<p>keepmesane, I think US News rankings are terrible measures of a college's quality
The medical school rankings are especially worthless because they rank the schools based on how much research money they get from the NIH
In my opinion, HPME, Brown PLME, and Rice/Baylor are the best three combined programs you can get into. They are all about equal, and its really comes down to personal preference when choosing between those three because all three are very well established and churn out great doctors.</p>
<p>three6mafia, I agree with you completely regarding rankings. However, the poster I quoted was using "national" rankings to disparage all but one program. The OP is admitted to one and possibly two of your choices of "the best" and has a full ride in another good program. I think in this case, it will need to come down to family finances (indicates Rice will provide some scholarship support also) and what he is looking for in his undergrad education. Different feels but great choices all the way around. </p>
<p>OP, remember, these programs give you a guaranteed admittance if you meet certain standards but going to USC or Rice or Northwestern or Brown doesn't preclude your applying and being accepted to another medical school in three or four year. How can you lose?</p>
<p>i lied, i'm going to MSU</p>
<p>gujugeek, that's impressive that you got into all those programs...mind listing your stats?</p>
<p>I would pick Northwestern.
I think it tops BU and Baylor.</p>
<p>Rice/Baylor may be good academically. But it's not the best environment for a Northee to go to.</p>
<p>I went to school in Texas myself. Boy! I am glad to live in the North, now.
Texas is not very friendly to Desis, Gujugeek.</p>
<p>IF you looked white, then would you feel the same way about Texans schools.</p>
<p>My recommendation for the best chance at a good residency:</p>
<ol>
<li>Rice/Baylor</li>
<li>HPME</li>
<li>Drexel</li>
<li>JHU</li>
</ol>
<p>Actually Northwestern is ranked higher than Baylor College of Medicine by the residency directors. On SDN forums I saw that Baylor had 9 people scramble last year which isn't very good. But both Feinberg and Baylor are great medical schools and you really can't go wrong with either program.</p>
<p>Can somebody show me ranking of med schools based on getting students into good residencies?</p>
<p>etern, where is the SDN forums? And how they know 9 students scramble? Thanks.</p>
<p>keepmesane...thanks for the support...and the good luck:)
maybe it helped - i think it went well, so we'll see:)</p>
<p>check out the my post in the Northwestern HPME thread for the list of residency director rankings
SDN forums are here: <a href="http://forums.studentdoctor.net/index.php%5B/url%5D">http://forums.studentdoctor.net/index.php</a></p>
<p>Thanks everyone for your replies.</p>
<p>I went to Coca-Cola Scholars last weekend and haven't been too active on the forums since.</p>
<p>I've made my decision. I'm going to turn down HPME to a lot of people's surprise. And I ended up getting put on the waitlist for the Rice/Baylor program.</p>
<p>So....</p>
<p>I will be attending USC Bacc/MD on the Trustee scholarship.</p>
<p>I think USC is a better fit for me. It's certainly not as prestigous as Northwestern...but I really don't care too much about that. And from many people I've talked to, prestige of a medical school plays little factor in getting a good residency...it's more about your board scores, grades, etc. Plus, I'm pretty sure that I want to do my residency in California....so going to USC just makes sense. I absolutely love the LA area....USC football/basketball, beaches, clubs, LA Lakers, Inn-N-Out ;), etc. Although these may seem like superficial reasons, you need to enjoy where you go to school. Evanston is great and all, but can't really campare to the heart of LA. And look at like this...we future doctors have only the next 4 years to really enjoy life during our twenties...because after that we have med school + residency = No Life. So might as well enjoy life during your undergraduate experience as much as possible. Not to mention the amazing weather...I'm just a west coast kind of guy..It's a lot closer to home! In terms of the quality of education/students at USC...I think it's really on the rise. This year at my school, only those who I consider to work hard and be "smart" got in. I remember at USC experience, one of the admissions officers said that the average unweighted GPA of an admitted applicant would be 3.7 or something and their SAT would be about 2100. So they are definitely attracting a higher quality student. If you want to talk rankings...I think they went from 34 to 27 on the U.S. News list if that even means anything. Steven Sample has certainly done some great things during his presidency to improve the quality of education. I remember one guy told me that 20-30 years ago...it was like community college. But anyway, I don't think I'll be missing out too much on the intellectually stimulating environment I would've found at HPME, because Bacc/MD students are also highly intelligent. I met students who turned down Harvard, Princeon, Yale, etc. to go to Bacc/MD. Oh yeah, and it's a lot cheaper! Plus, college is what you make it. So I intend to make my experience at USC one that is both enjoyable and intellectually advancing.</p>
<p>Thanks, and let me know if you guys think that I've made the right decision.</p>
<p>Does Drexel have a good med program?? Becuase it seems like the school is just ok.</p>
<p>Gujugeek,
I definitely think you made the right decision..i'll be in Bacc/MD next year as well, and am totally psyched! One other person on CC, shedoesntgetit, is also going, that I know of! do you have housing yet?</p>
<p>Good Luck at USC Guju! :)
It isn't exactly in the best part of LA, but whatever, its still LA.</p>
<p>gujugeek...
i'm glad you're happy with your decision. you seem pretty set and satisfied, and considering the deciding factors you mentioned, this seems a great way to go. Congratulations!</p>
<p>westcoastlove: Not sure, to me it's not too good...but not too bad either.</p>
<p>Wear2go: I put in my housing application really late...sometime at the beginning of April. I should've put it in when I first got accepted. Anyway, I put Radisson as my top choice...it would be so awesome to live in a hotel lol. After that came New and North.</p>
<p>three6mafia and meadle24390: Thanks for the support, it's really reassuring that I made a good decision. What did you guys end up deciding? HPME, I'm guessing?</p>
<p>yeah im going to hpme</p>
<p>i'm about 95% sure rice/baylor, actually...:P</p>
<p>Rice/Baylor came out?? Could you guys please share your stats???? It's my TOP choice. You can PM me if you want</p>