<p>just because that's what the pre-med advisor says doesn't mean that's what kids do</p>
<p>Okay, this is ridiculous.</p>
<p>1.) I was not nitpicking the difference between 95 and 93; I was pointing out that if only 93% get in anywhere, it cannot be the case that 95% get into one of their top three choices. It's mathematically impossible, since 95 is more than 93. Period. The 95 vs. 93 isn't the important distinction; the "anywhere" versus "top choices" distinction is the important one.</p>
<p>2.) If you want to define "one of their top three choices" as "one of the top three choices among the schools they got into, then of course they all got into one of their top three choices. 100% of them did.</p>
<p>Goodness gracious.</p>
<p>The top five schools that get most premeds into med schools ( like Brown and Harvard) do mention a "90 something percent of their students get into one of their top three choices". </p>
<p>I think this clearly refers to personal ranking before being accepted, otherwise it really would be 100%.</p>
<p>Show me .</p>
<p>Although I am extremely pleased with Harvard's premed system and tend to disagree with BDM's less than glowing opinion of it, I think he's pretty much spot on in his skepticism about the 'top three' claims. They don't even ask us what our top three are before we apply, and I find it difficult to believe that they could just intuit it...</p>
<p>I should emphasize that it's *mildly *less than glowing. Harvard's system would really have to be awful to cripple its talented student body, and it's not nearly bad enough to do that. The kids do amazingly well in the process.</p>
<p>bluedevil, show you what?</p>
<p>
[quote]
The top five schools that get most premeds into med schools ( like Brown and Harvard) do mention a "90 something percent of their students get into one of their top three choices".
[/quote]
. .</p>
<p>h-bomber, some people skepticism tends to be rather selective. For the most part, most of Duke 's claims always seem to be exempt of any...</p>
<p>I guess it would be interesting to see what back up the schools have to be able to throw that kind of data around...</p>
<p>show you the top five schools that get most premeds into med schools ( like Brown and Harvard) do mention a "90 something percent of their students get into one of their top three choices" ??</p>
<p>sorry, I am not getting it.</p>
<p>Yes, your post #30 is correct.</p>
<p>My skepticism will cease if a school (of Brown or Harvard's caliber) actually makes such a claim on an official product of the university's. I've never been skeptical of anything that such a school actually says; what message board posters relay without cites -- in that situation, my skepticism runs rampant.</p>
<p>
[quote]
The top five schools that get most premeds into med schools ( like Brown and Harvard) do mention a "90 something percent of their students get into one of their top three choice.</p>
<p>I think this clearly refers to personal ranking before being accepted, otherwise it really would be 100%.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>BS</p>
<p>Most applicants, even the solid ones, will not get into one of their top 3 choices, mostly because applicants will apply to many reach schools. For example, most top applicants I know (3.8/35+ types) will apply to practically all of the Top 20 med schools in the country as a package with their top 3 being "Harvard, JHU, and [insert random top school: Columbia, Penn, whatever]." Most of them would be fortunate to get into 1 MAYBE 2 Top 20 schools (likely not Harvard or JHU). It is just impossible for a school with so many top applicants to get their students into their top 3 choices at a 93% clip. </p>
<p>It is very believable for Harvard to get 93% of its students into med school. It is not very believable for Harvard to get 93% of its students into their top 3 choices for med school. In fact, I don't think Harvard (or any other college) can get even 50% of its students into their top 3 choices. This is mostly because, as I said above, the top 3 choices of cream-of-the-crop applicants tend to be Harvard/JHU/UCSF/some other obscenely hard private school. From what I've seen this past application cycle, an applicant, who's not a superstar URM, would be lucky to get into even one Top 20 med school.</p>
<p>And I personally take post-grad survey results with a grain of salt. First of all, the response rate to these surveys tend to be relatively low. Secondly, it is very easy for the "Top 3 choices" to be biased by how an application cycle went. If you got rejected w/o an interview or you had a bad experience with an interviewer, suddenly a school is no longer one of your top choices. One of the things that tends to happen during the application cycle is that schools start appearing more or less the same, especially if you go on a ton of interviews. It is very easy for your top choices to turn from Harvard/JHU to "Basically any top med school" during the course of the application cycle because you will be struggling to get into just one prestigious school.</p>
<p>looks like BDM (and norcalguy) is right, my bad</p>
<p>I should mention that Brown's 82% is an absolutely spectacular percentage. Brown students are absolutely doing excellently. (In recent years, Duke seems to have slipped into 79%, if memory serves.)</p>
<p>Yep, 82% in this day and age is pretty good. Cornell dropped to 68% last year (after being in the 75-80% range for the previous 6 or so years).</p>
<p>that 82% is just for one year, if i'm not mistaken</p>
<p>don't know if you guys realize that or not</p>
<p>More importantly, it was from a recent year: 2007. There are schools still quoting their acceptance rates from 2001-2002. The number of med school applicants has grown by 50% since 2002 so acceptance rates from 2002 are no longer valid.</p>
<p>
[quote]
I've never been skeptical of anything that such a school actually says
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Actually, in the case of Brown, one of the letters included in the acceptance package ( specifically 2011 class) states that "Brown is one of the top 5 universities in the country with the highest percentage of premeds getting accepted to a medical school of their choice"</p>
<p>I guess, anyone can confirm that with the school is they need to.</p>
<p>Show me .</p>
<p>(Oh -- do they say what the other four are?)</p>
<p>Call them. My purpose in life is not to convince you of anything, dude.</p>
<p>(Oh----I'll share something with you though, Duke is not one of them)</p>