Book Review: U.S. News Ultimate Guide To Medical Schools

This is a good book. It covers a lot of important topics for all types of pre-med students. Also, it has things specifically for pre-medical students that are in varying degrees of completion of the application process.

The book starts off with a foreword by an incredibly famous and successful doctor, Dr. Bernadine Healy. She basically goes over what being a doctor is and what it demands. It is the same stuff all of us have heard before, but it is still pretty interesting and well written.

We then move into an account of the first year of medical school by a UCSF student. It is an extrememly insightful account. The most interesting part was when she mentioned how fewer medical students want to enter primary care. People apparently call it, “the ROAD to happiness”. The acronym stands for Radiology, Ophthalmology, Anesthesiology, and Dermatology. All four of these professions have good hours and good pay, something all debt ridden medical school students are tempted to turn to.

After the introductions, the book turns to the topic of actually applying to medical school. It has a chapter on how to pick medical schools based on personal preferences. It also contains an in depth profile of the University of Wisconsin, Duke, Yale, University of Washington, and John Hopkins. The book mentions how the average medical school student is $100,000 in debt (yikes!) and offers ways to help curb that debt. Also, there is mention of tips on personal statements, the MCAT, classes to take and much more. One nice section has words of very honest advice from medical school deans of admissions.

The second half of the book is a lot of statistics. You can find out the average MCAT and GPA for almost every school. There is a section on financial aid, profile of the student body, and most popular residency choices for each school, as well. Every statistic a person could ever think of has also been calculated out by U.S. News. These stats include which schools give the most financial aid, which have the most and fewest minority students, which are the hardest and easiest to get into, and countless more.

While the book is really good, it does have some shortfalls. For example, it would have been nicer to get in-depth profiles of more schools. The book gives the average MCAT and GPA for a lot of schools, but you never get any cool facts about specific schools except for the five mentioned above. Also, the section on personal statements and MCAT tips is fairly weak. I would not recommend this book if one is looking for advice on those two topics. All in all, the book just needed more text in addition to all the numbers it provides. It’s a worthy buy and something I would recommend to anyone who is going to apply soon. For the younger pre-meds I would say its nothing urgently needed to be read, but interesting if you got the time. Overall, U.S. News does a commendable job with the book.

Grade: A-

U.S. News Ultimate Guide To Medical Schools