<p>I plan on applying to competitive medical schools after I finish my undergrad work, and I'm wondering what looks better on an application: a good student at an Ivy League school, or a top student at a less competitive school? In other words, is it worth the money to go Ivy? (Assuming MCATs are equal either way)</p>
<p>Could we all just think about this and apply some critical thinking skills?
Go open your local phone book and look for the physicians in there. Go ahead, I’ll wait.</p>
<p>OK, done.</p>
<p>Do you think the vast majority of physicians in this country – all over this country – mostly came from just 8 schools all situations in the northeast? </p>
<p>Of COURSE not. The bulk of medical school students in this country came from state flagship universities, all kinds of universities, not just or not necessarily elites.</p>
<p>If you want to spend the money to “go Ivy” (and I assume you are using Ivy as shorthand for “top college,” not just focusing on those particular 8), there are plenty of good reasons to do so, but not because medical schools turn up their noses at people from “lesser” schools.</p>
<p>or, simpler, go to a med school you have in mind and look up the entering class profile or fact sheet. it’s all available online. an example would look like this, <a href=“http://www.georgiahealth.edu/som/admit/documents/SOMFactSheet2010_v3.pdf[/url]”>http://www.georgiahealth.edu/som/admit/documents/SOMFactSheet2010_v3.pdf</a>. look at the section where it lists all the undergrad colleges.</p>
<p>and, in fact going to a top school may indeed hurt your chances if your gpa suffers. safe bet, if you are sure of going to med school, is to use your high school credentials to get as much scholarship as possible at a second-tier school and do well and ace mcat. that’s it. you will be golden.</p>
<p>I’m no expert, but what I’ve gathered from reading a plethora of posts about what undergrad to go to for med school, it really comes down to just going to the school you love/can afford. It may be worth a second look if your favorite school is known for grade deflation (a low GPA hurts in med school admissions no matter where you’re coming from), but really most Ivy’s are fine, and if you’re Ivy quality then you should succeed academically wherever you end up. A benefit of going to a top university might be more opportunities for research, internships, better advising, etc. But the name alone won’t help, it’s what you do with that name (GPA, ECs, MCAT).</p>
<p>Go to an Ivy; it’s worth it. However, go for the right reasons; don’t go to seek some sort of advantage in medical school admissions.</p>
<p>Great advice from itsme123. Also, don’t forget that the top LACs (incl. Pomona, Williams, Amherst, Wellesley, Haverford, Bowdoin and Swarthmore) send lots of students to top medical and law schools. Also, look at other top non-Ivy Unis such as Duke, Georgetown, Northwestern and Chicago. The WSJ just ran a list of the top feeder schools for the elite medical, law and business schools. All the schools that I just mentioned are among the top 20 feeders. Good luck, Jackuk</p>
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<p>At JHU med school, JHU, Harvard, and Yale have the best placement by a fairly wide margin. Just looking at statistics, the top schools place the most students at the top medical school. We could go on for pages debating whether the school itself confers an advantage or whether students who go to the top schools just submit the best applications. </p>
<p>I also think that you should look beyond Ivies. Stanford, MIT, Duke, JHU, etc. are probably just as strong as Cornell.</p>
<p>Doesn’t help as much people think it does, honestly.</p>
<p>Pizzagirl’s critical thinking skills apply to both ends of the med school pipe. Not only do you not necessarily need an Ivy education to get into med school, you also don’t necessarily need an extra “competitive” med school to become a good doctor. They are all competitive.</p>
<p>Keep in mind that, while there are several thousand undergraduate institutions in the USA, only ~130 schools award the MD degree. While some big state schools enroll 25,000 or more undergraduates, enrollment at the typical medical school is only in the hundreds. Furthermore, education at med schools is quality-controlled by state licensing boards. </p>
<p>In other words, there are very few spots to satisfy this country’s need for medical training. In medical education there is nothing like the variation found in undergraduate programs. So, chances are, you will have neither the opportunity nor the need to attend an “elite” medical school, no matter where you go to college.</p>
<p>I think it definitely helps to go to an undergraduate institution which has a medical school, has plenty of research opportunities available to all students and grade inflation. Berkeley and Princeton are two top schools I would avoid if you want to be as competitive as possible for medical school due to lack of a med school and grade inflation. Harvard, Yale, Duke, Dartmouth, WUSTL and Stanford on the other hand are fantastic pre-med schools.</p>
<p>I don’t think the Ivies have a significant edge in grad school admissions compared to other national universities. Adcoms are more sophisticated and knowledgeable regarding universities than to gape in amazement by an “Ivy League” label. </p>
<p>Colleges that do offer greater rates of success are top LACs, such as Reed, Pomona, etc. While this may or may not be attributed to their names, students from top LACs often beat out even those from HYP. </p>
<p>Many med schools also show extreme favoritism toward their own undergrads. John Hopkins is an example. So if you’re interested in a particular med school, you may want to attend it for your undergrad education. </p>
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That might not happen with all the grade inflation going on.</p>
<p>Friend just picked sophie davis > cornell.</p>
<p>I think your undergrad does matter. Your GPA from a competitive school is important. Your MCAT score is equally as important-or more so.</p>
<p>I once had a stellar student at our state school who worked at a local, fairly prestigious, teaching hospital while attending college. He told me many docs told him his big disadvantage was his undergrad college.</p>
<p>But I think a very good MCAT (LSAT, GMAT, GRE) will open many doors along with a strong GPA from most schools.</p>
<p>I once had a stellar student at our state school who worked at a local, fairly prestigious, teaching hospital while attending college. He told me many docs told him his big disadvantage was his undergrad college.</p>
<p>Well, these docs aren’t the admissions people at med schools…otherwise they would know better. (and, frankly, I don’t believe this story.)</p>
<p>Top med schools aren’t really choosing between a “good” student at a top university and a top student at a state university. Look at the roster of any top 20 med school. It’s chocked full of students who attended top universities AND still got 3.7-4.0 GPA’s. It’s not an either/or type of thing.</p>
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<p>Princeton is the Ivy with a grade deflation trend, not inflation. The other Ivies you listed are mostly known for grade inflation.</p>
<p>^ The “lack of” applies to both “med school” and “grade inflation.”</p>
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<p>The 165 students who entered Harvard med school last year came from 74 undergraduate institutions. At WUSTL, the class of 121 entering in 2010 came from 65 schools.</p>
<p>As for JHU medical,
[quote]
Hopkins Medical is by far one of the most selective medical schools in the entire world. The acceptance rates each year are in the low single digits. That being said, the process of being accepted into Hopkins School of Medicine is overly competitive for every single applicant to the school no matter where they study for their undergraduate years. Simply stated, no one has an advantage nor disadvantage when they apply to Hopkins School of Medicine.<a href=“%5Burl=Taiga”>/quote</a></p>
<p>Yeah, but JHU/Harvard/Yale undergrads are really heavily represented especially given their small undergraduate classes.</p>