US NEWS Rankings are officially out...

BU Medical Sciences
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hahaha, well I may have just proved that I'm rather incompetent. If you just google for "best research medical school" Mayo Clinic comes up right before Harvard.
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Naijaba said:
I think the benefit of being anywhere on USNews is publicity; for people to know that your school even exists. It sounds naive, but, as someone else said, if you're from the East Coast you may never have heard of UCSF, and it is one of the top 5 schools.
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I completely agree. The main effect of being unranked will be less publicity for the school, which will likely result in fewer applicants.

Although most people in the midwest have heard of Mayo Clinic as a medical center, many do not know they have a medical school. Not being mentioned in the US news rankings can only make this worse.
 
Naijaba said:
hahaha, well I may have just proved that I'm rather incompetent. If you just google for "best research medical school" Mayo Clinic comes up right before Harvard.
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Maybe google should start formally ranking schools!
 
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Not just for research but as one person earlier pointed out, its obvious that a very high percentage of the top residencies are made of students from top med schools. so while it is true that you can probably get any residency specialty you want from most med schools, your chance of getting a top residency program is strongly correlated with WHAT med school you went to.


Naijaba said:
I hate to say it, but I think this will be a severe hindrance in the future. I want a career in research medicine, and apart from my research profs. (who were PhDs btw), virtually no one I knew ever heard of Mayo, or any of the other great non-big-name schools for that matter. How did I come up with my list? I looked at USNews Rankings, filtered for the top 50 or so, when to each schools' website and read about their research areas. Then I selected the 13 that had strong connections with computer science (my area of interest), and went from there.

I think the benefit of being anywhere on USNews is publicity; for people to know that your school even exists. It sounds naive, but, as someone else said, if you're from the East Coast you may never have heard of UCSF, and it is one of the top 5 schools.
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SwineSue said:
I don't get why people always say this. Getting rejected is humbling. Getting acceptances is an ego boost. From dictionary.com humble: to lower in condition, importance, or dignity; abase. To pretend otherwise is just blatant false modesty so you can (justifiably) feel good about yourself for working hard and getting into medical school, but still be all more-modest-than-thou.
I am proud of my acceptances. Getting rejected from GWU was humbling.
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QFT. A lot of pre-meds want to claim they feel humble, because it is sexier than revealing how entitled and snotty they really are.
 
Infinitydrop said:
Not just for research but as one person earlier pointed out, its obvious that a very high percentage of the top residencies are made of students from top med schools. so while it is true that you can probably get any residency specialty you want from most med schools, your chance of getting a top residency program is strongly correlated with WHAT med school you went to.
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Say it with me everyone. Correlation doesn't equate to causation. Once again. Correlation doesn't equal causation.

There are a lot of students from top med schools in top residency programs. Why? Could it be that top medical schools make mediocre students into superstars? Or is it the far more likely option that the kind of students who are smart/driven enough to get into Harvard are more likely to do well in medical school and thus place well for residencies?

Yes there are very smart/driven people at any med school, but those people may be in higher frequencies at the top schools. Go to school where you feel you'll do well and be happy, as going to harvard/hopkins won't matter for residencies if you're not happy there and don't do well.
 
DoctwoB said:
Say it with me everyone. Correlation doesn't equate to causation. Once again. Correlation doesn't equal causation.

There are a lot of students from top med schools in top residency programs. Why? Could it be that top medical schools make mediocre students into superstars? Or is it the far more likely option that the kind of students who are smart/driven enough to get into Harvard are more likely to do well in medical school and thus place well for residencies?

Yes there are very smart/driven people at any med school, but those people may be in higher frequencies at the top schools. Go to school where you feel you'll do well and be happy, as going to harvard/hopkins won't matter for residencies if you're not happy there and don't do well.
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I disagree with this to an extent. When one applies to residency, what are the main components that shows they are smart and driven? Board scores and clinical grades. Board scores on average are really not so much better (if at all) at top med schools as compared to mid med schools. In terms of clinical grades, there will always be some sort of bell curve (not everyone gets honors). ECs really don't count for residency as they do for applying to med school. Going to Africa on a medical mission may have turned heads when applying to med school, but program directors for residency couldn't care less about that. Research and LORs may matter somewhat, and going to a top med school may help a bit in research and getting LORs from top faculty.

This means that half of the class at a top med school will still fall on the "below average" part of it. Although they may still be smart and driven, it's not as apparent to residency program directors. Yet these below average kids still do well.
 
I don't think you're going to get anything but correlational analysis when it comes to this sort of thing but there is no evidence showing the converse either. In the absence of evidence, it seems like a good idea for candidates looking for spots in top academic programs to put themselves in the best position to succeed.

DoctwoB said:
Say it with me everyone. Correlation doesn't equate to causation. Once again. Correlation doesn't equal causation.

There are a lot of students from top med schools in top residency programs. Why? Could it be that top medical schools make mediocre students into superstars? Or is it the far more likely option that the kind of students who are smart/driven enough to get into Harvard are more likely to do well in medical school and thus place well for residencies?

Yes there are very smart/driven people at any med school, but those people may be in higher frequencies at the top schools. Go to school where you feel you'll do well and be happy, as going to harvard/hopkins won't matter for residencies if you're not happy there and don't do well.
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I never claimed causation, I specifically said that there's a correlation. Well basically, if you are like most people here choosing between a state school thats not pretigious and another school that is. say you get the same board scores and clinical grades if you went to the two different schools. When you match, wouldn't you have a better chance at a competitive residency if you went to the more pretigious school?
 
Infinitydrop said:
I never claimed causation, I specifically said that there's a correlation. Well basically, if you are like most people here choosing between a state school thats not pretigious and another school that is. say you get the same board scores and clinical grades if you went to the two different schools. When you match, wouldn't you have a better chance at a competitive residency if you went to the more pretigious school?
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Most likely, yes.
 
i don't get why there is still controversy over USNEWS Rankings. Every year there is always this stupid argument. The bottom line is, USNEWS is the only ranking we have to compare schools quickly. It may not be the best way to rank schools but its the BEST WE HAVE...
 
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Azadre said:
I didn't even know Mayo had a medical school before applying and looking at the list.
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A thought just popped into my head...I don't think I know about any medical schools that are not on USNews, except for the Caribbean ones and now Mayo! ARE there schools as good as Mayo that aren't on USNews??
 
SwineSue said:
yes, you're a better med student because someone did something important in that building 80 years ago
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Azadre said:
I'd still take one legendary hospital over a half a dozen great hospitals ;)
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while the attack is unnecessary, he has a point. you're coming off on the arrogant side (even if thats not true, online text conveys different messages to different ppl).
 
Naijaba said:
A thought just popped into my head...I don't think I know about any medical schools that are not on USNews, except for the Caribbean ones and now Mayo! ARE there schools as good as Mayo that aren't on USNews??
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Cleveland Clinic's medicine program isn't listed there (mainly cause it's part of case western)

But it's 32 class size, all PBL etc. I think it's a great program. Fully funded 5 years.
 
so this is basically telling us who got the most money in grants?? That's such a BS way to rank schools
 
incidentally, this is probably why the mcat seems to be weighed ~twice as much vs gpa in admissions..
 
JokerMD said:
how do you know this?
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i don't know it, i'm guessing it based on usnews methodology.

unless you are asking if indeed med schools weight mcat twice as heavily. that seems to be the general opinion of SDN users, who parsed the AAMC data
 
bleargh said:
i don't know it, i'm guessing it based on usnews methodology.

unless you are asking if indeed med schools weight mcat twice as heavily. that seems to be the general opinion of SDN users, who parsed the AAMC data
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I see. I actually didnt know that, but I wouldn't be suprised since the mcat is standardized across all applicants
 
MossPoh said:
My school is not in the top whatever and I don't really give a damn. Premeds love rankings. In the real world, aside from pursuing research positions, none of your patients care. We had a surgeon from Harvard and one from southern illinois. The SIU guy had better outcomes and was known as the surgeon you'd want to go to. The best radiologist was the NYMC doc and not the Columbia one. Best EM doc was not the Upenn, but the IU. We like to quantitate things because it is easier to organize in our heads. We see that a>b>c>d, but that isn't how it works. I would be miserable at a research big name school. I like that my profs invite us out for cookouts, go out of their way to get you involved in research and then show how to do an IRB (even if they are doing the real one) and I like that my rotations will be just me and the attending (no 4th years, interns, residents ahead of me). My school is ranked low and I don't care because it fits me.
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:thumbup:
 
What I care about is location. Either my only state school in Utah or somewhere warm all year round. Is there a ranking based on good weather ?
 
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