This is from the perspective of someone who attended Mayo Medical School and is now a resident at one of the residency programs often cited as "the big 4 (UCSF/MGH/BWH/JHU)" on these boards.
Reasons why Mayo is fantastic for medical school:
1) Tuition: The most you could pay for tuition was approximately $8,000 a year (many people received full rides). There were two years when they emailed the medical school and informed us everyone would be receiving a full scholarship. Average debt approximately $60,000.
- Once you're a resident and realize how much interest accumulates on even the "average medical student debt of a $160,000," you appreciate this even more. Many of my colleagues are making career decisions based on finances.
2) Selectives: Mayo's first two years are structured such that you have a "block" of 6 weeks where you focus on a topic (i.e. in second year cardiovascular system, GI system), and then have two weeks for "selectives" You receive a $5,000 travel budget to use during selecties.
- This was amazing. It made medical school so painless. Essentially, you work hard for six weeks and then have 2 weeks of selective to do research casually, travel and work abroad. Selectives can be as structured as you want them to be. But honestly, they're essentially a break for you to do what you love, enhance your resume, or just rest.
- The majority of students had done clinical work (and sometimes non-clinical) in at least 1-2 countries courtesy of this by the end of second year (work in Haiti, Uganda, South Africa, Kenya, India etc...).
3) Teaching: I honestly think this is what really makes Mayo unique. The classes are extremely clinically oriented. There are no PhD's or MD/PhD research gurus who come in and lecture you on the nuances of their research. Our faculty goes through a huge screening process as many clinicians at Mayo want to be involved in education. Evaluations of faculty are used to screen out "bad apples." Thus, you end up with professors who are teaching because they want to, love to, and excel at it. In addition to this, the faculty that teach various blocks discuss and integrate their curriculum. This avoids redundancy and minutia from being taught.
- The medical students who I work with now (from a "top 5 medical school") often comment on how frustrating it is to have "famous research faculty" come in and lecture for an hour about something not relevant. At the end of the day, I believe the reason Mayo is NOT like this is because 1) The institution as a whole is clinically oriented (and clinical research oriented) and not as basic science oriented as top NE places (which can be a con depending on what you want to do).
4) Research: Whether it be clinical or basic science (though basic science not as strong), it is easy to do research. Mayo DOES have a 3 month research requirement built into third year (which is an AMAZING break). The year I graduated, out of the approximately 40 of us, >than half had more than 2 published papers (not counting abstracts, presentations etc..). There were a few of us that had published >10 papers by the end of medical school, and most in respected, high impact journals. At the end of the day, because there are so few Mayo medical students and Mayo provides incentives for faculty to publish papers with medical students (faster track to professorship), research and publishing is very accessible.
4) The system at Mayo is amazing. It's seamless. It is truly cost effective, efficient, and patient-oriented. You REALLY appreciate this as a 3rd year, 4th year, but most importantly as a patient. While I LOVE the institution that I currently am at for completely different reasons (again a "big 4" residency), I remember being dumbfounded my intern year by how inefficient, slow, and difficult the system at this "top hospital" was... more importantly, how these inefficiencies often led to patient errors.
5) Other random perks: Can do an MD/JD at ASU in 2 years. Mayo will pay for it, you don't have to take the LSAT. Mayo will also give you $10,000 if you pursue another degree (MPH etc...) at any other institution (people have left to do MBA's, MPH's, Master's at Oxford/Cambridge, Master's in fashion design, Master's in Journalism). At the end of a six week block, faculty will take you out or invite the class over to their place for dinners/drinks. The student body is MUCH MORE diverse in terms of where Mayo pulls students from (i.e. it is not IVY league undergrad heavy).
CONS:
1) ROCHESTER: This is a HUGE con. After applying to medical schools, I ended up narrowing down my choice of schools to Mayo vs. UCLA vs. Harvard vs. U of Chicago. All three other programs were in superior cities. While I loved my classmates at Mayo, and that made it fun, being in chicago/boston/LA would have been amazing. The truth is who you're with can make or break the experience. Mayo tends to pick a really interesting and fantastic group of people, but at the end of the day, you're in a city with limited bar/restaurant options. It also gets REALLY cold in the winter. Rochester sucks, but your classmates can make it fun. At the end of the day, I had no regrets as I came out of Mayo with no debt, really happy with my education, and when it came down to residency applications, received numerous "ranked to match calls" from top programs and matched at my top choice in an awesome city. I was also told that if I ever wanted to return for fellowship/faculty that there would be an open door. Some of the highest ranked medical schools in the country are AWFUL to be junior faculty at (in terms of pay, pressure to produce basic science research), thus it is nice to have the option to go back to an institution that you know will treat you well.
2) SMALL CLASS SIZE: While this is a pro in terms of teaching, can be a huge con if you want to meets tons of new people all the time.
3) Not university affiliated: No sports to go to, no college campus, just the Mayo campus.
4) At residency interviews, other "top places" that I interviewed were intrigued by my medical school experience and by what Mayo was like. While many Mayo Med Students that want to match at top NE/West coast places do, alot end up staying at Mayo. Thus, Mayo has less of an incestuous relationship with the UCSF, Harvards, Hopkins, Penn etc... (if you're looking to be streamlined into one of those places). My year, 30% of us ended matching at one of those institutes (which is quite high).
5) Basic science research: First of, Mayo does have a significant amount of basic science research going on that I would never scoff at. However, it is not as vast as the other "highly ranked" institutes. Thus, if you KNOW you want to be a basic science researcher, go to hopkins, Harvard, UCSF etc... you'll have way more opportunity there.
Obvious I'm biased, but I absolutely loved my medical school experience and am really grateful for all the opportunities I was given to excel at Mayo. Keep in mind though that Rochester blows, and if being in a big city = being happy for you, I would not recommend coming to Mayo.
