What’s considered top-tiered/middle/bottom-tiered?

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GoodATP

GoodATP

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Just curious to know what is considered a top tiered medical school vs. a middle tiered medical school? Are 1-25 ranked schools top tiered?
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I'm not an expert on this specifically, but when it comes to US allopathic institutions research heavy schools such as Duke, Harvard, etc are considered to be the top tiers whereas the Albany/Drexel type schools are considered to be the less competitive.
 
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To OP, Elite is basically...would a random person in the UK recognize the name of your school? That is elite.

Top tier...would your average American recognize the name of the school? That is top tier.

Everything else is just state schools and lots of privates.

None of this matters, an MD is an MD.
 
GoodATP said:
Just curious to know what is considered a top tiered medical school vs. a middle tiered medical school? Are 1-25 ranked schools top tiered?
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I'm not a fan of tiers, which is a construct of US News & World Report, which is hardly a credible source. The only people who are obsessed with tears are pre-meds, and medical school Deans.

I prefer to think of Med schools in terms of classes, like the US Navy battleships and heavy Cruisers.

Thus, I break down schools into something like WashU/ U Chicago class schools, Einstein/Keck class, and Drexel/Albany class.
 
Goro said:
I'm not a fan of tiers, which is a construct of US News & World Report, which is hardly a credible source. The only people who are obsessed with tears are pre-meds, and medical school Deans.

I prefer to think of Med schools in terms of classes, like the US Navy battleships and heavy Cruisers.

Thus, I break down schools into something like WashU/ U Chicago class schools, Einstein/Keck class, and Drexel/Albany class.
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Or you can break it down even further: battleships/dreadnoughts, battle cruisers, heavy cruisers, light cruisers, destroyers.
 
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Goro said:
I'm not a fan of tiers, which is a construct of US News & World Report, which is hardly a credible source. The only people who are obsessed with tears are pre-meds, and medical school Deans.

I prefer to think of Med schools in terms of classes, like the US Navy battleships and heavy Cruisers.

Thus, I break down schools into something like WashU/ U Chicago class schools, Einstein/Keck class, and Drexel/Albany class.
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Where’s Indiana University SOM?
 
What about Cornell? It's usually around the top 25, then are top 10 with affiliations included. I think PD rank gives a clearer picture, considering the resources all students use.

Edit: beat me to it ^
 
Neuronom said:
What about Cornell? It's usually around the top 25, then are top 10 with affiliations included. I think PD rank gives a clearer picture, considering the resources all students use.

Edit: beat me to it ^
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The problem with all this is how do you define "Top School"?

Most extramural funding?
Highest stats for matriculants?
Most grads sent into uber-residencies?
Most Nobel Laureates?

I estimate that there are some 30+ schools in the "Top 25"

It's hard to say that the USS Iowa is better than the USS New Jersey, or that the Massachusetts is better than the 1944 Tennessee's.
 
wherever you can get in: thats the top school.
Most people consider stats as a way to distinguish top, mid, low tier schools. Obvious names such as Harvard, Yale,Duke are the top of the list... but again, can you get in???
You have to ask yourself this question, did you go into med school for prestige, money, prove to yourself that you can do it, or to help others?
At the end of the day, are you gonna tattoo " I passed from a top medical school" on your forehead?
 
Look for the WARS which is the WedgeDawg Application Rating System. It basically assesses the strength of your application and recommends schools for you apply to based on the strength of your application and the school's preferences regarding student strengths. The classification of schools by tiers in that system is perhaps the most relevant stratification for pre-meds.

Here's a rather recent thread that refers to WARS:
forums.studentdoctor.net

Are school tiers in WedgeDawg's ARS still applicable/complete?

I am putting together my school list, and trying to follow WedgeDawg's applicant rating system. It seems the last update was at the beginning of 2017, and I am just curious if the list of schools in each tier there is still applicable? Are there schools missing from the list? If necessary, are...
forums.studentdoctor.net forums.studentdoctor.net
 
Tenk said:
Dunno about top, middle, or bottom tier but when NYU declared free tuition for medical students they became god tier.
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They get better students, on a consistent basis, than the likes of Harvard?! There are Harvard med students with better publication records than many of the faculty members there; there are double amputee war heroes there and former refugees. Harvard can get the best of the best of the best - the decorated Navy SEALs, the professional athletes, the occasional NASA rocket scientist - and bring them to Massachusetts for training with the best professors that medical science has to offer.
 
Walter Raleigh said:
They get better students, on a consistent basis, than the likes of Harvard?! There are Harvard med students with better publication records than many of the faculty members there; there are double amputee war heroes there and former refugees. Harvard can get the best of the best of the best - the decorated Navy SEALs, the professional athletes, the occasional NASA rocket scientist - and bring them to Massachusetts for training with the best professors that medical science has to offer.
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Why do you keep reposting this meme? The majority of students at HMS simply had solid grades, ECs, and a cohesive narrative throughout their application. Gotta calm down with this fishy crap
 
EpilepticRat said:
Why do you keep reposting this meme? The majority of students at HMS simply had solid grades, ECs, and a cohesive narrative throughout their application. Gotta calm down with this fishy crap
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Does this mean that the majority of them were excellent writers and peerless storytellers, some of whom could have worked as professionals in the advertising or marketing business...but chose to go to medical school?
 
Why do you guys keep saying I'm trolling? I knew of not only SEALs but of people that founded multimillion dollar tech startups going to top-20 schools. Some of these guys have insane ECs, like "served in Iraq and Afghanistan as a Green Beret combat medic" or "founded a $150-million company at 23" and still go on to medschool. Top schools can get truly amazing individuals.
 
Walter Raleigh said:
Does this mean that the majority of them were excellent writers and peerless storytellers, some of whom could have worked as professionals in the advertising or marketing business...but chose to go to medical school?
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Correct. A lot of medical students and professionals have personal qualities and talents that would translate into success in careers outside of medicine. Is this surprising to you for some reason?
 
Nope. Essentially, top-20 medical students have 3.9 GPAs, 520+ MCATs, and things like military service, world-class achievement in some area, and the ability to write as well as or better than most professional writers; some of them have published New York Times bestsellers or won awards as journalists. These guys are like the equivalent of Olympic athletes, and many of them were.
 
Walter Raleigh said:
Nope. Essentially, top-20 medical students have 3.9 GPAs, 520+ MCATs, and things like military service, world-class achievement in some area, and the ability to write as well as or better than most professional writers; some of them have published New York Times bestsellers or won awards as journalists. These guys are like the equivalent of Olympic athletes, and many of them were.
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You need to go outside, man
 
Walter Raleigh said:
Why do you guys keep saying I'm trolling? I knew of not only SEALs but of people that founded multimillion dollar tech startups going to top-20 schools. Some of these guys have insane ECs, like "served in Iraq and Afghanistan as a Green Beret combat medic" or "founded a $150-million company at 23" and still go on to medschool. Top schools can get truly amazing individuals.
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Why does every single comment you post on SDN revolve around what god tier ECs consist of? You must’ve reposted this Navy Seal/Nature pub/Rhodes scholar **** 500x times by now. It’s also really creepy how you keep putting students that go to top schools on a pedestal— most of them aren’t Rhodes scholars but rather just regular old competitive students with a strong app and quite a bit of luck.
 
StanleyYelnats said:
Why does every single comment you post on SDN revolve around what god tier ECs consist of? You must’ve reposted this Navy Seal/Nature pub/Rhodes scholar **** 500x times by now. It’s also really creepy how you keep putting students that go to top schools on a pedestal— most of them aren’t Rhodes scholars but rather just regular old competitive students with a strong app and quite a bit of luck.
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For anyone who wants a reference: these are the bios of probably the single most competitive MD applicants. No war heroes, Olympic medalists etc. just some really great pubs, lots of humanitarian work, and a drive to make a better world.

Meet the Scholars

knight-hennessy.stanford.edu knight-hennessy.stanford.edu

This is not to downplay these folks as their apps are A+ GOLD and I can only imagine that they are the best of people. Just want to highlight that you don’t need to be some superstar done-everything war hero Olympic medalist etc....just an applicant who wants to do good things and can show that they have the drive to do it.
 
StanleyYelnats said:
Why does every single comment you post on SDN revolve around what god tier ECs consist of? You must’ve reposted this Navy Seal/Nature pub/Rhodes scholar **** 500x times by now. It’s also really creepy how you keep putting students that go to top schools on a pedestal— most of them aren’t Rhodes scholars but rather just regular old competitive students with a strong app and quite a bit of luck.
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This ^
 
StanleyYelnats said:
Why does every single comment you post on SDN revolve around what god tier ECs consist of? You must’ve reposted this Navy Seal/Nature pub/Rhodes scholar **** 500x times by now. It’s also really creepy how you keep putting students that go to top schools on a pedestal— most of them aren’t Rhodes scholars but rather just regular old competitive students with a strong app and quite a bit of luck.
Click to expand...
Just report trolling
 
Obviously this is highly subjective. There is no threshold for "top" "middle" or "bottom" tier school. It's more of a gestalt thing. Not everybody will agree on the boundaries. But people can generally agree on clear cases. For example, Harvard is obviously a top-tier school.
 
Walter Raleigh said:
Nope. Essentially, top-20 medical students have 3.9 GPAs, 520+ MCATs, and things like military service, world-class achievement in some area, and the ability to write as well as or better than most professional writers; some of them have published New York Times bestsellers or won awards as journalists. These guys are like the equivalent of Olympic athletes, and many of them were.
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Going to a Top 20 med school and can 100% confirm I have nothing even CLOSE to this.
 
aldol16 said:
Obviously this is highly subjective. There is no threshold for "top" "middle" or "bottom" tier school. It's more of a gestalt thing. Not everybody will agree on the boundaries. But people can generally agree on clear cases. For example, Harvard is obviously a top-tier school.
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Ok so I work in a lab at a T20 place and from the MD and MdPHd students Ive seen, 9/10 they are all from an Ivy-type undergrad, at least a decent MCAT, and FWIW, I think their parents are also like doctors/surgeons/PI types, not kidding.
 
Engrailed said:
Ok so I work in a lab at a T20 place and from the MD and MdPHd students Ive seen, 9/10 they are all from an Ivy-type undergrad, at least a decent MCAT, and FWIW, I think their parents are also like doctors/surgeons/PI types, not kidding.
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To elaborate on my above post, no-name public UG (like 95% acceptance rate), I took the MCAT twice with my first score below 50th percentile, low-SES and first generation college. White male.

Don't get me wrong, it’s hard to get into a T20 but they aren’t all mythical creatures that are Navy SEAL, gold medal, astronaut cowboys.
 
StanleyYelnats said:
Why does every single comment you post on SDN revolve around what god tier ECs consist of? You must’ve reposted this Navy Seal/Nature pub/Rhodes scholar **** 500x times by now. It’s also really creepy how you keep putting students that go to top schools on a pedestal— most of them aren’t Rhodes scholars but rather just regular old competitive students with a strong app and quite a bit of luck.
Click to expand...

Keep in mind this is the same person who posted a thread, because he has to reapply, about joining the military just to boost ECs.
 
ciestar said:
Keep in mind this is the same person who posted a thread, because he has to reapply, about joining the military just to boost ECs.
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Thought that thread was meant to be humorous.
 
Someone mentioned it above and the only memorable thing from this thread is “NYU/free tuition =God Tier”
 
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