<p>so, basically...</p>
<ol>
<li>Undergrad institution does matter </li>
<li>It does matter where you go if you want to be a normal ppl person doctor</li>
<li>GPA and MCAT</li>
</ol>
<p>...right?</p>
<p>I guess the best way to simplify this is that name of course has potential to help you out. Coming out of Johns Hopkins or HMS will give you a distinct advantage if all else is equal. BUT, I don't think that the educational experience is drastically different at many places (although there obviously may be a greater variety of opportunities at top institutions). As far as getting into medical school goes, if you have monster MCATs and a great GPA, it shouldn't make a huge difference where you are coming from (if you are scoring better than people at other top places, the name ceases to have meaning). And as noted above by Lindane, USMLE scores and clinical performance are everything in medical school (because everyone has to be pretty good to get into medical school to begin with). The average USMLE score is probably high at places like Hopkins or Harvard, but no matter how accomplished the medical students are to get in, the top of the bell curve at other places across the country beats the middle to bottom of the bell curve of those medical school classes. Not to mention that residency directors prefer variety, and often take only 1-2 people from their own institution. So if you go to Hopkins or HMS and don't get a JHH or MGH residency, you (relatively speaking) dropped the ball. If you get a residency at those places or a hospital of similar caliber coming from elsewhere at the top of your class - you won the overall game anyway even if your pre-med credentials aren't off the charts. Keep in mind that the research rankings don't necessarily mean much as they stand at face value. Although Hopkins and HMS are tied reputation score-wise, HMS' #1 overall rank is primarily a faculty/student ratio and overall funding issue (selectivity to a smaller degree). No single institution has better clinical scores or NIH funding than Hopkins, but HMS is a huge umbrella with three times the faculty spread across three major independent medical centers (MGH, Brigham and Women's, and Beth Israel). MGH has the second-largest research budget overall (largest as an independent hospital, i.e. not a true university hospital) and is clinically #5 in the US. Brigham and Women's is #8. Beth Israel is not even on the US News honor roll. In other words, your training is as good as your best element (at HMS being MGH). MANY other medical schools approximate a similar level of training. Go to the best medical school that you can, but don't fret if you don't bag a big one. Match Day at the end of medical school is what counts, and there is plenty that you can do from here on out to optimize that outcome besides medical school name.</p>
<p>Can somebody please answer this.</p>
<p>I read on HMD's site that you can apply after 3 years of undergrad.</p>
<p>If you have the GPA and MCAT's , does forgoing the extra year really matter all that much?</p>
<p>And are we allowed to apply the year afterwards if we don't get in?</p>
<p>does being a legacy help at all in med school admissions? I am a legacy at Johns Hopkins (and my grandfather is a fairly famous doctor) and at UChicago (although my uncle is a good doctor and respected, no extremely famous research).</p>
<p>My cousin's DS just got accepted in HMS. </p>
<p>He has undergrad from MIT Biomedical with 4 yrs research experience (which he worked on throughout his undergrad in collaboration with HMS).</p>
<p>MCATs were 37. I think his Research advisor put in a word with the adcom.</p>
<p>Lindane, Post#38 - very well said.</p>
<p>So, I’ve pretty much narrowed down my choices for undergraduate between University of Chicago and University of Illinois-UC. Yes these are two totally different schools, one a big state school and the other a more prestigous school, yet I still find myself having trouble choosing between the two for various reasons. I read that HMS accepted students from both of these schools. If I want to go somwhere like HMS, JHU, or any good med school, and if undergraduate school plays a arole in admissions decisons… can anyone give me their opinion on which school would better prepare me or in the long run give me a leg up with these selective med schools? (Aside from the fact that I have to get high MCATS, GPA, etc.)</p>
<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/pre-med-topics/377780-premed-forum-faqs-read-first.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/pre-med-topics/377780-premed-forum-faqs-read-first.html</a></p>
<p>so I have (or at least had) interest in applying to top med schools like HMS, JHU, Penn, Stanford (I do realize that in the long run it won’t matter, and really I would be happy if I got into ANY med school since they are all so darn hard to get into!).</p>
<p>That aside I had a few questions regarding to these schools specifically:</p>
<p>1) I BOMBED my first semester. There were a lot family problems and a combination of various issues prevented my due focus of my work and I ended up with a 2.7 gpa overall for my first year. I am not proud of it, and I know I am in deep trouble for ANY med school let alone HMS. My question is, if I can somehow bring up the gpa to say a 3.5-3.6 and explain why my first semester went that way, would that compensate to some extent or is there no point in me applying to any of those schools?</p>
<p>2) I am going into my sophomore year, if I decided to transfer and do my junior and senior year elsewhere, would that be a favorable move in terms of getting into such schools?</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Of course. At this point, you could still end up with a very high gpa. it is only one semester and it was the first one, which often is problematic.</p>
<p>As you note, attending one of the “top” medical schools is not that important anyway. Without restarting a discussion of when it matters, which has been discussed extensively here, for most doctors it does not matter where they went. Your state medical school is probably just as good as Harvard, Hopkins, whatever, and much cheaper.</p>
<p>To be more detailed: A 3.5 or 3.6 would still be borderline for the top schools. They are flooded with applications from people with higher GPAs. You would be competitive if you can pull it up to the 3.8 range, or have some other very strong credentials in your favor. The top schools can afford to be ridiculously choosy, with admission rates in the single digits, so there is no assurance that a 3.8 would get you in one of those places anyway.</p>
<p>There is no need to plan your application strategy at this point. Focus on your work, do the best you can, and take stock as time goes by.</p>
<p>thanks afan, like I said, im not DYING to go to HMS, if I get in it would be nice. If i don’t its certainly not the end of the world.</p>
<p>hey everyone, i though i might throw in a question here 
- do u think its possible to get into harvard/princeton/yale if you come from the UK and didnt won the lottery?
- and do you have to have a degree already? coz apparently it not possible to get in as an international if you do that straight after ur A levels</p>
<p>thanks if anyone can help me))</p>
<p>Princeton does not have a medical school. Harvard and Yale do admit some international students, but they are very expensive. (As they are for Americans, but Americans have access to loans which internationals don’t have.)</p>
<p>You have to have a bachelor’s degree already; of that degree, one year has to have been in the US. You will need to have taken about two years worth of certain courses, including biology, chemistry, organic chemistry, etc.</p>
<p>what about grinnell…thats a small liberal arts school…would they weigh that against me</p>
<p>what about grinnell…its a small liberal arts school…does that lessen my chance of getting into harvard med</p>
<p>what about grinnell…thats a small liberal arts school…does that lessen my chance of getting into harvard med</p>
<p>Not really, no.</p>