Trying to understand the grammar behind a sentence


I've been learning Japanese for a while now but I just can't break down how
the first part of this sentence is related to the second:

> ここT大医学部に比べれば遥かにランクが落ちるとはいえ、僕もまた歴とした医大生であり、奇しくも脳神経外科学を専攻している。

As some of you can tell (I suppose), it's from Saya no Uta ; the part I don't
get is ここT大医学部に比べれば遥かにランクが落ちるとはいえ, a comparison and then he talks about the
fact that he's majoring in neurological surgery ? I don't get the relation
between those two.




とはいえ means even though, or despite the fact that

The speaker's university rank is a lot lower than T大医学部. But they are still a
med student and majoring at neurosurgery at that. So they are implying that
they should also be taken seriously, or something like that.

