A good undergrad to get into a prestigious med school?

<p>hey guys,
i just got my acceptance letters from:</p>

<p>-public
UNC at chapel hill
UCB
UCLA
Purdue (west lafayette)
University of Utah</p>

<p>-private
Carnegie mellon
USC
Case Western Reserve
Boston College
Lehigh</p>

<p>I really (and i mean really) want to make it into a good med school like johns hopkins or harvard or any med school like that, and i am absolutely positive about going to med school ( i can't think of me doing anything else then medicine)
if you were me, which school would you choose to go to? (without thinking about fin aid, that is)
i know that i have to maintain a good g.p.a, have an amazing resume, and i know that private schools take good care of your gpa than public schools. after i'm done with my education, i might (preferrably) settle down in california. oh and, i want to major in biology, but i heard that it'd be better to major in something else that you could stand out when med school admissions committee look at your resume. so i don't know if i should major in art history now.. (which is my second choice major)
i'm having a major dilemma here. please help!</p>

<p>Hey I was just wondering why you are bent on going to a prestigous med school? I thought the only thing that matters is if you graduated from a US med school.</p>

<p>UNC, UCLA, and UCB if you're a cal resident. UNC is pretty cheap out of state also. If you're bent on prestige, its going to be important to graduate debt-free. </p>

<p>UCB has severe grade deflation from what I hear, and GPA is very important for med school.</p>

<p>because i got rejected from some schools and i just kinda want to make it up by getting into better med schools (the rejection letters hurt me a lot) well if that answers your question.. i live in utah btw</p>

<p>If you don't want rejection letters, don't apply to med school.</p>

<p>If you go to UCB, has less change to get into a US Medical school period. Friend's daughter had to do an extra year at graduate school and finally got accepted to a US Medical school in New York. Another friend's son has UCB GPA around 2.8, dream of US medical school is dashed, he is now studying Pharmacy.</p>

<p>You need to pick Utah.</p>

<p>thanks for your advice TooRichForAid, i really appreciate it. i've been hearing that Cal's full of cut-throat competition with insane grade deflation, so i did kind of cross that off of my list..but anyways. so do you think UCLA would be o.k. though? i heard that it's kind of a laid-back school than Cal but i heard they have some grade deflation issues as well. i personally want to go to a california school for undergrad school as long as that school i will go to really won't hurt my chances of getting into med school, but if you have any suggestions, like jason 444 who said "go to u.n.c" i would be more than happy to listen. </p>

<p>anyways norcalguy, what i meant was that i got some rejection letters from undergrad schools that i've always wanted to go for my whole life (like johns hopkins-if you might've figured) and since i'm not going to be guaranteed as good as a pre-med program that jhu could offer, i'm looking for an alternative way to get into med school. </p>

<p>and ManUtd20Ole, thanks for your answer, but why exactly do you think i should pick utah? i would be pleased to listen to your reasoning..</p>

<p>janeassi,</p>

<p>I think you'll find as you get closer to the actual med school application process that most people stop caring about getting into a specific or highly ranked med school and start thinking more about getting into A med school. Any med school. Even one med school.</p>

<p>Rejection letters suck. I got a few along the way. But being rejected from a school doesn't mean you would not have succeeded there. On the contrary. You probably would have. However, schools must inevitably make an impossible decision at some point regarding who to accept and who to deny. </p>

<p>You'll do fine. Don't worry about "making up" for something that's in a lot of ways random.</p>

<p>UCLAri, thanks a lot for your encouragement.
but even though i don't get into a "prestigious" med school, i still want to go somewhere that'll actually help me go to med school, right?
so can anyone please tell me which school they would've picked?</p>

<p>see the post by bigredmed at <a href="http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?t=321056%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?t=321056&lt;/a> or any of the other posts bigredmed has made. Your assumptions about med school are mistaken ...</p>

<p>Utah would be great for you financially, geographically, and academically.</p>

<p>First, you save a lot of money at Utah. It is best to save as much money as possible during your undergraduate years. Medical schools will burn your money, so it is good to minimize the amount of debt you accumulate in your undergraduate school.</p>

<p>Second, you benefit from being in Utah when you apply to medical schools. Geographic variety plays a role in admitting students. Medical schools are not going to just fill up their classes with students from only the northeastern area of the United States. Medical schools would generally search across the country to get a good balance of each class based on geographic location.</p>

<p>Third, you would avoid huge introductory classes that are present at many colleges on your list. You definitely want to learn thoroughly as an undergraduate. Furthermore, you want to maintain a high GPA. Some colleges on your list are not good for that. </p>

<p>Getting into a medical school generally depends on numbers. A high GPA and MCAT score are expected. You distinguish yourself from the pack by building up your resume with unique activities that you enjoy and define you as a desirable applicant.</p>

<p>My brother went to UCLA for premed after a bachelor from Cal Poly. He had better grades there than at Cal Poly while working full time. So I guess you could say it maybe a little easier. The only problem with UCLA is there will be a lot of Asian premeds as well,so be prepared, big class size for these premed courses is not a plus. BTW, he got into 4 different medical schools out of CA state, it's hard to get accepted in-state. This is where you want to save your money for expensive school. Speaking from CA(in-state) experience.</p>

<p>Looking at your list, maybe Boston College is better for you if you have the money, they give more support for premeds. A friend's daughter got accepted there and I talked to him about the pros/cons of going to BC vs UCSD. (I attended BU years ago)
About California school, there are a lot of UCs that are not cut throat, UCI, UCD, UCSB? However, they are not on your list.
BTW, my own personal doctor graduated from University of Coloroda for BS and MD, a wonderful doctor, much more caring and he's only been working for 2 years and he is no longer accept new patient.
This goes to show you can be a good doctor without graduating from brand name medical school. There are other qualities that count.
I hopes this help.</p>

<p>wow! thanks for the advice. this really helps a lot.
i'm a bit confused though. wouldn't you have a better chance of getting into an in-state med school rather than an out-of-state one? i mean, isn't that the way how it's supposed to work? (ManUtd20Ole, i actually was thinking about the U too, because i know that the U med school accepts 80% of their applicants who are somehow related to utah) hmm..anyway, TooRichForAid, that's a really interesting point you made. I'll take that into consideration. </p>

<p>and since everyone's talking about going to a school that won't cause me financial problem, i guess i want to think about that as well.
so far, the most amount of grant/scholarship that a school offered me right now is Purdue. I would LOVE to go to purdue, but since a little private school is better than a large public school, i actually don't know where to go.</p>

<p>and yeah, reading what all of you guys wrote here, i kind of just want to go to "a" med school now haha :) of course, i'll still work my butts off in college, but i'll always keep in mind that no matter what med school i get into, i'll be successful. :) thanks a ton for the advice guys. </p>

<p>haha seriously, but i'm still open to listen to more :)</p>

<p>purdue's offering me more than 20G of what other schools are offering me. what do you think about that? i wish purdue was a smaller school (and a private one too)</p>

<p>I would go to Utah if I was you. Their biggest strength is their medical school and their premed/bio program. And OOS tuition is not worth it for premeds IMO.</p>

<p>You do not necessarily have to go to Utah's medical school.</p>

<p>I am going to use dental school applicants for my argument.</p>

<p>For example, BYU has a very high acceptance rate to many dental schools. Aside from BYU's academic quality, students benefit a lot from their location.</p>

<p>I am positive that medical schools use a similar pattern. </p>

<p>Therefore, going to Utah could help you out a lot when you apply to medical schools in other states.</p>

<p>BYU is highly regarded also. My sister went to BYU in Hawaii. But, I thought BYU is a private school, no? I think OP got into University of Utah.</p>

<p>Jane,
It's hard to get into California Medical Schools, you have to have very good GPAs(3.8 and above), however there are tons of Out of state medical schools, like 10 from New York. My brother went to one near Manhattan, I forgot which one. But you have to put up with the cold and hot humid weather like some southern states(Florida). Some prefer California schools because of the dry warm weather and possibly nearer to the beach. If you are from Utah, I guess you don't mind the cold so you should be ok.</p>

<p>I simply used BYU as an example of how being in Utah can benefit professional school applicants.</p>

<p>hmm this is hard. for now, i'd really like to go to purdue or utah 'cos both of'em are offering me scholarships (but purdue's offering me more and it covers almost 2/3 of the cost. utah hasn't sent me a general scholarship letter yet. i just got one from a science department that says they'll give me 3500 a year (cos i applied for a specific program, but the big, general one i'm pretty sure i won't get a lot because i applied really late for it.))</p>

<p>yes, BYU is huge in utah, but no, sadly i didn't apply. </p>

<p>so alright, after listening to you guys, i decided that utah would be the best, but since i'm not too sure if i want to go to the U (of course, because of the money) can you tell me what you guys would pick for your second choice? oh.. and also, a HUGE favor to ask. where would you put purdue on your list? cos i'm really tempted to go there as they're offering me huge money.</p>