Is Utah anything more than a commuter school w/ a good med school?

[CardiacCoug]

Calling Utah a bad medical school evinces its own kind of ignorance.

Not a bad medical school. An average medical school with demonstrably almost the least qualified medical students in the country at any allopathic school (if you believe the statistics).

Nobody who knows anything about medical education thinks Georgetown or Wake Forest have good medical schools.

The Texas campuses vary tremendously from UT-Southwestern which is an elite school to places like UT-Galveston and UT-Houston which are considered average-at-best schools these days.

[SeattleUte]

Not a bad medical school. An average medical school with demonstrably almost the least qualified medical students in the country at any allopathic school (if you believe the statistics).

Nobody who knows anything about medical education thinks Georgetown or Wake Forest have good medical schools.

The Texas campuses vary tremendously from UT-Southwestern which is an elite school to places like UT-Galveston and UT-Houston which are considered average-at-best schools these days.

I would like to hear Sooner's viewpoint on this.

[UtahDan]

Is this you disagreeing? I figured most of the Ute fans here would agree since the majority attended BYU at some point. I don't see anything wrong with it -- I'm guessing most kids who went through HS the same time I did had roughly the same view. I did not have very good grades or test scores and knew my options were basically Weber and the U.

I think it is a stupid, tired discussion the point of which is for people to thump their chests and pretend they are better than other people. Put the shoe on the other foot.

[CardiacCoug]

You're fine if you went to a U.S. med school. Don't listen to Cardiac. I'm sure he hurt his brother's feelings bad. Utah is 33 places ahead of Oklahoma on those rankings (OK and TAMU tied, btw).

Garrison Keilor would like that: The U.S. -- where all the women are strong, all the men are good-looking, and all the medical schools are above average.

Sooner was overqualified to go to OU, but there were some extenuating circumstances, as you know. He got into UT-Southwestern too.

[SeattleUte]

Garrison Keilor would like that: The U.S. -- where all the women are strong, all the men are good-looking, and all the medical schools are above average.

Sooner was overqualified to go to OU, but there were some extenuating circumstances, as you know. He got into UT-Southwestern too.

I think you saying that Utah is an "average" medical school is like saying Matt Hasselback has been an average pro football quarterback. The thing is an elite thing by definition. In our American society a(n accredited) medical school is ipso facto elite and virtuous. And America does happen to have the best medical care and medical technology in the world.

[MarkGrace]

I think it is a stupid, tired discussion the point of which is for people to thump their chests and pretend they are better than other people. Put the shoe on the other foot.

I'm not sure what you mean. In my situation the shoe was already mostly on the other foot. I already said I didn't attend BYU, and my options based on grades and test scores were Utah and Weber St. I was also planning on commuting, and each had a signiciant commuting population, though Weber's is more prominent. I ultimately went to Weber because it was (a) cheaper and (b) an easier commute. There is no chest-thumping to be be hand on my end, except for the fact that the mighty Wildcats count Marriott the Elder and Fawn Brodie among our distinguished alum! What I laid out above was my impression before I even gave a shit about the rivalry and I would guess most kids who went through HS the same time I died had a pretty similar view.

[UtahDan]

There is no chest-thumping to be be hand on my end, except for the fact that the mighty Wildcats count Marriott the Elder and Fawn Brodie among our distinguished alum! What I laid out above was my impression before I even gave a shit about the rivalry and I would guess most kids who went through HS the same time I died had a pretty similar view.

I'm glad you didn't really die. I just think these sorts of conversations bring out the worst.

[doctorcoug]

Back on topic:

Commuter school. The amazing University of Utah Runnin' Utes for decades had to practice at a local high school. Decades passed as the track team continued to field a team without facilities. Finally, after years of waiting, a generous donor offered to foot the bill for a nice facility. The university would have excellent races and sport at this facility. Years would pass and then we would have this conversation. Alas, the mighty runnin' Utes were finally able to have their own track, WAY WAY WAY back in 2010.

Seriously? Chew on that one.

[MartyFunkhouser]

Back on topic:

Commuter school. The amazing University of Utah Runnin' Utes for decades had to practice at a local high school. Decades passed as the track team continued to field a team without facilities. Finally, after years of waiting, a generous donor offered to foot the bill for a nice facility. The university would have excellent races and sport at this facility. Years would pass and then we would have this conversation. Alas, the mighty runnin' Utes were finally able to have their own track, WAY WAY WAY back in 2010.

Seriously? Chew on that one.

The only think that I take from that is that I'm pissed that donor money was wasted on the track team. There is a basketball and football team that could use that money instead.

[Clark Addison]

I really don't know what the point of a thread like this is. Utah could be the worst school in the country (which it obviously isn't), and comments from BYU fans would still look like sour grapes.

Let's keep the rivalry to sports and cut out crap like this. It serves no good purpose at all.

[NorthwestUteFan]

I think it is a stupid, tired discussion the point of which is for people to thump their chests and pretend they are better than other people. Put the shoe on the other foot.

Thanks, Danite. This is the reason my first post was over the top obnoxious. A Penis stretching contest like this feels good for a ehile, but leaves its participants sore and with a big mess afterwards.

The quality of an education obviously depends as much upon the receiver as anything else. One place I would fault Utah is in the number of grad and post-doc students teaching classes. I wish more of my classes were taught by full professors.

That said, all of my core classes in engineering, chemistry, and biochemistry were taught by highly qualified professors, many of whom are highly regarded worldwide in their respective fields. On four occasions I can recall my class was taught by the professor whose research was quoted in the textbook.

As for medical school admissions, realize that white Mormon boys with outstanding GPAs and MCAT scores are a dime a dozen in Utah. I recall one friend getting denied, while the BIL of a mutual friend getting accepted with a 3.2 gpa and crappy MCAT. (The BIL was Polynesian) the BIL is a great people person and is a wonderful family practice doc, but my friend was upset at the time.

[CardiacCoug]

I think you saying that Utah is an "average" medical school is like saying Matt Hasselback has been an average pro football quarterback. The thing is an elite thing by definition. In our American society a(n accredited) medical school is ipso facto elite and virtuous. And America does happen to have the best medical care and medical technology in the world.

OK. So the University of Utah has an accredited medical school. We can agree on that.

What is your point here Cardiac? What concession are you after?

No concession -- just some ruminations on what constitutes a "good" medical school. With all the stuff on here about law school decisions in the past I honestly didn't think pointing out some objective data about the U. medical school would be a controversial thing.

And I guess the chest-thumping comment was directed at me and I will just say for the record that obviously amount of education generally or type of school says nothing about someone's worth as a person. Does that really need to be clarified?

In fact as I look back at people I knew in medical school and subsequent training there was pretty close to an inverse correlation between the prestige of their undergraduate school, medical school, and/or residency and how much I ended up respecting the abilities of those people. And a direct correlation between prestige of their training and ego. Which explains this thread to some degree, I guess.

[MarkGrace]

I'm glad you didn't really die. I just think these sorts of conversations bring out the worst.

I think I misspelled every other word that in that post. Now you see why my options were Weber St. and Utah.

[Jarid in Cedar]

OK. So the University of Utah has an accredited medical school. We can agree on that.



No concession -- just some ruminations on what constitutes a "good" medical school. With all the stuff on here about law school decisions in the past I honestly didn't think pointing out some objective data about the U. medical school would be a controversial thing.

And I guess the chest-thumping comment was directed at me and I will just say for the record that obviously amount of education generally or type of school says nothing about someone's worth as a person. Does that really need to be clarified?

In fact as I look back at people I knew in medical school and subsequent training there was pretty close to an inverse correlation between the prestige of their undergraduate school, medical school, and/or residency and how much I ended up respecting the abilities of those people. And a direct correlation between prestige of their training and ego. Which explains this thread to some degree, I guess.

So all of this is about people who need to stroke themselves? I wish people would do that in the privacy of their own home.

[NorthwestUteFan]

Commuter school :

When I started at Utah only a small number of students could live on campus, maybe 2-3k max. There was very little on-campus housing, and outside of the Greek frats the houses surrounding the U are all multi million dollar homes. Why should I have paid hundreds of bucks a month for rent, when I could commute for
Fifteen minutes?

Also fwiw I got accepted, easily, at byu. The hassle of a bishop's commendation was the hardest part, and that was a foregone conclusion because I was really a 'good' kid. Perhaps it became harder afterward? I started college in 1989.