Hey guys, I’m a junior in high school and as the year comes to an end and senior year begins, I’ve been wondering where I should apply. I’ve been interested in becoming a doctor since basically kindergarten, so naturally I’m thinking about some different programs. I have 3 thoughts in mind:
- Apply and (hopefully) attend a highly selective school (top 5 or top 10), but probably won’t get a stellar 3.9+ GPA needed for Harvard Medical School or any highly ranked med school
- Apply for the MD/BS programs, where i’ll at least be guaranteed admission into a decent medical school
- Go to an in-state school that isn’t highly ranked, but maintain a near perfect GPA.
In other words, do medical schools prefer a high GPA over the ranking of the undergraduate college or do they like selective schools even with a lower GPA?
You have lots of flaws in your assumptions. Your whole premise is based on a false dichotomy.
There is absolutely no guarantee that you’ll have a higher GPA at your state school than you would if you attended an Ivy or or other top school. Just a few reasons to start with—
–there is grade inflation at many Ivies (lots of As and Bs) with higher average GPAs than elsewhere
–at state universities, the best & brightest tend to cluster into a few, mostly STEM, majors so your competition may be just as strong as it will be at a more brand-name school
– the state U always a have few very, very bright kids who cannot afford to attend a private U or cannot go due to other family circumstances. (True story: D1 had a classmate at her mid-ranked state U who was publishing astrophysics papers with Kip Thorne of CalTech as a college sophomore–now imagine that kid setting the curves in your classes.)
There are some threads over in the pre-med forum that have terrific advice for picking an undergrad:
http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/pre-med-topics/1122176-bluedevilmikes-ten-step-guide-to-picking-a-premed-school-p1.html
http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/pre-med-topics/1484178-if-you-high-school-please-read-before-posting.html
Read those first.
Pick an undergrad because it offers you best combination of cost, fit and opportunity. Don’t pick it because you assume it’ll be “easier.” It may not be.
RE: BA/MD programs-- do you have the AP classes, GPA, SAT scores and clinical/research experiences needed to apply to those programs?
You may want to read the Multiple Degree forum here to see what's typical of those getting acceptances there.
<a href="http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/multiple-degree-programs/">http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/multiple-degree-programs/</a>