research vs. Primary Care schools

I have a question that I’m hoping someone can help me with. My apologies if it is a stupid question, but it is something I have been curious about.


When you look at the national rankings of medical schools by organizations like U.S. News and World Report, they seperate the schools into researh schools and primary care schools. My question is, do the people who are not interested in research still go to research schools? Is every student at a research institution required to participate in research or do students have the option to instead focus their concentration on the practice of medicine?


Another thing I noticed was that the research schools were private institutions while the primary care were mostly (if not all) public institutions. I found that interesting.



  • Jimbo Said:
My question is, do the people who are not interested in research still go to research schools? Is every student at a research institution required to participate in research or do students have the option to instead focus their concentration on the practice of medicine?



Short answer - it depends. USNWR's rankings are not really the best way to determine if a school is a "research" institution vs. a "primary-care" institution. There have been some questions with how USNWR calculates their rankings, especially with undergraduate institutions.

A school that is ranked highly for research may indeed have a lot of students that are involved in some sort of research. At some institutions, it may be a requirement, at others, not. Duke's curriculum, for example, is structured so that students have an entire elective year to do research or pursue a second degree. At the same time, a school that is ranked highly in primary care may require a student to do some kind of research. You would have to check out each individual school to find out what research requirements they have of their students.

Don't let the fact that a school is a highly ranked research school scare you off from applying there, even if you don't think you want to do research. There are a lot of different types of research. Most people tend to think of basic science or bench research as being the type of research that a medical student might do. There are plenty of opportunities to do clinical research and other research that isn't hard research. I had no interest in research when I started medical school and now I am doing a MPH in Clinical Research.

Thank you very much for the reply and the information. I’m hoping to be accepted into the University of Missouri School of Medicine, so with any luck I won’t have to worry about it one way or another. Then again, Washington University in St. Louis is supposed to be a big research school, so you never know. I plan on applying to all of the medical schools within Missouri as well as all of the schools in states that border Missouri. That is, if my numbers are good enough. To get into any of those top ranked schools you have to have some pretty awesome GPA and MCAT scores. Shoot, even Mizzou wants a 3.7+ GPA and a 30+ on the MCAT at a minimum. I have a 3.82 so far, but I still have a ways to go as an undergrad, and I’m just now getting to the hard stuff.


Oh well. One day at a time.


Once again, that you for the reply.