"You get to see the medical cases that are really complex," says Sahil Mehta, a graduate of thePritzker School of Medicine at the University of Chicago, which is affiliated with NorthShore University HealthSystem. "You get to see a wide variety of disease."
A school that is affiliated with a top-ranked hospital may give students the chance not only to see patients with routine needs, but also those who need advanced care, says Mehta, who's also the founder of MedSchoolCoach, a company that helps prospective medical students get into school. Plus, students can see leaders in various areas of medicine — such as oncology, radiology or surgery – who may work at such hospitals.
U.S. News recently released its 2015-2016 Best Hospitals rankings, and many of the hospitals on the Honor Roll, a list of hospitals that rank highly in at least half a dozen specialties, are also affiliated with schools that rank highly for research or primary care in the 2016 Best Medical Schools rankings.
Below are the 15 hospitals on the Honor Roll, and the medical schools that are affiliated with each.
| Hospital (state) | U.S. News Best Hospitals Honor Roll rank | Affiliated medical school (name) (state) | U.S. News research rank | U.S. News primary care rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Massachusetts General Hospital | 1 | Harvard University (MA) | 1 | 12 (tie) |
| Mayo Clinic (MN) | 2 | Mayo Medical School (MN) | 27 | 42 (tie) |
| Johns Hopkins Hospital (MD) | 3 (tie) | Johns Hopkins University (MD) | 3 (tie) | 29 (tie) |
| UCLA Medical Center | 3 (tie) | University of California—Los Angeles (Geffen) | 13 | 7 |
| Cleveland Clinic | 5 | Case Western Reserve University (OH) | 24 | 62 (tie) |
| Brigham and Women's Hospital (MA) | 6 | Harvard University (MA) | 1 | 12 (tie) |
| New York-Presbyterian University Hospital of Columbia and Cornell | 7 | Columbia University (NY) | 8 (tie) | 52 (tie) |
| New York-Presbyterian University Hospital of Columbia and Cornell | 7 | Cornell University (Weill) (NY) | 18 | 49 (tie) |
| UCSF Medical Center | 8 | University of California—San Francisco | 3 (tie) | 3 |
| Hospitals of the University of Pennsylvania-Penn Presbyterian | 9 | University of Pennsylvania (Perelman) | 5 | 12 (tie) |
| Barnes-Jewish Hospital/Washington University (MO) | 10 | Washington University in St. Louis | 6 | 19 (tie) |
| Northwestern Memorial Hospital (IL) | 11 | Northwestern University (Feinberg) (IL) | 19 | 29 (tie) |
| NYU Langone Medical Center | 12 | New York University | 14 (tie) | 42 (tie) |
| UPMC-University of Pittsburgh Medical Center | 13 | University of Pittsburgh | 16 | 19 (tie) |
| Duke University Hospital (NC) | 14 | Duke University (NC) | 8 (tie) | 29 (tie) |
| Stanford Health Care-Stanford Hospital (CA) | 15 | Stanford University (CA) | 2 | 25 (tie) |
Medical schools often have relationships with several hospitals, where students get experience working in different specialties and with different kinds of patients.
Harvard University, for example, has a partnership with Massachusetts General Hospital, ranked No. 1 on the Honor Roll; Brigham and Women's Hospital, which is ranked No. 6; and other medical facilities.
Hospitals can also have partnerships with more than one school. Both Cornell University and Columbia University are affiliates of New York-Presbyterian University Hospital of Columbia and Cornell, ranked at No. 7.
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If students attend a medical school that's not associated with a big, highly ranked hospital and is instead partnered with a more community-based hospital, they shouldn't think it's the end of the world, says Mehta, who is completing a fellowship at Massachusetts General Hospital. At a community hospital, students can get a solid understanding of how to practice medicine.
"Sometimes for a med student it's actually nice to see basic cases to really get a good, solid foundation, and then build upon that in residency and then in fellowship after that," Mehta says. Students may also be able to "get their hands dirtier" while training in community hospitals, which may have fewer residents and fellows, he says.
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At many schools, students also have the option of spending time at several different kinds of medical centers, and they can get experience at hospitals that are not partnered with their schools by doing what's called an away rotation.
Prospective students should consider a range of factors beyond a school's hospital affiliation, experts say, when deciding where to go, such as what they might want to practice and if they want a dual-degree program.
"They should never choose a school just based on rankings, whether it's based on the rankings of the school itself or based on the hospital that they're affiliated with," says Mehta. "Choosing a school just based on rankings is a recipe for disaster."
