<p>If you factor in the prestige, its gotta be northwestern. It was one of the first programs started way back in the 1960s and its a wonderful med school, better than jefferson or rochester. Also the undergraduate school is also better than pennstate and u of r. The high standardized tests of HPME students coupled with a high turnover rate show that it one of the best (if not the best) programs. Rochester's med school is awesome, but 8 years in rochester, NY wasnt appealing enough for me to matriculate.</p>
<p>I'd keep Rice/Baylor at the top there (ok, so I am a little biased...), only because I don't think having an accelerated program should necessarily be considered an advantage over an unaccelerated program. Also, Baylor ranks higher than Feinberg (Northwestern's med school) according to US News. </p>
<h1>4, Rochester REMS, is an excellent program, though the undergraduate part is admittedly not as well-known as the medical school. Rochester Med is also ranked quite highly...right up there with Feinberg.</h1>
<p>if rice/baylor should be number one because baylor is ranked #13 in research, then what about univ. of wisconsin which ranks #4 in primary care? if med school rankings are the determining factor, then what about ucsd which ranks #7 in pc and # 14 in research. ucsd is the only combined program that appears near the top on both lists (other programs that make both lists include case western, boston univ, univ of wisc, brown, and usc. northwestern ranks #20 in research only, but is certainly the best known and i believe the oldest of the ba/md programs).</p>
<p>i am not pushing for ucsd to be number one (just happy that brownjigga brought it to the list). what i am trying to illustrate is that there is no end to this business of ranking. i do agree that accelerated programs are not by nature better, but i think that there are a lot of factors that go into determining whether a certain program works for certain individuals! its been said before by many others.</p>
<p>psu had the first ba/md program. It used to be a 5 year one!</p>
<p>qtpie brings up a good point. The rankings that we've discussed in the past have been research rankings from Us News; what about primary care rankings? Is it more important for a medical school to be ranked higher in research or primary care?</p>
<p>I agree that rankings are subjective, especially for combined programs, but I was wondering what you think about primary care vs. research for determining "better" medical schools.</p>
<p>Hey guys, I'm a little confused by these rankings. I don't realy know much about Med. Schools, so maybe the quality of the med. school has to do with it, but how can a school like Penn State be ranked higher than Brown (Ivy League) and Northwestern (ranked 11 by USNews)?</p>
<p>I don't see RPI/AMC program. It is also very old program. It used to be 6 years program.</p>
<p>the thing with these rankings is that they were ranked by two students. Not an organization like US NEWS.</p>
<p>In addition, those factors included things like the length of the program, the social life in the program, cost, prestige, etc... etc...</p>
<p>As such, a school like Penn State is definitely worse than a school like Brown or NW in terms of prestige. But its program on a whole is ranked higher than those two by the two students who performed the rankings.</p>
<p>It is purely subjective!</p>
<p>Don't put too much faith in US NEWS rankings either! Take everything lightly, with a grain of salt, because all rankings have bias - some more than others.</p>
<p>I think the two top programs that are accessible to everyone is Rice/Baylor and HPME. quite simply, these are two programs that offer both a top-notched undergraduate education with an outstanding med school without limiting themselves to in-state only. ucsd's undergrad is not nearly as prestigious as nu or rice. (I hear from a friend who is in the program that the UCSD's prgm is disorganized since it's so new). in addition, rice/baylor and hpme have the lowest minimum requirements in terms of gpa and no mcat. There are 3 reasons why I'd put rice/baylor over hpme. rice/baylor is substantially cheaper than hpme. rice is around 12 thousand less per year and baylor is the least expensive private medical school in the country. hpme is accelerated, but rice/baylor can be as well. if one chooses to graduate in 3 from rice, one can. the only catch is that you have to take the mcat, but the score you get, as stated by baylor, doesn't matter. the last reason is the texas medical center, which surronds baylor and is across the street from rice. there are so many incredible hospitals with leading researchers there. you're exposed completely to medicine from your freshmen year at rice until the day you graduate from baylor.</p>
<p>i would have to pretty much agree with you bestbuy. i think that rice/baylor's limited accessibility: only 15 students, i believe, are offered admission, is a big disadvantage. nu's hpme therefore caters to a larger crowd.</p>
<p>having said this, i think that rice/baylor's med program served as a loose model for ucsd's six year old med program:</p>
<p>limited enrollment (12)
not accelerated
no mcat
minimum 3.5 gpa required
any major is accepted
mentoring from both a med school prof and med student
quarterly social gatherings for all med scholar students
research opportunities
chances to attend special lectures
hospital and research facilities on-site
preference over other premeds to work in student-run clinic
affordable med school fees
great weather!</p>
<p>so, its not just a guaranteed spot in med school! unfortunately, its for ca residents only.</p>
<p>about ucsd's undergrad education: ranked #7 as one of the best public university, it too offers a top-notched program, not necessarily in the humanities, but especially in the areas of bioengineering, political science, cellular and developmental biology, biochemistry, molecular biology, and neurosciences (all considered to be in the top ten, taught by some of the leading scholars in the world). </p>
<p>ok, i'll get off my soap box now. it's truly bizarre how i am defending ucsd and i am not even a student there yet ;)</p>
<p>I think the problem with ranking these programs is that everyone is looking for something different. Since I've been using PSU as an example all along, here's another way that students could approach different BA/MD programs.</p>
<p>-large enrollment (50 accepted, 25-30 enter, larger class to socialize with)
-accelerated to save committed students two years
-mentoring from doctors in the philadelphia area
-no forced social gathering among program students (if you happen to enjoy the closeknit program, great. If not, you can always find your own friends in a school with 40,000 students)
-research opportunities not only at PSU but all over the world as Penn State -the ability to study abroad anywhere (past students have gone to programs in australia and even aboard cruise liners)
-has affiliations with many study-abroad research facilities
-preference given to program students in registration (very, very useful in obtaining rare classes that the masses have to fight for)
-hospital and research facilities on-site at Philly
-provides on-campus housing at the medical school level
-preference over other premeds in terms of administration, recommendations, class slots, etc...
-while not affordable, the med school tuition is among the cheapest in the pa area</p>
<p>As such, some might find this program more suitable to their needs and would give it a higher ranking. It's why USNews probably doesn't bother ranking programs like these!</p>
<p>ultimately, you fall in love with the program you're going to attend. inevitably, you're also going to feel that your program is the best. but i guess the most important thing is that we are all ecstatic and anxious about where we are heading next fall and thats something no ranking could possibly express.</p>
<p>i highly doubt Lehigh is ahead of Boston and U. of Miami. Lehigh isn't even listed as part of the top 50 med schools, but both Boston and U. of Miami are.</p>
<p>just to add on to what Best Bus said a little earlier about Rice/Baylor - Texas Medical Center is great, and also the largest medical center in the world! =D</p>
<p>UMKC has a pretty good accelerated med program. It's pretty tough to get into as well.</p>
<p>The bottom line is different strokes for different fokes. I decided to attend Northwestern's HPME program, but can see how other people who were admitted to it and other programs choose elsewhere. For example, Case Western, USC, and GW's program all offer a great amount of merit based scholarships which was extremely enticing. Rice/Baylor has an amazing medical school and they also offer descent merit based scholarships which is very impressive for a school of such great academic standing, but i decided not to go to my Rice/Baylor interview when i got into HPME in part because Northwestern medical school is on a pass/fail grading system and rice/baylor is not. I do not want to compete with my peers in medical school for grades, but rather work in unison with them, so that was an important factor for me. Then, prestige asside, Northwestern's Feinberg is located in one of the most beutiful places i have ever seen- right on michigan avenue in downtown chicago. In my opinion, PSU jefferson was not in the same calliber as HPME, Rice/Baylor, PLME, etc. simply because of the MCAT requirement which i am aiming to avoid though you are shaving 2 years which equates to about 100K. Northwestern's program is very flexible, as long as you have a GPA over 3.0 your set, with no mcat requirement, and the flexibility to chose any major. When i was deciding, I made a list of important factors to me and assigned points to each school- just something to think about.</p>
<p>Hi I just recently started looking into medical programs... x_x</p>
<p>If I get into a school that accepts AP credits (Rice) and want to do the Rice/Baylor program (assuming I could get in), could I still claim the credits? And possibly bring that 8 year program down to 7...?</p>
<p>do ranks denote how hard the program is to get into, how well it prepares you, or how prestigious the related schools are?</p>
<p>The ranks are arbitrary numbers assigned by the authors of a book called From High School to Med School. It is determined by how hard it is to get into the program, how prestigious the undergrad school is, how prestigious the med school is, how flexible the curriculum is, how affordable, etc.. etc...</p>