<p>Mom of a future med school applicant here with a question.</p>
<p>I believe that Texas A&M's med school is fairly low-rated (word of mouth - I haven't seen any official ratings). It's also fairly new. I'm wondering if that is a contributing factor? </p>
<p>What kinds of factors are considered for med school rankings?</p>
<p>I believe it is the research and, in particular, the amount of fundings for research, that is a major factor for medical school rankings.</p>
<p>This may be important if your child will apply this year: It appears this year TAMU accepted too many applicants, and many accepted students complained a lot about it at SDN. (just like what happened a couple of years ago at UTMB – I think it was the year right after the Ike.) They may end up asking some accepted students to start their medical school one year later.</p>
<p>[Search:</a> Medical School Programs | US News](<a href=“http://grad-schools.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-graduate-schools/search.result/name+Texas/program+top-medical-schools/top-medical-schools+y]Search:”>http://grad-schools.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-graduate-schools/search.result/name+Texas/program+top-medical-schools/top-medical-schools+y)</p>
<p>TAMU is ranked #84th in research at US News. Research ranking is primarily a function of how much NIH funding the school/faculty pulls in. </p>
<p>Since TAMU’s primary mission is to train primary care doctors for rural Texas, I’m not surprised it doesn’t rank high in research.</p>
<p>As for the US News primary care rankings—many people question how valuable they are and what they actually measure. I’ll leave it to my better informed fellow posters to discuss their views on its flaws.</p>
<p>The important thing to remember regarding US medical schools is that there really aren’t any “bad” med schools. They all teach basically the same curriculum for the first 2 (pre-clinical) years.</p>
<p>texaspg, That link is great! thank you.</p>
<p>We have several medical family/friends and they are all trying to talk my son OUT of the med field. He just finished his freshman year in ChemEngr. He has a 3.7 right now, so I guess he could possibly be accepted if he keeps up his grades and gets some medical EC’s, but way too soon to tell. He has several EC’s, but no leadership or medical ones yet. He’s looking for a med-related EC to add for fall.</p>
<p>Thanks for all the info! I’m sure he will apply at all the Texas schools. He’s at A&M now and frankly I didn’t even know they HAD a med school. We have no interesting “hooks”, so we’ll see…</p>
<p>Even though he had 26 AP credits he will have a very hard time finishing in 4 years with the 135 hour ChemEngr credits AND the extra Texas premed credits. He thinks he can make it…but it will be tough.</p>
<p>Rankings also take into account how selective a medical school is. The average GPA, MCAT scores of the incoming student body are taken into account.</p>
<p>OP - If you are Texas residents (sounds like you are), there are something like 85-90% of seats in medical schools reserved for Texas residents. The primary requirements are a high GPA, high MCAT score, some research, good ECs and a great interview. From what I understand, about 80% or more of weight is given to application by by multiplying your GPA by 10 and adding it to the MCAT score and then assigning more points to research, interview and ECs.</p>
<p>So any interest in going towards medicine - keep the GPA up there and do really well on MCAT. You have to remember that there are others out there who are focused only on these two attributes and some even go to smaller colleges to get that perfect GPA. So although it is hard at an engineering school like A&M (in fact that is one reason people dont want you to do engineering - hard to get high GPAs) it is needed to keep focus.</p>
<p>One thing I heard is most chemEs cover premed requirements as part of their curriculum and so not many additional credits may be needed. I just dont know if A&M curriculum works the same way (I was given this info by USC engineering school).</p>
<p>Texas legislation requires that its Med schools matriculate at least 90 % instate students.</p>
<p>When your son is applying, he will do the AMCAS application and the TMDSAS application for the Texas schools. He should apply to ALL the Texas schools since the incremental cost per application is truly minimal.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>This happened to my son even through the first three years of Med school. It’s based on lower compensation than the “good old days” along with more required paperwork for verification. The good news is that Texas still has the second highest insurance reimbursement per capita in the country so Physicians can still earn a good living- it’s just not the license to print money for some specialties that it once was…i.e. a Pediatric immunologist friend is now making $450-500K a year when he once made $650K plus. Hard to feel sorry for him. Most specialists still do quite well. If medicine is what your son wants don’t let him be dissuaded by the old timers.</p>
<p>For your future reference, here’s a link to the TMDSAS website with info regarding applications.</p>
<p>[TMDSAS</a> Medical: Application Instructions](<a href=“http://www.utsystem.edu/tmdsas/medical/application-instructions.html]TMDSAS”>http://www.utsystem.edu/tmdsas/medical/application-instructions.html)</p>
<p>I really do not understand why people like the OP insult med schools. Every US accredited LCME med school is amazing. Especially Texas A&M Health Science Center College of Medicine.</p>
<p>^ Not an insult, she is just stating the facts. TAMU’s Med school is at or near the bottom in the ranking of all Texas allopathic (and even one Osteopathic) med school. It is far less selective than Baylor, UTSW and UT Houston. Candidates who are “matches” for those three schools won’t even get offered an interview at A&M because they know that they’ll have better choices and they don’t want to burn the offer of admission.</p>
<p>In fact, even UT Houston after interviewing higher profile matches often doesn’t offer because they know they’ll be competing with Baylor or UTSW for the candidate and 9 out of 10 times will lose.</p>