Top 10 medical schools?

Question

Why are Harvard, Johns Hopkins, St. Louis' Washington University, University of Pennsylvania, University of California, Duke University, University of Washington, Stanford, UCLA, and Yale the top 10 medical schools in the US? What makes them so special? Please list any special traits in these schools, becasue I want to be prepared for college.

Answer 1

Naive people put a lot of emphasis of the US News and World Report's annual ranking list of medical schools.  US New acknowledges that their opinion is based on the subjective opinions of Deans, Program Directors, etc. and that the number of respondents fails the validity test for any statistical model.  The reason there are so few respondents is that most medical schools are ethical and are refusing to participate in this charade, as it's only purpose is to sell magazines; however, those highly ranked schools still like to post that stat on their web page (after all, every medical school is a business and has an eye on marketing).

Will a $50,000/semester medical school provide a better education than a $16,000/semester school?  The answer is no.  The National Board of Medical Examiners quality assures the education provided at every medical school.  If there was a statistically significant variance between any school, those performing better would have their curriculum copied by the weaker performing schools and those performing poorly would lose their accreditation.  Neither scenario has occurred.

The reputations enjoyed by the "Big Name" schools are earned through the residency programs, research and medical centers associated with the school.  None of those actually have anything to do with the education provided at the school.  If you think about it logically, if Hopkins students received a superior education, would Hopkins only accept its own graduates into its residency programs?  Having worked at Johns Hopkins for a number of years I can attest that few Hopkins graduates were accepted into the various residency programs.

The best medical school for you to attend is the one provided by your own state university system, for two reason.  Because you are a resident of that state you'll have admission preference over an equally qualified nonresident and you'll also pay the lowest tuition over any other medical school you could attend.

Those that argue differently either don't know what they're talking about or are trying to justify paying an outlandish tuition.  

Now, the story changes when it comes to residency programs.  There are programs that are known for being superior--and that's what your objective should be--getting into the best residency program for your chosen specialty.  Just don't be surprised if the best one is at a program that doesn't carry a big name.  I use Emergency Medicine as an example.  The two best programs are at the University of Maryland and UCLA.