<p>I plan to go to medical school and want to decide which schools I should apply.<br>
I know Tufts is a great school in general and in the best location. Many people said Tufts medical school is very good. I checked usnews ranking, Tufts medical school is about 50+ which is not that impressive. Can anyone comment on this?
I know that ranking does not mean everything. But why Tufts medical school ranking is not that great but people said it's very good? I actually do not know if ranking 50+ is good, not good?
What's the best thing about Tufts medical school? Programs, specialties?
thanks for all the help!</p>
<p>Stop basing your life on US News and World Report</p>
<p>Nobody applies to one Med. School. Apply to your list, get accepted, then decide. You definitely need to research each one of your options AFTER you have a list of the ones that accepted you. You will need to do extensive research. The Second Look event was crucial in my D’s decision making. You are way ahead and you are wasting your time if you do not have a single acceptance to a Med. School.</p>
<p>Agreee Forget US news and World report. Do really well in college, extracurricular, research, volunteering etc and get great letters. Apply to lots of schools and pray you get in one or more. Then worry about which one to go to. Have a friend that went to Tufts med, then did Neurology at UMiami. It doesn’t matter what programs are good there you can go anywhere for residency.</p>
<p>What everyone else has said.</p>
<p>1) There’s no way to even guess at this point IF you’ll be competitive enough to apply to ANY medical school, much less Tufts.</p>
<p>2) There are no guarantees w/r/t medical school acceptances. Even if you fit the “profile” of a particular school, that’s still no guarantee you’ll get accepted. Adcomms consider so many “soft” factors that just because your stats are ‘in range’ for </p>
<p>3) US News ranking for research (I assume that’s the number you’re talking about) are more or less based upon the amount of NIH and NSF research dollars the school received. That can change fairly quickly. (Especially given the status of basic science funding in Congress.)</p>
<p>4) Primary care rankings are based even more questionable criteria than are research rankings.</p>
<p>5) The med school you attend has much less to do with where you do your residency and what specialty you do your residency in than does your USMLE score (which is dependent on you and your dedication/study habits).</p>
<p>I plan to go to medical school and want to decide which schools I should apply.
I know Tufts is a great school in general and in the best location. Many people said Tufts medical school is very good. I checked usnews ranking, Tufts medical school is about 50+ which is not that impressive. Can anyone comment on this?</p>
<p>Ha!</p>
<p>All US MD schools are impressive and VERY good. EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THEM. There are no “so so” or subpar US MD schools. They all are super and any student is LUCKY and should thank their lucky stars to get accepted to any ONE of them.</p>
<p>Regarding tuft med school, IMHO, the more relevant factors are 1) location (relatively convenient one if you like an urban location) 2) cost of attendance. 3) likely many applicants - as compared to the public med school in your state. So your odds of getting in is likely lower for this school even if your credential in terms of academic merit is good enough for this school.</p>
<p>The ranking (research or primary care ones) should be much less important as the majority of med schools are good.</p>
<p>But you may need to get in first no matter which school you are talking anout.</p>
<p>mcat2</p>
<p>The ranking (research or primary care ones) should be much less important as the majority of med schools are good.</p>
<p>lol…the majority? Can you please name ONE US MD school that isn’t “good”. They’re all very good.</p>
<p>Maybe I should use the word “almost all” instead of “the majority.” </p>
<p>I do not want to name that med school here, but I once read somewhere that the passing rate of the board tests of a particular med school is noticeably lower than most oher med schools (likely from SDN?) But this has more to do with the pool of the students, rather than the med school. Some may not want to go to such a med school if they have other choice, if they think the peer students are also important.</p>
<p>Tangent to this discussion, my quess is that the quality of the residency programs may be much more varied, as compared to that of med schools. I think I learned this from SDN too.</p>
<p>It’s worth noting that there are many more residency spots (something on the order of 30% or 40% more) than medical school spots.</p>
<p>…than US medical school spots</p>
<p>I do not want to name that med school here, but I once read somewhere that the passing rate of the board tests of a particular med school is noticeably lower than most oher med schools (likely from SDN?) But this has more to do with the pool of the students, rather than the med school. Some may not want to go to such a med school if they have other choice, if they think the peer students are also important.</p>
<p>If the pool of students isn’t absorbing, understanding what is being properly taught (and therefore not testing well on boards), then the med school isn’t subpar, the student body is.</p>
<p>It’s worth noting that there are many more residency spots (something on the order of 30% or 40% more) than medical school spots. </p>
<p>really? More residency spots than the graduates? Does it mean that every medical school student gets residency? I heard that it’s very hard to get residency. </p>
<p>I do not have much idea about the medical school system. That’s why I post those ranking thing. From all of you, I know all schools (almost everyone) are good, so the ranking is not useful at all. Good to know that. I am just used to the undergrad ranking. </p>
<p>mcat2: why you said:
likely many applicants - as compared to the public med school in your state. </p>
<p>I thought in state school has lower tuition, so should the in-state school have more applicants?</p>
<p>*I do not want to name that med school here, but I once read somewhere that the passing rate of the board tests of a particular med school is noticeably lower than most oher med schools (likely from SDN?) But this has more to do with the pool of the students, rather than the med school. Some may not want to go to such a med school if they have other choice, if they think the peer students are also important.</p>
<p>=====
If the pool of students isn’t absorbing, understanding what is being properly taught (and therefore not testing well on boards), then the med school isn’t subpar, the student body is.*</p>
<p>Good heavens! I left out a chunk of my sentence.</p>
<p>That should say: If the pool of students isn’t absorbing the material that is being properly taught because too many of the students aren’t really “med school material,” then the med school isn’t subpar…</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Not hard to get a residency. It may be hard to get a residency in specialty you want (particuarly if you interested in competitive specialties) or in a location you want. </p>
<p>There are US med graduates who don’t get residency offers–there always has been-- but typically these individuals have serious problem with their candidacy (academic dishonest charges, failed USMLE exam, failed med school classes, previous dismissal from a residency, poor LORs from clinical supervisors, poor social/interviewing skills, not applying to enough programs, not ranking enough programs to ensure a match, mismatch between STEP scores and competitiveness of the program)</p>
<p>While there are still residency slots in excess of US medical graduates the situation is changing.</p>
<p>See this NEJM article about issues that future med students may face:</p>
<p>[The</a> Residency Mismatch](<a href=“http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMp1306445]The”>http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMp1306445)</p>
<p>~~~~~</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Public school generally do have lower tuition costs; howver, many state schools either won’t consider OOS applicants for admission or very heavily favor state residents for admission (OOS admission rates are <5-15%). Because of this bias, state schools often don’t rack up the applicant numbers that private schools (which don’t have an in-state bias) do.</p>
<p>"It doesn’t matter what programs are good there you can go anywhere for residency. "
-You should know what you personally are looking for. As an example, if you are planning to get into more selective residency, keep in mind that Step 1 score will be important. Some programs allow more time for Step 1 prep. than others. It might make a big difference. Although score alone is not everything, certain score will either shut some doors or open many. Study / compare programs if / when you have options. But getting accepted to a single Med. School is a great accomplishment all by itself that about 57% of applicants will not achieve.</p>
<p>OP, WOWmom has explained it well. Most public med schools highly favors the applicants from their states or do not take any OOS applicants at all. This result in a relatively fewer applicants, as compared to a private med school like Georgetown.</p>
<p>For some states, many IS appolicants could not even get into one of their public med schools in their states. So OOS private med schools are their alternatives.</p>
<p>I once heard that, no matter what college you go to, likely 70 precents of chances you may come back to your state to attend your public med school. Of course, there are exceptions, e.g., California.</p>
<p>^No fewer applicants in our state publics at all, despite of the fact that some are way more expansive (and way lower ranked) than ALL privates. Still huge number of applicants and California is just flooding the whole Midwest, period, and they have stats and everything else…they just have hard time driving in a snow…</p>
<p>If you want to see the data of how many applications (raw number of applications, in-state vs OOS, male vs female) any med school gets—here’s the AAMC table:</p>
<p><a href=“https://www.aamc.org/download/321442/data/2012factstable1.pdf[/url]”>https://www.aamc.org/download/321442/data/2012factstable1.pdf</a></p>
<p>Wao, thanks everyone for all the info!!! it helps a lot! All those links are great!</p>
<p>Does it mean in state school is easier to get in than the private school since less people apply?</p>
<p>MiamiDAP mentioned that step 1 score. what’s that? when should the medical student take it, 1st year of medical school? does it mean there are step 2, step 3? </p>
<p>in WayOutWestMom’s link, the article mentioned: Colleges of osteopathic medicine
why this medicine is so special to mention specifically?</p>