<p>Hey,</p>
<p>I'm a freshman at a small 4 year university in Wisconsin. My question is whether or not I will have a disadvantage over others who graduate from top prestigous universities? I've always thought that it's the student that makes the difference, not the school, but if I am mistaken I will transfer to a more competitive school like the University of Wisconsin. What do you think? Thanks in advance.</p>
<p>~El Sol</p>
<p>If all things are equal, you will be at a disadvantage.</p>
<p>However, rarely are all things equal. In particular, it is usually easier to get higher grades at a less prominent school than at a more prominent one. To the med-school adcoms, it is far far more important to get high grades than it is to come from a high-prestige program.</p>
<p>That's true, but I'm guessing that not a whole lot of kids from your small school in Wisconsin go to medical school. If med school adcoms don't know anything about your school, they'll have no idea what to make of your gpa. But if you feel that your premed classes are preparing you to take the MCAT and are reasonably rigorous and you like the school (and you're doing very well as far as GPA), you could probably still get into medical school. MCAT is very important for more obscure schools.</p>
<p>According to my advisor, my school places 85% of the TOTAL pre-meds into med-school, albeit, there are not thousands of pre-meds. I guess most go to the University of Wisconsin Medical School or Medical College of Wisconsin.</p>
<p>85% is a very high number. However, it's good to find out the background of those statistics. Some schools do not allow everyone to apply to med school if they think you have no shot.</p>