Why does everyone say that outside the top 20, it's all the same...

[Mr. Rosewater]

---

Members do not see this ad.

this seems a huge fallicy (sp) propogated here on sdn. I've been accepted to Tufts (around 45 or so) as well as 3 unranked schools and honestly the tufts matchlist blows the others away. also, i'm pending at some other midlevel schools and they also have much more impressive lists than the unranked schools. sure, i may ultimately decide to save money and go to a state school, but let's not kid ourselves and say it's all the same.

 

[roja]

One of the worst residents I ever worked with was from a top ten school. One of the best residents I worked with was from a Caribean school.


You get out of medical school what you put into it. Period.

 

[Supadupafly]

Tufts is awsome, albeit scary expensive. You're right, matching and board scores (your own, not necessarily the school's average.) mean everything.

Rankings don't mean much.

The methodology is completely flawed and scewed toward schools with big names. It asks a number of physicians and residency programs to evaluate schools. A southern evaluator or east or west coast, will be more likely to choose schools in their own area or their alma mater. Outside their area, they'll go with schools that are famous, this leads to Johns Hopkins, Harvard, Stanford, ect. being at the top of virtually everyone's list, independant of the quality of education.

Also, total NIH funding have to do with basic medical & clinical education. This relates to research. Of course students do get involved in research, but nearly any school will have ample opportunities for good student research.

Also, they don't even evaluate schools outside the top 50. In terms of medical education, any top 50 school is awsome. Below that, certainly many are just as good, but comparing the top schools is an apples&oranges game.

 

[Gleevec]

I think outside the top 20, reputation matters less for helping you get into medical school (even though its not as big as boards, AOA, letters, research). This doesnt mean that these schools lack reputation or that people don't succeed there, it just means that whatever inherent advantage to your application attending a certain medical school affords you begins to disappear. Basically, top 20 schools get a slight positive on their app, while others get nothing. So it doesnt hurt you, because you can still dominate everything and get into your top choice regardless of school choice. It really is all about the individual, though reputation might help you out a bit.

 

[CalBeE]

Originally posted by Mr. Rosewater
this seems a huge fallicy (sp) propogated here on sdn. I've been accepted to Tufts (around 45 or so) as well as 3 unranked schools and honestly the tufts matchlist blows the others away. also, i'm pending at some other midlevel schools and they also have much more impressive lists than the unranked schools. sure, i may ultimately decide to save money and go to a state school, but let's not kid ourselves and say it's all the same.

Well there may be a bias here. Tufts students are probably on average brighter and work harder than the students in those unranked schools. Tufts students probably have high board scores and better written evaluations, and hence better residency.

I do believe that once you're say, below top 30-40 in ranking, name of the school matters very little. Most residency directors will remember roughly who's in the top 20-40, but I doubt residency directors have in mind: "Oh school A is ranked 40 and school B is ranked 60".

 

[fuzzylogic]

us news ranking system is a bit biased and skewed (i am not saying that the ranking system does not have its basis). tufts som is a great school. students at tufts are smart and hard-working. ~85% of tufts students match their top 3 choices which is very competitive nationally (considering ~80% of students from both columbia and washu match their top 3 choices last yr). tufts grads also get into well-known residency programs (i.e., ucla, mass general, brigham and womens, hopkins, children's and cleveland clinic).

i agree w/ roja. you get out of your education what you put into it. my pi recently mentioned to me that a superstar from his department went to one of the unranked school in texas. if you want to be a superstar in the field of medicine, it probably does not matter where you come from. i think the personal effort and ambition matters the most. after all, you are dr. john doe, but not dr. john doe from harvard or dr. john doe from tufts!!

good luck.

 

[CalBeE]

Originally posted by fuzzylogic
~85% of tufts students match their top 3 choices which is very competitive nationally (considering ~80% of students from both columbia and washu match their top 3 choices last yr). tufts grads also get into well-known residency programs (i.e., ucla, mass general, brigham and womens, hopkins, children's and cleveland clinic).

Again, I feel that the % of people getting their top 3 residency choices can be very biased. It'll depend on what specialties the people actually apply to. I mean, if MANY people at Columbia and WashU apply to Radiology, Dermatology, Surgery, and other competitive specialties, obviously it'll be harder for them to get into their top choices.

 

[meanderson]

A matchlist has a great deal to do with the goals of the students. Tufts is a private school that doesn't show state preferance, so it stands to reason that they will attract students from all over the country. They also graduate with a gazillion dollars of debt, also playing a role in residency selection. If the Tufts matchlist seems better than the matchlist for the University of Florida, I would argue that it has more to do with self-selection factors than anything else. U of F students more likely have a tendency to restrict their residency options than Tufts students would. But that doesn't mean that a U of F student who wants to leave the southeast couldn't.

A student who turns down affordable state school tuition($8,000-$12,000) in favor of Tufts is paying a great price to live in boston. I don't think it would confer any advantage or disadvantage relative to a state school in terms of matching.

One thing I regret in applying is that I didn't apply to private and out of state schools that I would be tempted to pick over my state school. The non-georgia schools I picked were Emory, UVA, UAB, VCU, EVMS, and Vanderbilt. Got interviews at Emory, UAB, VCU, and EVMS. Rejected by UVA and Vandy. If I get into Emory or UAB I would consider them, but am not certain I would go without some need-based grants. I know many people would choose them over a typical state school; it's just my preferance.

What I should have done instead was pick 5-6 true dream schools and hoped for 1-2 interviews. Had I applied to a few schools like Duke at least those would be schools where the reputation was great enough to say "oh what the hell, it's duke and I've got to go there regardless of the loan situation".

 

[Adapt]

I would say if it's in the top 146, then it's all the same.