<p>If two people had almost otherwise identical applications, would they pick the Ivy League student over the person from a top 40, state school?
What difference in terms of MCAT and GPA would coming from an 30-40 ranked school make compared to a 10 school?
How badly was my med school application damaged by desire for a free ride at a state school as opposed to a top 10 school?</p>
<p>Additionally, how important are college EC's? I only have two. :(
I am doing undergraduate research.</p>
<p>You need to take this question to the Med School Forum. Click on “Discussion Home” in the upper-left of this screen, and then scroll down to find it.</p>
<p>If you look thru the threads of this forum, you’ll see that this gets asked a LOT.</p>
<p>Two candidates with nearly-identical applications will almost certainly both be admitted or both be rejected.</p>
<p>The odds that they’d be competing for “the last spot” are astronomically slim.</p>
<p>Very good point since schools tend to “over-admit” knowing that not everyone will end up enrolling.</p>
<p>Medical schools are actually really careful about that and don’t overenroll nearly as much as undergrad does. So that’s not so much the reason.</p>
<p>“Two candidates with nearly-identical applications will almost certainly both be admitted or both be rejected.”</p>
<p>-Did not happen to my D. Difference - being OOS vs IS. Comparison was made to one of profiles on SDN. D. did not get an interview at OOS public Med. school in top 10 where IS applicant with slightly lower stats has been accepted (IS applicant is also female, the same age, exactly the same scores in each section of MCAT, slightly lower GPA, bit less EC’s).</p>
<p>Did not happen to my D. Difference - being OOS vs IS.</p>
<p>In this case, it could be argued that their apps weren’t “the same” since being instate is an advantage…perhaps a req’t by the state or school.</p>
<p>Medical schools are actually really careful about that and don’t overenroll nearly as much as undergrad does.</p>
<p>Very true…I didn’t mean to suggest that med schools do it to anywhere near the extent that undergrads do. But, I imagine that med schools have some kind of modeling that provides data that suggests that if they accept X, then typically Y percentage actually enroll…and use that data to know how many to safely “over admit” and not end up with too many warm bodies.</p>
<p>The bigger difference is that there is much more use of a very carefully ranked wait list than over enrollment in Med school admissions.</p>
<p>From my experience, it seems like schools with small classes (3 where I’ve interviewed have class sizes of 50, 104, and 100) are extremely purposeful with who they choose to fill those spots. So it’s not like they’ll accept 60 and assume 50 will say yes. Rather, they’ll accept 50, and as spots are turned down, they carefully select another student to admit. Eventually, maybe 70 are admitted. Similarly, with the school that takes 104, they have to have a number that’s divisible by 8 because of their curriculum. They take 104 kids, place 104 on the waitlist, and accept new ones as original offers are declined. Eventually, maybe 150 are admitted. The school that takes 100 works just like the one that takes 50 in terms of admissions and waitlists. </p>
<p>Seems like there’s a typically group of applicants who hold multiple acceptances and obviously can only choose one–so there ends up being pretty considerable movement off the waitlists once they finally decide, with up to half the class admitted from the waitlist at some of the schools I’ve looked at.</p>
<p>No
UNless you are applying at “research” school such as Hopkins, Harvard, etc</p>
<p>If you don’t go to Harvard for undergrad then your pretty much screwed for getting into med school.</p>
<p>Many med schools don’t like “Harvard Grads” because they think they are “Harvard Grads”</p>
<p>*If you don’t go to Harvard for undergrad then your pretty much screwed for getting into med school. *</p>
<p>Why would you say that?</p>
<p>And, especially since you’re pre-med and not at Harvard…</p>
<p>But then again, if Harvard premeds are of similar quality to the computer geek kids depicted in that new-ish movie Social Network…</p>
<p>…then they’re likely an impressive group, and assuming they’re at least somewhat intrinsically “like that” (is that a big assumption? I don’t know), then they’d probably get in no matter where they went (ie, they’d be high quality super smart overacheivers regardless of their undergrad institution).</p>
<p>Then again…what’s the movie industry know?!</p>
<p>That was off-topic :)</p>
<p>But I generally believe the students themselves have to bring “something” major to the table in order to be successful. I’m sure environments like those at Harvard or other Ivies would have a major influence on the development of their students–after all, isn’t that part of the point of going to college?–but I think a big part of it has to do with what the students themselves are like. </p>
<p>I have a pretty successful group of premed friends (in that we’ve all gotten in somewhere by now) and we all go to a big state school in the midwest. Each of us got into at least 1 elite program for undergrad and chose to go to our state school–and we turned out just fine. To me that shows that high caliber students (who can gain admission to top 20s) will likely continue to do well almost regardless of their environment. Sure we’ve had to work pretty diligently to make a state school feel like a rigorous program (and it would be really easy to just skate by…), but I don’t feel like I’m missing out at all!</p>
<p>For what it’s worth, Kamasutra: all my friends applying this year, from my midwest big state school, have gotten into medical school. Most have gotten into multiple medical schools. None went to Harvard. Au contraire, my school’s rarely in the top 100 nationwide. So here’s…7 data points to completely challenge your previous statement.</p>
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<p>One of my friends knew one of the side characters pretty well. “Oh my gosh. That’s him. That’s totally him. The way he talks. The way he walks. Even the sort of PANTS he wears. They even paid attention to his PANTS.”</p>
<p>For some reason, kamasutra has become a bit of a ■■■■■ in his recent posts…filled with sarcasm and thinly veiled vitriol…</p>
<p>I’m not surprised…</p>
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<p>^^^ Kamasutra was clearly being sarcastic.</p>