<p>“My neighbor, specifically, says that those in his class from the Ivy’s (with the possible exception of Cornell) lack a great deal of the basic baseline material and are mid to bottom of the class. Perhaps it is wonderful to be able to study esoteric fields, but I’m not sure it translates well to the nuts and bolts of medical school.”</p>
<p>I’m sorry, but this made me burst out laughing. Gotta love well intentioned neighbors… :)</p>
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<p>Olipond, i have no idea what your neighbor’s intentions are, but I will tell you that those comments are the most disparate statements I have ever heard about premed and the Ivy League schools. If anything, mentorship, individual attention and access to faculty and Premed Committees are the strong points of being a premed at those schools. They allocate significant resources to maximize the number of premeds that get into med school and the advising is geared to that.</p>
<p>The Cornell comment is pretty hilarious as well, since Cornell has the lowest percentage of premeds getting into med schools compared to the other ivies. I would suggest you be careful when listening to that neighbor…</p>
<p>Cornell’s low stats may be low because they include schools outside Arts & Sciences. If you just look at kids coming out of Arts and Sciences vs. Agriculture (bio majors) and Hum Ec (human ecology), my guess is that it will be comparable to the other ivies.</p>
<p>Well, I attend a top 20 university. I don’t think that the ‘prestige’ of my institution will help me in the admissions process, but more so of the academic rigor…if that makes sense. When it comes time to take the MCAT, I think I will be better off than someone who attended a small state school, for example. Not only that, but also opportunities are much more vast. For example, as a first year freshman I am already a General Chemistry SI, I am in the process of creating an EMS system on campus (and teaching a course in the Spring), and I will potentially (most likely) be getting a research position with a biology professor in the spring. </p>
<p>I think what makes me unique is that I attend a very small 2-year liberal arts institution of a very prestigious university. The bonus of attending a small school with all the resources of a major institution is simply amazing. The opportunities are entirely endless for me. This is just first semester and I’m already excited for the goals I have set for future semesters. </p>
<p>So, I don’t think adcoms will look at an application and say: “Oh! Top 20 University! Bonus!”…I just think going to a prestigious university helps you make your application stand out more so than going to a state school where there are 10,000 other people trying to make their apps stand out. At least for me it does. </p>
<p>Hopefully that made sense. I was kind of jumping all over the place.</p>
<p>Good students can succeed everywhere. Whatever resources per student that one might have access to at a private top uni are balanced by the opportunity to be a big fish in a smaller pond at a larger state uni. It is much more preference than anything, but none of the things that you cited were unavailable to me at ASU in some equivalent form.</p>
<p>There is definitely a preference that goes both ways: students from top undergrad schools make up the most of of the classes at top medical schools. They choose to go there, and the med schools choose to admit them as well.</p>
<p>There are more than 2300 four year universities and only 131 medical schools in the country, yet the top ten med schools and ivies have 60-70% students coming from similar top 10 undergrads and ivies. There must be enough good students graduating from the rest of those THOUSANDS four year universities with the qualifications to gain admission to the top medical schools, yet they are not proportionately represented. </p>
<p>Self selection occurs both ways, but it does occurs. There is no doubt.</p>
<p>Thats not the best statistic to use, because it doesn’t discount the majority of students that dont have the brains, drive, or (in particular) desire to be a doctor. I think a better stat is the students that actually apply to medical school. Of them, a huge number come from top schools (there is a table listing schools pumping out lots of applicants, several of which approach 1000 I believe). So while there is still a bias, it is not so great that it can’t be explained as mostly due to applicant quality.</p>
<p>Just flipped through some data, 19000 applicants come from a pool of ~70 universities.</p>
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<p>Not necessarily. “Good students”? Certainly. Great test takers? Not many. </p>
<p>HYP et al select for excellent test takers. By definition, they will have higher average mcat scores…and high scores are required for top xx med schools (for the unhooked). The lowest quartile at such schools easily beats the upper quartile at those “THOUSANDS [of] four year universities.” </p>
<p>For example, the most competitive Cal State Uni has a 75th scores of 29/1300. (btw: Cal Poly SLO has higher stats than a couple of UCs.) The next Cal State is ~26/1200. Thus, the average test taker at such a college is not capable of scoring a 35 mcat.</p>
<p>^^^ Very true.</p>
<p>*mmmcdowe
Just flipped through some data, 19000 applicants come from a pool of ~70 universities. *</p>
<p>Interesting…is there a link for that? That sounds like an unusually low number of schools…about 250-300 applicants per school? Would that be right? I can see maybe the very large publics have 200+ med school applicants per year, but would the privates who often have smaller enrollments?</p>
<p>*There is definitely a preference that goes both ways: students from top undergrad schools make up the most of of the classes at top medical schools. They choose to go there, and the med schools choose to admit them as well.</p>
<p>*</p>
<p>The high number of ivy undergrads going to ivy meds makes more sense than just the fact that these are high stats kid anyway (which is also a major consideration). Another issue is that these kids are already in the NE for undergrad, so continuing in the NE is a simple matter.</p>
<p>My son has said that he doubts that he’ll apply to many NE schools (maybe one or two??) because he really has no interest in being that far away. So, even if he got a spectacular MCAT (lol…fingers crossed!), being in the NE is not a priority for him. </p>
<p>If he gets into our instate med school (UAB), he and we will be thrilled because it is very good…and very cheap for instate. No need to spend 2X-3X more for a NE med.</p>
<p>He can’t be the only one who thinks that way.</p>
<p><a href=“https://www.aamc.org/data/facts/applicantmatriculant/86042/table2.html[/url]”>https://www.aamc.org/data/facts/applicantmatriculant/86042/table2.html</a></p>
<p>Wow…very interesting. </p>
<p>Schools like UCLA, Cal, & UTexas have these huge number of total applicants but embarrassingly low numbers of AA applicants proportionately.</p>
<p>UCLA… 728 total…27 AA
Cal… 772 total…19 AA
Texas… 668 total…33 AA</p>
<p>“My son has said that he doubts that he’ll apply to many NE schools (maybe one or two??) because he really has no interest in being that far away.”</p>
<p>-Very valid point for very many applicants. Lots and lots are applying regionally despite advice from pre-med advisor. They do not care to go far away. It was my D’s first criteria when she was choosing Med. Schools. She actually did not mention any of her pre-med friends going far away. So, Ivy’s were out. She is happy where she is and there are very many from Ivy’s UG and other elite schools at her Med. School with Berkeley beating all others in numbers, but CA applicants are different, they basically flooding the whole system and getting accepted in big numbers everywhere.</p>
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<p>An SDNer posted at SDN a couple of years ago that, if an applicant applies to too many NE schools (but s/he is not from that region), one of the adcoms at a certain medical school (which is NOT an NE school) would be not very pleased and might spend a big chunk of your precious interview time on “lecturing” you on why you should not apply to so many schools. She said this likely happened in many years. Of course, the adcom found out how many schools you had applied to by asking you, the applicant.</p>
<p>i got a similar talk about coming from texas…</p>
<p>TX residents got it made: excellent range of schools and less expensive. It’s win-win.</p>
<p>^OH has 7 Med. Schools, good number and wide range.</p>
<p>^^^</p>
<p>Wow…</p>
<p>NY has a lot, too.</p>
<p>Alabama only has 2 med schools. :(</p>
<p>And New Mexico, Colorado, Utah, Nevada, Oregon and Washington have only one each. Wyoming and Idaho have none.</p>