<p>Today, I realized that throughout my massive amounts of research I never found out whether I should go to a prestigious college and possibly do just average (Brown, Vanderbilt, Rice, Davidson) or go to a less prestigious school (Rollins, UCF) and stand out for medical school.</p>
<p>Any advice?</p>
<p>To my understanding, employers put more weight on a school’s name than post-graduate admissions does. In other words: if you’re not so sure you’re willing to work your little a** off in a top tier school to earn an impressive GPA, go to a not-as-difficult school so that you can get the best scores possible.</p>
<p>Your best bet, in my opinion, is to go to a school that’s not top-top, but still rather prestigious like UMich, UT-Austin, or USC. That way you can have both prestige and (supposing you’re a smarty) good grades under your belt.</p>
<p>Go to a prestigious school and get good grades is the best way to go.</p>
<p>ya, grad school is more about grades than prestige.</p>
<p>employers care more about prestige than grades.</p>
<p>if you are going to go to grad school and you think you aren’t going to do well in college, you might want to go to an easier school to get a better gpa. but “worse” schools aren’t necessarily easier…</p>
<p>Depends on what you’re aiming for post-graduation. If it’s medical school, go for the better GPA. If you’re aiming for a PhD program or an MA, keep in mind that your GPA won’t be weighted as highly as your personal statement, your recommendations, and your research experience.</p>
<p>My goal is to go to medical school. </p>
<p>So should I be looking at upper-mid tier schools for a better GPA with attached medical schools for better research?</p>
<p>To put it into perspective, I’d say it’s much better to get a 4.0 at a public state university than to get a 3.5 or possibly even a 3.75 at an Ivy. (This assuming that all other stats are the same.)</p>
<p>Having said that, it’s possible to go to a top-tier college and to succeed well enough there to get into a top med school. But you’ll basically have to keep your eyes open to keep track of which classes/professors will murder your GPA (avoid those) and which ones will boost it.</p>
<p>Prestige is nice, but don’t assume getting a 3.5 at Yale is equivalent to a 4.0 at a typical state school, especially when it comes to grad school admissions. Also, don’t assume getting a higher GPA is harder at a prestigious school.</p>
<p>Difficulty primarily depends on major, not school. Engineering/math/CS at a state school will be harder to get a good GPA in than sociology at an Ivy.</p>
<p>Most likely, I’ll major in Biochemistry, Chemistry or Psychology.</p>
<p>
This has been asked many, many, many times before. Sakky in particular has given very detailed and thoughtful responses to this type of question.</p>
<p>1) Don’t assume that you will apply to medical school. </p>
<p>Oh, I’m sure you THINK you want to go to medical school – most of the ~20-35% of students coming in pre-med do. We’ll see three years from now. Did you know that only half of those taking the MCAT even apply to medical school? That’s not even counting all those who dropped out prior to that point! Sure, UCF may be great for pre-med preparation…but make sure you still think it’s great if you drop pre-med.</p>
<p>2) Don’t assume that more selective colleges result in a lower GPA. </p>
<p>If you are admitted to a top college, typically you can do the work. At Brown, A’s range from 48% in the physical sciences to 58% in the social sciences, which is definitely not that bad. Additionally, there does seem to be at least some leeway; students at my alma mater are accepted to medical school with an average GPA 0.2 lower than the national average. Whether this is due to higher MCAT scores or another factor is, of course, up for debate.</p>
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<p>It is?</p>
<p>And I know it’s what I want to do. I’m not arrogant enough to “know” I’ll get into medical school but I know I won’t drop out, it’s what I’ve wanted to do since I was 7. I’ve shadowed my uncle around his hospital many times over the years and know that it will be extremely challenging. I don’t really care how hard it, I will work my hardest and if that’s not enough I’ll most likely try to get into graduate school to study Molecular Pharmacology or psychology.</p>
<p>And might I ask what your alma mater is?</p>
<p>go to a public school that’s known for partying and get a good gpa so you can get into a prestigous grad school. that’s what im gonna do once i transfer out of community college</p>
<p>It’s hardly any easier to get a higher GPA at a less “prestigious” school. Don’t think you’ll do better just because a school is ranked lower.</p>