<p>I see upperclassmen bummed because they didn't get into Harvard Med or Johns Hopkins, but they got into places like University of Wisconsin Medical School. Does it really matter what medical school you get accepted to? At the end of the day aren't they all doctors? When would it matter what med school you went to? </p>
<p>El Sol</p>
<p>No , its comme-ci comme-ca, like yes at the end of the day everyone is still a doctor, but i guess when it comes down to your internship/residency, Mr. HMS will probably get more preference in an inner city hospital over mr. st. george </p>
<p>Also its like a status stigma, when you are 25 and starting your residency or congregrating with the other doctors, people will be asking you what med school you go to , it would be kind of cool to say, HMS and get that respect you deserve for working hard to get there :)</p>
<p>More like once your a real full doc. people will ask where you had your residency. If you go to a plain old good med school and do really well in the board exams and get into a good residency, no one will care where you went to school, because you will be in a super competitive residency which obviously means that you are good.</p>
<p>As bigndude said, no one will care where you went to med school. They care where you trained. If you go to HMS, and a lightly regarded hospital for training, people will remember the hospital and not HMS. If you go to a lower ranked medical school, and a top hospital, people will remember the hospital. It is easier to get prestigious residencies from the prestigious medical schools. So in that sense, yes it does matter where you go to med school, but only if going to a prestigious hospital matters. Most doctors who have successful practices, whose patients and colleagues respect and trust them, and who are valuable members of society went to average medical schools and trained at average programs. For most people there is not much at stake in where you go to med school.</p>
<p>By the way, U Wisconsin is quite a good medical school.</p>
<p>I would add that down the line, where you went to med-school may matter. For example, if you ever want to get into medical management (i.e. become an executive at a hospital, an HMO, or a pharmaceutical/biotech company), then where you went to med-school may matter, for it may give you an edge in getting hired/promoted. Or if you ever want to get into private practice, as many doctors do, then where you went to med-school may matter for marketing purposes. It's easier to get clients for your private practice if you can say that you went to Harvard than if you went to a place nobody has ever heard of. </p>
<p>However, in the grand scheme of things, these are relatively minor considerations. They should just be thankful in just getting into med-school at all - as plenty of people can't even manage to do that.</p>