<p>I've heard lots of great things about Northwestern University so I was shocked to find out that NU does not rank in top 50 for medical school (primary care). On the research ranking, it ranks as the 20th best school. </p>
<p>Why is NU's rank for primary care soooo low? What does such rank mean for getting good residency? </p>
<p>Anyone got any ideas??</p>
<p>which ranking system are you looking at? because US News says NU ranks 11th nationally...but i'm not sure about NU's medical ranking, sorry.</p>
<p>For med school, I think the research rank is the one that matters.</p>
<p>I was talking to the admissions administrator at the Medical College of Wisconsin here in Milwaukee, and he was telling me about how those ranks are really poor indications of how good a med school is. For instance, U-Wisconsin is ranked high in primary care but is actually a more research oriented school (after all, it is the only state public med school). So although Feinberg is probably more patient care oriented, for what ever reason, it doesn't rank very highly in primary care. (Plus, does anybody know how they make those rankings? At least they give you a formula when they do undergrad...).</p>
<p>Hope this helped.</p>
<p>the only sate public med school?
what about UCLA and UCSF?
or were you referring to just the state of wisconsin?</p>
<p>and the admissions person is right, those rankings reveal very little about the actual quality of education youll be receiving. Theyre similar to the hospital rankings... I checked into UCSF hospital a few days ago (its a long story why) thinking it was gonna be such a great place because USNWR ranks it as one of the ten best hospitals in the US, and the childrens part is one of the top 3 or 5 every year. Welll... what I actually felt was no different than any other hospital....because the rankings really dont matter for anything but school pride when they want to boast about research productivity.</p>
<p>Yes, I was definitely referring to WI. There are certainly lots of med schools out there ^_^</p>
<p>But what about residency options? Don't they take these rankings into consideration (even a little bit) in choosing a hospital for your residency? Isn't it true that it helps to go to highly-ranked medical schools to get admitted to the best places for residency ?</p>
<p>The primary care ranking means very little. It is mostly a reflection upon how many students from these schools go onto primary care positions. As these are often the least coveted residency spots anyway (which I think is a flawed viewpoint anyway, but there it is) you'll do fine to get into primary care from any US med school. The research ranking is the "competitive" one. It reflects NIH grants and publishings and all that good stuff that people can use to measure 'prestige'. </p>
<p>Feinberg is a fine school, I promise.</p>