Personally, when I am choosing a doctor (or dentist), I DO look at where they went to school when I have a choice between two doctors who are conveniently located. All insurance websites have a Doctor Find site now where you go and look at who's in network, and "school attended" is listed there.
Right or wrong, I am likely to think (and human nature is to assume) that the doctor who went to a well known school is "smarter" than the doctor who went to Allegheny Medical College (just made that up, but fill in any small, regional, not-widely-known school). I know it was probably harder to get into that big-name school than it was to get into the small one and that therefore the big-name school doctor probably was more driven and passionate about medicine, more organized, more intelligent, more efficient. The big-name school doctor most likely was surrounded by a superior student body during his education. That big-name school doctor had the best and the brightest teaching him at his big-name school, because those schools are the ones that can afford to pay faculty more and so they attract the best. They are often located in cosmopolitan areas where the "superior" faculty wants to live. Those schools also often have the most time-proven curriculum and because of the research going on, expose their students to cutting-edge advances in science. Those schools have more active alumni who keep tabs on the discoveries being made in that school and are perhaps more involved in continuing education.
I had braces as an adult, and I have to say that I chose my orthodontist because he went to Harvard (and because I liked him and he was conveniently located). Hell, if he went to Harvard for ortho, you know he has to be really smart and really good, right? Or at least your chances are better that he's worth his salt. It's all about percentages. When I chose the ophthalmologist who did my LASIK, you better believe I read his CV and noted that he went to Georgetown for Med School and did his residency at Emory, etc.
I'm not saying that school name is all that matters. OF COURSE there are excellent doctors and dentists who graduate from lesser-known schools and have no problem building a patient pool. HOWEVER, to say it makes NO difference what school you go to and that you should automatically pick the cheapest school possible over the big-name school because big-names are only for ego-stroking is pretty darn naive. There's a REASON some schools are better known than others.
Right or wrong, I am likely to think (and human nature is to assume) that the doctor who went to a well known school is "smarter" than the doctor who went to Allegheny Medical College (just made that up, but fill in any small, regional, not-widely-known school). I know it was probably harder to get into that big-name school than it was to get into the small one and that therefore the big-name school doctor probably was more driven and passionate about medicine, more organized, more intelligent, more efficient. The big-name school doctor most likely was surrounded by a superior student body during his education. That big-name school doctor had the best and the brightest teaching him at his big-name school, because those schools are the ones that can afford to pay faculty more and so they attract the best. They are often located in cosmopolitan areas where the "superior" faculty wants to live. Those schools also often have the most time-proven curriculum and because of the research going on, expose their students to cutting-edge advances in science. Those schools have more active alumni who keep tabs on the discoveries being made in that school and are perhaps more involved in continuing education.
I had braces as an adult, and I have to say that I chose my orthodontist because he went to Harvard (and because I liked him and he was conveniently located). Hell, if he went to Harvard for ortho, you know he has to be really smart and really good, right? Or at least your chances are better that he's worth his salt. It's all about percentages. When I chose the ophthalmologist who did my LASIK, you better believe I read his CV and noted that he went to Georgetown for Med School and did his residency at Emory, etc.
I'm not saying that school name is all that matters. OF COURSE there are excellent doctors and dentists who graduate from lesser-known schools and have no problem building a patient pool. HOWEVER, to say it makes NO difference what school you go to and that you should automatically pick the cheapest school possible over the big-name school because big-names are only for ego-stroking is pretty darn naive. There's a REASON some schools are better known than others.
