does college matter when applying ot med school?

[afan]

<p>I second bigndude on choosing a college for premed. Lots of students from both places get into medical school each year, by doing well in their courses, on the MCAT, and presenting otherwise appropriate backgrounds. Ignore claims about differences in reputation. On the other hand, Swarthmore and ND are about as different as two places can get. Decide where you would prefer to be, and what you can afford. If you do well in college, either will get you in medical school.</p>

<p>Sakky, I completely agree that a low GPA is a problem for medical school application. The point about comparing schools on overall GPA is that at some schools this includes a larger proportion of science courses than at others. Therefore, the differences in GPA may be due entirely to the mix of science courses, not the difficulty of grading. To assert that a place with a higher mean GPA, if you can find one, has "grade inflation" could be completely in error. It implies that a student taking the same courses at a "low GPA" and a "high GPA" school would get higher grades at the latter. If the difference in overall mean GPA is due to differences in course mix, then the same student might get identical, or even lower, grades at the "high GPA" place. That is why a meaningful comparison would be "electrical engineering grades" at the "low GPA" place to "electrical engineering grades" at the "high GPA" place. Unfortunately, it is hard to come by this data. To compare GPA's without correcting for this is misleading. You are not comparing EE at Princeton to EE at MIT, or even EE at Princeton to English at Princeton. You are comparing English at Princeton to EE at MIT, then using the result of this outcome to conclude that "Princeton grading is easier".</p>

[sakky]

<p>Afan, I understand you point, but I would again point out that that's really neither here nor there. At the end of the day, GPA counts, and the fact is, certain schools tend to give out higher grades than others. We can talk about whether that's actually due to a different course mix or whatever, but that's not really important. At the end of the day, what matters is the GPA you can present to med-schools. Again, I would point out, the guy who majors in EE at MIT and ends up with grades that are too low for him to get into med-school isn't going to care about why his grades are so low. All he's going to care about is that his grades are low. </p>

<p>The only relevance I see is that we end up shifting our discussion from schools to subjects. For example, one could argue that certain subjects are more grade inflated than others. And everybody knows of certain creampuff majors where you can get high grades for doing almost nothing. In fact, I have discussed this very point many times on other parts of CC. </p>

<p>But at the end of the day, the point still stands - if you want to maximize your chances of getting into med-school, you want to get the highest grades you can, and if that means going to where the grade inflation is, so be it. While med-schools might say that they want the best students, what they actually want are the students who present the highest grades (all other things being equal, of course), which is not exactly the same thing as wanting the best students. Hence, one of the things you can do to help yourself get into med-school is to avoid difficult and low-graded coursework whenever you can. I know that sounds terrible, but it's the truth. That's part of the 'game' of med-school admissions. </p>

<p>The fact is, an 'A' in an easy course looks better than a 'B' in a difficult course for the purposes of med-schools admissions. Obviously, the best thing to get is an 'A' in a difficult course, but if you can't get that, then the next best thing is to get an 'A' in an easy course. The same is true of choosing majors - the best thing to do is obviously get a top GPA in a difficult major. But if you cannot do that, then it is better to get a top GPA in an easy major than it is to get a mediocre GPA in a difficult major. </p>

<p>As a corollary, that still means that you should choose an easier school like Princeton over a more difficult school like MIT if, for no other reason, then because will have a greater variety of easier courses and easier majors to choose from at Princeton than you would at MIT. Hence, the point still stands - if you want to maximize your chances of going to med-school, you want to go where the grade inflation is. The reasoning behind doing so changes, but the final outcome does not.</p>

[akx]

<p>Actually, sakky, Princeton is one of the hardest schools to do well in now. The administration initiated a grade deflation policy last fall and the percentage of A's given out in each department has been restricted to no more than 35%. Before this year, approximately 47% of grades given out at Princeton were A's. This was in line with percentages of A's given out at all the other ivies, Stanford, and MIT, which all fell between 45% and 55%. Princeton is very grade deflated now and definitely not the best place to come for a high GPA and a ticket to a top med school, unless you're insanely smart.</p>

[sakky]

<p>Akx, I am well aware of the changes being made at Princeton - but just use your gut feeling, and tell me - which do you think is going to be harder, Princeton or MIT? Be honest with yourself. </p>

<p>Speaking specifically of the new Princeton grading policy, the inside word, which you can glean yourself as it has already been discussed here on CC (mostly on the Princeton section) is that the new grading scheme will have little to no effect on the grading of science/engineering courses at Princeton, because those courses already handed out a percentage of A's that was equivalent to or less than was is now mandated. Hence, nothing will change. The new scheme will mostly affect those Princeton humanities and to some extent social science departments that were notorious for handing out A's like candy. And to Princeton students in those departments, not only do I have no sympathy towards them, I actually have NEGATIVE sympathy for them. Princeton science/engineering students have always had to put up with tough grading, and you never hear them whining. If they can put up with tough grading, then so can the rest of the Princeton student body. In fact, I've talked to several Princeton alumni who majored in engineering and science and who tacitly approve of the grading change. One of them, a Princeton electrical engineering graduate, said that it was about time that Princeton cracked down on its creampuff majors where students were getting easy A's for doing nothing while he was slaving away in his engineering coursework.</p>