<p>I've heard that the prestigiousness of your premed school doesn't matter as much so long as you achieve a high GPA, MCATS, extracurriculars, and all that jazz. So how much does it matter to Med school? Will getting into a better med school guarantee you into better success, more salary, and a better residency? Will getting into lower-tier med schools not benefit you as much?</p>
<p>Nothing promises success except for your hard work. Medicine is a meritocracy. There is some debate if a research career is best helped by going to a top (not necessarily prestigious) school, but prestige is cited as an extremely low determining factor for residency. Go where you love, if you get options.</p>
<p>Generally it helps to go to a top school if you are interested in academic medicine. The med school does not really matter for getting into any specialty though, assuming all else is equal. Residencies look (in order) at your Step I, 3/4 subjective clinical evaluations, LORs, research and then last is your first two year grades/class ranks. I suppose you could argue that going to a higher ranked med school will lead to a higher Step I score, but this is probably more due to the student body being smart than it is to the teaching at the school.</p>
<p>Getting into a residency is still 90% “old boy network”. If your chair or Prof from Med School calls the residency chair and says “take Bob, he is good”, you have the job.</p>
<p>PD: I assume that’s true only for selective residencies. There are 40% more residency spots than medical students, so “getting into a residency” [emphasis added] can’t possibly demand that level of endorsement.</p>
<p>" Getting into a residency is still 90% “old boy network”. If your chair or Prof from Med School calls the residency chair and says “take Bob, he is good”, you have the job. "</p>
<p>PD, that’s also a double-edged sword, though, in that a chair or prof is only going to do that for students he/she feels are especially promising since at least some of his/her academic-professional reputation is now on the line. If that student turns out to be a weak resident, then that professor/chair could stand to lose a fair amount of influence. The OP mentioned a good school basically “guaranteeing” you success, but the fact of the matter is that even if you get into a good school due to academics and working your references a bit (among other things), you could still end up a poor clinician and unsuccessful. I am not saying it happens often, but that good old boys club can only get a student’s foot in the door. It can’t make you successful.</p>
<p>apumic. Of course you are correct. The kids can be one of three outcomes:
He can be great.
He can be “ok”
He can be bad
But, you can only lead someone to the water…</p>
<p>And bluedevil, it counts for a wide spectrum of schools. I know people all over the US (and Canada and Israel and Europe). If I have a kid whom I think is great, I can suggest he study “with Bob at x” or if he/she tells me that she/he wants to go to y and I know someone there, I call. Repeat this at all the medical schools and you have the old boy network. It is probably heavier in some specialities as there are fewer positions. And you are correct. I only call if I think the person is great.</p>
<p>Old boy network matters, I’m discovering that advantage even through my first couple weeks of residency as more people find out that I eventually want to do a fellowship.</p>
<p>But the thing is, from the outside, you have no idea where those connections are, and how they are going to change. And there’s a substantial amount of luck for the student/applicant too. For example, there is one attending in my desired specialty at my residency program, who happens to be pretty well known nationally for his work in some national guidelines. His best friend in that field happened to be onservice for a week during my away rotation during 4th year at a very mid level medical school. That friend subsequently moved to one of the top 5 biggest names in pediatric hospitals. Now, the lucky part for me, is that on my very first day of residency orientation, during PALS training, I met the attending at my program, who knew someone from my med school, and he began asking me about that professor. By accident, I mentioned my away rotation, which opened further conversation about the specialists at that institution, which included the best friend. In a matter of minutes, on the very first day, before I had even done an iota of anything clinical, I got on that attending’s radar for future fellowship, and had the luck to be able to talk to him about all these people we both knew. But it should be pointed out that all these doctors in this story are at medical schools (with the exception of the guy that moved) that would not get an eyebrow raise from any pre-med at all. </p>
<p>Did I have any idea that my attending would know those people? Or that he’d be friends with them (could have just as easily been enemies)? Nope. There’s no way I could have planned for that to work out. Am I going to work this to my advantage if at all possible? Absolutely. I’ve made a connection with that attending, and beyond just the connections in this story, I know this doctor has other connections elsewhere. </p>
<p>I think, in regards to the OP’s question, the most accurate thing to say is that from any school, you’ll be able to go anywhere. The nuance to that is that, far from prying eyes of pre-meds, there are connections and reputations and pipelines that can make getting where you want easier…but you’ll never be able to figure those out, and they’re definitely not limited to the ‘name’ schools that you might think. </p>
<p>Sometimes, pipelines get set up, simply by one graduate of a school going to a certain residency program. The grad turns out to be a really good resident and the program begins looking for students from that school, who also turn out to be good residents. On the other side, the graduate enjoys the program and begins telling his/her friends who are below them in med school to consider that program. All of this builds on itself and suddenly there are always graduates from that school in the program.</p>
<p>bigred has hit it on the nail in that “you never know”.</p>
<p>However there are ‘dynasties’. People who have trained under the same chair. Then there are people who did work together, including in med school and college. Then there are people who you know from meetings. (eg, I got a girl a residency where she wanted because I go skiing with the chair every year at a meeting).</p>
<p>Do you need to “look into these when you apply”. Probably not unless you “know” what you want to do. If you Know that you want to be a Burn Surgeon, you should probably go to a medical school that has a great burn program. If you know you want to be a neonatologist, you should go to a school that has a great NICU. If you want to do DNA research, you should go to a school where someone is doing research in that field.</p>