<p>A good essay. The authors mention UNM as an example of a medical school that should be judged by "mission based metrics". </p>
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[QUOTE]
The annual U.S. News & World report rankings of U.S. medical schools are ill-conceived; are unscientific; are conducted poorly; ignore the value of school accreditation; judge medical school quality from a narrow, elitist perspective; do not consider social and professional outcomes in program quality calculations; and fail to meet basic standards of journalistic ethics. The U.S. medical education community, higher education scholars, the journalism profession, and the public should ignore this annual marketing shell game.
<p>Trying to lure her back to your home state? LOL. This is most parents’ “dream”.
Although many med schools pay attention to the education of minority physicians, I do not know the University of Illinois has more emphasis on this than other public med schools. (That is, this is new to me.)</p>
<p>I realize there are some students that formulate their list during undergraduate process based on rankings; however, I can’t imagine any med school applicant doing the same – I don’t care what your stats are. When almost all SOMs have acceptance rates lower than 10%, you’re lucky if you get in ANYWHERE let alone a higher ranked school. It seems to me the best strategy is to apply broadly to a variety of schools and hope you’re one of the lucky 45% that gets in somewhere.</p>
<p>WOWMom, it seems everywhere I’ve traveled the past couple of years, for symposiums and the like, someone has mentioned UNM, and it’s always positive. You guys must be doing something special out there in the desert. :D</p>
<p>UNM develops and pilots med school curricula using input from its students. They have been leaders and innovators in medical education for 40 years.</p>
<p>(And they’re doing something right. Below median MCAT score, but higher than median STEP scores. No wonder so many of their ideas and innovations are being adopted at schools.)</p>
<p>Students at UNM are pro-active, happy and successful. The students get tons of support and have tons of input about their education. This past year, the school made a major rearrangement to the order of its 2nd year classes based on student suggestions. D1 says that compared to students she knows at other med schools, she’s “treated like a princess”.</p>
<p>“Although many med schools pay attention to the education of minority physicians, I do not know the University of Illinois has more emphasis on this than other public med schools”</p>
<p>They probably brag about it more. Texas has JAMP and another program to recruit rural students right out of high school.</p>
<p>I thought USNWR research rankings are purely based on how much research money they can get (hoodwink?) out of NIH. That does not say much about their Step 1 averages!</p>
<p>“Apply for Financial Aid. You must complete the Free Application for Federal Student Aid FAFSA and be eligible to receive a Pell Grant or an Estimated Family Contribution (EFC) up to 8000.”</p>
<p>Hey, the poor have every disadvantage in almost all aspects of their lives. Let them (especially their kids who are not their fault when they are poor) be ahead at least once. Also many Tx med schools are large enough to take in some of these students without affecting the admission of regular applicants too much.</p>
<p>Hopefully, this post will not be considered as being border line political.</p>
<p>Ok, I’ll be honest here, NO WAY ON EARTH is Stanford the second best medical school in the country. This is clearly a fallacy and a disgrace. IDC how u rank them, but Hopkins and Harvard are 1 and 2 in some way or another. A couple of years ago Stanford was barely in the top 10.</p>
<p>I don’t know if Stanford is even top 50. The ranking is irrelevant for medical school. I wish they would get rid of it and just focus on research funding. Furthermore, patients are in general different in areas of the country. So you might never compare apples to apples. Please disregard these rankings and focus on making sure you choose a school and an environment you can succeed in.</p>
<p>The U.S. News rankings serve one purpose: to sell magazines. I think their college rankings edition is their highest-selling issue every year. It serves their purpose to put the medical schools people expect in the top 10 (and schools of every other type, including undergraduate schools). Perhaps in a slightly different order every year, but roughly in the same general range.</p>
<p>It’s only especially egregious for medical school, where the rankings hardly matter.</p>
<p>ranking do matter for the most competitive specialties (not so much us news ranking, but prestige of the med school). of course, it’s not in the top things programs look at, but most people applying will already have top board scores, clinical grades, etc.</p>
<p>I heard those doctors who serve the celebrity (e.g., plastic surgery) need to have the “name”, however shallow they may be. For the rest of us, we may not care.</p>
<p>There are others besides plastics that may care, but we do not know…anyway, D. is happy with her choice, she did not choose the hieghst ranked, but she ruled out the lower ones and she hopes that it will help, but residency match is so unpredictable and we will never know about all that is going on, you need some luck in addition to everything that is in your control (Step 1 score, clinical grades, etc.). who knows at all if SOM ranking helps or not…</p>
<p>Mcat2, in the three cities I’ve lived during medical school, residency, and practice, word of mouth meant everything for the plastic surgeons. In fact school or residency prestige meant 0. In 2/3 cities, the top surgeons weren’t even plastic surgeons, they were cosmetic surgeons. I don’t even want to get a fight started by discussing that rivalry. My third city was Baltimore and no one went to Johns Hopkins for their cosmetic surgeries. They went there for reconstruction surgery. You know, doctors pick their doctors based upon word of mouth too.</p>
!</p>