Grad Schools

Colleges and Universities A-Z University of Alabama
1

<p>Hi, </p>

<p>I would love to hear the opinions of the knowledgable Bama posters on the issue of grad school. My question is: If S or D was attending Bama as (lets just say a chemical engineer), would they be limited to a tougher time getting accepted to med school? Because they could possibly be competing with people that have the same pre reqs from (i.e Yale, Harvard, etc…) I am somewhat worried if this would be a handicap on S plans to attend a competitive medical school. Thanks for any opinions or real experiences you may have had with this issue. I would love to hear any stories or first hand accounts if anyone has some to share!</p>

2

<p>would they be limited to a tougher time getting accepted to med school</p>

<p>??? </p>

<p>What? Why? Why would a student with med-school level stats that went to a state flagship have a “tougher time” getting accepted to med school? Don’t understand the question.</p>

<p>“competitive medical school”</p>

<p>Ummm…guess what…ALL US MD medi schools are highly competitive. All are excellent. All accept only a very small % of applicants.</p>

<p>There are no “so so” US MD med schools. Every single one is excellent…even the ones located on college campuses that have lower ranking undergrad schools.</p>

<p>Med schools typically interview only about 15% of applicants, and then only accept a small % of those interviewed. </p>

<p>There are no safety med schools. I have a ChemEng’g son who is in the med school process right now. </p>

<p>That said, Bama pre-med applicants have a high acceptance rate to US MD med schools. There are Bama grads at ivy meds and other meds.</p>

<p>Med schools consider BCMP GPA, cum GPA, MCAT score, LORs, and ECs…especially medically-related ones. The undergrad is rather unimportant unless maybe the school is Podunk U and has lousy science programs. That’s not going to be the case with Nationally ranked Univs.</p>

<p>BTW…the med school you attend is rather irrelevant since the instruction is flat. Med schools are not like other grad schools. All the US med schools teach the exact same things.</p>

<p>Pizzagirl posted this on another thread, but her words are very true:</p>

<p>"Med school is exactly the same for every future doctor – the future dermatologists, psychiatrists, and brain surgeons do exactly the same thing as the future family medicine docs. You learn a specialty in residency, which is after med school. </p>

<p>…there is little difference in going to an elite med school or not. You’ll make the same amount of money (Blue Cross Blue Shield doesn’t pay you extra if you went to Harvard Med) and your day to day life and activities will be the same. Medicine is a “flat” field; not a huge amount of prestige differentiation. In that regard it’s unlike law or business."</p>

3

<p>I went to a small, Jesuit liberals arts college that you mostly likely have never heard of and got interviews at two major medical schools. I didn’t get in, but I don’t think it was due to the school.</p>

<p>It was incredibly competitive. If I recall correctly at one of the schools there were 3750 applicants, 700 were interviewed, and 100 were accepted.</p>

<p>If he has a good GPA, does well on the MCAT and has strong extracurrlculars, he’ll have as good a chance as anyone.</p>

4

<p>^^</p>

<p>Nowadays, med schools are getting 4000-8000+ applicants. They can only interview a small %, and then they can only enroll about 100-250 (depending on size of SOM).</p>

5

<p>I guess it’s gotten even more competitive than when I applied 30 years ago.</p>