<p>Choppy Title, but do medical schools take into consideration your undergraduate school when determining GPA. For example, would a 4.0 from UC Irvine win over a 3.5 from Princeton? To make it even closer, would a 3.8 from UCLA win over a 3.7 from Harvard?</p>
<p>Medical schools care more about your GPA (overall and science) and your MCAT score than what school you attended. Hypothetically though, if there are two candidates with the exact same credentials, except one attended, let's say, Harvard, and the other attended their state university, the person from Harvard might be chosen over the state university.</p>
<p>That's not exactly true. Admission committees DO look at what schools you attended, and they know which schools have tougher competition and stricter programs. Therefore, some one from the no-name local college with a 4.0 might lose to the kid with a 3.5 from a well-known college. I heard this from the person in charge of admissions at Houston's med school.</p>
<p>You're assuming that it's easier to get high grades at a state school than at a grade inflated school like Harvard or Princeton. This is not necessarily true. Given the choice between Harvard and UCLA, I'd take Harvard. Most likely you will end up with a higher GPA AND with the more prestigous undergrad school.</p>
<p>There's no definite answer to the whole "which is better: a better grade at a worse school or vice versa" thing...
don't pick an undergrad by what you think is better for grad, and then just do the best that you can at your college.</p>
<p>Zant: The correct answer to that:</p>
<p>A better grade at a better school</p>
<p>I know that. And I've said that before, so I didn't feel like repeating it.
Don't try to be a smartass with me :p</p>
<p>There's no "ass" involved here, just "smart" :)</p>
<p>Then I guess your ass is stupid...</p>
<p>If you go to a prestigious undergrad school as opposed to a regular state school then they will look upon the nicer school more favorably. However, I think schools like Berkeley, UVA, maybe even UCLA and UMich would be considered a bit higher than just any old state school. In the examples you gave it'd be better to get a 4.0 than a 3.5 since thats too big of a gap, but I think the 3.7 would get in before the 3.8 if everything else were same although I think they'd really be treated about the same, and other factors would determine who got in. I had a cousin who went to Penn and got a 3.8 while alot of his friends went to state school in texas and got 4.0's and he did alot better than all of them in admissions, I dont know the specifics in e/cs or anything like that though. He also advised me that as long as you get a 3.8-3.9 it'll look as good if not better than a 4.0 at state school, but a 3.5 won't cut it and make up for it.</p>
<p>just look at a website like [this[/url</a>]. It doesn't give GPAs, but it is very clear that better schools are heavily favored.</p>
<p>Even if you look at a list like [url=<a href="http://dukemed.duke.edu/AdmissionsFinancialAid/index.cfm?method=ProfileOfTheLastClass%5Dthis">http://dukemed.duke.edu/AdmissionsFinancialAid/index.cfm?method=ProfileOfTheLastClass]this</a> one](<a href="http://www.mc.vanderbilt.edu/medschool/admissions/stats/undergraduate.php%5Dthis%5B/url">http://www.mc.vanderbilt.edu/medschool/admissions/stats/undergraduate.php) or this</a> one, you will see that the students hail from the more prestigious undergraduate institutions.</p>