<p>Hello, everyone. I know how the title sounds and I know what people are thinking. I know, you do not have to go to a top tier school to get into medical school. Here's the bottom line: i'm not a good tester. I didn't do too hot on my ACTs. I didn't land very high on my placement exam. The funny thing is, when i'm not tested in those areas I didn't do well in: I do great. So, therefore, I plan to study the MCAT really well just to ensure I end up with a competitive store. I will be attending Northeastern Illinois University soon. I want to transfer out to a better school. What do you guys think?</p>
<p>And please be nice.</p>
<p>just work hard and get good grades and it doesnt really matter where you go. i went to no name undergrad now at a “top med school”</p>
<p>Work super hard, the odds are against you. </p>
<p>There is not enough input to provide any specifically tailored to you advice. If you provide additional information, than we can possibly advise you. However, if you do (and when you do) have those stats in your hand, you can find how they match to the USA Medical Schools, so you really will not need any advice here. Every person knows that they need to study for every single exam very very hard, including (but not limited to) MCAT. I do not believe that this is any news to you. There are very few test taker geniuses out there, for the vast majority, your score will directly correlate to the effort in preparation. Believe me, that the “geniuses” that I have mentioned will NOT survive in Medical School if they rely on their god given test taking talent. No way in the sky. As a reference, D. had studied for 14 hours every day for 7.5 weeks with very few scheduled days off for her Step 1 exam. No, you will not need to do anything close to that for the MCAT. But few hours every day for many weeks is normal preparation for the MCAT ( for majority who are NOT genius test takers). Have schedule and stick to it, there is no other way. One final advice: FOGET ABOUT BEING BAD TEST TAKER. There is no such thing. Everybody has easeir sections and harder sections. Just study harder when you need, that is all. The same exact idea as for your regular exams. Sometimes you practically will not need to work at all (for D. it was the Gen. Chem.) and the other class will require humongous effort (for D. - Orgo and all upper level Bio).<br>
Again, it is up to YOU, not the name of your college. Frnakly, it did not even occurred to my D. when she was choosing her UG to check any ranking or any other stats of specific UGs. She simply said: “I will do fine anywhere”. She still is very happy with her selection of the in-state public UG, very nice memories for the rest of her life, great achievements, personal growth, nice friends…and tuition free.</p>
<p>artloverplus, I don’t appreciate your comment.
However, MiamiDAP, thank you so much for your detailed explanation, you have really motivated me. :)</p>
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<p>Approx 140K kids start out college as premeds and only 18/19K start med school every year. I think the quote was only meant to be an observation of reality and not an insult.</p>
<p>Ready
I don’t know why you are feeling insulted. But in your situation it is true that odds are against you.
First, if you are good enough right out of the high school you could get into the UIC bsmd program which MDP’s D was in an equivalent in her state.
Second, if you are good enough to be accepted by HYP or the like but for financial reasons went for State school, you should work very hard to keep up with the competition.
If, however, you are behind in your high school stats, you need to work super hard to catch up and it’s not easy. MD schools don’t care if you are good or bad test takers, they only care your college stats and one slip you are zapped. </p>
<p>“MDP’s D was in an equivalent in her state.”
-Yes, she was, however, she applied out and currently at Med. School outside of her program. Second, very very few of original pre-meds are in fact participant in combined bs/md. There is no reason for putting somebody down just because they did not apply. "First, if you are good enough right out of the high school you could get into the UIC bsmd " - there must be some other way to say what you are saying here. Applying to these programs is a matter of choice, vast majority of the very top kids do not apply, I bet, many never even heard about these programs, because they simply did not research for the lack of interest. Stats of applicants to bs/md programs are similar to the ones who apply to HYP. </p>
<p>MDP, I did sound harsh and did not phrase my words carefully. But I was merely respond with the facts, I did not want soft spoken some one into an illusion.</p>
<p>bsmd programs are well known to those who had MD school in mind from HS graduates, that is why the programs are so difficult to get in. If not many people knows about it, the competition will not be that fierce with HYP quality students applying. I’d venture that those BSMD programs are more selective than HYP candidates because the applicant must be interviewed on campus MD school style, it is NOT the same interview conducted by HYP regional alums. So, stats aside, the applicants must be psychologically MD ready as well.</p>
<p>^ and ^^^ poorly written crap and not directly relevant to question. I’m no expert in this OP, but I would pay more attention to @MiamiDAP and some of the other posters.</p>
<p>The name of your undergraduate institution holds very little value in medical school admissions on a stand alone basis. Meaning that, Med school AdComms will judge you based on your college academic performance, MCAT score, clinical experience, volunteering experience, research experience and more. Just because you went to a state school does not automatically brand you an unsuitable candidate for medical school. </p>
<p>Now on the same token, just because someone went to Harvard does not automatically make them an acceptable medical school applicant. All applicants must put in the effort and work to be accepted, regardless of their institution. </p>
<p><<<<
Approx 140K kids start out college as premeds and only 18/19K start med school every year. I
<<<<</p>
<p>wow…is that true? I knew that there is heavy weed-out, but didn’t know the numbers.</p>
<p>^^
Might be a little better and little worse, depending on how you count.</p>
<p>About 100,000 unique individuals take the MCAT each year, according to AMCAS.</p>
<p>If the 100,000 MCAT takers is accurate, then the number of freshmen premed must be at least twice that. </p>
<p>There are about 21,000 allopathic med school seats and about 8,000 osteopathic med school seats, for a total of 29,000 med school seats for each incoming class.</p>
<p><a href=“https://www.aamc.org/students/applying/mcat/admissionsadvisors/mcat_stats/”>https://www.aamc.org/students/applying/mcat/admissionsadvisors/mcat_stats/</a></p>
<p>As to MCAT: over 80K took MCAT in 2010, over 86K in 2012, over 89K MCAT in 2012, over 94K in 2013 (including repeaters).</p>
<p>Following the “normal” timeline to med school, a student would typically take MCAT in third year. By that time many, many eager young premed minds have come to experience the joy of things like Ochem, or the reality of what the process involves (high GPA, volunteering, shadowing, etc), or how long the process is, and they decide to change career plans. </p>
<p>As to the actual number of “premeds” starting college, at best, it’s a guess because starting college as a premed is in part an aspiration of students/parents and these aspirations are not published anywhere. But based on the number of premeds who actually end up taking MCAT, I thought my guess was pretty conservative. Seeing the increase in the number of MCAT takers makes me think I’m on the low side.</p>
<p>“that is why the programs are so difficult to get in.” …"So, stats aside, the applicants must be psychologically MD ready as well.
-Well, you do not sound like being very familiar with this process. If one applies to the “correct” list of programs, there is a high chance of being accepted. D. was acceted into 3 combinned bs/md programs and she applied to very few , but her list was reasonable…and when they are invited to interviews (many in my D’s life), trust me, Med. Schools know very well that they are dealing with the 17-18 y o HS’er and not 23 + (up to late 40s) regular applicant to a Medical School. Nope, they are NOT MD ready, they are actually NOT MD ready even after graduating from college. Some of them are more MD ready than others after graduating from Medical school (at least we hope that they are). I am glad to see an admiration for my D’s achievemnts (she fully deserves it), but let’s not be unfair to very many others in similar situation. BTW she was rejected from the bs/md at her current Med. School </p>
<p>“If the 100,000 MCAT takers is accurate, then the number of freshmen premed must be at least twice that.”
-I heard (never researched how thrue) that only about 15% of original pre-meds will ever apply to a Medical school. Number of applicants might be somewhat lower than number of people taking MCAT, since those who get a low score might not apply in the current cycle or might never apply. So, based on that, the number of freshmen premed might actually be muvh larger than 100,000 X 2. Also keep in mind that only about 43% of the whole applicant pool will be accepted, meanning that about 57% will not obtain a single acceptance.</p>
<p>MDP, your statements do not make any sense. If the bsmd programs are so easy to get in why the applicants has to be HYP quality that you were referring to? If the interview is a non-event, why the applicants have to be on campus to get that? why can’t they just do video conferencing or Skype? Or even if the interview is necessary? What is the purpose of those on campus interviews? Just to see the student has pimples on their face?</p>
<p>What is the acceptance rate to get into ANY of the bsmd program? if the success rate is 10% what about the other 90%? You always use your D as an example, but she maybe a top top student who will succeed in ANY school, if so, why did she applied to a BSMD program? She could go to a community college and become a Dermatology Doctor in the due process.</p>
<p>Regarding the pre-med freshman designation if 15% of them ended up take MCAT then there must be 670,000 declared pre-med freshman students in the US, That means a Majority of the entering freshman each year will be pre-med, that does not seems correct and I have no way and have no desire to verify that.</p>
<p>@artloversplus</p>
<p>I think the issue here is that, there very well could be that many pre-med freshmen students in the US each year, but the problem is the “declared” part. Since medical schools accept any undergraduate major and do not discriminate on the prestige of your undergraduate university harshly, virtually ANY undergraduate freshmen could declare themselves premed. It’s an unreliable statistic, since there is no criteria among those who declare themselves a premed, its just anyone who elects to say it. </p>
<p>I know that a gazillion kids of various abilities think they are premed going into college. many colleges dont even bother having serious premed advisors for all these kids. the senior advisors are dedicated to upperclassmen who have made it thru most of the weed out.</p>
<p>high school grade inflation probably is one reason why there are so many frosh premeds. we will see 4.0 students who have been told…you should become a doctor…yet they have an ACT 21 or some other modest score. I know I got flamed for saying this before, but if you have modest test scores, your chances of ever making thru the weeding and getting an adequate MCAT score has got to be quite low. I know that there are exceptions (really late bloomers), but the typical modest test score kid who declares himself to be premed is going to get weeded out the first year, if not the first semester. </p>
<p>the same thing happens with those who are engineering majors. Last summer, an acquaintance happily told me that her son was going to become an engineer…he had an ACT 21, with a 20 in the math section. i kept my mouth shut because I knew it was unlikely he would make it. Sure enough, after his first semester of low grades, he had to change his major. </p>
<p>I went to Arizona State and then a top ten medical school. Personal quality will always be more important than school reputation</p>