After attending Washington University in St. Louis, which I believe was ranked in the top 10, and is now (gasp) ONLY number 13 in the country, I can fully attest to how much my education, experience, and current future outcome was affected by this drop in rankings: nada. For those of you matriculating to college next year, please do not go solely by rankings. All top 20 (and perhaps more) will provide you with essentially the same general opportunities. If you love a specific program due to specifics (location, people, overall feel, cost, a particular education path, etc), then fuck rankings and go based on what will make you happy for the next four years of your life.
Now I don't know as much about the college rankings as much as I do medical school ones (since I'm currently in the middle of hearing back from schools). As a student who has been fortunate as fuck, enough to be a accepted to a few top 20 schools, I can say that I will most certainly NOT be using these rankings to choose where I will matriculate in the fall. (Example: Well University of Pitt>Vanderbilt>Northwestern>Case Western, hm, I should definitely go to Pitt then because that extra tiny bump in the rankings will make me a better physician!).
First off, a primary factor that is used in these rankings is NIH funding and endowment (hence, Harvard Medical School will never be less than #1). You might ask, well, isn't that important since I wanna do some crazy ass research in medical school? Wouldn't HMS or Penn or Hopkins give me the best chance to help me find that next cure for Cancer or AIDS? Not really, as the difference in NIH funding for top 20-25 schools will not effect you as a medical school student. If you're really crazy about a specific type of research, look at the faculty and research opportunities specifically for what you wanna do. You might find that UVA might be better for what you're interested in than UCSF. And honestly, look at the rankings carefully, Mayo Medical School is #26 and Case Western is #22...wtf? They have the two best hospitals (along with Hopkins and Massachusetts General), how the balls are they so low when they will offer, arguably, the best clinical experience possible? Furthermore, Cornell is ranked #17 and Columbia is ranked #10...well, these two schools are super inflated as they share the same hospital (New York Presbyterian). In essence, the rankings will not make much of a difference for you as a future medical school student, and practically all top 20ish schools will give you the same opportunity to excel in your future.
So...what is important when deciding which medical school to attend?! Heres' my thoughts on some of this:
1) Impression of the students: By this, I don't mean based on your interview day, since you're gonna have a limited time talking to them, will be stressed, and they're gonna be professional and really nice and shit when talking to you. And even if you spend an extra day or so with your host and meet other classmates, it really doesn't matter, as everyone's class is different. When I say impression of students, I mean students in your class. How will this work? Second look weekend. I mean, honestly, make sure you can really enjoy the company of the 100-150 students for the next four years, or you're boned.
2)Curriculum and Early Patient Contact: Honestly, from what I've heard from almost everyone that I've talked to, you're gonna be learning most of medical shit yourself from the books, so I don't think curriculum (PBL vs. a lotta lecture) should make much of an impact. What I think is important is seeing whether a school is Pass/Fail or not (and true Pass/Fail, not that Honors/High Pass bullshit) for your basic science years. Also, early patient exposure? Unless you're talking about Duke's 2nd year rotations, fuck it...you're not gonna know anything to do any good as a 1st year when seeing patients.
3) The Shiny Facilities: You're a 3rd year student, it's snowing hard, you're cold and tired as it is past midnight. Oh, but at least you have a shiny new hospital you're walking by! Essentially, it doesn't matter what the hospital looks like.
4) The Third Year: Now this is the big one to pay attention to and really find out about for the schools you are considering. Essentially, you want to go to a university where you have a clear role in the wards and really get down and dirty, instead of simply shadowing physicians and walking around pretending like you're hot shit.
5) Board Scores: Ok, first of all, your scores on Step 1 are mostly based on YOU and how hard you work and time you put in to do well on this test. Yes, there are students at Harvard that get 220s and yes there are students at MUSC that get 250s. Don't let average board scores swing you too much. They are also not necessarily based on curriculum either. For example, Vanderbilt gives its students much more than the conventional 6 weeks off to study for them and they consistently have the best board scores in the nation--obviously so. Furthermore, you want to make sure that your school adequately teaches Pharmacology and Microbiology, as even top schools often neglect these courses and you don't wanna be stuck learning it for the first time for your boards.
6) Match List: How the fuck do you even read these? For example, many of Northwestern graduates end up doing their residency at Northwestern. Does this mean these guys didn't get into their top choices, or does that mean that they like Northwestern so much that they decided to stay there? It's hard to tell (especially since such schools have amazing residency programs). Honestly, all top 20 schools will have connections to get you into any residency at any hospital you want as long as you're qualified.
All in all, I have looked into all of these when deciding on which medical school to attend next year, and therefore, will hopefully eventually choose the right one for me. Hopefully, this is helpful to future medical school applicants as well!
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