<p>I’m no pre-med expert, but I’ve read posts on CC about this topic over the years. The biggest pre-med posters on CC , to my knowledge, have been medical students Bluedevilmike (a Duke grad), norcalguy (a Cornell grad), and Bigredmed (a U Nebraska grad). I’d encourage you to peruse their past posts (though it may take a decade). They’ve all (I think) said that posted med school admit rates need to be viewed with a critical eye, for a number of reasons. There is inconsistent reporting among schools; and there is more to it than it may seem. eg , different proportion of iffy applicants discouraged from applying, and then not tracking their subsequent application results; some states favoring their own residents and maybe having higher admit rates for those students; other stuff. One thing I read, for example, was Cornell does not include #s for DO program admissions, just MD programs, whereas others do include them. I recall one case where Swarthmore (IIRC) quoted 100% successful admissions based on the results 6 of its students who applied straight from college, while ignoring the results of 40 of its alums who applied at the same time!! </p>
<p>This is one of a number of posts by Bigredmed on this topic:</p>
<p>" However, the place where one has the best shot of getting into medical school is not the place with the high acceptance rate. That tells you NOTHING about the quality of pre-med advising, the opportunities available for research/volunteering/campus involvement/leadership, or any of the other important little things that matter when picking a school. Sure it might be an aggregate of those things, but as has been said acceptance rate is an easily manipulated statistic. The schools with really high acceptance rates either are phenomenal, or (more likely) pre-screen their applicants and only let those students are virtual locks for acceptance apply.</p>
<p>But the key is that acceptance rate tells you nothing about how well any single individual student is doing or going to do. Environment is key and if you hate your experience somewhere it’s hard to do your best.</p>
<p>The other thing is that there are many other external factors that play a role in the acceptance rate that having nothing to due with the qualities of the actual school. For example, Stanford and Berkeley, no one doubts the quality of education that one will receive at these places, but I think it is pretty apparent that location plays a big role in their surprisingly low acceptance rates. Being in CA, students at these schools are much more likely to be applying to only CA medical schools which are ultra-competitive (b/c of the # of applicants). Even if they aren’t applying only to med schools in CA, those schools are going to make up a greater portion of their list. Simply move those schools to other parts of the country so students are applying to less competitive medical schools on average, and the acceptance rate for both schools would likely shoot up. It doesn’t make sense to put a high priority on a stat so easily manipulated by things that aren’t even controllable by the schools.</p>
<p>The place where a student has the best chance of getting into medical school is, and always will be, the place where they have the best chance of success. This means it’s an entirely personal decision. If you go to a school with a 98% acceptance rate, that rate doesn’t mean much if you’re part of that 2% that didn’t get in. "</p>