<p>Ok I know that this has been discussed over and over but I didnt find any recent topics...</p>
<p>To get into a good med/dental school or just any graduate school, which factor is more important? The fact that you get a better GPA at an average Tier 1 college or a prestigious top 20 college. </p>
<p>I am waiting on my waitlists, but now I am just trying to decide if I would even consider those schools if I was taken off because I am afraid that I might end up doing bad. Through out high school, I have gotten all As', but college is obviously different and more scary lol</p>
<p>Great GPA+Prestigious college= best chances. lol. But the GPA is more important in the college name, if weighting does occur by college name, it is quite small. What’s more important is the weigh the opportunities that you will be presented with at the different schools. more opportunities= better resume. Assuming you take advantage of those opportunities.</p>
<p>Spunaugle, this isnt exactly right. Look at any of the top medical (or law or other graduate) schools and the biggest proportion of students will all be from top colleges. Spunaugle, you’re going to Dartmouth…you’ll be able to get into into Super Duper Grad/Med/Law School with a somewhat lower GPA over a guy who went to State University. Look at the per capita stats for Harvard Law School…see any average schools on that list? You are pretty much guaranteed to go to med school or law school if you want if you go to a top school…can’t say that for State U.</p>
<p>Harvard Law School Per Capita Numbers, Top 20 (2006):</p>
<p>Rank Name Ratio
1 Harvard University 6.80
2 Yale University 11.69
3 Stanford University 20.67
4 Amherst College 22.68
5 Princeton University 22.76
6 Swarthmore College 28.90
7 Brown University 29.98
8 Dartmouth College 30.69
9 Williams College 31.47
10 Columbia University 36.07
11 Rice University 40.11
12 Duke University 42.05
13 Pomona College 42.56
14 University of Pennsylvania 44.77
15 Georgetown University 48.47
16 Brandeis University 67.18
17 Cornell University 69.07
18 Massachusetts Inst. of Technology 71.14
19 University of California-Berkeley 85.44
20 Emory University 89.93</p>
<p>“Look at any of the top medical (or law or other graduate) schools and the biggest proportion of students will all be from top colleges. Spunaugle, you’re going to Dartmouth…you’ll be able to get into into Super Duper Grad/Med/Law School with a somewhat lower GPA over a guy who went to State University. Look at the per capita stats for Harvard Law School…see any average schools on that list? You are pretty much guaranteed to go to med school or law school if you want if you go to a top school…can’t say that for State U.”</p>
<p>That’s not the question, though. The question wasn’t how to get into the tippy-top medical/dental schools. The question was how to get into good medical/dental school. </p>
<p>Good grief, open the yellow pages, look at all the doctors and dentists listed there. You can’t seriously think that they all went to tippy-top undergrads and tippy-top medical schools? And yet … they make a good living and are presumably enjoying a nice upper middle class lifestyle. Blue Cross Blue Shield doesn’t pay the doctor from Prestigious Undergrad and Blue-Chip Medical School one more penny than they pay the doctor from Flagship State Undergrad and Flagship State Medical School. It’s just not as prestige-driven in medicine as it might be in business or law. Med school quality is relatively uniform and it’s the great leveler.</p>
<p>Part of the equation is that top students go to top schools (generally),so these top students are more likley to get into top grad schools. Lower level schools certainly have plenty of very smart students, but not in the same concentration as top schools. From a statistical perspective it just makes sense that the top schools attract the best students, and those students continue to do well.</p>
<p>This is a long standing question really.</p>
<p>It matters a little bit. For instance, despite Duke being know for grade inflation (average GPA at Duke is 3.3 in Trinity and 3.4 in Pratt), accepted Duke students average a 3.55 cumulative and 3.38 science GPA versus 3.73 cumulative and 3.68 science for national applicants. However, Duke students do average a higher MCAT score.</p>
<p><a href=“http://premed.duke.edu/wp-content/uploads/2007-annual-report.pdf[/url]”>http://premed.duke.edu/wp-content/uploads/2007-annual-report.pdf</a></p>