Does It Matter Which Medical School You Go To
This is a tough question to answer because it depends on what you want out of your medical degree. Some people are just looking for an easy degree and don’t care about the school they attend. Others want to make sure they go to a top-tier school so that they can compete with other doctors in their field. Whatever your reason for going to medical school, it’s important to know what you’re getting into before you get there.
Does It Matter Which Medical School You Go To
Harvard. Hopkins Johns. Cornell. Yale. McGill. Toronto’s University. Sounds like a collection of esteemed organizations with a long history and established traditions. It’s one of the factors that contributes to students paying more to attend these colleges than other, lesser-known universities. There are defenses and defenses of this.
But does the same reasoning hold true for medical schools? Is a degree from Harvard Medical School worth more, does it lead to more opportunities, and does it pay better than, example, a degree from St. George’s University in the Caribbean? Or is the top-ranked All India Institute of Medical Sciences in New Delhi, India, superior to St. George’s University in the Caribbean for degrees? Again, we may debate the benefits and drawbacks of each.
Does it really matter (to the patient) in the end?
By the time you’re really working as a doctor, you’ll have completed years of residency training, aced a number of licensure tests, and cleared a number of medical boards. Most patients seldom begin a conversation with their doctor in clinical practice by asking, “Oh, by the way, where did you go to medical school again?” or “Doctor, before I let you examine me, what was your USMLE Step 1 score?”
The cost opportunity comes next. You might want to reconsider getting into this industry if your primary goal is to make a lot of money. Let’s not forget that doctors lead comfortable lives. However, they also give up a lot of it. Fortunately, if you have the intelligence, tenacity, and know-how, you can succeed in a few fields today and earn more money than a doctor. Without going to college for years, bankers and financiers, tech entrepreneurs, and real estate developers can all earn more than doctors. Therefore, to pursue this career, you truly need to love medicine as a complete and not use money as a driving force.
Our most recent count showed that there were 38 schools throughout the Caribbean, and the vast majority of them have all successfully generated graduates who have matched into residencies in either the USA or Canada. The oldest schools, as we’ve noted in previous postings, are around 40 years old. When you consider the century-old universities like Harvard, Oxford, University of Toronto, etc., that’s very young on a global scale. Additionally, the curriculum is largely the same across these Caribbean institutions, with a few minor deviations here and there, but they all strive to develop competent doctors who can continue to practice anywhere in the world.
There are several factors that go into ranking medical schools: the quality of their faculty, the amount of clinical training they offer, and how well they prepare students for practice as physicians. The number one thing to look at is where the school ranks on U.S News & World Report’s annual list of Best Medical Schools, which ranks schools based on reputation, research activity, selectivity and success rate among entering students who complete their first year of doctorate studies at another medical school or university (U.S News & World Report).
When you’re considering medical school, it’s easy to get caught up in the idea that the name of the school matters more than anything else. But here’s the thing: it doesn’t matter which medical school you go to.
Yes, there are differences between schools. And yes, some schools offer more opportunities than others. But in the end, it’s all about what kind of student you are and how much you want to put into your education—both during school and after graduation.
If you’re a motivated person who wants to learn everything there is to learn about medicine and healthcare, then any school will do. If there’s one thing we’ve learned from our years studying medicine, it’s that there are no shortcuts when it comes to learning medicine: if you want to be a great doctor someday, then you need to spend time studying hard and paying attention in class.
You can make this happen at any medical school!
If you’re a doctor, no one really cares what school you attended. If your patients are healthy and happy, they don’t care if you went to Harvard or a small community college in rural Texas. They just want their doctor to be able to help them feel better.
And there’s no doubt that different medical schools will prepare students differently for their careers—but it doesn’t mean that one is inherently better than another. Some schools have more resources, some give more practical training, some have better facilities, and some have better reputations with employers. But at the end of the day, it’s all about how well the student takes advantage of their time at the school—both inside and outside of class.
Why are some medical schools unranked?
Simply defined, unranked medical schools did not provide U.S. News with sufficient statistical information to be ranked. Due to the customary practice of medical schools not disclosing their unranked status, applicants are forced to speculate as to why a school has chosen not to participate.
A few frequent causes for medical schools not being ranked might be listed. There may not always be enough information available on newly founded schools to produce a useful rating. Other universities feel it’s preferable to be unranked since they know they won’t rate well according to U.S. News’ methodology—for example, their research isn’t very reliable. Others, meanwhile, choose not to take part due to their ideological hostility to the rankings itself.
As a result, generalizations about the standard or even standing of unranked medical schools are challenging. While many unranked colleges are undoubtedly less well-known, they also house reputable, well-established programs.
For this reason, you should examine factors like average GPA and MCAT scores, average Step scores, residency match lists, national/regional reputation, curriculum, and so forth while considering unranked medical schools (or any medical school, for that matter).
How much do medical school rankings matter to you?
If you’re like most people, you probably don’t worry as much about the criteria that U.S. News and other ranking systems believe medical schools should meet and are more concerned with how the medical school you choose will be seen in relation to your education, residency options, and career.
Keep in mind that the majority of medical schools offer a high-quality education, and almost all graduates will be approved as residents elsewhere.
Therefore, unlike many law school or business school grads, the majority of physicians are more worried about which job they’ll get (i.e., which residency, which speciality, which hospital, what compensation), than they are about whether they’ll obtain a job in the first place (i.e., in which city).
These are valid worries because your overall health will be impacted by the caliber of your residency training.
Medical School Experience
The claim that you will receive a better education and have access to opportunities that aren’t present at lower-ranked programs is one of the most frequently used justifications for choosing a top-ranked university.
Students from the top 20 medical schools typically receive Step 1 scores of 238 as opposed to 232 for all institutions. The argument that elite medical schools provide a higher education and so increase your chances of matching into a competitive residency is supported by this.
The argument in opposition is that because it is often more difficult to get accepted into a top medical school, those who enroll there are more likely to be great students overall.
The average MCAT score for applicants to the top 20 medical schools is 520, compared to 512 for all applicants. For comparison, a 520 on the MCAT is in the 97th percentile, while a 512 is in the 84th. Additionally, whereas the average GPA for the top 10 schools is 3.88, the average GPA for all medical school matriculants is 3.75.
As a result, it’s possible that student differences rather than curriculum or instructors are to blame for the variations in Step scores that we observe. This supports the claim that medical school status is unimportant because top students will likely perform well at any medical school.
Access to clinical rotations in your desired specialty is a crucial consideration. Larger, top-ranked academic institutions are far more likely than lower-ranked schools to offer programs in the specialties or subspecialties you’re interested in. Attending a school that exposes students to a variety of specialties is also beneficial because more than 50% of medical students end up changing their intended speciality. The tendency is consistent, even if this isn’t a set rule because some lower-ranked colleges have access to major academic hospitals with a wide range of specializations.
It’s crucial to have access to the specialty you want. By doing so, you’ll be able to network with local medical professionals and acquire a lot more experience, research, and persuasive letters of recommendation with a lot less hassle and stress than by enrolling in a medical school without that particular speciality. Without an ENT program at your medical school, can you match into ENT? Of course, but it will be more difficult.
Conclusion
Choosing a medical school is an important decision that can affect where and how you practice medicine. It’s important to look at the quality of the education, as well as the programs available at the school. You should consider the type of training you want to get from your education, including research opportunities, clinical training, and practical skills training.