<p>*the bulk of the students at most well-established med schools around America come from the top schools such as the top 30 schools by USNews. *</p>
<p>How do you define “well-established med schools”? There are many, many “well-established med schools” in this country.</p>
<p>*Do medical schools know which schools have grade inflation? *</p>
<p>Maybe</p>
<p>It would seem that a less then high MCAT might reveal that.</p>
<p>“Source please.”</p>
<p>most med schools publish that on their websites. the top 30 schools publish where their grads go as well. all you need to do is to look it up yourself.</p>
<p>RML has a point. For example, Michigan School of Medicine (#11) actually lists the undergraduate institutions of where their medical students come from. Most are from Michigan, Harvard, Yale, Stanford and other top institutions.</p>
<p>In some cases, the strength or prestige of an undergraduate institution serves very well with medical school admissions.</p>
<p>The criteria med school or any top graduate or professional school use to select a class not much different than that used by well endowed competitive undergraduate institutions. They will consider grades. rigor of institution, rigor of courses taken, test scores and ECs. Multiple readers will review each folder. At the top colleges >80% of the applicants with a B+ GPA and 30 on MCAT will get into a medical school. If you opt to attend a non-selective school you will need outstanding grades in challenging courses due to offset lack or rigor.</p>
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<p>I have only been able to find such information from WUSTL’s med school. The list looks quickly put together because different spellings of the same school are repeated. It also doesn’t say how many incoming medical students are from each college (making it not very useful for this discussion). But a glance though shows that incoming medical students at WUSTL don’t come from just the top 30 universities ranked in US News. </p>
<p><a href=“http://medschool.wustl.edu/admissions/matriculatedfromfiveyears_07.doc[/url]”>http://medschool.wustl.edu/admissions/matriculatedfromfiveyears_07.doc</a></p>
<p>I’d really appreciate it if you could link to a school with information that supports your statement. I’m assuming you have pored over data from several schools if you know that they publish these things on their websites.</p>
<p>[University</a> of Michigan Medical School :: Admissions :: Interview Day](<a href=“http://www.med.umich.edu/medschool/admissions/apply/profiles.html]University”>http://www.med.umich.edu/medschool/admissions/apply/profiles.html)</p>
<p>According to the information Entertainer linked to, 78 of the medical students in an incoming class of 170 came from schools that they wanted to name (about 46%). It includes UWash and MSU, which aren’t in the top 30 of the US News emphasized in this thread. That’s 92 other medical students whose undergrad institutions weren’t mentioned. I don’t think that’s the “bulk of the students” like RML described.</p>
<p>Well University of Michigan Medical School is a state University. They state on their website that 50% of incoming medical students come from institutions that represent the state of Michigan. 50% come from out of state institutions.</p>
<pre><code>* MI Institutions Represented: 10
<p>I don’t know where you got 78 from. 86 students came from top 30 Universities. That is more than half of the incoming class. The number 4 next to Yale means 4 each.</p>
<pre><code>* MI Institutions Represented: 12
<p>These are the results from 2008. Now if 12 Michigan institutions are represented, you can say that a good portion of students come from Top 30 schools like RML stated. In 2008 86 students again came from top 30 schools.</p>
<p>Yea so I’m guessing UMMS is somewhat different because it is a state school. I think RML is saying that it helps a great deal if you are from a top 30 school. Especially at prestigious medical schools.</p>
<p>Whoops, yeah, I added wrong. >_<</p>
<p>I’ve gone on SDN and the premed forum here, the general consensus there is that the undergrad attended doesn’t matter as much as people think, and it only really comes into play if you’re comparing two different applicants with pretty much the same stats, ie 3.7/35 from ivy vs 3.7/35 from a less selective school. </p>
<p>The gpa and MCAT are really emphasized in med school admissions. The premed gpa is a representative of how much better a premed did than others in the class, and the MCAT is intended to act as the equalizer across schools. What I’ve been trying to say is that in medical school admissions, your stats and ECs are weighed heavily, much more than the school you go to. I don’t mean that someone should go to a absolutely no name school in order to achieve a higher gpa. What I advised was that a good choice for premed is a school that is a good balance between academics, cost, and fit. This likely could mean a school just outside the top 30 of USN which still offers strong academics and offers merit aid.</p>
<p>*If you opt to attend a non-selective school you will need outstanding grades in challenging courses due to offset lack or rigor. *</p>
<p>I don’t think anyone is advocating attending a “non selective school.” I think the suggestion was that going to a decently ranked school that is strong in bio, chem, physics, and math can prepare you for med school.</p>
<p>Going to some directional public that is virtually unknown outside of its county and has “so-so” science courses is not recommended.</p>
<p>I’ve also have heard (but don’t know for sure) that grades in Organic Chem classes in particular are very important.</p>
<p>No one is saying that undergraduate institution matters. a 3.7/35 from an Ivy and a 3.7/35 from a “lesser school” is seen as the same. The MCAT creates a leveled playing field for applicants that attend schools that are less rigorous in terms of the strength of pre-med science courses. The MCAT also helps create a fair environment especially with schools that are known to have grade inflation. However students that attend prestigious schools are probably more likely to have higher MCAT scores than students that attend less prestigious schools.</p>
<p>If a student has a 3.7/35 from Harvard and another has a 3.7/35 from lets say Delaware State, which applicant is more likely to be accepted?</p>
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<p>In all honesty, if the two applicants were EXACTLY the same except for school…they’d probably both be accepted, both be waitlisted, or both be rejected.</p>
<p>For med school admission GPA and MCAT matter a ton more than reputation of school unless you’re applying to your undergrad’s medical school. Part of the reason for this is the way USNews ranks medical schools. They take into account admissions selectivity so it doesn’t matter if the kid with a 2.9 got it from Caltech or Podunk, it will still hurt them in the ranking. Only when scores are equal may you get the nudge from attending a more elite school, but even then, there’s where the MCAT comes in as an equalizer.</p>
<p>That being said, some perspective is needed. Admission to med school does not solely rely on GPA and MCAT. To get into most of the best medical schools you will want to have research, clinical based internships under your belt, good recommendations, and great interviews. This is where attending a Top 30 school could come in handy (as they tend to have more resources to prepare/steer you for these aspects) as opposed to a not as selective a university. This probably explains why the good medical schools have many kids from top universities. Also, the GPA concern shouldn’t be so huge because even though you are in a more academically talented pool at a top university-two factors work to your advantage. These factors are grade inflation, and taking premed requirements at other universities. Grade inflation generally helps seeing as the average gpa at privates is roughly a 3.3 as opposed to a 3.0 at publics. At top privates it can go as high as 3.5. Granted, as anyone who attends top schools will tell you, the “correction factor” is probably not enough to counter the increased difficulty given the academic depth of the student body. However, something few people know before coming into college is that you dont have to take all your orgo, physics, and bio classes at your home university. Taking them at a community college or at an easier university during the summer works just as well. As long as you don’t take all or most of your requirements at another university this won’t count against you in medical school admissions. Also, these courses will provide the talented student the required knowledge to still do well on the MCATs. </p>
<p>As long as finances are not an issue and you enjoy the school, with careful planning attending a top college will increase your chances of admission to medical school-not decrease it.</p>
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<p>to RML and others who have been saying this: of course a lot of students at top med schools will come from top schools. </p>
<p>But is this because they went to a top school that magically made them a better applicant, or because they themselves were talented enough to get into a top school already? the latter seems far more likely. And while I don’t have the source, I recall reading that there is virtually no difference in success between people who went to top schools, and people that went to “lesser” state schools though they got into top schools.</p>
<p>from what i’ve heard, the best advice seems to be that what really matters is GPA and MCAT- so don’t spend 200k for undergrad when you can get the same thing for much less at a state school.</p>
<p>hence, if(/when, hopefully :D) i have the choice between paying little/nothing for rutgers, or 200k for an ivy… guess where i’m going.</p>
<p>It’s also been brought up that ECs are important for premeds. The presence of a medical school or major hospital close by to the undergrad campus can really help a premed, and is a factor I really didn’t think about when I applied but I really appreciate it now.</p>
<p>I got into Northwestern and when I visited, I asked where the medical school was. I was disappointed when I found out it was 40 minutes away by car in Chicago, which isn’t that bad but it’s still a significant commute if you want to do some research, intern, or volunteer, many of which the opportunities are found where the medical school is. I’d imagine it’d be a little frustrating for say, a Cornell premed since although Cornell has a wonderful medical school with plenty of resources, the undergrad campus is in Ithaca and the medical campus is in NYC, which is a couple hours’ distance to travel. The same thing could possibly be said of Princeton, because they have no medical school though they have a top molecular biology department. At Pitt the medical school, hospitals, and undergrad campus are all on the same campus, so it takes me about five minutes to walk to UPMC from my dorm.</p>
<p>University Of Washington, University Of Pittsburgh</p>
<p>*from what i’ve heard, the best advice seems to be that what really matters is GPA and MCAT- so don’t spend 200k for undergrad when you can get the same thing for much less at a state school.
*</p>
<p>That’s really the point. </p>
<p>Spending $200k for undergrad usually involves loans - often big loans. Such people also need to borrow for med school. If you borrow a lot for undergrad, you won’t have borrowing power for med school. </p>
<p>But, if your family can easily pay $200k for undergrad and $260 for med school…the go for it. :)</p>
<p>My son recently had foot surgery. His surgeon did pre-med at a mid-tier state public, did med school at Duke, and his residency at The Mayo Clinic. </p>
<p>It didn’t matter that he went to a mid-tier for pre-med.</p>
<p>
Actually, I would say the schools with combined BA/MD programs are the best for pre-med. I’m surprised nobody has stated the obvious and mentioned them yet. </p>
<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/multiple-degree-programs/774880-consolidated-listing-popular-programs.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/multiple-degree-programs/774880-consolidated-listing-popular-programs.html</a></p>