Top schools=top residencies?

[unicorn06]

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For those who want to enter very competitive residencies such as dermatology, ophthalmology, neurosurgery, or radiation oncology, is it a signficant advantage to attend the very top schools (ie Harvard, Hopkins, Duke) over other exceptional schools that are ranked only slightly lower (Michigan, UCLA, etc) and do not send as high of a proportion of their classes into these specialties? I have gotten conflicting answers to this question and was wondering what you have all heard.

 

[Law2Doc]

For those who want to enter very competitive residencies such as dermatology, ophthalmology, neurosurgery, or radiation oncology, is it a signficant advantage to attend the very top schools (ie Harvard, Hopkins, Duke) over other exceptional schools that are ranked only slightly lower (Michigan, UCLA, etc) and do not send as high of a proportion of their classes into these specialties? I have gotten conflicting answers to this question and was wondering what you have all heard.

If you are deciding between schools in the top ten, then the advantages of one over another are not going to be appreciable. If you do well at any of those schools, do well on the boards, and get good clinical rotation recs, I'm sure any will be a solid launching pad. Not sure radiation oncology is on par with those others in terms of competitiveness (did you perhaps mean radiology?), but I could be wrong. Are you actually in at these schools?

 

[TheMightyAngus]

Do a search...this topic has been beaten to death over and over and over and over.....

 

[tacrum43]

For those who want to enter very competitive residencies such as dermatology, ophthalmology, neurosurgery, or radiation oncology, is it a signficant advantage to attend the very top schools (ie Harvard, Hopkins, Duke) over other exceptional schools that are ranked only slightly lower (Michigan, UCLA, etc) and do not send as high of a proportion of their classes into these specialties? I have gotten conflicting answers to this question and was wondering what you have all heard.

It seems like this question has been asked many times. The general consensus seems to be that it may offer a slight advantage to go to a top school, but you still have to do very well there too. Being near the top of your class with excellent board scores is what is going to get you in, no matter what school you go to (provided it's in the U.S. of course).

edit: Maybe try asking this in the allo forum for deeper insight.

 

[SailCrazy]

For those who want to enter very competitive residencies such as dermatology, ophthalmology, neurosurgery, or radiation oncology, is it a signficant advantage to attend the very top schools (ie Harvard, Hopkins, Duke) over other exceptional schools that are ranked only slightly lower (Michigan, UCLA, etc) and do not send as high of a proportion of their classes into these specialties? I have gotten conflicting answers to this question and was wondering what you have all heard.

It probably makes little difference. Your individual performance and attributes will be a more significant factor, I'd guess. If it really is that important to you, you also want to decide which rankings to look at. One of your "slightly lower" schools, for example, was ranked #2 last year and #3 this year by residency directors.

 

[RustNeverSleeps]

For those who want to enter very competitive residencies such as dermatology, ophthalmology, neurosurgery, or radiation oncology, is it a signficant advantage to attend the very top schools (ie Harvard, Hopkins, Duke) over other exceptional schools that are ranked only slightly lower (Michigan, UCLA, etc) and do not send as high of a proportion of their classes into these specialties? I have gotten conflicting answers to this question and was wondering what you have all heard.

People often don't like to admit this, but it does make a difference. I don't know where Michigan and UCLA are ranked, so I don't know how much of a difference going to a top 5 or 10 school will make compared to going to one of those. However, going to a top school presents definite advantages in matching in any specialty, but particularly competitive ones. I go to one of the "top schools" you listed, and the nice thing about doing so is that you don't have to finish at the top of the class if you want to get into a super-competitive residency. People in the middle and the bottom of the class get great residencies in these fields, too -- I don't know if this is true everywhere. (You probably still have to do really well on your boards though.)

I think the fallacy is thinking, "Because I go to Number 1 Medical School, I can get any residency I want." That is obviously not true, but going to a top school does help.

Another thing is that medical schools have reputations at individual residency programs -- the usual suspects are often well-regarded, but if the program has a history of getting great people from not as highly ranked schools, applicants from those schools have that a similar sort of advantage.

Hope this helps. 🙂

 

[Law2Doc]

People often don't like to admit this, but it does make a difference. I don't know where Michigan and UCLA are ranked, so I don't know how much of a difference going to a top 5 or 10 school will make compared to going to one of those. However, going to a top school presents definite advantages in matching in any specialty, but particularly competitive ones.

I think all the schools the OP listed were in the top 10 or 11 (per US News research). Thus his question is really whether going to a top 5 versus a top 10-11 was going to be relevent to residency, not whether going to a top school versus a non-top school mattered.

 

[Phil Anthropist]

Duplicate thread, so closing. Feel free to contribute to the thread in Allo: http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?t=236662

P.S. Rad Onc is highly competitive.