What has to be true to allow you to go around telling people you went to a "top X" school?

[TheVFibKid]

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Just for fun, because of the uproar caused by the latest edition of the US News rankings, and because (unfortunately) a not insignificant number of applicants decide which school to attend based exclusively on those rankings: what conditions must be true for an individual to be able to claim that they are a graduate of a top X medical school? I see several possibilities.

1.) The rank that the school held when you matriculated.

2.) The rank that the school held when you graduated.

3.) The highest rank that the school achieved at some point during your attendance.

4.) The lowest rank that the school achieved at some point during your attendance.

5.) The school’s average rank over the years between when you matriculated and when you graduated.

6.) The highest rank the school ever achieved.

7.) The lowest rank the school ever achieved.

8.) Your status fluctuates yearly with the rankings (you can’t claim a top X school unless your school is currently ranked in top X, regardless of what it was ranked when you were there).

9.) Some other arbitrary method.

Can people who are graduating from Yale this Spring no longer claim top 10? Do students entering NYU this fall get to claim top 5 status, even if US News changes its methodology again and causes them to drop next year?

Let’s hear it. What are the necessary and sufficient conditions that must be met for a physician to be able to truthfully state that he or she is a graduate of a top X medical school?

 

[HomeSkool]

Damn, you actually put thought into this. I got all excited when I read the title of the thread and was gonna reply with "It must be true that you're an enormous dickbag."

 

[TheVFibKid]

Damn, you actually put thought into this. I got all excited when I read the title of the thread and was gonna reply with "It must be true that you're an enormous dickbag."

I have nothing better to do on a Tuesday night.

 

[Avada Cadaver]

Go to a school in Boston, and in every single scenario you can say you went to a top 1. Or you know, not care because it's the internet and realize you really shouldn't ever be in a position to say you went to a top X school in real life.

 

[SpoiledMilk]

This post got me feeling like

 

[TheVFibKid]

Go to a school in Boston, and in every single scenario you can say you went to a top 1. Or you know, not care because it's the internet and realize you really shouldn't ever be in a position to say you went to a top X school in real life.

Nobody ever says it, but many people often think about it. There's a kid in Ann Arbor whose self-esteem is riding on the answer to this question.

 

[MCATISEZ]

It’s all arbitrary from my understanding.


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[Avada Cadaver]

There's a kid in Ann Arbor whose self-esteem is riding on the answer to this question.

I honestly don’t know what to say to that.

 

[RTD]

If you have to explicitly mention that your school is a top 20 medical school, the school is probably not that elite.

People dont say "I went to a top 20 medical school", they say "I went to Stanford/Harvard/Yale etc."

 

[LoveBeingHuman:)]

This thread is the symbolization of why SDN gets so much hate.

 

[efle]

Lmfao, nobody should ever say they went to a top X school IRL. It's only used on SDN for shorthand or anonymity reasons. You'd say the name of the place you went and if it's a big fancy name that will speak for itself.

 

[Pagan FutureDoc]

Only reason to say you went to a top x irl is if it’s some school like Wash U where people outside accademia and medicine are largely unaware of the school and it’s reputation

 

[efle]

Only reason to say you went to a top x irl is if it’s some school like Wash U where people outside accademia and medicine are largely unaware of the school and it’s reputation

If someone told me "I went to UCSF med school, which by the way is a top 5" my opinion of them would go down, not up

 

[OphthLover]

After 4 years of medical school education, you will be practicing possibly for 40+ until you retire besides other nemerous colleagues in your field, and given this, I think the reputation among experts actually that have been working in the field for years, can be one of the least controversial measure deciding what a top medical school/hospital is.

 

[OrthoTraumaMD]

Nobody ever says it, but many people often think about it. There's a kid in Ann Arbor whose self-esteem is riding on the answer to this question.

Just because they think about it doesn’t mean it actually matters. After you become an attending, no one will ever ask where you went to medical school. At most, they will ask about your residency, and even then all of those people will be physicians. Patients will never ever care where you went. Which is why initially, it was frustrating for me, as an ivory tower fellowship trained surgeon, to hear patients say that so-and-so community surgeon with zero specialty training who messed up their leg is so great because he wears nice suits and asks about their kids, and “you people [the surgeons at my hospital who are all fellowship trained experts] are quacks.” I mean literally they’d come in and go “Dr so and so is wonderful, he did all 5 of my shoulders!” Uhhh....


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