<p>I am going to be enrolling in the fall of 2009 in an undergraduate university. My high school grades aren't that great, I have a 3.3 weighted GPA. But my test scores a good, a 31 on the ACT and my extracurriculars are outstanding. Should I go somewhere small and cheap, where I will excel and won't pay that much. Or should I try and get into a bigger school, somewhere with a bigger name? Does any of this even play into my admissions?</p>
<p>I guess what I'm trying to ask is this: Does it make a difference in my med school admissions if I go to a relatively unknown university for my undergrad and do amazingly well? (as opposed to going to a bigger, better school and doing good but not great.)</p>
<p>In general, GPA and MCAT scores matter. An A is an A at any university. Different medical schools have different formula factors that when you input your sex, ethnicity, GPA, MCAT scores, and other objective data, it plugs out a number which generall produces a cutoff or not. It makes it easier to sift threw large vacs of applicants via computers all at once.</p>
<p>Some medical schools though, the very top and elite ones may give certain weight on schools that more or less proactively engage in grade inflation or deflation, give certain weight to schools that have a competitive body, prestige might even factor in here right into the formula. In general, its much better to be a big fish in a little pond if your just looking for outside the top twenty research medical schools or even more for that matter. Only the top select few schools with generally be prestige hogs and soak up all the Ivy league applicants. Though there are few exceptions.</p>
<p>Just anyways, don't let GPA or whatever at any school whether prestigious competitive or state and easy let you down. It all comes down to MCAT scores too which normalize applicants throughout the board. In your case, i'd recommend checking out a broad range of schools, but if the really hyper competitive elite med schools are not in your target range finder, then ANY school will suffice (I read this in an medical school guide book just the other day)</p>