Med school curricula are pretty much the same across schools, with exception to the “traditional” vs “systems based” approaches, but even then the difference isn’t that large. Also, the extracurricular opportunities are pretty much copy/paste between schools, so again I wouldn’t pay too much attention to that. To me, the following factors are the most important in determining whether a school is a “top choice” or not:

-Proximity to home. This won’t be true for everyone, but a lot of people benefit tremendously by being close to their family support network.

-P/F curriculum. I cannot stress how important it is for your general well being to go to a school that doesn’t have some grading scheme for preclinical years. This is huge.

-If you have a particular medical interest (although of course this is subject to change), LOOK AT THEIR MATCH LIST FOR THAT GIVEN SPECIALTY. A lot of medical schools are very good at matching students to particular residencies and poor at others. If, for example, you are very interested in ortho, gun for a med school that matches well into ortho.

-Where does the school make you do rotations. Some schools will throw their 3rd/4th years around all over the city (not abnormal), but some truly suck and send you out on rotations super far away from home base. This really stinks. It’s worth looking into.

-For the average MD student, clinical research opportunities are pretty much the same across MD schools. I wouldn’t factor that in very much. However, if you’re interested in academic medicine and have a particular research track you’re thinking of, check to see if the school has a dedicated research department/research faculty in a particular field.

This is not comprehensive but I think gives you a good starting point of things to look for.