<p>As somebody who's been through the premed wringer at a school that's been mentioned, let me talk for a little while about "weeding out".</p>
<p>The first thing to notice is that many medical schools demand committee recommendations. If, say, JHU writes premed letters for ANYBODY, many medical schools will not accept an application without one. That is not JHU's decision. Therefore, given that they have to write a letter, it only makes sense that they write an honest one. If anything, their REFUSAL to write a letter would reflect a "weed-out" policy, since it would bar a candidate from applying to those schools at all.</p>
<p>Second, I'm surprised to hear that schools like JHU and MIT have explicit weeding out policies. The premed track WILL weed people out, for a couple of reasons. First, simply not everybody is qualified for medical school. Schools that are earnestly trying to prepare their students for medical school will find some students who simply are not qualified. It may not be good for schools to weed kids out, but it certainly is not good for them to string them along!</p>
<p>The second reason is more important: many students come into college without a good understanding of the kinds of occupations that are available to them. It took until I was 20 years old before I realized that banking didn't mean being a bank teller, and I only learned what private equity meant last semester. There are all kinds of cool jobs out there that 18 year olds just don't know - and they will find them more interesting and leave premed or prelaw or whatever NBC television career they had had in mind. Me? I went the opposite direction when I learned what being a doctor really entailed.</p>
<p>As for weeding out, though, I would simply say that you should look for a school that really values their undergraduates and has a strong advising team in place. As you visit schools, you will get a feel for which ones those are. Ultimately, you are a premed not to get into medical school but to prepare (hence the "pre") for it. Learn all you can.</p>
<p>I should probably discuss the idea that you want to continue through - say, Penn undergrad and then Penn Med.</p>
<p>The first answer is that that will actually be ever so slightly discouraged. It's always good to get a diversity of institutions under your belt.</p>
<p>The second answer is that most medical schools will not give you an advantage doing that - it is often rumored that you will be placed at a disadvantage for it, but I've come to suspect that that is not true either. </p>
<p>Some schools do boost their own undergraduates - Emory and Northwestern, I believe, both have such a policy in place. That policy is meant to attract talented undergraduates and thus boost their undergraduate institutions.</p>