As a resident at one of the Harvard hospitals, I have to say that the overwhelming impression of the HMS students around here is that they have very poor clinical skills. There are a good number of "book smart" students who obviously did some impressive research to get into HMS, but have little to no clinical acumen. Their schedules are packed w/ lectures, so they have limited time in the OR or on the floor, do almost no procedures, and really seem to be poorly prepared for internship/residency. Colleagues at MGH for IM say that the HMS grads are known to need a little more time to get "acclimated" as interns, and are purposely started on easy rotations in the beginning of the year.
That said, I would echo what others have said about picking a "Harvard-affiliated" residency if it is tops in your field (i.e. ortho), and skip HMS unless you are looking to pursue MD/PhD, or a research-oriented practice.
I actually thought about this question quite a bit before I passed on my state school to go HMS. I spoke with several residency directors at the medical school at my undergrad and based my decision largely on their advice.
What I learned:
1) like graduates from any top tier med school, they all have the reputation for being what NYC girl says. I think this is because many people see the institution name and expect a lot more out of you and, because no one graduates med school as a senior resident, they tend to fall short of expectations. For example, I have a friend that is a NeuroSurg resident at Yale and he constantly says the same thing about rotating Yale med students. Obviously I am only an ignorant med student, but I would be curious how often residents say that they are impressed by how prepared rotating med students are. Furthermore, which med schools are preparing their students the best. I know the reputation of a school doesn't educate its students, but I find it troubling that at least Harvard and Yale are doing a comparatively poor job preparing their students.
2) HMS graduates, especially, have a reputation for thinking that they deserve "things" because they are HMS grads (I wasn't given great examples of this, but I think it is along the lines of believing that they don't need to obey the rules because they are above the rules). Not sure if this is a product of the education or the type of people that are generally admitted to the school in the first place.
3) Despite 1 and 2, HMS grads are still looked highly upon by the residency directors. More importantly, among the schools I was admitted to (including my state school which is no slouch), all of the residency directors recommended going HMS.
Finally, the choice of HMS versus Harvard residency largely depends on career goals not just specialty. If you want to go private practice, I believe residency training location is much less of a factor (within reason of course.....Harvard versus some obscure, tiny program is obviously going to make a huge difference). If you are thinking academic, you need to play the academic politics game for fellowships and professorships and you would definitely benefit on from a research/publication intensive program.
My personal view is to always take advantage of the best option you have. If you have the opportunity to go to a more competitive or prestigious school at any point, it is probably a safe bet to pursue it (not because I give a s*&% about prestige, but because life isn't fair and stupid politics still exist in medicine). I REALLY want to have the opportunity to choose my residency location (and my choose I mean actually GET the specific location that I want). Sadly I have to endure time in the NE such that I can have a better shot at going where I really want to go for residency--which is going to be a longer stint than med school (hopefully
🙂).
