<p>hello,
i'm currently a sophomore at penn, but have been deciding whether to transfer to harvard next semester. i wasn't too happy here a year ago when i applied to transfer, but have since grown to really like it here, and subsequently found out that i did get into harvard afer all.
how comparable are my chances of getting into good med schools from either of these undergrad universities? is the harvard name that much more beneficial when applying? i fear that starting anew midway through the year could have a negative effect on my grades. would it be better to have, for example, a 3.9 at penn or a 3.75 at harvard?
by the way, i'll be studying econ at either school.
(my reason for transfer was/is not at all to do with going to a school i thought had a better "premed" program, as neither do.)
thanks for any advice!</p>
<p>IMO, Harvard over Penn is probably too small an incremental difference to matter much, but I do have a reputation for being a little too fond of Penn on these boards. Harvard in general has a reputation for sort of throwing their students into the deep end to swim on their own, and medical school applications is NOT a time when you want to do that.</p>
<p>A .15 grade difference is moderately large, but I'm hoping you don't think a transfer to Harvard would change your OVERALL grade point average by that much, which would imply a drop of .6, or a 3.3 GPA there. If you mean a one-semester fluctuation down to a 3.75, which would alter your GPA by roughly .04 points, then I don't think that's a big deal.</p>
<p>is it even possible to transfer from penn to harvard? Im guessing it would be very hard. Not sure what you mean by "and subsequently found out that i did get into harvard after all." Anyways, if you can get a 3.9 at penn, then by all means STAY at penn, especially if you have grown to like it there.</p>
<p>yeah, its certainly possible. i was accepted for the spring 2007 term at harvard. there were actually pretty many transfers from penn there.
apparently the penn gpa would not be carried over to the harvard gpa; i would have a separate one that the medical school would presumably average with my gpa from penn. i currently have around a 3.9 at penn (which probably helped being accepted to harvard), though a drop in gpa if transferring is not guaranteed, since harvard is known for grade inflation. i was just wondering if it makes a big difference in terms of med school, though i'm not entirely certain i will be applying for it.
i suppose that outside of med school, perhaps harvard would be better?</p>
<p>This is a rather interesting form of the "Does your undergrad matter in med schools admissions" question. We're now splitting hairs b/w Upenn and Harvard?</p>
<p>well, i have read that at harvard med school anyways, the acceptance rate for harvard undergrads FAR exceeds to overall acceptance rate.</p>
<p>Aiya.</p>
<p>You have to keep your eyes on the control factors. Harvard kids are very bright. Hopkins probably admits Harvard kids far more than the overall rate. Penn probably admits Harvard kids far more than the overall rate. And HMS probably admits Penn kids far more than the overall rate.</p>
<p>HMS may well show them some favortism, but that's not the statistic to use to prove it.</p>
<p>indeed. i do not know how successful penn is in terms of being admitted to hms, as that would be the comparison to use, or harvard and penn head to head being admitted to a third party school such as hopkins. i dont know where such a stat would be available.</p>
<p>Well, but even if you could obtain those, you would then have to control for incoming SAT score and such to control for the quality of students. And then, since he's taken much of his work at Penn already, you'd probably want to control for MCAT score. Etc.</p>
<p>So transferring from the University of Texas to the University of Notre Dame after my Frosh year wont hurt my chances of getting accepted to medical school?</p>
<p>the question is not whether it will hurt or not, but just how much it will help in comparison to the hassle of transferring. (doesn't apply to transferring from CC to uni, just uni to uni)</p>
<p>we just beat harvard in football anyway, why would you want to transfer?</p>
<p>in all seriousness though, i would discourage you from transferring for a couple reasons.</p>
<p>1) For med school admissions, harvard vs. penn in terms of name recognition is irrelevant - a great deal of time on this board is spent arguing if the difference between an ivy and a state school in terms of name recognition makes a difference.</p>
<p>2) If transferring will adversely effect your GPA, as it likely will because you'd have to adjust to a new environment, that outweighs any possible benefits of your propsed transfer if you've found your niche at penn in the meantime</p>
<p>3) on the harvard med thing, while HMS has a disproportionate amount of harvard kids, the same applies to PennMed but with Penn kids, and I hardly think the #3 med school is something to complain about.</p>
<p>4) while point 2 is by far the most important, staying in one spot is also beneficial because it allows for continuity in building the other aspects of your application that are important, like research, clubs, etc. Transferring would mean starting over in this regard.</p>