<p>I went to Arizona State and ended up at a Ivy medical school, OP. To be sure, the top schools have a large number of Ivy undergrads in them, but this is a combination of self selection (i.e. top students tend to go to top schools) and sheer volume. For example, despite ASU having 65,000 students, the number of applicants to medical school at Harvard is twice that of ASU’s per year. There are a couple of schools, such as UCLA, that put out over a THOUSAND applicants in a given year. This isn’t necessarily because attending UCLA is more conducive to applying to medical school that ASU. In fact, I can pretty comfortably say that it is mostly intrinsic to the personal qualities of the student body rather than the resources or mission of the university. </p>
<p>The bottom line is you should attend a school that you feel will keep you happy and engaged. If that is a top university, by all means go there and be among a school where you are a peer mind rather than a big fish in a smaller pond. For me, I was happy to study in the honors college of ASU, where I found enough peers to keep me more than occupied but still had access to all the fun that the University had to offer. I don’t regret the choice, nor do I think I would have been better off going to one of my “superior” choices.</p>
<p>So yes, there is some correlation between the caliber of the undergrad and the success rate that applicants have to med school. Geographical preferences definitely also come into play.</p>
<p>“the advice I was given was to take all of the fundamental classes and master the material, get an A obv. The reason being that medical schools don’t care about the classes you take as long as you do well in them. I don’t know how this can be true”</p>
<p>The advice you were give is correct: Med schools require certain pre-reqs be completed (and you’ll need them to do well on the MCAT) - generally a year each of bio, organic and inorganic chem, and physics. Some want some amount of math and english too. Otherwise you can major in anything you want. I think I saw a stat that said only 60% of medical school students majored in a science. </p>
<p>Another important point: Many ‘ivy league caliber’ applicants go to their state medical school because where you go to medical school doesn’t matter unless you are planning a career in research and academic medicine. Medical school is incredibly expensive and your state school is generally half the cost of any other option. </p>
<p>Your state of residence can be critical for purposes of admission to a state medical school - Californians have it very rough because there are many applicants and very few ‘in-state’ seats. If you are from certain states (several in the South for example), you have it much easier because they have more in-state seats relative to the number of in-state applicants. If you are from a state like that, protect your residency. If you are from California, start saving your pennies now.</p>
<p>Harvard along puts out enough applicants yearly to fill up several Ivy medical schools annually.</p>
<p>Also, your medical school can have some effect, especially in academic medicine and at the very top programs. It isn’t enough to overrule other priorities such as cost, geography, and fit.</p>