I’m currently in my junior year at high school. I know for a fact that I want to get into the medical field (currently completing an AS in biology at local community college), and I think I want to get into neurosurgery. As I’m not in medical school yet I obviously can’t be certain but this has always intrigued me, though I suppose this question can be answered for anything in the surgical spectrum.
What I’m wondering about is how much college choice matters in terms of likelihood to start my residency outside of medical school. Does going to an Ivy League immediately place you ahead of others? Even if they were to go to a top university as well (though not Ivy)?
I plan on applying to Stanford, Cornell and Dartmouth as far as ivy leagues go, but given as that is a high reach at best I also plan on applying to UCLA and Berkeley (I am a resident of California)… if I were to be accepted into say, Stanford and Berkeley, would choosing Stanford immediately impact my chances of a job outside of school, or are other factors weighed heavier than the school itself? What about if I were to go to a “mediocre” school? Does that put me at a severe disadvantage?
The medical school you go to and how you perform is what matters. The only way I could see your undergraduate college mattering is taking advantage of a large alumni network.
But then do medical schools care about which college you go to in terms of accepting you? I’d imagine so, but I might be mistaken
All US med schools are good schools; there are no mediocre US med schools.
If you can gain admission to Stanford, an Ivy, UCLA, UCB, I’ll go out on a limb and say that you probably can handle the academics of med school. But med schools don’t really care what you did to gain admission to any of those schools. They will however take a very close look at what you do starting in college. And although the name of the college you attend is not of zero importance, it’s what you do in college (eg GPAs, MCAT, ECs, etc) that will gain you an interview and hopefully an acceptance to med school. What weight any one med school gives to where an applicant attended college is unknown.
Similarly, when you apply to residency, program directors (PD) will take a very close look at what you did in med school. And although the name of the med school you attend is not of zero importance, it’s more about your performance in med school (eg Step 1 scores, etc) that will gain you an interview, and then your med school performance combined with how you interview that will determine where a PD might rank you. As neurosurg is highly completive and only a couple of positions may be available each year at any one program, you would almost certainly have to apply broadly, beyond where you go to med school.
Here is link to 2016 Program Director survey. http://www.nrmp.org/match-data/main-residency-match-data/
Look at figures NS 1 (factors as to be being offered an interview0 and, NS 2 factors in determining how PDs rank). I’m not saying that every neirosurg PD answered survey, so where you attend med school could have more or less weight at different programs
You do understand that your goal is a long slog (4 years college, 4 years med school with perhaps 1-2 years research while in med school, 7 years (?) residency.) So say goodbye to your 20s, a large part of your 30s. Considering enjoying your remaining time in hs. Good luck.
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What I’m wondering about is how much college choice matters in terms of likelihood to start my residency outside of medical school. Does going to an Ivy League immediately place you ahead of others? Even if they were to go to a top university as well (though not Ivy)?
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You’re soon going to be transferring to a university. Are you asking if THAT university matters for residency?
OR…are you asking if the MED school you go to will matter for residencies?
(No, going to an Ivy does not immediately place you ahead of others).
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And although the name of the med school you attend is not of zero importance, it’s more about your performance in med school (eg Step 1 scores, etc) that will gain you an interview, and then your med school performance combined with how you interview that will determine where a PD might rank you. As neurosurg is highly completive and only a couple of positions may be available each year at any one program, you would almost certainly have to apply broadly, beyond where you go to med school.
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True!