<p>SoOnErVoUs, Just saw your question about UMiami's program. It hasn't been ranked all that high, but it has a very good reputation in FL, especially for neurology and opthamology. I know several doctors up here whose children go there currently so they must value the program also. Try to find out how the med students do in gaining top residencies. My son was interested in the neurobiology pgm but he wasn't offered a spot in the med pgm (but did get the Singer scholarship which would have been great). If you like UM, go for it. Remember, the avg patient doesn't read those "rankings." </p>
<p>Admissions people and students at UM seemed very open, friendly and helpful. When we visited, my son met and toured the bio bld on his own. The grad students spent an hr or more speaking with him about research they were doing. You can do undergrad in 3 or 4 yrs. We met someone who used his 4th yr to study abroad. Med school is downtown - a short ride away. Weather is wonderful. Social life tends to occur off campus moreso than in other schools.</p>
<p>If you've been accepted, contact Joe Montgomery. I believe they just got some big research $ or project - which could move them up in the rankings. Sorry, I don't know anything about maintaining a 3.7 but you could ask how many drop out of the pgm due to GPA.</p>
<p>What do you guys think-- UMKC (waitlisted) or SLU med. scholars (accepted)? UMKC told me that they can't get back to me until the middle of May or so. Even if I do get, is worth pursuing a college that doesn't want me right off the bat? SLU has been persistent in contacting me, giving me financial aid, updating me about the campus...it's obvious that they really want me there. So what should I do?</p>
<p>I recently recieved news that I got into USF's 7 year program, but I have already paid my deposit to Miami. My question is should I go to USF into the 7 year program or go to Miami and just take the traditional route?</p>
<p>godiva07: I don't take UMKC putting you on the wait list as meaning that they don't have as much interest in you as SLU. It could just be the way the chips fell in the selection process. You may be reading too much into it. IF you do get to make a choice then if I were you I would make it based on your preference. Where would you rather go? Either way, you win. Of course, it would be nice if the choice was yours. Good luck!</p>
<p>the thing thats a turn off for Rice/Baylor is that half of the 20 spots are reserved for people from Texas, leaving only 10 spots for out of state people
also, Baylor COM is not very good with residency matching, as 9 people were in scramble last year, which is really bad for a med school like Baylor
HPME and PLME don't have limitations due to state of residency and have excellent residency matching programs</p>
<p>oh ic. I was not aware that Rice/Baylor reserves half of the spots for in-state.
what about programs like Boston, URochester, or Case?
they seem like pretty good/ok programs.</p>
<p>you really must be kidding, northewestern medical school cannot compete with the grandeur of Baylor. it is only localized in the biggest medical centre in the world with leading hospitals like MD anderson (top in cancer), Shriner's hospital (leader in orthopedics), Texas children's hospital (world leader in paediatrics). i could go on.
Baylor is also much cheaper, which is a huge plus. I am a little biased since im in r/b but i also got into the northwestern program and i can assure you that it is no match. pedantic fools...</p>
<p>jipper1, your not just "a little biased"
personally, i don't think there is any way to rank HPME, PLME, and R/B because those are the top three medical programs in the country and they are all pretty much on an equal level, very much like HYP in undergrad. I know people in all three programs that love their respective schools and the program. All three programs have the same mission: to allow people flexibility in their undergrad studies so that they can pursue the things they are truly passionate about and in turn that should make them better doctors. If Baylor is as great as you say it is, why isn't it ranked above HMS, JHU, UPenn, WashU, etc.? Where you go to med school doesn't matter, its where you do your residency and fellowship that land you jobs in the end, and for residency, Northwestern is ranked higher of the three.</p>
<p>ya jipper1, please do share your info.
next year, I can only apply to 8 private school-my school policy :(
and I don't want to pick a program that everyone ends up transferring out of!</p>
<p>eternity, i recommend that you check your facts before you come in here in fill the forum with false bs.
baylor is ranked 10 vs northwestern, which is ranked 21! brown is ranked even lower at 34!. the programs are nowhere near the same level. Baylor will move up the ranks i guarantee you.
you can see the new 2008 medical school rankings here:</p>
<p>If i had to pick betwen the three i would definitely pick baylor because of its location in the biggest medical centre in the world. Also because of the price. and thirdly because it is much much better. Dr. debakey is just the face of greatness. I know people in the other programs. I think a good story to tell is one of the ladies that worked in my lab last summer in BCM who told me about her surgeon son who was in the brown program. she said that the program ended up not being worth it because the medical school is by itself not that great. he transferred out of it to jhon hopkins and then went to BCM. if you an ambitious person, why commit yourself to it when you can go to a medical school in the top ten? to me such commitment is just not worth it for brown or northwestern (at 50K a year!!?). Brown university is primarely a liberal arts university, which i also didnt like at all. Northwestern is a very expensive university. from what people told me in my visits you have to be in the greek system to have a social life. Rice will give you a risidential college in a system where everybody has a chance to have a lot of fun. It was recently ranked number one for "coolest parties" by cosmo girl followed by UT.
my friend who got into the brown program three years ago transferred out of the program after being in it for two years. the same reasons were cited by him. after seeing what the program had to offer, it simply was not worth it when he could have gone somewhere else better that will give him a better residency . He transferred to Stanford and is in the process of applying to medical school.
At the end what am i trying to say? r/b gives you a much better medical school combined with a university that is primarily focused on its undergraduates---a very good university and a world leader in research with ties in the medical center and with the new collaboration research building being built the ties will only increase. many of my proffesors are in fact BCM proffesors also.
i can also tell you about the application process if you want.</p>
<p>how in the world can you pull in us news medical school rankings when they only rank by how much money you get from the NIH and definately don't take into account the quality of the school. Northwestern med is not better nor worse than BCM. If you want to pull in US news rankings, why did you ignore the fact that Northwestern is rank over Rice in undergrad, so Northwestern beats Rice according to your logic. I have my facts straight, I'm just trying to get you to. I will concede that Baylor is much cheaper than the other two, but it is not significantly better just by itself. Just because a couple of person that you saw in PLME tranferred out and didn't like the program doesn't mean other people would find it as a great fit. If you don't want to be a academic physician, its not going to matter where you go to medical school, all that matters is where you did your residency and fellowship.</p>
<p>I do have to agree with jipper in the fact that Rice/Baylor is the best med program.
It has a better med school and more reasonable cost. NW is just a little wayy to expensive and plus they give crappy financial aid packages. </p>
<p>Jipper, please share your info on the programs/application process. you can PM me if you like.</p>
<p>eternity, I hadn't looked over to your information bellow your name until now. No wonder you have jumped on this wagon since you are going to northwestern this fall. i do not ignore that NW is ranked higher for undergraduate, mainly because of its better graduate program. i tried to highlight that at Rice the university focuses on the undergraduate experience, which is why it suffers in the rankings nationally. Even then Northwestern is only three spots ahead from Rice at 14 and Rice being 17 which is an insignificant difference which is not the case with the huge difference in medical school rankings of baylor, brown and northwestern.(<a href="http://www.usnews.com/usnews/edu/college/rankings/brief/t1natudoc_brief.php%5B/url%5D">http://www.usnews.com/usnews/edu/college/rankings/brief/t1natudoc_brief.php</a>)
At Rice you will get a wonderful education, will have the availability of the medical centre for research (the researchers in it love Rice and will give you positions in their leading labs). Also, since it is a small university, you will enjoy the benefits of a research powerhouse with less competition from your peers for research positions. Although eternity appears to know the facts, he misses the big picture. I am not all about rankings when it comes to undergraduate institutions because they get a boost from graduate programs. I brought up rankings with medical school only because he mentioned them and clearly refuted his point that the medical school are even comparable under those rankings. Northwestern is very expensive. during my visits i noticed that the university is very divided along socioeconomic boundaries, where one can clearly tell by the way people dress who is rich and who is not. it was something that i did not like at all, especially douchbags walking around in their pastel coloured polos with a popped colllar. Everything revolves around the greek system in NW, which i dont like because it is not inclusive but exclusive and does not foster a sense of entire university unity. At Rice, the residential college system which is modeled after Oxford's (yale's is also) you will enjoy a designated group of people that will live in your building. You are part of a group since the beginning and it will make for an awesome undergraduate experience. You cannot tell who is rich and who is poor here because the environment is laid back. my proffesor does not wear shoes because he doesnt like them. What am i trying to say here? if you want a pretentious rich kid atmosphere and a place where your proffesors wear a bow tie go to NW, if you want an inclusive atmosphere go to Rice.
Baylor gets much more money from the NIH, i wonder why since it is located in the biggest medical centre in the world, the most distinguished faculty choose to come here along with the other top ten medical schools because they are the best and you will be taught by the best while doing your rotations in world famous hospitals like MD anderson, etc. Baylor has the vision of Dr. Debakey who is the most distinguished heart surgeon in the world quite arguably.
Where you go to medical school matters because of causation. When you apply to a residency they will take into consideration where you go to medical school. it only makes sense because of the medical school's prestige and the quality of the education. Then your residency will determine things from there. There is a connection between it all. The best medical schools will have the best connection is respect to research which will guarantee you the best fellowship.</p>
<p>eternity, dont be stubborn and an amateur. </p>
<p>Westcoastlove, can you send me all your questions? right now it is kind of busy for me since i am doing research so i can answer all your specific questions but i dont have the time to write up all my experiences.</p>
<p>"When you apply to a residency they will take into consideration where you go to medical school. it only makes sense because of the medical school's prestige and the quality of the education. Then your residency will determine things from there."</p>
<p>jipper, why dont you consider this: US News Residency Directors Rankings 2008
1. Harvard - 4.7
1. Hopkins - 4.7
3. Duke - 4.6
3. Stanford - 4.6
5. Wash U St Louis - 4.5
6. UCSF - 4.4
6. University of Michigan - 4.4
6. University of Pennsylvania - 4.4
9. Columbia Univ. - 4.3
9. Cornell Univ - 4.3
9. Yale Univ. -4.3
12. Univ of Washington - 4.2
12. Vanderbilt Univ. - 4.2
14. UTSW-Dallas - 4.1
14. UCLA - 4.1
14. UChicago Pritzker - 4.1
14.UNC-Chape Hill - 4.1
14. UPitt - 4.1
19. Emory - 4.0 19. Northwestern Univ Feinberg- 4.0
19. UC San Diego - 4.0 22. Baylor - 3.9
22. UVA -3.9
24. Case Western - 3.8
24. Dartmouth -3.8</p>
<p>it seems like both institutions are equally good at getting people to residency, but northwestern has usually been in the top 15 for the past few years while baylor has been in the low 20s. </p>
<p>"during my visits i noticed that the university is very divided along socioeconomic boundaries, where one can clearly tell by the way people dress who is rich and who is not. it was something that i did not like at all, especially douchbags walking around in their pastel coloured polos with a popped colllar."</p>
<p>You obviously don't know a thing about Northwestern because I have been there plenty of times and stayed overnight and no one fit your description. I did not feel any socioeconomic tensions at all. I also know a lot of people that go to Northwestern and nobody ive met is a "douchebag". If you don't know anything about the other schools you are talking about, why even comment on them. Its great that you love Rice so much, but why do you need to feel like you need to falsely degrade the other schools in order to feel superior. Your trying to compare Harvard with Yale when you are talking about the differences in HPME and R/B, and it all comes down to personal preference. I think it would be in the best interest of the people on this board if you would just talk about Rice because you don't have a clue about the other schools you are talking about.</p>
<p>I think the 7 year to 8 year program makes more of an impact than anything else - who you are as a person, and the experiences that you've had, are what truly determine what type of doctor you'll be. Who cares about going to college at all if you are unable to relate compassionately with your patients and communicate with them! Rankings, point scores, and prestige factors oftentimes get in the way of this attitude, and sometimes point us towards viewing our patients in the same way. By the way, I don't discount rankings, and I think they are a useful tool in complementing (but not fully determining) someone's decision in their college choice. But use them with caution and carefully consider more important factors like finances, location, and strengths of the universities. For the minute we choose our college because one is a 4.0 and the other 3.9, we fail to recognize the true purpose of why we are ever here in the first place - to learn, to grow, and to make a difference in our future patients.</p>