up there is "lucky." But I should shut my mouth because that will probably be me that it is the one cow tipping.

Hope this helps.
 
WOAH!!!! ok, as a native fort worthian, FORT WORTH IS NOT NOT NOT A PART OF DALLAS! its over an HOUR away!(end rant) : 😛ant pant::

Ok, here's my take on the schools (excluding Baylor).

1. UTSW - in Dallas, which is a huge city, much more like an "eastern" city than the rest. It has more national recognition and extensive research opportunities. However, its in a crappy part of the city, AND it is a HUGELY comptetitive environment.

2. UTMB (My school) - in Galveston. Galveston is a typical port town, population ~55,000. It has most of the "city" amenities, and is 45 minutes south of Clearlake/Houston, so the REST of the city amenities arent far away. It is the oldest school in Tx, and has several innovative programs (you can do a rotation in alternative medicine, for example). The curriculum is a combination of lecture and PBL. People are laid back and friendly and they actually help each other study (unlike SWern). Oh, did I mention that the anatomy lab is on the 3rd floor of a building and has really nice skylights? We get the patients from the prison system, the sailors/port workers and a lot of stupid tourists coming through the hospitals. During rotations, there is the option to go to Austin for 3rd year, and many rotations can also be done at texas medical center in Houston (or you can stay here). If you want to stay in Tx, its a great place to go.

UTSA: A great program if you want to practice in S. Texas. If you go here, you may be *required* to spend 3rd & 4th year at a small medical center in south Texas.

UTH: good resources and facilities, but they always seem to be competing with Baylor. Good rotation opportunities @ TMC. (I hate big cities, and I didnt have a great experience there w/interviews, so Im biased against it).

TCOM - A great school if you want to go the osteopathic route. Good research. However, the clinical program is in the middle of a major overhaul and the campus is having a building spree.

I dont know anything about Tech and A&M except that they're new, small and in random rural places that I dont want to live (didnt apply to these).

Good luck, and feel free to email,
Star
 
Thanks Star!

Those comments really clarified a lot of stuff.....I didnt know A&M and Texas Tech where in rural areas....should have thought twice before applying there 😉

oh well....
 
Hey Star, I did the drive from Fort Worth to Dallas in half an hour. And that was in a Geo Storm. My brother goes to TCU and says he is always saying he lives in Dallas/Forth Worth. I know they are different cities, but aren't they the same as something like Minneapolis/St. Paul?
 
Star, I have heard from multiple sources that UTSA is kind of at the bottom of the barrel as far as UT schools are concerned. I was under the impression that UTH was well ahead of it. What are you basing your impression of it being more prestigious than UTH on?
 
I cannot really give you a ranking because I only interviewed at 4 of the schools in Texas, but I will tell you what I think of each.

Baylor- My roommate can better describe this one, but I will still give it a shot. Good school, in the midst of a curriculum overhaul this year so it is creating a little confusion for the students. Appears to be a pretty cut-throat environment, which is why I withdrew my application after my interview. My roommate complains of the youth of her class (I think it is because she is so old 😉), but a majority of the class does seem to be rather young and institutionalized (i.e. no real world experience in anything; mommy and daddy pay for everything). Still, tuition beats that of any other school in Texas and you have the world famous TMC. You also get patient exposure in the first month of school.

UT-Houston- This is my school. Much more relaxed atmosphere than at Baylor. More of a nurturing, familial environment. Still have the TMC, but everyone pretty much has the P=MD philosophy. Classes are a little more traditional in structure (i.e. Biochem, Gross, Devo and Histo first semester) and we don't get to see patients until second semester of first year if not first semester of second year. The biggest problem so far is the damn flood that wiped out the entire ground floor and the anatomy labs. It just makes it a pain to get around in the building because certain staircases are blocked and certain doors are locked.
The rivalry with Baylor to which Starflyr referred is only in the heads of those insecure with themselves and in the outside world. Those of us at UT poke just as much fun at Baylor as they do of us (instigated mostly by former Baylor faculty). To go to my school, you have to understand that the school does not make you good. If you are convinced that you have to go to a top tier school to be a good doctor then don't even apply to UT-H because you won't be happy.

UTMB (Galveston)- Another good school. Interesting curriculum with more of a systems approach (kind of like what Baylor is trying to do). The only problems I had with it were location and facility structure. I wanted a lot of clinical exposure and I didn't think I would get as much at UTMB as at UT-H. I also did not like the relative "oldness" of the campus. Maybe it was because it was raining the day I visited, but I just didn't feel comfortable there. Still, the way they do the family practice rotation where they send you all over the state for part of it is really cool.

UT-SW (Dallas)- This school is pretty cool, too, but it also seemed too competitive for my taste (like Baylor). If research is your bag, they certainly have a lot of it from which to choose. I worked at Parkland, the main teaching hospital, for a year and I loved it. I also liked how at UT-SW you got your own desk in which to keep your stuff. I like having a "home base" from which I operate. I also like Dallas, but I do not think it is in any way like eastern cities; it is just as spread out as the rest of the cities in Texas and there is no good system of mass transportation (DART is a joke).

When all was said and done, I had a tough time deciding between UT-H and UT-SW, so I did not send in my match form. BAD IDEA!!! The way the match works is, you rank your schools and the schools pick those they accept from the list in order of ranking (i.e., if you were accepted and ranked UT-SW #1 you would get in over me if I ranked them #2). Problem is, if you don't rank them, you default to the last number. I found out I was accepted at both schools but did not get in my first time around. I tell all of you this so you can learn from my mistake. Send in the ranking form after each interview you have. You may not know which one you like more, but at least you will be going and won't have to reapply.
 
Socialist,

Now I'm a little confused by your last couple of sentences.

I dont know if TMDSAS switched it up this year or if its always been like this, but now the rank list for students is online.

I recently had an interview at UTMB but no other TX schools yet.

You seem to imply that I'm supposed to submit my rank list NOW?? I havent filled out the online rank list yet. I thought they dont look at your rank list until like January somehting?

Can somebody clear this up for me?
 
Baylor, the TMDSAS website says that you are supposed to rank schools shortly after you interview at them. You should go to the TMDSAS website and rank UTMB today, presuming you would conceivably attend there if admitted, as your first choice. Then, say if you interviewed at UT-Southwestern on Friday, you could/should go to the TMDSAS website on Saturday to rank that school in relation to your interest to UTMB. I don't know how it was done in the past, but I'm pretty sure that is how its done now. Hope this helps.
 
Whenever I interviewed, they gave me a sheet of paper that contained the names of all of the TMDSAS schools. We were to rank the schools in order of preference and mail it in. We were supposed to do it after each interview, but at least send one in before Dec. 29 (I think, this was two years ago) that had our final rankings. If it is online now, I would not worry about it yet, but don't forget to submit the ranking.
 
Yeah, what Georgey said. Rank online as you go, just to make sure they have a copy of your rankings. When I did it, it was paper copies.
 
Georgey,

How 'bout you stop doing a disservice to those applying to Texas schools by inserting your personal, uninformed biases on the schools - namely for Texas Tech. First of all, I think you can get a quality education at ANY of the schools in Texas. Your rankings bring up all the common stereotypes of each of the schools. Do some research and you'll find these not to be true. As far as the locales of A&M and Tech, it's true that they are not in major metropolitan areas. To say that we're "cow-tipping" on the farm is assinine, however. Some people may not prefer to be caught in massive traffic commuting everyday.

Also, as far as the clinical rotation match goes, it is generally a positive aspect of Tech. Moving again may not be the greatest after two years, but the clinical education I will receive in El Paso will be tough to exceed anywhere in the state.

To all of you who may be applying to or interviewing at Tech - you made a good choice (as are ALL of the schools in TX). If anyone wants some info on Tech from an informed insider, drop me a line.

BioAggie
Texas Tech SOM 2005
 
BioAggie, Lighten, you idiot. First of all, I was not speaking to you. Second, the comments I made were in gest. As I stated at the end of my post, I would be happy to attend any med school in Texas, including Texas Tech. It was all just a joke. Improve your reading comprehension skills before you provide us all with another "insightful" post. Furthermore, again as I stated in my post, all of my comments are strictly MY OPINION, which, correct me if I'm wrong is what this forum is all about. My opinion should be heard just as easily as yours without being subject to such insidious attacks. If you're fetish happnes to be dropping in on premed forums to attack med school hopefuls, please find somewhere else to do it.
 
Originally posted by Georgey:
•Star, I have heard from multiple sources that UTSA is kind of at the bottom of the barrel as far as UT schools are concerned. I was under the impression that UTH was well ahead of it. What are you basing your impression of it being more prestigious than UTH on?•
Click to expand...

Hey Gregory 🙂

I dont know how you did the Dallas to Ft W thing that fast unless you were going 1000000 mph or unless you count Arlington/Hurst/N.Richland Hills as Ft. Worth. But anyways 🙂 My rankings were in no way based on prestige, except for the first - SWern. It is nationally ranked by USN&WR, and is the only texas school so ranked (in the TMDSAS system, that is). If you're looking for prestige, go there or Baylor or out of state. My other rankings were based on my own experiences with the schools and/or my friends experiences there as students. I agree with whoever it was that said that you can get a great education at any school in Tx - SWern and TCOM are the two that stand out in some way - either prestige-wise or as non-allopathic schools. If you want to practice outside of Tx and you dont go to SWern or TCOM, it wont really matter WHERE you went to school. Just go to your interviews and rank them by how you like them and by how you think you'd fit in there. Prestige is great, but if you arent happy, you wont do well. Good luck 🙂

Star
 
hey georgey...yeah, i totally agree with your rankings man...i've lived in tx. and everything you said is pretty accurate.

my take is, i applied to all the schools, b/c if tech or a&m is the ONLY med school i get into, then i'm going. but i would really, really prefer not be in a rural environ. either. let's pray that i get into an east coast school that will give me some money... 😉
 
Hey you guys,

I'm not sure if all of you are Texas residents, but I was born there and have lived all of my life there (minus college). I've noticed a few errors about the cities/locations of the med schools as well as the schools themselves.

1) Lubbock and College Station ARE incredibly boring places to live (and I live in Waco, so that should tell you something), but they are NOT rural! They are both college towns. CS (and all its restaurants/businesses) are centered around the A&M institutions as is Lubbock centered around the Tech campuses.
2) Baylor is not the cheapest med school for residents of Texas. All texas med schools have the same tuition for residents (6550/year) except Houston which costs a bit more.
3)All the schools in Texas have at least a good reputation, because all the facilities have (at least) good funding from the state.
Here is how I would rank them (based on what I know from current students and residents)

1) Baylor. No constest. Located on one of the biggest and best med centers on the planet, GREAT hospitals to do rotations. Students (despite what some may say) are friendly and treated great by faculty, 2.5 years clinical instead of 2, 1.5 textbook.
2) UTSW. Not many seem to like location or the main hospitals, but good rep/ranking. Tough to get in, but nothing really distinctive comes to mind (other than research).
3) UT houston. Same med center as Baylor, same hospitals. Much more independent atmosphere than baylor- no one holds your hand.
4) UTMB. Good hospitals at the Medical branch in Galveston. Very friendly students and faculty from what I know.
5) UTSA. Lots of minority students and a very diverse class, in fact the school has been commended for enrollment of URMs.
6) A&M. I dont think ive ever seen the sun shine in College Station. Very mixed reviews from students about the school, probably b/c of having to go to Marlin or Temple Veterans Hospitals for rotations . Extreme limits in terms of diversity of patients.
7) Texas Tech. Totally laid back atmosphere, really nice students. But they dont call it "Lubbuttocks" for nothing. I actually saw a tumbleweed there once. And nobody I know likes having to move to El Paso or Amarillo for 3rd and 4th years.


All the state schools in TX are good in that their application process is relatively straightforward and painless. The UTs tend to rely heavily on numbers to select applicants and have a computer based ranking system for the process (points for gpa, mcat, interview....etc all add up and then "cuts off' to select).
 
Hey you guys,

I'm not sure if all of you are Texas residents, but I was born there and have lived all of my life there (minus college). I've noticed a few errors about the cities/locations of the med schools as well as the schools themselves.

1) Lubbock and College Station ARE incredibly boring places to live (and I live in Waco, so that should tell you something), but they are NOT rural! They are both college towns. CS (and all its restaurants/businesses) are centered around the A&M institutions as is Lubbock centered around the Tech campuses.
2) Baylor is not the cheapest med school for residents of Texas. All texas med schools have the same tuition for residents (6550/year) except Houston which costs a bit more.
3)All the schools in Texas have at least a good reputation, because all the facilities have (at least) good funding from the state.
Here is how I would rank them (based on what I know from current students and residents)

1) Baylor. No constest. Located on one of the biggest and best med centers on the planet, GREAT hospitals to do rotations. Students (despite what some may say) are friendly and treated great by faculty, 2.5 years clinical instead of 2, 1.5 textbook.
2) UTSW. Not many seem to like location or the main hospitals, but good rep/ranking. Tough to get in, but nothing really distinctive comes to mind (other than research).
3) UT houston. Same med center as Baylor, same hospitals. Much more independent atmosphere than baylor- no one holds your hand.
4) UTMB. Good hospitals at the Medical branch in Galveston. Very friendly students and faculty from what I know.
5) UTSA. Lots of minority students and a very diverse class, in fact the school has been commended for enrollment of URMs.
6) A&M. I dont think ive ever seen the sun shine in College Station. Very mixed reviews from students about the school, probably b/c of having to go to Marlin or Temple Veterans Hospitals for rotations . Extreme limits in terms of diversity of patients.
7) Texas Tech. Totally laid back atmosphere, really nice students. But they dont call it "Lubbuttocks" for nothing. I actually saw a tumbleweed there once. And nobody I know likes having to move to El Paso or Amarillo for 3rd and 4th years.


All the state schools in TX are good in that their application process is relatively straightforward and painless. The UTs tend to rely heavily on numbers to select applicants and have a computer based ranking system for the process (points for gpa, mcat, interview....etc all add up and then "cuts off' to select).
 
Hey Star...Thanks for the info. It seems your opinion is well informed. I agree with the notion that one can get an excellent medical education at any Texas school. I wasn't entirely convinced about TCOM from what I had heard, but I interviewed with them today and I was very impressed. BTW, that drive to Dallas may have been closer to forty minutes. And yes, I do drive my poor little Geo way too fast.
 
I need to get a ticket from LA to College station, hopefully NON-stop cheap?

anybody help me out? how far is dallas away from college station? if i go to dallas can i take a train or something to college station? sorry for sounding extremely stupid?
 
I'd recommend flying into Houston if you can - preferrably Houston Bush Intercontinental (IAH). It's only about an hour and a half (max 2) drive from Houston to CS vs. a 3 hr drive from Dallas. If you want, you can also fly American Eagle from DFW to CS or Continental Express from IAH to CS if you don't want to drive. Hope this helps.
 
Originally posted by WatchaMaCallit:
•I need to get a ticket from LA to College station, hopefully NON-stop cheap?

anybody help me out? how far is dallas away from college station? if i go to dallas can i take a train or something to college station? sorry for sounding extremely stupid?•
Click to expand...

Um...Im not an aggie, but once had a boyfriend who was one - FtW. is about 3 hours away, so Id guess Dallas may be a bit less. Your best bet is to rent a car - I really dont think that there are any other means of transportation to there. However, I may be misinformed, so...anybody else know?

Star
 
I read an abouve post regarding UTSW and I thought I'd throw in my 2 cents. While going thru paramedic school I had to do several rotaions at the teaching hospitals affiliated with UTSW. They are awesome hospitals...Parkland is a Level 1 trauma center with one of the top burn units in the world....The ER is HUGE and divided into different types (Medicine, psych, trauma)Methodist and Baylor are also awesome and they all share "trauma" rotations to lesson the load on Parkland, which is also the county hospital....You will see so much there and things are always bigger in Texas! 😀
 
As a pre-med hopeful coming out of Boston, I am VERY, VERY impressed by the Texas Medical School and Medical care system. (My wife's career may move to Texas and perhaps my plan for Med schools as well.) The more I look into schools, the more Texas as a whole has to offer compared to just the urban/research setting of Boston. For presetige, Harvard/JH/Yale take the cake, but prestige doesn't save patients, good medical teaching does. I want to thank you for the candid and informative information presented in this thread. It gives me a clearer picture of Texas should my wife's job relocate. Thx.
 
Sorry about the spelling. Prestige.
(Exclaimed to Ex-InfantryMedic:"You are the WEAKEST Link......GOOD-BYE!!!!)

Ex-InfantryMedic(sobbing):"But......"
 
i want to thank everyone for their wonderufl posts and advice on tickets and schools

thnx so much 😀
 
can someone please explain the matching process?

I am so confused? so if I pick a texas school? can I still interview at non-texas schools?
 
hey Whatchamacallit,

Unless the match has changed, this is the deal:

1. You "rank" all the Tx schools that you have interviews at on the TMDSAS website after each interview.

2. This ranked list is submitted sometime in December, after which you cannot change it. At this same time, schools submit ranked lists of applicants.

3. sometime in january, the big computer does some magic and matches people up based on which school ranks you high, and which school YOU rank high.

4. Say you get into UTSA, which is, oh, 3rd on the list, your application is withdrawn from all schools you ranked below UTSA, but remain active at all schools ABOVE UTSA. You have I think 2 weeks to accept or decline.

5. In may, you get off the waitlist at your 1st choice school, UTSW, and you want to go there. You have 2 weeks to notify everybody of the change. Your app. will be withdrawn from all other schools on your list (i.e. if you decide 3 weeks later that you really want to go to UTSA, you're SOL).

This process does not take into account any non-TMDSAS schools, you can interview/hold acceptances/whatever at every single AMCAS school if you want to, but you may only hold ONE acceptance in the Tx system. Does that Help?

Star
 
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