<p>I was just wondering since all medical schools will essentially teach you the same things, how important is it career wise to attend say, HMS over a medical school like UIllinois or UMissouri? I am considering becoming a pediatric cardiovascular surgery and I know that it won't be any where near as hard to get into UIC medical center(I am from chicago) or UMISSOURI(that is where I will be going for undergrad), but by going to a less prestigious school would ones career prospects be diminished greatly?</p>
<p>There is some advantage in terms of residency placement. </p>
<p>There may also be some advantage if you ever want to step out of a purely medical role and into something where you will have to interact with people who are not physicians, i.e. a pharmaceutical firm, the government, an insurance company, etc. Many people working there will not have the information to properly assess your skills as a physician so they will have little choice but to rely on your med school brand name. </p>
<p>Name-brand can also help greatly if you ever see yourself opening your own practice, especially one that caters to the general public. For example, if you become a plastic surgeon selling beautiful faces or boob jobs, then saying that you graduated from Harvard or Johns Hopkins is a great way to market yourself.</p>
<p>However, in general, the differences tend to be pretty small.</p>
<p>Already decided on pediatric cardiovascular surgery, huh?</p>
<p>Don't be so naive to lock yourself into a specialty just yet... There is no way for you to know your mindset at that time in your life... and even if that option will still be open to you</p>
<p>It's hard for me to say at this point (I don't start med school for a few months yet), but my guess is that it's probably very similar to the importance of undergrad: Somewhat important, but not crucial.</p>
<p>Some students at top med schools probably don't get great residency placements; some students at low ranked med schools probably get very good residency placements.</p>
<p>As always, the principle at stake will be to pursue the best education you possibly can - not so that you get a great residency necessarily, but so that you will BE a great resident.</p>
<p>HMS, Duke, Hopkins, Penn - if the reputations are true, which they might not be - probably do help get you a better education. In that sense, you'd be robbing yourself to aim for anything lower.</p>
<p>Still, the rankings aren't always perfect. At the moment, I'm convinced that among two particular medical schools, the lower ranked one would give me the better education. I am trying to decide whether that's true, and whether I'm strong enough to choose that school if that's really the case.</p>
<p>The education itself is unlikely to differ much at all. Medical schools are so heavily regulated that it is difficult for them to deviate from the standard path. However, residency selection committees do favor graduates of the more famous medical schools. So going to Hopkins will help when you apply to residency. If you are applying for a high-demand field, it might make the difference between getting into that area, or not matching for a residency in your chosen specialty at all. </p>
<p>Graduates of the more prestigious schools are more likely to enter these high demand specialties, because they are more likely to want to, because the schools themselves encourage it, and because they have the option. </p>
<p>So... if you want to enter a microspecialty, like pediatric cardiac surgery, then going to a "top" school can help. If you want to enter primary care, then it does not matter at all.</p>
<p>BTW, astrife is right, until you have seen medical practice from the inside, it is almost impossible to know enough about it to know that you want this particular field. Perhaps if you have been a nurse practitioner, and you really know the specialty, you can make an informed decision. Otherwise, I bet you change your mind several times before you graduate.</p>
<p>Well, I will say that better schools are likely to:</p>
<p>1.) Have better students to learn together with
2.) Have better faculty to learn from
3.) Have more interesting patients to learn about</p>
<p>None of these rules are 100%.</p>