<p>I know ranking doesn't mean too much but....</p>
<p>I'm a student right now who is looking ahead into the future. I hope to become a surgeon. I noticed that the med school ranking is separated into the primary care and the research. Which ranking should I look more into?</p>
<p>I'm more interested in the surgical field, so does that mean the primary care ranking is relevant to me? Does that mean University of Washington Med School would be a better school for me than a school like Harvard Med School.</p>
<p>Please reply. This will definitely help me clarify my understanding.</p>
<p>Only about 1/2 of all students who apply to medical school get accepted anywhere. Most of these are very qualified people. I think for most students, they go where they can get in.</p>
<p>I am also a student interested in a medical career and I had one of my dad's friends explain the rankings to me. (He is an orthopedic surgeon) Basically with the current breakthroughs in medical science, most prospective doctors are focusing on research as a better career option than primary care (He gave me reasons such as getting better hours, less lawsuits, etc.). He told me he has known fellow doctors who "quit" primary care to pursue research and vica-versa, so its not like you limit your options by attending a medical school which specializes in one of the two areas.</p>
<p>He also credits the Ivy League medical schools for being better known for medical research due to the greater number of research $ seen by these schools and tremendous competition to get into one of these elite schools. State schools (such as Umass medical, where he attened) tend to provide tuition incentives for doctors who run primary care and/or family practices within each respective state, leading to a greater number of public medical school graduates engaged in primary care.</p>
<p>He also told me that it may seem disheartening if a student does not get into their top choice medical school and has to substitute in a less competitive school, but at the end of the day a Doctor is a Doctor (and as aforementioned, only about 50% of med. school applicants will actually find a place to study at :( )</p>
<p>i don't think undergrad premed matters too much; so i would go to a solid undergrad program like JHU, etc. however, if u get into accelerated programs like Rice-Baylor, WUSTL (i think by university of washington u meant Wash. U. in st. louis), Northwestern's HPME, etc.</p>
<p>thanks for the reply.... i'm not really sure if my question has been answered full yet.</p>
<p>Hmm I didn't mean Washington U in St. Louis. Currently, the state school University of Washington is ranked 1 in primary care. I noticed that all the prestigious schools are ranked really high in the research group.</p>
<p>So if I go to a research oriented school, and i graduate and become a surgeon, would I just be a more versatile surgeon since I'm familiar with both research AND primary care?</p>
<p>I'd say if you were dead set on becoming a surgeon, going to a institution that is better for primary care would be the best option unless you are specializing in new form of surgery which is still under a lot of research.</p>