<p>I have been accepted to the University of Michigan Honors Program and also Northwestern University. I dont know where to go? Which would be better for my chances to get into an elite med school? which looks better on a transcript? where would i get a better GPA? and do med schools consider college prestige/difficulty when they look at a GPA?</p>
<p>These two are both well-respected and about the same in terms of prestige, perhaps Michigan a little higher. Are you instate at Michigan? If so, that would be the tip factor to me. It’s a great college. </p>
<p>Where you will be happiest and feel most at home will lead to your best GPA.</p>
<p>Michigan…</p>
<p>Hm? Northwestern has ED and its RD results aren’t out yet for this cycle. How did you find out you were accepted? Unless you got in through Questbridge, which I believe gives full rides.</p>
<p>I dont know where to go?
- Where you would be happiest.*
Which would be better for my chances to get into an elite med school?
Where you would be happiest.
which looks better on a transcript?
The name attached to the better transcript.
where would i get a better GPA? - The one where you’d be happiest.*
and do med schools consider college prestige/difficulty when they look at a GPA? - Not between these two. Directional State U and Cal ? Yeah. They’ll adjust a little. It is commonly considered that .1-.3 is the maximum bump one school/program gives you over another but it’s really best to ignore this bump and just make the grades wherever you are.*</p>
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<p>I highly suspect that the maximum bump could be up to 0.3 – although I admit that you are more experienced than me on this.</p>
<p>If I remember correctly, NCG once wrote that a student with a 3.4 at a prestigious school is likely hurt the most. If the same student had a bump of 0.3, he would be considered as one comparable to a kid with a 3.7 at a not so top school. But a 3.7 kid from many schools has some good shot at a medical school. Therefore, I think it is highly unlikely that the bump could be up to 0.3.</p>
<p>If a kid with a 3.7 from many schools has a chance, I would guess a kid with a 3.5-3.6 (actually it may be 3.55 to 3.6 right now) from a top school would have a chance. That is, the bump is 0.1 to 0.15 or 0.2 at most IMHO. (Here, we intentionally do not include the factor that a higher percentage of kids from a top school may do better on MCAT.)</p>
<p>I heard that the largest bump you can get by going to a prestigious school is when you are into an i-banking/consulting career, and, to a much less extent, a top law (where LSAT is the king) or a top medical school.</p>
<p>BTW, a nice poem. I have never known that a lawyer can be a poet also :)</p>
<p>To clarify it further, the reason why I think the bump can not be as high as 0.3:</p>
<p>From a particular top school that I am aware of, it is often the case that it sends 1/7 to 1/6 of its class (including alumni applicants) to a medical school. The lower bound of the GPA of these kids (excluding URMs, of course, who play a totally different game in terms of their numbers) is not likely close to 3.4. Otherwise, much more than 1/7 to 1/6 of their students may be admitted to a medical school – unless premeds have a much lower GPA than the class as a whole. (The top 15% of the class may have a GPA above 3.84-3.85, if I remember correctly.)</p>
<p>What type of schools would be included in those that might give a student a “bump?” Would they be top Universities or would top LAC’s be included as well?</p>
<p>curm is extremely knowledgeable on premed topics. And I would concur that there would be no difference between UMich and Northwestern, both tippy-top tier Unis. It’s not like you are considering a Cal State Uni vs. UC Berkeley, or a SUNY vs. Cornell (where there would be a difference).</p>
<p>but, I might suggest a better answer to: “which looks better on a transcript?” is the higher GPA.</p>
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And I would agree.
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<p>Probably top 10 universities and top 5 LACs. Something like that. It’s a very small list.</p>
<p>It varies from adcom to adcom. I know that Dartmouth has a huge group of admissions members that focus on a few schools each so that they can better understand the difficulties of the university and the abilities of the applicants.</p>
<p>so is achieving a gpa of 3.9 at a college that is not so great (well, rather notoriously easy) better or worse than getting a lower gpa at a better college?</p>
<p>Can not be straight up generalized like that. Just understand that medical schools attempt to balance the variance in school difficulty by compensating and looking at the MCAT. If you are capable of getting a 3.9 at one university, chances are your GPA wouldn’t plummet to a 3.0 at another anyways.</p>
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<p>No top 20 schools? ■■■. Haha, I go to WashU.</p>
<p>Northwestern is ranked 12? So OP might get a boost in application? (Pretty close to top 10.)</p>
<p>I’ve never seen WUSTL or NU get boosts, but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t happen. I know Harvard/Yale/Princeton/Penn/Duke do. (For that matter, I also know that MIT doesn’t.) And Berkeley doesn’t.</p>
<p>That’s about the limit of my knowledge.</p>