Which Top Med School Is For You? 3 Criteria To Think About When Choosing A School

When applying to med school, many people strive for the most famous, prestigious schools, like Harvard Medical School or UPenn Medical School. This can be a mistake because every med school has its own attributes which could suit your personal learning style better.

It’s a long 4 years, you want to be happy with the location of your school. If you aren’t happy with the location’s size, politics, weather, and entertainments, you won’t do as well in school and your overall experience will be negatively impacted.

It is important to look at the specifics of the academic program. Penn is different from some other medical schools in that you complete your pre-clinical classes in 1 ½ years instead of 2. This gives you 6 months at the end of your rotations to do research on whatever interests you. I personally enjoy research so it was important to me to have that flexibility.

Some schools have excellent mentorship and funding. Schools like the Mayo Clinic and Stanford University have smaller class sizes of about 40-80 people. The small class sizes help students to connect with their professors in a way that other schools cannot do. These schools also offer substantial scholarships which is helpful to students one a limited budget.

Some schools, like Yale, do not have a traditional grading system. Yale does not have preclinical grades and all tests are taken on your own and graded yourself. This is an appealing feature to students who do not thrive in a competitive atmosphere and who want to focus on the subjects that interest them most.

There’s a book put out by the AMA that has information on every med school It‘s a good idea to browse through this list when deciding which med schools to apply to and especially which one to commit to.