<p>I’ve heard that if you just want to be a practicing physician, then it doesn’t matter where you went to medical school as long as it is in the US. Then, why would people want to go to Harvard Med School and other top med schools? Do the graduates from Harvard and other top medical schools have better jobs (more money, better hospital) ?</p>
<p>No. However, I heard that it might make a diff. pursuing one of the ROAD specialties. No, no more $$, no better hospital and actually not everybody wants to go to top school either. People have different priorities.</p>
<p>If you want to go to academic medicine, or hospital administration (ceos of major hospitals make a lot more than docs), then going to a top medical school can help set you apart.</p>
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<p>Because of what? One reason I heard of is that sacrificing 4 (MS) plus 2-3 years (residency) of the best years of my life is already bad enough, I do not want to put myself into a situation where I need to perpetually compete with the best of the best medical school students, if what I want is just to become a competent practicing doctor. This assumes that being in a top medical school (unless it is pass/no-pass one) tends to be more stressful than being in a non-top one. I heard suicide cases from Baylor Medical School, but not from, say, UT-Houston or San Antonio, for example.</p>
<p>I see a couple of reasons
- Many top medical schools are private, and do not discriminate against OOS applicants
- Many top medical schools are loaded, so there is a chance you could get generous financial aid
- All else being equal (cost, location) why not pick the more prestigious one?</p>
<p>That said, staying in state due to financial reasons is a very valid and prudent choice.</p>
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<p>I think it’s just the opposite actually.</p>
<p>The top med schools are usually the ones who don’t have AOA (I’m think either Harvard and/or Yale Med don’t have AOA) or have P/F grading. The ones with letter grades or honors/high pass/pass/fail for the first two years are usually the lower ranked schools. At my school, we have P/F the first two years (you have to score below 70% or 2.25 std. dev, whichever is the lower threshold on a test in order to fail it; you have to fail 1/3 of the tests in any given year in order to fail the course; if you fail the course, you simply repeat it). We have honors/high pass/pass/fail the last two years but grading is criteria-based so theoretically everyone can get honors on a rotation. Because of this, students are very helpful and cooperative. Yes, students at top med schools are very smart. I get 89% on my tests and I’m barely in the top 30% of my class. But, it really does push you to do your best.</p>
<p>mcat2,
“Because of what?”</p>
<p>-People just have different priority list, and some top schools might not be what they are looking for. Some people (actually many pre-meds close to my D., including her) want to be close to home. Also, bad neighborhoods of Med. School location is a consideration. D. will not apply to any schools further than 4.5 hours to drive and she is applying to 8 schools total. She will not be heart broken for any school. she is OK in regard to rejections. Her situation is different from others, whose priorities are unique to them also.</p>