which med school rankings is most similar to how residencies judge schools?

[spencerxd]

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Which ranking best displays how residency programs would rank medical schools and therefore give a better boost to an applicant from that school?

thankk you

 

[Law2Doc]

Which ranking best displays how residency programs would rank medical schools and therefore give a better boost to an applicant from that school?

thankk you

I think if you do a search you will find that matching is largely an individual effort and that school pedigree is rather low on the list, compared to things like clinical evals, step 1, away rotations, etc. Every residency director is going to have their own view of which schools churn out good residents, and so there will be 100 different lists with different biases. And some places are notorious for taking a lot of their own med students, so that too would skew any semblance of a ranking list. I suppose you could assume schools with the most research dollars are the most prestigious and that many residency directors would share this view, so the US News research ranking could be a loose baseline. But this notion is flawed, and a residency director's experience with residents from certain schools is going to outweigh any such ranking (i.e. doesn't matter if XYZ school is ranked higher than PDQ if the residents taken from PDQ the last few years were better residents, or if the residency director is an alum of PDQ, or if PDQ's faculty work the phones and use connections better than XYZ, etc).

 

[moomix906]

you should do a search on this...its been endlessly debated on the pre-allopathic forums so doubtlessly will be soon moved there.

in any case most people will probably tell you one or a combination of the following
- your contribution >>> your med school reputation's contribution
- you need to look for a school that will make you happy
- strict rankings are not useful, most people here group schools into 'tiers'
- only a handful of the most famous med schools give you a major boost, and in general if you are interested in an academic residency then any school that gets on usnews research top 50 (not including the aforementioned top ones) will serve equally well
- rankings are pretty stupid anyway and dont waste your time on them

but all this is stuff i've read and im sure somebody will go on to contradict me

 

[PeepshowJohnny]

The thing the fame of your school that affects the most (IMHO) is the importance of class rank. At a big time school, a high class rank is going to help you more and a low class rank is going to hurt you less than someone coming from a "lower tier" school. If you're top of your class at John Hopkins, that'll turn heads, but if you're around the middle they'll give you some leeway since it's such a known school and probably has a stellar class. If you're from a school no one's heard of, they're going to give you less credit for top of the class and if your class rank isn't that great that might hurt you.

But everyone is right in saying individual effort is paramount here. If you wind up in the lowest ranked medical school in the nation and wind up with a top class rank, an insane board score, and letters of recommendation that make you look like an all-star, no one's going to care where you came from.

 

[plastikosmd]

i went to a small state school...no idea of it's tier..but probably is in the bottom 3rd if there is such a place...no grades, no class ranks, and no AOA so the school was never an issue. i never got asked about my school in any negative sense on my interviews..and no trouble getting >20 interviews in a competitive field and matching. you can probably make anything happen from any US school, as people mentioned above....you not your school is the important factor.

 

[njbmd]

Residencies do not judge schools but judge candidates. Your school isn't going to get you into a specific residency but your performance at your school can keep you out.