Internal Rankings in Med school?

[effectedtag]

Hello all,

I am just trying to get some perspective from some medical students. I am deciding between two really great schools. One with p/f pre-clinical but internal rankings into quartiles and then graded clinical vs a school that is true p/f all 4 years?

I am interested in competitive specalties. How much should I weigh the grading system in my decision? I feel like I could be potentially happy at both places. Both schools still seem highly collaborative and in the school with internal rankings the students still seem very happy.

Essentially, from your experiences, do you wish you had the "chillness" of p/f all 4 years, or do you feel like internal rankings and graded clinical allow you to stand out? Maybe with p/f all 4 years it is easier to grind out research without not having to worry so much about your classes in comparison to your peers?

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[GoSpursGo]

It just totally depends on the tier of the school and your personal values. If it’s a t20, internal rankings probably do you no favors as you can get by on school reputation. If it’s a mid tier school then rankings give you a chance to stand out. But if you think you could be more productive and more chill in a true P/F location, then maybe that’s what you need.

Regardless, this is such a minor thing that I would base your choice on other factors first like cost and location

 

[aldol16]

Pros and Cons of both. True P/F is great for your wellness and stress levels during med school. If this is important to you, then go there. Quartile rankings will be good to have as long as you're in the top quartile as Step 1 goes P/F and programs have fewer metrics on which to compare students. But if you can't confidently at least be in the top half of the class, then it could hurt you. So that's the other consideration.