<p>I was wondering if Med schools look at a university 'higher' than a 4 year college? Would going to the CSU lower my chances at getting into med school than if i were to go to a UC?</p>
<p>And alot of people will say that "X school is #5 in the state for biology" What website do you go on to see what subjects are taught really well in the school, or what it is best in, you know what i mean :) Thanks guys.</p>
<p>1.) A little. Probably a fairly marginal effect.</p>
<p>2.) I don’t. There’s no point to a ranking like that.</p>
<p>uc’s are much better for getting into any grad school.</p>
<p>Even the low UC’s like merced would be better than a CSU?</p>
<p>^^In one respect, Merced would be a huge boost to med school apps, but not just because it is a UC. Merced is small, and begging for top students, so the faculty will bend over backwards to take top students under their wing. In contrast, you’ll be nothing but a number at a CSU.</p>
<p>That being said, the collegiate life at Merced is a BIG consideration since you’ll be there for four years. And, of course, since Merced is small, it’s major options are limited. If you decide med school is not for you…Cal Poly would have been a whole lot more fun over four years.</p>
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Hmmm…Is there any other school which may do something like this? Of course, you need to be good enough to be among their selected ones (seed students?) in the first place. A few years ago, a CCer from UPenn posted that it is relatively harder to stand out in many EC/clubs at his school. (I think he ended up getting into Yale School of Medicine, in my guess, mostly due to his strength in his research experiences, and to a much less extent, his good MCAT, and a good enough GPA.)</p>
<p>Look at it this way: the 25th % for test scores is (way) below 500 at Merced. It’s 75th is 570/600. (Contrast those numbers with Penn.) If a premed cannot standout (high gpa can lead to research positions) with that competition…</p>
<p>I have nothing more than anecdotal evidence to support my opinions, but I surged SDN pretty thoroughly for 2 years and I saw the SOM facebook page of my DDs school, and those early admits were nearly all from well known and interesting schools.</p>
<p>Certainly you can go to SLO or CSULB and get into medical school, but you’d better do extremely well there, showing that you would have been competitive at the UC to be considered a strong applicant.</p>
<p>From the bits and pieces I have seen and heard, i would believe that more UC kids get into med school than CSU kids and I would guess that a marginal applicant from a UC (29mcat) might have a better chance from Berkeley that CSUF</p>
<p>I attended Harvard for graduate school after my undergraduate in Cal Poly. I can tell you emphatically that the prestige level of your undergraduate (unless it is some fake for profit online college with no office) will NOT harm your chance at medical school.</p>
<p>The KEY to good med school is really your breathtaking grades, dazzling MCAT, impeccable references and your passion for medicine. I know this because my girlfriend applied to joint Phd/MD program at US’ top 10 medical/research schools and I got to witness her acceptance pain and results first hand. </p>
<p>With that being said, it is Critical that you excel at your undergraduate studies and have good relationships and recommendations from your professors in pre-med. </p>
<p>Also, we don’t distinguish 4 year universities as “college” and “university”. All 4 year institutions such as CSUs and UCs are all universities. Only junior colleges are colleges. </p>
<p>But just to throw in a monkey ranch, Harvard undergrad is called Harvard College. But the university, collectively, is known as Harvard university (Law, Business, Med school, Govt. school, etc).</p>
<p>Hope that helps.</p>
<p>Forgot to mention 1 thing, although UC Merced is a UC, it is currently unaccredited. </p>
<p>For professional majors like Sciences, medical schools, that is a sizable concern. </p>
<p>Also, being only able to speak about Cal Poly and other well known UCs, it is general consensus that UC Davis, UCSB, UCI, and Cal Poly are of similar academic stature for undergraduate. This is followed by UCSC, UC Riverside, and ending with UC Merced. Cal and UCLA are at the top of this ranking obviously, with UCSD being third. </p>
<p>So if you are really concerned about the prestige factor, I would recommend you work harder and go to UCSD or UCLA.</p>
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<p>That, I would argue is a non-issue. UC Merced is a campus of the greatest public university system in the world. There is no way that it will not received accreditation, which, if the timeline is correct, will be next spring.</p>
<p>Perhaps. But if the person is really concerned about school’s name brand/reputation, why risk it when one can easily attend accredited UCs such as UCSC or Riverside, etc. without too much additional suffering.</p>
<p>If BlueBayou is correct on the timing, then the person ought to know if they are accredited before committing to the fall.</p>
<p>ick:</p>
<p>that is just a plain silly issue. It is no different than if next year Princeton decided to start a business/law school. It would have provisional accreditation for a couple of years, but do you really think that Wall Street/top legal firms would NOT recruit from there? </p>
<p>Don’t get me wrong, Merced has hundreds of reasons why it should never have been built (IMO) and students should not matriculate, but provisional accreditation is not one of them. OTOH, for a 3.0 in HS, UC Merced might be a better possibility for a premed than their local (fully accredited) Cal State. And, UC prestige will be Cal State East Bay every time.</p>