<p>When you go to doc., do you care if he is Harvard trained or he is known to be helpful, knowledgable, caring? 80% of physicians in our area graduated from local no-rank Medical school, which is still very very hard to get into (about 4,000 applications yearly for about 150 apots). I heard there is no income diff. either. I also know personally people who got very top residencies (like Mayo clinic and such) after our local Medical School. Difficulty of classes could be compared only if the same person went to 2 different schools concurrently, which is impossible. So, prestige seems to come down to the fact that one can mention in conversation that they graduated from such and such school.</p>