I'm not saying it won't impact their career. I'm saying they can match to their specialty of choice. Those are two very different statements.
I have worked at two different hospitals. One was Big State University Medical Center, the other is Top 10 University Teaching Hospital. The former had solid programs in nearly every specialty, and had graduates from a wide variety of schools, including DOs and IMGs present in nearly every field. My current place of employment tends to favor students from top 20 schools for residency, but many of the attending physicians come from relatively humble universities and mid-tier residencies. One of our head trauma surgery attendings is a DO that trained at an ordinary university program. Only in the higher ranks of their academic departments does pedigree seem to matter much, that's where you start to see a lot of
Harvard, Hopkins, and Dartmouth grads. Yet even their residencies are about 50/50 between unremarkable university hospital residencies and elite residencies. I just made the assumption, however foolish, that she just might not be gunning for the highest tiers of elite academic medicine, because most of us, especially in the nontraditional realm, are not. Op, if you're looking to be super-elite medical professor of the year or want to work your way up to chief of medicine at a top hospital, obviously this would not even be a decision. But going to an ordinary school and a mid-tier residency doesn't doom you to community practice for the rest of your life. Here are the faculty lists of both Harvard (Mass General) and Yale's emergency departments to give you some evidence for my statements:
http://www.massgeneral.org/emergencymedicine/doctors/
http://medicine.yale.edu/emergencymed/people/index.aspx
