When it comes to choosing a med school, most people make the mistake of ignoring everything except for the academic reputation or prestige level of the institution in question. While these are both extremely important factors in an abstract sense, when it comes to evaluating the concrete compatibility of a med school, people generally focus on the wrong aspects of a particular school.

Med school requires a serious time investment, requiring students to spend an inordinate amount of time on campus and in the surrounding area. Most people approach the location of their chosen med school with an attitude of indifference, often ignoring the psychological impact that geography and environment have on their overall sense of well-being. Med school is extremely stressful, for most people, the single most stressful period of their entire life. Based on individual preference, the physical location of the institution can either lessen the impact of this stress or exasperate it.

One of the reasons med school is so stressful is that it represents a significant financial investment, one that a vast majority of applicants cannot afford to pay out-of-pocket. Not only does every med school have its own individually set rates for tuition and related expenses, but they each also have a individualized financial assistance packages in place. The quality of the financial support staff is also going to vary from school to school, making research in that area even more important.

It should be a major red flag for any applicant if they were made to feel unwelcome or unappreciated during the application process. Yes, while a particular med school may have an extremely high number of applicants in any given year, it is still the job of that med school to make every applicant feel welcomed. If an institution does not adequately support or respect it s applicants, it is only a small leap of logic to assume that it might treat its students in the same way.

An indifferent or uncaring faculty and staff is an unnecessary stressor in an already intense situation. It is also one, based on the number of schools that do care about their students, that applicants should not have to deal with.