Every wide-eyed, idealistic pre-med student out there wants, of course, to go to one of the top medical schools in the United States that is available to him or her. These hardworking undergraduates dream the big dreams, as well they should. However, it is not uncommon for the vast majority of people - educated or otherwise - to assume that universities with the most prestigious undergraduate programs also have the best law, medical, and general graduate degree programs.
Because of this, schools like Ivy League Universities - Princeton, Yale, Harvard, Dartmouth, Brown, Cornell, Columbia, and the University of Pennsylvania - are often the first that prospective medical students look at. While this is good in theory, in practice it doesn’t always work out that way.
Pre med students need to know that the top medical schools in the U.S. are not always connected to the larger name schools. A classic example that underlies this point: Princeton, which doesn’t even have a law or medical school.
According to most of the commonly read rankings, such U.S. News and World Report and the Princeton Review, only one of the famous eight are considered to truly be among the top medical schools in the United States. This, unsurprisingly, is none other than Harvard Medical School.
However, the other universities that are considered home to the top medical schools in the United States are not, perhaps, what the average American citizen might expect. The University of Washington in St. Louis has what is arguably the second best medical school in the country, hands down - it plays second fiddle only to Harvard, and even then, the difference in actual quality of education is a highly debatable point. For many, the latter school may in fact be the better fit, even if it isn’t necessarily the bigger name. Along with the University of California at San Francisco (UCSF), the University of Washington in St. Louis was one of only two medical schools to be included among the “top ten” medical schools in the categories of both research and primary care.
That last sentence brings up a good point we should discuss. What exactly makes a medical school a “top medical school?” You can go to a top ten medical school, but if they’re top ten in research and you’re interested in primary care, that school isn’t going to be the best match. The best medical schools are going to vary based on what exactly the student is looking for. If you’re looking for the best medical schools when looking at research, then in that case a lot of big name schools enter the fray. Johns Hopkins University has earned a reputation as a king in this category, while Duke University and Columbia University follow very close behind. But if a pre med student is looking for primary care, lesser known schools such as the University of New Mexico may rank as much as thirty spots above some of its more prestigious counterparts.
Marc Arlen has been a contributing author for many years and has written numerous articles on the medical profession including the best medical schools in the U.S. and offshore. His informative and stimulating articles covering St Georges Medical school provide another option for many who have been declined admission to U.S. medical schools.
If you would like to make a comment, please fill out the form below.
