why isnt GW a more popular choice school or higher ranked?

[Ramoray]

ok this is out of my complete igorance but hte place as from day 1 been my top pic cause for one i think d.c one of the top 3 cities as far as a fun city, going out stuf to do etc. Their pub transport is awsomse.. just city is cool. The school has a brand new hospital, you get to see patients ur first 2 years, their floor on the hosp for 1st and 2nd years is amazing training center. You can do internationl 3 and 4th years. I mean other htan hte cost.. what gives this school a bad name?> Everyone i have talked to who went there said they loved it too.. Enlighten me on why htis isnt ranked or considered peoples top cohices?>> I konw they dont do research focus but other than that. which is actually another reason why i like it.

OH DW if u read this by chance.. what is with the handwrittensecondary on ur name?> for GW i handwrote mine, is that someting good or most poeple dont.. god i didnt thinktwice before using a pen.. wtf they think im going to find a typewriter or what not.. nooo ok just curious!

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[nameless]

i don't really know why it wouldn't be ranked in the top 50, except that it may not be big on research and that's the basis for rankings. maybe it lives in georgetown's shadow, i dunno, i'm not familiar with the d.c. schools.

anyway, i interviewed there and it seemed like a great school...for another person. i think it would be a wonderful place if a person was interested in all the opportunities available just by being in D.C. (close to all those head honchos). for some reason i felt like the pitch given to us about the great new hospital wasn't 100% straight up honest. not that the admissions guy was lying, but i got turned off when my interviewer contradicted what the admissions dude said about serving the indigent populations at the new hospital.

but maybe i was looking for something to dislike about the school since i didn't really like d.c. itself as much as other cities...

 

[DW]

First, regarding the handwritten secondary thing in my sig, there were completely ridiculous debates last year about handwriting versus typing secondaries, and some people were absolutely convinced you would be rejected from medical school and thrown into prisonu handwrote them. GW was a popular sticking point, so all I have to say to your typers is:YOU ARE LAME!!!!

Anyways, I thought GW was allright. I love DC as well, and their new hospital is pretty snazzy.

My first personal reason for not ranking it so highly, the cost. I know med school is expensive, but their tuition is 36K a year, a full 4-6K more than other private schools I've interviewed at. While the tuition doesnt bother me as much, the lack of school owned housing does. Foggy Bottom is very nice, but one of THE most expensive areas in DC. So I'd either be shelling out ~1K a month for a jail cell sized studio in the area, or live in ghetto DC or VA for cheaper and commute to school. Not a fan of either option really.

I liked the early patient contact, but there's way too much lecture years 1 and 2 for me. Personal taste issue. And lecture halls and lab didnt look as nice as some other places I've seen, but they were fine.

The lack of research thing is what effectively kills GW's possiblity for USNEWS ranking. Whether or not that means anything to you is a matter of personal choice. A school doesnt have to be "ranked" to be a good fit for you. good luck

 

[jtheater]

Living in DC and interacting with some people at GW, I was less than impressed with GW Med. First off, the hospital isn't theirs. That means, the school has less of say of how the institution is run, which can have serious implications for the type of clinical experience you get there. (An example of this would be Georgetown's lack of a serious pediatric program, as Georgetown also does not own its hospital.) Also, for a new hospital, it isn't very impressive. Yeah, it looks new and pretty, but it really isn't that big and could have really helped fill a huge gap in the DC hospital system. GW does have great Peds because students rotate through Children's National. I found many of the residents to also not be that enthusiastic about teaching. These are just my thoughts. It still is a good school, but am not surprised it isn't in the top 50.

 

[lola]

Originally posted by jtheater
(An example of this would be Georgetown's lack of a serious pediatric program, as Georgetown also does not own its hospital.)

do you know anything else about this? i'm very interested in gtown but am fairly certain i'll end up doing peds.

 

[Adcadet]

Ya know, I think DW yelled at me once for disparaging GW, but it really seems we see the same things in it for the most part. I guess it's all about how you weigh various aspects of a school.

Originally posted by DW

My first personal reason for not ranking it so highly, the cost. I know med school is expensive, but their tuition is 36K a year, a full 4-6K more than other private schools I've interviewed at. While the tuition doesnt bother me as much, the lack of school owned housing does. Foggy Bottom is very nice, but one of THE most expensive areas in DC. So I'd either be shelling out ~1K a month for a jail cell sized studio in the area, or live in ghetto DC or VA for cheaper and commute to school. Not a fan of either option really.


Exactly. I'd have to live a good ways from the school to be able to afford it, which I think would really take me away from the school. At least the metro rocks.
[/B]

I liked the early patient contact, but there's way too much lecture years 1 and 2 for me. Personal taste issue. And lecture halls and lab didnt look as nice as some other places I've seen, but they were fine.

[/B]
I didn't like all the lecture time, but the lecture facilities I thougt were pretty crummy. It looked very 1970. And no wireless ethernet!



The lack of research thing is what effectively kills GW's possiblity for USNEWS ranking. Whether or not that means anything to you is a matter of personal choice. A school doesnt have to be "ranked" to be a good fit for you. good luck

I found a researcher at GW who was doing stuff I'm interested in, but I found no support from the medical school for this. In fact, I think my emphasis on research actually hurt me at GW. So this knocked GW off my list by itself.

I also found the students at GW to be so-so. Granted, we're talking one day and one person's perspective on a few number of people, but the students I saw didn't look all that interested and a few of them pretty much said that GW was the only school they got into or one of a very few schools and they really disliked the others.

 

[DW]

Originally posted by Adcadet
Ya know, I think DW yelled at me once for disparaging GW

I think you're confusing me with someone else

ahh well, couldnt agree more

 

[labangel]

Originally posted by jtheater
Living in DC and interacting with some people at GW, I was less than impressed with GW Med. First off, the hospital isn't theirs. That means, the school has less of say of how the institution is run, which can have serious implications for the type of clinical experience you get there. (An example of this would be Georgetown's lack of a serious pediatric program, as Georgetown also does not own its hospital.)

it isn't all that unusual for hospitals to be run by someone other than the medical school it is associated with...most med schools can't afford to do so anymore...

on another note, I agree with DW about the cost being a major issue...that and my interviewer was rather bizarre.

 

[tBw]

rankings are based on research, mcats, gpas, and acceptance rates.

Research is not a high priority at GW as has been already mentioned.

Not only does this affect that aspect of the rankings but means a lot of the higher stat applicants who are interested in research go elsewhere, again hurting it's ranking.

The second issue is cost - and school that costs that much and has very little free FA will not attract the highest gpa/mcat students who will go where they get better FA deals, drawing down the average gpa/mcat again.

Even lower gpa/mcat students may choose a cheaper option - affecting the acceptance rates.

These are of course generalizations...but they are factors in why GW is unranked. Whether that is important is quite another issue.

 

[Adcadet]

Originally posted by DW
I think you're confusing me with someone else

I thought somebody was criticising others (including me) for disparaging medical schools, especially GW. But I can't find the thread now. Perhaps I was just hallucinating. Oh well.

 

[phinicky]

I think many of you have gotten the wrong impression of GW. I'm a MS1 at GW- and couldn't be happier here.

GW does not rank in US News becuase it's focus is not on research. GW places emphasis on training physicians- and I can't stress enough how much this emphasized here from day one. The new hospital is incredible, and currently has the most advanced teaching facilities for students (i.e. I didn't see mock operating rooms at any of the 11 schools that I interviewed at). And, you can't beat the diversity of the patient population that you will be exposed to at GW. GW services most politicians, but mostly a severely indigent population. All the patients that I've seen in internship have been from a desparate population.

Aside from a primary care apprenticeship, first year students have plenty of opportunities to shadow specialists (i.e. I currently work with a nephrologist, and plenty of my friends are shawdowin Ped. surgeons at Children's, and OB/GYNs at GW.

Whomever was turned off by the classroom hours... We spent a lot of time in class/lab during first semester- but I think that's pretty standard for Gross Anatomy. But I definitely don't think that the 4 hours that I spend in class this semester is much at all.

If anyone has questions about GW- please feel free to PM me.

 

[gower]

You would naturally think that the "rankings" of medical schools has something to do with the quality of the education provided and the treaching skills of the faculty. Wrong! Those assessments are based on research productivity of the faculty, number and dollar amounts of research grants, perceived prestige, endowments, selectivity of admission and other considerations often tangentially related to quality of the education.

Medical schools whose primary mission is the production of good physicians, especially in primary care areas rather than in superspecialties, tend to be lower ranked.

The question medical school applicants must ask and answer for themselves is: what is more important, given choices of where to apply, a solid clinically-oriented education or a solid, more research, specialty-oriented education. Perceived prestige may also play a role here.

Those are not two sharply delineated choices. Good clinicians may emerge from either, good researchers may emerge from either; good clinicians who are also good researchers may emerge from either.

That last comment suggests that, in the final analysis, the quality of a physician and/or physician-researcher depends upon the individual, not the medical school conferring the degree! That is also why students, in general, must take responsibility for their own education. Always blaming shortcomings on teachers or others is self-defeating. (This not to deny that there are never poor teachers; the best students teach themselves, the others take consolation in knowing their teachers were poor).

This is also true of college/university graduates: quality of ouput comes from within the person. In fact, I might be willing to push that as far back as kindergarten, or even earlier!

 

[gower]

Correction to my previous post: there is a double negative near the end "not to deny that there are not". That second "not" was an error which vitiated the intended meaning of the sentence.

 

[HamOnWholeWheat]

Originally posted by gower
Correction to my previous post: there is a double negative near the end "not to deny that there are not". That second "not" was an error which vitiated the intended meaning of the sentence.

wow. I think I just vitiated my pants after reading that. Someone's been in school way too long.

 

[FireAway]

Because GW is expensive and its residency programs are pretty lousy. A perennial backup for all.

 

[carrigallen]

I've heard you see really varied clinical presentations at GW, since they serve such a diverse population. Also, I've heard it is good if you are interested in practicing in the inner city. I think there are a number of students there doing National Health Corp scholarships, which will pay for GW tuition.

 

[phil413ru]

Hi! I have two things to say about GW.
First, regardless of their ranking, it is a popular school--I was informed that they have nearly 9000 applicants!
HOWEVER,
I would not want to go there. I love DC but will probably be going to USUHS. WHen I was interviewing at USUHS, I met a MSIV from GW. This student was one of the students conducting interviews. All I have to say is if all the students came out like this student, then I certainly would not want to go. When I mentioned I had just completed interview at USUHS, the GW student said, "I suppose I can't convince you otherwise.." He then proceed to go on how hard Med school was. Early mornings. Study. Scraping ice off windshields. No time, no sleep...He mentioned that he had friends who had already purchased a house, married, kids, ..already on their feet instead of still in school.
I know this is what is expected in Med school.. but this would not be the type of person I would want interviewing me. I know Med school is hard. I know their are sacrifices, and too me, there is more to life than just the house, kids, 9-5 job, and high income. Just this type of bitter attitude surprised me. Oh well. I guess you will have upset people anywhere.
Anyway--other than that, don't know what else to say about GW. USUHS is really cool--if you like military!

Good luck! I hope to be practicing with all of you someday!