<p>You will eventually have to go out on your own. But if you’re getting an M.D. it probably won’t matter. Your college experience and your future is what you make of it and what you do.</p>
<p>Wow, I am in the same situation. Haha, for some reason everyone during your high school years seems to embed in your head that private/prestigious colleges are the best. As for my advice, I am (like I said earlier) in the same situation, should I chose a state university or aim higher…Tough!</p>
<p>Everyone notices if you went to HYP and there are undoubtedly advantages. My most frequent experience in meeting grads of these schools throughout my life has been one of distinct disappointment at just how ordinary and unimpressive they usually are. Few can live up to the hype associated with their degree and many must feel inadequate most of the time in comparison to their peers, the expectations they had of themselves and the expectations others have of them. I’ve met more than a few people in their 40’s and beyond who are still trying to get mileage from that degree, letting you know within the first five minutes after you’ve met that they went to HYP or someplace similarly impressive (and there are places just as impressive). Could anything be more pathetic? That being said, I wish I’d had the opportunity to attend the best college I could have gotten into. The disadvantage of not having done so for financial reasons is the lifelong feeling of having to prove that you were good enough to have done it even though you didn’t have the chance and don’t have that pedigree.</p>
<p>Hospitals do not usually hire the doctors. The doctors usually have privileges. When it comes to medicine, the college does not generally matter. It is in areas of big firms in NY, like Wall Street. Go where you can get the scholarships. You will need to save the money for med school, which is quite expensive. </p>
<p>Also, when I see a doctor is from Harvard Medical School, I won’t use them. I have had one too many bad doctors from Harvard. On the other hand, every doctor I have ever had from Stanford Med School has been great.</p>
<p>As far as physician quality is concerned, there is this study:</p>
<p>[Associations</a> Between Physician Characteristics and Quality of Care - The Commonwealth Fund](<a href=“http://www.commonwealthfund.org/Publications/In-the-Literature/2010/Sep/Associations-Between-Physician-Characteristics.aspx]Associations”>http://www.commonwealthfund.org/Publications/In-the-Literature/2010/Sep/Associations-Between-Physician-Characteristics.aspx)
<a href=“http://archinte.jamanetwork.com/article.aspx?articleid=225924[/url]”>http://archinte.jamanetwork.com/article.aspx?articleid=225924</a></p>
<p>The study found three physician characteristics with association to quality: female (versus male), board certified (versus not), and US trained (versus internationally trained). However, the differences were quite small even in these cases, with wide variation in quality regardless of these characteristics. School ranking was considered, but not found to make a statistically significant difference (the same with years of experience and MD vs. DO).</p>
<p>However, patients still may choose physicians based on school ranking even if that does not predict better physician quality.</p>
<p>
I think this says more about your perceptions than anything else. It is quite common to hold colleges that are members of the ivy athletic conference in high regard on this forum, but once you’ve graduated college and are working with other people who have graduated, school name becomes far less important. More often than not, people genuinely do not care which college you went to. Instead they care about things like what kind of person in you are, your talents and abilities, and what you have done since graduating.</p>
<p>The college name can give an edge in employment, particularly for getting from a resume to interviews soon after graduating. But over time experience becomes more important, and school name becomes less important. The degree of this effect varies by field, as well as which schools are most noteworthy. For example, in my field of engineering, Harvard and Yale are not top-20 type schools. The OP asked about medicine. I’d expect a small portion of patients to consider school name, so it may have more impact than certain other fields. </p>
<p>I went to a HYPSM school and have known others who went to all 5 (different people). I’ve yet to meet anyone who fit your description of “feeling inadequate most of the time in comparison to their peers, the expectations they had of themselves and the expectations others have of them.” I certainly don’t have higher or lower expectations of someone because of their college name. I don’t even know which college most people I work with attended, and I’d expect most don’t know which college I attended. However, I do have wildly varied expectations based on past history with them.</p>
<p>The answer depends on what you want to do. While Harvard will certainly get the attn of medical school examiners, it may not make that big a difference if you want to deliver healthcare. </p>
<p>That being said, if you want to do anything that requires a network or instant recognition, there is absolutely no question that an Ivy degree will open doors throughout your entire life. It also affects your self image, offering a certain confidence no matter how a career turns out. Of course, if it doesn’t guarantee career success, it hugely aids you in getting a shot at success. </p>
<p>Keep in mind, too, that there are many access points. Those who go to Harvard or Yale as undergrads are launched in the best possible way. There is also graduate school, which confers an Ivy stamp and opens certain doors, but fewer and more specifically related to one’s specialization. </p>
<p>I have known and worked with many Ivy undergrads, particularly from my graduate school experience at Harvard. They tend to be smart, often assume (rightly or wrongly) that their insights are superior to those of others, and their boundless confidence helps in their pursuit of jobs and opportunities.</p>
<p>More difficult schools will push you harder, continually giving you problems you have no idea how to solve - and eventually you learn to work your way though them.</p>
<p>The skills you develop staying afloat at such hard top schools become second nature to you, and definitely enable you to shine later in the work place.</p>
<p>The hubris in makennacompton’s response about American Royalty is a great example of why many people look upon graduates of those universities with such a jaundiced eye. So many of them are NOT team players, because of this hubris.</p>
<p>Our elder student is a HYP student and when people ask about where K1 attends…the HYP brand garners respect. Opens doors etc.</p>
<p>That said–I know someone who went to a very mediocre/easy admit school and same for law school…a no name school. This person has an amazing career and is the only person I know with a BLACK AmEx card. He made the most of all opportunities. Has a charismatic personality and is business savvy. </p>
<p>So make the most of all of the opportunities you have no matter where you attend and you will be fine.</p>
<p>Are you still in high school? If so, it is waaaayy too early for you to be thinking about getting into Harvard Med and even your local state med school. A huge majority of high schoolers who think they want to go premed do not even finish the prerequisites. Of those that finish the prereqs, many drop out due to subpar GPA. Of those that get good GPAs, many will choose to give up their med school dreams due to a sub par MCAT.</p>
<p>And even after all of this weeding out has occurred (prereqs, GPA, MCAT) more than half of the premeds that apply do not get into any medical school.</p>
<p>Stop worrying about Harvard med now and start thinking about how to jump the premed hoops first.</p>
<p>Eightisgreat, the big trend is for hospitals to hire physicians. In my city all of the heart surgeons, cardiologists, specialist surgeons, and primary care are directly employed by the hospitals. All W2. Probably less than 20% are private. This trend further exacerbates the disregard for prestige. They just want a warm bidy who will follow directions.</p>
<p>I would say that MIT matters in the field of CS and engineering. My son just graduated from MIT and was “in demand” in the job market. My daughter will be attending Harvard and I hope she will have the same advantages as MIT.</p>
<p>After your first job, few will care where you went to college, or even if you did go. </p>
<p>Most ‘name’ colleges are simply a scam. Take your money, take your parents money, take the government money. Provide fun and games, high salaries and nice clubs for the faculty, lots of perks for admin, maybe a football team to root for.</p>
<p>That said, there are exceptions. Want to work in Hollywood? Tough without a degree from USC, NYU, or maybe UCLA. Want to get a top job in Optical Physics? U of Virginia or U of Arizona are the places to go. Want to work on Wall St? Several favorites there. </p>
<p>In other words, the ‘top’ colleges for any given field are essentially expensive trade schools. Tough to admit, but you are paying BIG BUCKS to go to the front of the hiring line. However, few programs at few schools qualify. </p>
<p>For everyone else? My advice is to focus the undergrad education at a school WITHOUT a PhD program. That way, you will get better teachers who focus on teaching, rather than lousy grad students who cannot speak or understand English. Go to a smaller State school where your classes are 30 rather than 300. Figure out where you want to live an then where the local businesses hire from. The answers may surprise you. </p>
<p>Education is a big business. Treat it like an investment. You will be surprised that Liberal Arts educations at top East Coast universities are essentially ‘expensive junk bonds’ Few get a payback.</p>
<p>This was a quote from a poster on CC several years ago and I think it holds true. “Your undergrad degree puts an imprint on you that will last the rest of your life in ways that no graduate or professional degree will. It will influence how you think, how high you’ll reach, and whom you’ll see as social and intellectual peers. Don’t underestimate it’s impact.”</p>
<p>Moviepopcorn, yes I am a high school student. I am not really too focused on med school. My biggest stress right now is undergrad since I have only weeks before I start filling out applications an I just don’t know if I will get into a good med school if I go to a lame undergrad college. Thanks for all ur replies everyone! I am very confused on applying to places and I really appreciate everyone’s help!! :)</p>
<p>You may like to consider a college that offers conditional admission to medical school along with your undergraduate admission. When we were looking at Case Western Reserve, I noticed this program for Pre-Professional Scholars:
8-year medicine
8-year dental medicine
6-year dental medicine
7-year law
5 or 6-year social work</p>
<p>This is a huge study that came out about ten years ago and was cited in academic journals almost 600 times since then. Not only does it have a huge sample size (15k), it looks at career salaries, not just within a few years from graduation. It was updated last year with some surprising results.</p>
<p><a href=“http://economix.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/02/21/revisiting-the-value-of-elite-colleges/[/url]”>http://economix.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/02/21/revisiting-the-value-of-elite-colleges/</a></p>
<p>It basically said that when SAT scores and colleges applied (not accepted) are controlled, there is no statistic difference between income. </p>
<p>An example of this would be two students, student A and student B, who both earned a 2000 on the SATs and both applied to UC Berkeley and Cal State Fullerton . Student A was accepted to both, and chose to enroll at Berkeley. Student B was not accepted there, but instead enrolled at Cal State Fullerton. According to the data collected from the longitudinal study that span from 1972 to 2007, they both will have similar incomes because (a) they both had similar intelligence levels (SAT scores) in college, and (b) they both had similar confidence and ambition, as demonstrated by their selection of colleges applied.</p>
<p>What this boils down to is individuals “make their own luck.” Intelligence and ambition rules all, and in most career fields, no one cares where you went to school after you get your first job.</p>
<p>If you were asked to say which colleges the people around you in the office where you work went to college, I bet you would mostly have no idea. How you perform on the job is far more important then where you got your degree. No one I know of walks around flaunting their degree(s)…and would look like a fool if they did.</p>
<p>Colleges certainly want you to believe it makes a difference…it is called marketing.</p>
<p>It’s true that I have no idea where most of my coworkers went to college (back when I gainfully employed!), but I knew the ones that went to elite colleges. They didn’t brag about it, but if they were a new hire (or when I was newly hired), it was one of the things used to describe them … and it stuck. </p>
<p>I like the quote chitchatmom found. That is very well stated.</p>