<p>Everyone knows that if you are a doctor, the colleges you went to do play a huge role early on in your career.</p>
<p>When you think of a doctor, which UNDERGRADUATE colleges he or she goes to will impress you the most?</p>
<p>Will it be Ivy colleges like HYP or will it be those notable pre-med colleges like WU in STL or Johns Hopkins?</p>
<p>I don’t care, frankly. If it was for a more rare or difficult medical condition, I would want referrals from my primary care physician. Then certain names would stand out for me – Johns Hopkins, Harvard, Stanford, UC San Fracisco, UCLA (for neurological stuff), etc. Preferably these names would not be the MD issuing school, but would be for the residency or other post-MD experience.</p>
<p>I care about where he or she went to medical school not undergrad. I’d be much more impressed by a doctor who went to Harvard Medical School after graduating from WhatsamattaU Community College than one who went to Yale undergrad and then graduates from Fred’s Medical College of Neurology & Cosmetology.</p>
<p>P.S. You know the old joke don’t you: </p>
<p>Q. What do you call the guy who graduates last in his medical school class?
A. Doctor.</p>
<p>Undergraduate degrees are nearly meaningless when it comes to medical skills. Quite frankly even Medical schools only prepares the basic groundwork for actual diagnosis and treatment. Residency is where the large majority of actual medical care is accumulated and then Fellowship for more advanced training. </p>
<p>A top graduate from a bottom third Medical School who completed a Residency at a good training program is going to be significantly more capable in 99% of situations than the best UG/Med School graduate right out of Med School or the worst graduate of the best Med School who was relegated to a bottom end residency. How do you recognize the guy/girl who took 5 years and barely got into and/or out of MedSchool from the one who graduated #1 in UG/MS from looking at the diploma on the wall. </p>
<p>Even if you could tell the difference how would that translate to the next step of actual Medical Training? Very often the very skills that translate to top grades in UG/MS are quite different from those skills necessary for excellence on the Clinic or Hospital floor – some folks have all sets of those skills and many don’t. </p>
<p>Actual hands on Patient Care – communication, examination, diagnostic skills, coordination, and implementation of a plan of care aren’t even a glimmer of most students UG experience and is only being touched on even by the end of Med School. </p>
<p>Now if I was setting up a research study or basic/advnace science heavy Medical Study then I might be more interested in which UG/MS training since those type skills are frequently more prevalent from those Top programs and requires a much different type knowledge base/training than I find necessary for most Medical Practices. Developing/Testing new processes and treatments is a very different issue than diagnosing and implementing those standards that are already in place. Cutting edge/ experimental treatments which are almost always last resort (literally last gasp) are in an entirely different realm.</p>
<p>There is no reason why you should give a crap about what schools your doctor or someone else’s doctor went to, especially undergrad.</p>
<p>Any MD (as opposed to DO) degreed doctor from one of the 124 American Medical Schools.</p>
<p>Reminds me of that Family Guy episode…</p>
<p>Asian Father: “You doctor yet?”
Kid: “No, Dad, I’m 12!”
Father: “Talk to me when you’re doctor!”</p>
<p>Probably the doctor I’ve seen who was the least knowledgeable, effective and thorough was a graduate of Harvard Medical School, and if I remember correctly, a Harvard undergrad was well. Awful.</p>
<p>Undergrad school is immaterial. As a physician, myself, I am not so very conscious of med. school training, even, so much as I am of residency and fellowship institutions. One of the finest oncologic surgeons in the country, I know, did his undergrad at an excellent institution, his medical school at a perceived “inferior” but still (barely) accredited med. school (he had a lacklustre undergrad performance), and snagged a decent residency and phenomenal fellowship (at Sloane-Kettering). He is a very gifted surgeon and compassionate and tries hard for minimal disfigurement.</p>
<p>So, in this scenario, I wouldn’t give a fig if he went to Idaho state or Wash U. for undergrad; I care where he did his final training. As well, a physician’s reputation, regardless of training, usually tells the story, if other sub-specialists think highly of him or her and are referring to him or her.</p>
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<p>I can attest to the foregoing, having attended HMS and known a few buffoons, there. Really, there are few superlatives in any field of medicine, regardless of training. And managed care is making that increasingly apparent.</p>
<p>I have absolutely no idea where any doctor who’s treated any member of my family went to school, undergrad or med school. Pediatricians, GPs, internists, orthopedic surgeons, oncologists, OB/GYNs, etc etc etc–all I care about is that they’ve been highly recommended by friends who are satisfied patients, or by fellow physicians. When I’ve interviewed potential doctors, not one has ever mentioned where she or he went to undergrad or med school.</p>
<p>If I wanted to see a doctor, why would I want to see a school?</p>
<p>Frankly, it’s hard enough to get into an American medical school that I don’t care in the slightest where my doctor studied. (I’ll confess to prefering graduates of U.S. medical schools.) I want to know if he/she is board certified, keeps up to date with new developments, and I want someone who is respectful to his/her patients, and is capable of keeping a semblence of a schedule.</p>
<p>One of my best friends is a physician; I do care about his opinion of the physicians who treat me.</p>
<p>I like the fact that my current doctor welcomes my pentient for reading and discussing articles that I have read in the popular press concerning new developments in the medical profession.</p>
<p>I never forgave my last physician for keeping me waiting for an extra ten minutes while he had a telephone discussion with his broker (completely audible from the adjoining examining room where I sat) about why they had desposited $17 into his account after he had tried to withdraw all of the funds in it.</p>