<p>Alright, well I have searched everywhere and even asked a few people I know but I have yet to recieve a definite answer to my question. To add to the topic question (Does it matter where I go for undergrad for pre-med?), will going to a state school like Oregon State University hurt my admissions into a grad school at JHU,Harvard,Yale, Washington etc. Even with a 4.0 GPA and very good MCAT's and EC's would my admissions be GREATLY hurt because I went to that school? The reason I am asking this is because I want to stay some place near home (as well as save money), for undergrad studies then when I am a little older go else where for my grad studies. </p>
<p>The reason why I am asking this is because I am looking at all the average GPA's of people accepted into Harvard/Yale/UPenn/Washington and it appears that the average is around 3.6-3.79. So, I am assuming that getting a 4.0+ is quite impressive especially with a major like biology or biochemistry. Along with MCATs at these tops school around 11.0-12.0 average for all 3 sections.
Now with my dilemma...
If I were to study so hard for my undergrad studies and MCAT's only to be rejected at the top tier school just because I went to OSU would be devastating to me. So I am hoping someone can help me out here.</p>
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<p>I just remembered another question that I have.</p>
<p>What major would be the "best" major for me to take? I was thinking about nursing/sport medicine as an alternate to biology or biochemistry. If you had a chance to redo your undergrad studies would you take nursing/sport medicine or biology/biochemistry?</p>
<p>2.) With rare exceptions, your major does not matter. I suspect nursing and sports medicine fall into "specialized health sciences", which may be one of the exceptions. (They're bad.)</p>
<p>Do you happen to have a place/website where we can look at the rankings of universities in the eyes of admission officers at med schools? I am interested in know where schools like Oregon State University and University of Oregon stand in their eyes.</p>
<p>Impossible to give any sort of real estimation b/c it's going to vary from school to school (and perhaps even on who happens to be the Dean of admissions at that particular time). Even places, like some of the LACs in the Northeast, that cause a collective orgasm from many people on CC won't mean much in other regions of the country.</p>
<p>I think you should consider relaxing a little. While a GPA of 4.0 is possible - in tougher areas like the hard sciences it's more difficult and I'm afraid you may be setting yourself up for , well - hard realities and I wouldn't want your confidence shaken. Some people get really caught up in the feel-good reward of being number one; truly, it's more important that you are actually learning from your experiences - academically, emotionally, socially, sprititually, ect....</p>
<p>Also, getting into med school period is difficult - any med school, much less the highly sought after. Again, relax a little - do your best and apply to many when the time comes. A doctor is a doctor, regardless of where graduate. </p>
<p>Also with "admission rates" from the undergrad schools - these need to be taken with a grain of salt. There are some undergrad schools that flat out refuse to encourage certain students from applying to med school (won't give good recomendtions, etc... so you might as well not bother). The reason for this is because the undergrad school wants a high acceptance rate of their students. How is that a fair comparison with other colleges that do not practice this "selective applying" ? It's not. </p>
<p>So, what to do? Look at the schools you are interested in. Do they have a strong premed advisement program? Do they offer their premeds help in getting research opportunities? Physican shadowing? Volunteer opportunities? MCAT review? Is tutoring available for the sciences? Is there a premed club? </p>
<p>So although it might matter a little, in the long run, I don't think it matters as much as what some people might think. Again, it's not so much where you went, but what you did when you got there.</p>
<p>Thanks for the advice Pearl! I understand exactly what you mean. The reason why I am so worried about this is because I do not want to regret where I choose to go to college for my undergrad studies after 4 years. But hopefully I will get into a respectable college like University of Rochester, Pepperdine, UW or maybe NYU and try to be the best I can there. Thanks again.</p>