Effect of Undergrad School on Med School Chances

<p>^This is true, however, in any of the more intense non-sci majors, it is unlikely most students would have the time to take add’l science courses beyond the med school prereqs and 1 or 2 add’l upper division classes. Furthermore, a non-sci major would be less likely to know which profs to avoid since s/he is less well-connected with the science dept. Nevertheless, you have a good point. My suspicion would be that these effects basically negate one another, which is why, at the end of the day, everyone expected to have an excellent sGPA and an excellent cGPA. Looking at the AMCAS data at [Table</a> 18: MCAT and GPAs for Applicants and Matriculants by Undergraduate Major, 2008 - FACTS - AAMC](<a href=“http://www.aamc.org/data/facts/2008/mcatgpabymaj08.htm]Table”>http://www.aamc.org/data/facts/2008/mcatgpabymaj08.htm), we see that for science majors, matriculants have slightly higher sGPAs and cGPAs than do non-sci majors (applicants who are non-sci majors actually have very slightly higher cGPAs than do science majors but are accepted with lower GPAs than are the science majors).</p>

<p>I would like to add that I’m at an OK engineering school, and in order to get an A at my school, a 97.5+ is required. W.T.F. 97.4 is A-.</p>

<p>No med school for me, and for all that, probably no ChemE degree, either.</p>

<p>norcalguy,
In your opinion what was the reason for “I couldn’t get into most of my state med schools with a 3.9+ from Cornell.”? What other aspects of your application could have prevented you from getting in? If 3.9+ from Cornell has no chance at half of state Med. Schools, then how is that that average accepted GPA is around 3.6 or so?</p>

<p>GPA/MCAT was too high; state school assumes (probably correctly) that NCG had no interest; don’t want to invest interview time/resources/admissions numbers/yield rate on him.</p>

<p>Shades_children has a few pretty good discussions on this.</p>

<p>Thanks, we will keep this in mind! One reason not to attend elite UG.</p>

<p>Well, if you’re really 100% set on a particular state school, there are usually ways to let them know that. Relatively few state schools actually dislike elite UG applicants, although there are a few. Most of them just don’t think elite candidates will be interested. (And they’re often right.)</p>

<p>And in any case it’s more about numbers than about undergrad branding.</p>

<p>Well, MiamiDAP I think ncg was making a different point than what is being assumed here. Here is the post in full

I believe the point was not that Cornell or the 3.9 was the problem, it was the competitive nature of admissions to the California medical schools and the need for “other factors” to shine through in apps as well. I seriously doubt that ncg was in any way suggesting his Cornell 3.9 UG was a negative in the process.</p>

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<p>You might want to search cc for sakky’s posts where he makes a very good case (with published numbers) that just the opposite appears to be true: better to attend grade-inflated elite than state public Uni.</p>

<p>And, curm is right about California med schools. Bcos they are less expensive for instate residents, and some of them give priority to residents, the competition has becomes brutal (since we’ve evolved into a a test-happy state and med schools are considered nirvana by a certain segment of the college-aged kids).</p>

<p>Hint to California applicants: Spanish is a great minor factor.</p>

<p>Assuming that curm’s right, then I have to disagree with NCG-as-interpreted-by-curm. Combined with a very high MCAT score, I think the 3.9 was the problem.</p>

<p>I was a similarly high-numbers candidate, and my state schools treated me exactly the inverse of their general selectivity.</p>

<p>The top-ranked one accepted me; #2 waitlisted me; #'s 3 and 4 put me on hold and then wanted to interview me; #5 rejected me outright.</p>

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<p>bdm, would you mind listing the ones that seem to dislike elite UG applicants?</p>

<p>Loma Linda and East Carolina are the only two that I know of. I assume there are others.</p>

<p>OK, thanks, be aware of.</p>

<p>bdm, I expect my D will have a version of what happened to you. (And yes, except for the California part of the scenario I’d somewhat agree with you). My guess is that the top-ranked state school (where her stats are average) may accept her…but it may be late in the game. Some of the others, where her stats are decidedly above average, will probably wait until they see how she ranks them in the match. At one school, her PhD. interviewer closed off her “going great” interview with “You don’t need to be here. You’ll be accepted to Southwestern and you should go there instead.” :eek:</p>

<p>More than one Texas school wanted a full list of where she applied. That one always made her nervous that they’d think she wasn’t really interested in their school. Harvard, Yale, Stanford, Penn, Mayo and…oh, yeah , some random state schools. (Edit: That’s how she feared her answer would be taken. Obviously, she did her best to counter that impression.)</p>

<p>I agree, had she been a stats super-star from Cornell it might have been worse in Texas. But in California?</p>

<p>Very interesting! Anybody here has experience appliying to Ohio State Med. School, U of Mich.? Too early for D. to see if she has what it takes, just trying to get a feel…</p>

<p>From sdn, Michigan sends out auto-invites to high-stats kids from a list of schools. I have to assume that list includes most of the elite UG’s.</p>

<p>Does it mean that if applicant is graduating from state UG, he does not have chances at U of M Medical?</p>

<p>I wouldn’t know. (Edit: My kid didn’t apply.) </p>

<p>But I did watch the auto-invites go out. Go to sdn and search on the acceptance thread and read the profiles of the kids accepted so far. Or go to the school specific Michigan thread and look at all the early invites and who got them. (Lots have anonymized their mdapps by now.) I’m sure some state school kids from Ohio get in to Michigan, but auto-invites? Not that I remember seeing but they could be there.</p>

<p>edit: Most invites are NOT auto-invites.</p>

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<p>Curm hit the nail on the head. The poster was asking for some magical cutoff GPA that will get them into a med school. My point is that there simply isn’t one. The MSAR gives you the averages but the distribution at any one medical school is very high because there are many many other factors (most of which is highly subjective). So, you should strive to do your best rather than say “My GPA is good enough because I have a 3.7 and the average at my favorite med school is a 3.6.” You don’t know if your essay is good enough or if your recs are good enough or if your EC’s are good enough.</p>

<p>BDM: I think it would be a bit pretentious to think that I was rejected at most of my schools for being over-qualified. Perhaps at a school like G-town or Boston University but that doesn’t explain UC Irvine or UC San Diego. At highly competitive schools there are just too many subjective factors involved (because their applicants have already maxed out the objective factors). For undergraduate admissions, you can get into almost any school in the country, save a select few, on the basis of numbers alone. In med school admissions, you can’t count on interviews anywhere, not even your state schools (especially if you’re from CA).</p>

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Of course not. I go to the University of South Carolina, which is a pretty low ranked state school. My roommate has a 4.0 and a 39, received an auto-invite from Michigan, and was accepted in their first round of decisions. He’s gotten interviews from several top 10 private schools. Excel wherever you end up, and doors will open for you.</p>

<p>The idea that you can’t count on state schools definitely varies by state. I have a 4.0/37 and have been accepted by both of my state schools - literally every friend who has had the qualifications has been accepted by them, this year and in the past. I was comfortable with applying to a low number of schools (12) that was very top heavy because of how comfortable I was with South Carolina’s applicant pool and medical school spots. A California resident doesn’t have that same peace of mind, but to have applied in the same way they should would’ve been a waste of time and money. It’s important to look at the logistics of your state schools.</p>

<p>norcalguy:</p>

<p>A neighbor’s instate friend was WL’ed at Harvard and Duke but rejected by UCSD & UCSF. Was accepted at UC Irvine, however; her interviewee mentioned that her Spanish minor was a big soft factor, given their patient demographics.</p>