<p>Would it be a disadvantage to students from, say a college ranked 150, when applying to top 20 medical schools? Assuming that two applicants have similar grades, MCAT, passion for his/her EC's, LORs, and interview impressions, etc, would the higher ranked college premed usually have the advantage?</p>
<p>With that being said, would it be possible for a student with 3.9+ GPA, 36+ MCAT, good EC's/LORs/interview/etc have a good shot at a top 20?</p>
<p>"With that being said, would it be possible for a student with 3.9+ GPA, 36+ MCAT, good EC’s/LORs/interview/etc have a good shot at a top 20? "</p>
<p>-Nope, not a good shot, he is IN, I guarantee. I am not saying that every single top 20 will accept him, but many will and I based it on experience.</p>
<p>This question is debated ad nauseam here–poke around and I’m sure you’ll find a boatload of threads.</p>
<p>The thing is, those other aspects you mentioned–your GPA, MCAT, ECs, LORs, and interview–are going to matter a helluva lot more than the name on your diploma. If that diploma is from an elite school, will it help? Probably. But probably not because of the name, probably because of the environment where you went to undergrad. </p>
<p>I feel like this response is always followed with “OK, so if you had 2 kids who were identical in every way, except one went to Harvard and one went to State U, which one would get in?” and I would argue that either both would be accepted or both would be rejected.</p>
<p>“one went to Harvard and one went to State U, which one would get in?” and I would argue that either both would be accepted or both would be rejected. "</p>
<p>-Agree.
D. (from state public) and her pre-meds friends are surrounded by very many from Ivy’s and other very top/elite colleges from all over country, California is definitely beating other states by a lot (Berkeley has the highest representation in D’s class) and D’s school is very very far from California.</p>