<p>actually im really trying to justify my inexpensive undergrad. college! lol which i think i achieved =]</p>
<p>Christina01, I think he was referring to the other posters; not you :p.</p>
<p>I'm in the same boat. I'm tempted to just take a chance on a lesser ranked undergraduate school and see what happens. A few generous merit scholarships are hard to turn down...</p>
<p>Take it for what its worth but there always seems to be a disproportionate number of Harvard alums in Emory's med school.</p>
<p>Prestige doesn't matter... so long as you have a rigorous courseload and test yourself and do well in your courses and do something that exhibits your desire to "change the world" and do stuff in a clinical setting with a little research...</p>
<p>Med schools simply want to know if you can handle the coursework in medical school.</p>
<p>It seems as though top schools generally have more students that can handle that type of courseload. Which explains why top students are overrepresented at some of the nations best med schools like Harvard or Hopkins med...</p>
<p>I know plenty of ppl that come from various unknown schools from around the country and end up in very high places... These are the same students that would probably not thrive in an ultra competitive prestigious environment. Maybe these individuals cultivated their knowledge and had greater access to professors and more one-on-one time opportunities to conduct research since they stood out at their undergraduate college. It depends. Sometimes, being in a less prestigious setting can work against you since opportunites might be limited due to low student-faculty ratio, low school funding for research & development, fewer lab spaces, and more students competing for professor research attention.</p>
<p>Somebody got into med school from MIT with a 2.4 GPA. Everybody with a 3.8 or better got in. Something tells me that the same grades from Coastal Carolina wouldn't have had that result.</p>
<p>^ You know that is out of a 5.0 right? I'm pretty sure he did some outstanding biomedical research and probably devoted himself full time on some extramural project, published the results, and presented a power point presentation at some international conference and stuff. Normal ppl do not get into med schools with a 2.4/5.0 ... That is equivalent to a 1.9/4.0.... How did he graduate from MIT?! hahaha</p>
<p>oh yeah, and med schools vary in admission rates... lol.</p>
<p>yeah, maybe he got into Caribbean Medical school. lol</p>
<p>Uggh...this is why I hate it when this sort of topic gets discussed outside of the pre-med forum...</p>
<p>"how could it not"...!&#@%</p>
<p>1) med school and law school are not the same. One (law) is an extremely prestige driven with a lot of variation in quality of education at the top school vs the bottom. The other (med) not very prestige driven (except for portions of research) and the US schools are fairly consistent in terms of producing competent physicians at the same rate. Law admissions are basically determined by your numbers. Med school - I know people who have been told, "we rejected you because although you had 100's of hours of patient contact, we're not really sure if you've spent enough time around doctors to know what they do...everything else on your application was fine".</p>
<p>2) The real question is whether you can tease out any direct impact the UG school makes on the process. There's very little evidence to demonstrate that. The qualities that get one into an extremely prestigious school are the exact same ones that get you into medical school: intelligence, hard work, good test taking, excellent time management, getting involved on campus and in the community, etc...but prestigious schools don't have a monopoly on students like that.</p>
<p>3) As much as everyone would love to play the "two identical candidates, one from Hooterville, the other from Madison Avenue...who gets in?" it simply doesn't come down to that...ever. No candidates have the same leadership experiences, the same quality of interview, the same personal statement, the same letters of rec, the same research quality, the same campus/community involvement. Med school admissions is a very holistic process and people will get rejected if they don't have the whole package.</p>
<p>4) With number 3 in mind, students must go to schools where they can thrive. Doing well, wherever you are, is a panacea for admissions. Someone else mentioned this earlier and it's an important point...the environment that exists at some schools just isn't conducive to success for everyone. </p>
<p>5) Any stories of an MIT student getting in with a 2.5 or whatever does not equal a trend. You don't know their story, you don't know who they know, you don't know anything beyond a single data point. Abominations such as that inevitably have something else going on. Trying to say MIT 2.5 is worth anything is absolutely ridiculous.</p>
<p>Thank you Bigredmed</p>
<p>I have some friends who have already undergone the interviewing process for med school coming from Johns Hopkins as undergraduates. Just about every single one of them has mentioned that the simply “Johns Hopkins University” under their resume during the interview sparks some genuine interest and praise, and a lot of interviewers spent time sharing how well they regard pre-medical students from Hopkins and how their panels look at a Hopkins Pre-Med more favorably than just about any other school besides Harvard. etc.</p>
<p>Such anecdotes pretty much prove, to myself at least, that the undergraduate school truly does matter, no matter how much others may tell you it doesn’t.</p>
<p>Ummm. When ever I think about admissions, I place myself in the admission committee’s position. </p>
<p>Right now I am dean of Harrard (pun intended) Medical School. I see a student from a mediocre school and a student from Colombia U. I think about the future reputation of Harrard Medical School. Do I want undergraduates from unheard of u-grad schools or would I rather have students from well known schools? </p>
<p>State schools and lower-ranked schools will not care so much about where students went for u-grad. But at an elite institution, their reputation depends on the student to a certain degree. Harrard Medical School knows that there student will eventually have to provide resumes to patients. Would Harrard want patients questioning why Harrard would accept and graduate a student from Averrett University? I wouldn’t.</p>
<p>
Reminds me of an old joke I heard. Bill and Hillary are driving thru some small town in Arkansas, and they pass a decrepit gas station with a good 'ol boy filling someone’s tank. Bill says to Hillary “if you hadn’t married me, you’d be married to some guy like that”. Hillary sweetly replies “if you hadn’t married me you’d be like that guy”. I think med schools see themselves playing Hillary’s role here … </p>
<p>And what makes this post amusing is that when “there student” (sic) provides a resume to patients, it just mentions med school and then residency. Nobody is going to know the doctor went to Averrett. As 10 seconds searching on google would demonstrate. Here’s an example: [Emergency</a> Medicine Faculty - Newark Beth Israel Medical Center](<a href=“RWJBarnabas Health | Comprehensive Health Care in New Jersey”>RWJBarnabas Health | Comprehensive Health Care in New Jersey)</p>
<p>If the Averrett University student had a higher GPA and MCAT than the student at Colombia U., as well as a better overall package, then they would be admitted, regardless of how prestigious Colombia U is. And patients would not be questioning why Harrad would accept and graduate a student from Averrett University, because all that really matters in medicine is being licensed (passing all three steps of the USMLE), as well as getting in and completing residency. The reputation of top medical schools does not depend on where students went to undergrad. It depends on the research done there (both basic science and clinical) in general. Also, why would a patient quesiton why Harrad would graduate a student from Averrett when it isn’t the School that graduates someone, but that student has to pass all courses and clinical rotations, as well as pass the Step 1 and Step 2 of the USMLE (the MD licensing exam), no matter what undergrad they came from? Your hypothetical doesn’t work.</p>
<p>So prestige of undergrad school matters in the sense that the most prestigious schools will typically have more opportunities available to students (research being a big one), as well as rigor of the curriculum. So you can go to state school, do very well, and go to Harvard Med. You may have more opportunities to do research or better mentoring at schools known for pre-med, but many do end up at top medical schools from lower ranked schools.</p>
<p>Also, medical school admissions statistics from undergrad schools must be interpreted correctly. For example, what does “Georgetown University has a 90% acceptance rate to medical school” mean? Well first you need to consider all the students that drop pre-med after freshman or sophomore year. Then, at Georgetown, to get a recommendation from the pre-med committee (many/most schools have a committee that writes a recommendation for you based on individual recommendations you submit from faculty, as well as your GPA, sometimes MCAT, activities, etc), you must be “very highly recommended”, “highly recommended”, or “recommended”. Meaning, not everyone gets recommended for medical school, and even then, some are recommended more strongly than others. Therefore, that awesome statistic of med school admissions that most schools advertise may actually be the number that continue with pre-med throughout the undergrad years, and out of those, the number that actually get recommended.</p>
<p>The most important thing about med school is to actually get in to wherever you can, be able to afford it somehow, do well so you can get into residency (which matters more than where you went to undergrad), and finally settle into life.</p>
<p>Sigh, no, Harrard doesn’t need to have its doctors “provide resumes to patients.”</p>
<p>okay so does it look better to apply from san diego state/arizona state or from UCLA/Berkley(having done associates at a community college)? Money is the real issue here, but which would be the best route to take?</p>
<p>^^^</p>
<p>It’s better for you to go to wherever you’ll have the least undergrad debt because you’ll have BIG DEBT for med school (unless parents are paying for everything).</p>
<p>In the 'old days" when I was in college in Calif (in the 70s), the rule of thumb was that if you wanted to get accepted to med school then you needed to go to a UC rather than a Cal State.</p>
<p>that is no longer true. Now, good students from CSUs (especially the better ones - Long Beach, San Diego, Fullerton, etc) with good MCAT scores can get accepted to med school.</p>
<p>So, go wherever is affordable. (it doesn’t matter if you went to a CC first.)</p>