How to Choose Which Medical School to Attend

Because getting accepted into medical school is extraordinarily difficult, it is a remarkable accomplishment when a premed gets into more than one school. Aspiring doctors in this situation might feel a bit overwhelmed by their options, so admissions experts say there are a few things accepted students should keep in mind when picking a med school.

Dr. Eduardo Hariton, a graduate of Harvard Medical School and Harvard Business School who has both an M.D. degree and an MBA, notes that the medical school curriculum is very demanding. He also emphasizes that medical school is a long-term commitment. Because of its length and rigor, prospective medical students need to identify a school where they feel comfortable, Hariton advises.

[Read: Find Medical Schools That Match Your Learning Style.]

"It is important to be at a place where you feel at home, where you feel welcome," says Hariton, who served on Harvard's medical school admissions committee while a student there.

He notes that, unlike college courses, med school classes require learning how to care for human beings, and that can be a highly emotional and stressful experience. So prospective medical students should look for schools where they feel like they belong, Hariton says.

Elisabeth Fassas, a student at the University of Maryland School of Medicine, says she chose her school because its academic offerings aligned with her interests.

"I had and have no idea of what kind of doctor I want to be, but it was really important to me that I was in a ... big academic institution with a lot of patient populations served. Maryland happened to be a really good fit for me," says Fassas, author of the book, "Making Pre-Med Count: Everything I Wish I'd Known Before (Successfully) Applying to Medical School."

Fassas notes that the UMD medical school is based in Baltimore in an urban environment, so students get exposure to patients within that context. But students can also choose to go to rural areas of Maryland, where they can get training in rural medicine.

"I also knew I wanted to be in a city," Fassas says, adding that she struggles to be "productive and happy" unless she has things to do besides study. "So I really wanted to make sure that there were other things for me to engage with," she explains, adding that she feels at home because she is from the region and has family in the area.

All prospective medical students should seek out schools with a supportive atmosphere, says Dr. Kyle Bradford Jones, an associate professor in the department of family and preventive medicine at the University of Utah School of Medicine.

Jones, author of the forthcoming book, "Fallible: A Memoir of a Young Physician's Struggle with Mental Illness," cautions that medical school can be emotionally draining at times so it's important to find an optimal environment to pursue a medical degree.

How to Assess Compatibility

Prospective students should take a holistic approach to determining which medical school is right for them by evaluating multiple factors, including the school's academic approach, student services, campus, location and general environment, says Carlos Tapia, executive director of admissions and enrollment operations at the TCU and UNTHSC School of Medicine in Texas.

"They should make sure that they see themselves thriving in that medical school environment," Tapia wrote in an email.

Hariton, a clinical fellow in reproductive endocrinology and infertility at the University of California--San Francisco, says that when he received multiple medical school admissions offers, he attended second-look experiences at various schools so he could gauge which program was most suitable for him. He recommends that medical school admits make an effort to go to second-look events if they have sufficient time and money to do so.

"If you have an opportunity to visit them and see what it's like in person, see what kind of student body they may attract to your class and get a sense of whether you fit in that culture and student body, it's extremely important, because it gives you a firsthand sense of what to expect," he says.

Speaking with a med school's recent alumni can provide valuable insights, Hariton adds. "This is especially important for people who are from underrepresented minorities, like I was, because it gives you a sense of whether someone from your background had a good or bad experience."

Prospective medical students should prioritize finding a school where they can excel academically rather than concerning themselves with what others will think about which school they attend, Hariton says. He notes that no matter what medical school someone attends, if they do not perform well in class they may struggle to match with a desirable medical residency.

[Read: What to Expect in Medical School and Beyond.]

Individuals accepted into med school who have an idea about which specialty they want to practice should research a medical school's residency match list to see if students commonly match within that specialty, Hariton adds. Attending a school with academic strength in multiple medical specialties is beneficial because it gives students the flexibility to pursue the area of medicine that captivates them the most during medical school, he explains.

Plus, Hariton adds, admitted med students who would like to pursue two graduate degrees simultaneously through a dual-degree program should inquire about whether that is feasible at their target schools.

Meanwhile, premeds who are choosing between M.D. or D.O. programs should think about which type of medical degree they would prefer, suggests Dr. G. Richard Olds, president of St. George's University, an international academic institution that has a medical school and that has its main campus in the Caribbean.

"The degree that you get is always affixed to your name," he says.

[Read: The Difference Between D.O. and M.D. Degrees.]

How to Judge Whether a Medical School Is Worth the Cost

Medical school hopefuls should aim to identify the school that provides them with the best value, meaning a quality education at a reasonable price, some experts say.

"You certainly have to consider your financial situation and how incurring debt in medical school will affect your ability to ... pick your own path later in life," Hariton says, adding that meeting with a financial advisor might be a good idea. He says that medical school debt can affect the ability to start a family at a preferred time, and it could have an impact on the choice between pursuing a less lucrative but desired medical specialty and one with high pay.

Hariton notes that cost-conscious admitted students who are weighing various medical school scholarships or financial aid packages might want to request advice from medical residents and other recent med school grads, since these people could provide input on the quality-of-life implications of med school debt.

Olds notes that being an in-state student at a public medical school is usually the least expensive option. U.S. medical schools are highly regulated, which means that most of them are of reasonably good quality, he says. But he says there is great variation in quality among international medical schools, so it's important to research them and examine each curriculum before deciding where to attend.

U.S. medical school hopefuls who are looking at international medical schools should investigate whether they have a solid track record of placing students in U.S. medical residencies, Olds says. These premeds should also inquire about attrition rates because it's a bad sign when schools flunk out a significant number of students, he says.

One positive sign about any medical school -- whether it is based within or outside the U.S. -- is when its student body obtains a variety of residencies, including residencies in multiple medical specialties, Olds says.

"Make sure that the graduates of the school have a reasonable distribution of the types of specialties that they do," he advises, adding that it's a negative if the vast majority of a med school's grads enter a single medical specialty. It's best, he says, if a medical school's match list includes a wide array of specialties because that signifies that students are typically able to enter the medical disciplines that most interest them.

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