<p>hey ... if you don't go to a very highly rated university (e.g. ivys, berkeley, stanford, mit, ucla blah blah) for pre-med will u be at a disadvantage when applying to the top med schools... for example if someone at one of the lower UCs or purdue rips pre-med (high GPA) and kills MCAT and is applying to the top medical programs of the nation will it be held against it that they went to a not so highly rated school???</p>
<p>thank you</p>
<p>I don't think so, but med schools will see whether you've excelled in your context. Of course, having Harvard on your resume is definitely a plus, but that means that you had to work your buttocks off in both high school and college.. so take it as it is.</p>
<p>Of course it matters. GPA can only be taken in the context of the school you're at and the students you are competing against. Does that mean you can't get into a good med school from a average school? Of course not. Thousands of people do that each year, but "all other things equal" going to a good school will allow you to make the cut.</p>
<p>read one of the many many many posts from sakky. Your question will be more than answered. This has been debated in great length already.</p>
<p>cheers people</p>
<p>so it ain't completely unheard of people going from schools like uc irvine, and purdue to med schools like hms, jhu, washington, upenn etc ??? ... sorry im just really paranoid ... </p>
<p>i just moved here from australia and am a greencard holder... but cause of my exams over there i couldn't study for my SATs at all and ended up with 1360 meaning that heaps of schools ain't gonna consider me a strong applicant ... otherewise my stats are really STRONG</p>
<p>I am a graduate of UC Irvine and I had a lot of friends who were pre-med. Many of them ended up back at UCI for med school, but I have personal friends who are currently at, or recent graduates of the following "big name" medical schools:</p>
<p>Harvard (5)
UCSF
Stanford
Johns Hopkins
Washington University
Yale
UCLA (5, one of whom finished first in her class)
Emory</p>
<p>And many others...if you do well at UCI you'll be fine.</p>
<p>oh thanks ... really reassuring ! cheers mate</p>
<p>Conversely, if you end up going to a superstar undergrad program, and you don't do well, then you're screwed.</p>
<p>The issue is then, how do certain schools define 'doing well'. The fact is, it's far easier to get better grades at certain schools and in certain majors, then it is at other schools and/or in other majors. And the (unfortunate) reality is that if you want to maximize your chances of getting into med-school, you want to go to the school and complete the major where you will get the highest possible grades. If that means going to an easy and grade-inflated school and taking easy, grade-inflated classes, where students can do very little work and still get top grades, then so be it. About the worst thing you can do is go to a difficult school and study a difficult major.</p>
<p>And at a "difficult" school, it may be difficult to get good letters of rec from professors because it's hard to stand out from the crowd.</p>
<p>when it comes down to it, going to a lower tier school will put you at a disadvantage. that doesn't mean you can't get into top med schools though, many have done it.</p>
<p>Going to a lower tier school will only put you at a disadvantage if everything else is equal. But because applications consist of so much more than numbers (recs, personal statement, research experience, volunteering), you will hardly ever come across two apps that are exactly equal.</p>
<p>who cares. If you go to a decent/less-knownundergrad, it should be a 100% possible to get into a plethora of med schools. Keep in mind, many of you are talking about hms, jhu, UCSD, ...etc...by your senior year, you will be happy to get into -any- known med school in the US.</p>
<p>lol, good point. It is hard as hell to get into HMS, I think 36.5 average MCAT score.</p>
<p>~El Sol</p>
<p>The average MCAT score for Harvard Medical is about 34.</p>
<p>The med-school with the highest average MCAT score is actually WU - with a 36.6.</p>