<p>Is it worth making the effort to get into a high ranked or private school than to get into a lower ranked or public school? What affect does this have on medical/graduate school admission?</p>
<p>The most important factors are your MCAT and your GPA. It doesn’t matter if your school is high ranked or low ranked, private or public.</p>
<p>Ocelite: This is simply not true. At least at the top tier graduate and professional schools there is a preponderance of students from the top 20 tier undergraduate schools. I borrowed this from someone’s 2008 post on another forum but I know the more recent statistics sent me are similar:</p>
<p>Total enrollment at Yale Law School: 643
1L + 2L + 3L: 590
Misc (LLM, etc.): 53</p>
<p>Undergraduate Representation
Amherst: 9
Brown: 13
Columbia: 23
Cornell: 7
Dartmouth: 16
Duke: 9
Georgetown: 6
Harvard: 79
MIT: 5
Northwestern: 8
Princeton: 31
Stanford: 37
Swarthmore: 5
UC Berkeley: 16
UCLA: 8
University of Chicago: 8
UPenn: 9
U Michigan: 8
UT Austin: 8
UVA: 10
Wesleyan: 7
Williams: 12
Yale: 78</p>
<p>There are other “top” undergrads represented, but they only sent one or two students so I didn’t list them. But isn’t this astounding? Maybe not for you veterans.</p>
<p>412/643 (64%) of YLS students hail from 23 schools.
225/643 (35%) of YLS students hail from 4 schools - Harvard, Yale, Stanford and Princeton.</p>
<p>I know this holds true for the Ivy league professional school I attended as well. Does this look like like it doesn’t matter if your school is high ranked or low ranked, private or public?</p>
<p>Interesting numbers YaleGradandDad.</p>
<p>I just wonder why there are so few, if any, students at certain top 20 programs (as listed by USNWR) from the schools mentioned below:</p>
<p>#13 JHU
#14 WashU
#17 Rice
#17 Vanderbilt
#19 Notre Dame
#20 Emory</p>
<p>It seems to me that for the most part that the very top colleges, who also happen to have very strong law schools, are the ones who are the most represented. The exceptions of course are the top liberal arts colleges on the east coast.</p>
<p>I would say that all other factors being equal, it is axiomatic that it is better to apply to med school if you have a 3.8 gpa from Columbia rather than a 3.8 gpa from Florida State.</p>
<p>However, down here in Florida, kids do get into medical school from undergraduate colleges like Nova Southeastern University and Florida International University. When I was young, I had a friend who got into medical school from SUNY Cortland.</p>
<p>I think the med schools know, for example, that many top kids for financial reasons go to a state’s flagship state university, rather than a private college, so not going to a big name undergraduate school is not fatal to your chances. But if you do have the money, I would go to the big name private school. But if you don’t, simply do well at the public college you do attend.</p>
<p>If you are from a low income household (<75K) the cost of attending a high ranked well endowed private can be substantially less than attending a public school.</p>
<p>Is it true that high-ranked/private schools have better programs than lower-ranked/public schools?</p>
<p>If you are trying to go to Yale, the school’s prestige might have some impact - but for many state schools, they care first and foremost about whether you are a resident or not. (Oregon is one of those, by the way). As for private medical schools, there are many that do not care where your undergrad degree is from. GPA and MCAT are key and you may actually do better on the former at a less competitive school.</p>
<p>[Common</a> Misperceptions | Colleges That Change Lives](<a href=“http://ctcl.org/news/misperceptions]Common”>http://ctcl.org/news/misperceptions)</p>
<p>Read about “Colleges That Change Lives” and form your own opinion.</p>
<p>[The</a> Ivy League Earnings Myth - The College Solution (usnews.com)](<a href=“http://www.usnews.com/education/blogs/the-college-solution/2011/03/01/the-ivy-league-earnings-myth]The”>http://www.usnews.com/education/blogs/the-college-solution/2011/03/01/the-ivy-league-earnings-myth)</p>
<p>YaleGradandDad,
" This is simply not true. At least at the top tier graduate and professional schools there is a preponderance of students from the top 20 tier undergraduate schools."</p>
<p>I happen to know of someone who is attending one of the top medical schools and came from a lower ranked public school. Not only that, this individual is the top of the class in the medical school, doing better than those from higher ranked schools.</p>
<p>^Anecdotal evidence about one person does not trump the overall trend, though.</p>
<p>“^Anecdotal evidence about one person does not trump the overall trend, though.”</p>
<p>The point I’m making is anyone who wants to succeed shouldn’t based their education from a college ranking. It’s about efforts.</p>
<p>Is there value-added? If so, how much?</p>
<p>Sure going to a top undergraduate school gives you a boost (all things equal), but I would think going to a lower ranked school wouldn’t preclude you from attending any medical school.</p>