What are some of the best Med Schools to apply to?
September 9th, 2009 Posted by: admin
I live in the U.S., specifically California and would like to know which are the top 5 Med Schools to apply to? I’d also like to know what types of extraordinary talents one would have to demonstrate besides having the best grades and great M-Cat scores? I understand many undergrads do exceptionally well, as I do; however, I’d would love to truly stand out.
By: Kryptonite
By: Kryptonite
Tags: Love, Med Schools, Talents
September 11th, 2009 at 21:53
Harvard and Johns Hopkins are consistently considered the best 2 med schools in the country.
You might wish to check out the graduate schools rankings in US News and World Report.
As for how to get in, it will be based on many factors in addition to stellar grades, including the quality of your undergraduate institution.
You should speak to a guidance or career counsellor at your undergrad institution on ways to improve your med-school application packet.
September 13th, 2009 at 12:55
Harvard, Yale, John Hopkins, University of Mississippi Medical Center (Medical School)
September 14th, 2009 at 16:19
Harvard, John Hopkins, Yale, NYU, and University of Pennsylvania are all great medical schools to appy too.
September 15th, 2009 at 11:34
The question is: what is your criteria for “top 5″? Top five in what? Research? Most diverse patient population? Happiest med students? Best amenities? Largest chain of hospitals to rotate through?
See how it blurs?
Everybody is going to shoot from the hip and default on Harvard or Johns Hopkins, but that’s just because they are ranked highly by outlets like U.S. News. Since that’s a questionable ranking system imbued with money and politics (see the Wikipedia article on the U.S. News Rankings), you might want to be open to other possibilities.
For instance, a lot of California premed and medical students chose UCSF med school over Harvard. And why? Because everyone in California discovers that UCSF is an amazing school. I’m not even in California and I respect it from the great things I’ve heard. I’d actually be more impressed if you got into UCSF over Stanford Med.
I know you want a clear cut answer so you know which five schools to send your application money to. But it’s just not that simple. Think about what’s important to you from that first sentence, talk to doctors about what med schools they hear are best (most everybody will tell you that residency matters more than med school), visit the schools if possible, and probably most imporantly, buy an MSAR and see where you’d be competitive.
What sort of extraordinary talents who you have to demonstrate? Ehhh, usually the same you’d need to get into their undergrad programs. Things that people have done: entrepeneurship (one guy started a Biotech company to combat TB in Africa), excessive amounts of published research (especially first author if you can somehow get that), diverse life experiences (i.e. you climbed a series of mountains), are all things that HELP. Obviously, some people slip in without being too extraordinary.
Having high scores in both GPA/MCAT is a given.
Look at the profiles on. That’ll give you a better idea.
Good luck!