<p>Colleges00701, that sounds more like true story from what I have read here. Very happy that D is in combined program. Hopefully, she will get her 27 on mcat, GPA seems to be more under control than mcat score. I heard some very good students just freak out on exam, then you really in trouble after 4 hard working years in college.</p>
<p>High GPA and MCAT won’t get you in. They get you looked at seriously. You don’t “stand out” by having a 3.9/35. You stand out w/ the 3.8/34 and some awesome accomplishments, great LORs, great understanding of how your clinical experience relates to medicine and healthcare work, great communication and expression of your passion for medicine/health/healthcare/people, etc. It’s about the package, not the parts.</p>
<p>MiamiDAP, There definitely are some anecdotes. I know a kid who didn’t get in UMDNJ despite a Bachelors degree from Princeton with a 3.5 GPA…although I confess I don’t know all the details of her application. Poor girl was so terribly depressed. I think she had never thought of this possibility.</p>
<p>lol @ the OP throwing the names of Harvard and Columbia around. </p>
<p>He probably doesn’t know anything about these schools other than the names. Thinks that he must go to Harvard Med for the small prestige factor when getting hired. It’s not like you can’t get a job if you get your medical degree from a state school.</p>
<p>Haven’t really thought too far on med schools yet. But what are the benefits for applying to a state school? Will I get a reduced tuition like how the SUNY system works?</p>
<p>^ Yes, you get reduced tuition at your own state medical school. How else would it work?</p>
<p>^ sup schrizto from SDN.</p>
<p>apumic,
Everybody is aware about package and standing out. However, the question about getting into Harvard Med. school will not be answered by expressing passion and doing all EC’s as everybody else is engaged in them to the point that poor kids do not have time to sleep. You do need GPA close to 4.0 and MCAT close to 38+. And in my D’s case she does not even need any ECs +… or for that matter apply and going thru interview, all she needs is mcat=27, but she still is as busy or even more so with very very meanningful EC that do make difference in others’ lives as we speak. These kids are just the kind that they will not sit in their rooms with the books, they will participate, it is their nature.</p>
<p>although getting into state schools generally seems better for the money, i think that it also depends on what state you’re from. i’m from pa where there are 6 med schools (plus one do school), but only 2 are state schools. i’m not sure about penn state (though it’s rural anyway, which not too keen on for med school), but temple costs just as much as harvard, even in state. if i were to choose between temple and harvard, THEN taking into account things like rankings, match list, and above all, area (and temple is in a really crappy area), i’d absolutely choose harvard unless temple gave me a really good financial aid package compared to harvard</p>
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<p>Believe it or not, a lot of people don’t realize that. Check out the threads on SDN and you see a lack of understanding of a “package” by many, many newcomers (and the occasion one or two who’ve been around awhile but still just don’t “get it”). The mean GPA for a Harvard matriculant is 3.9 w/ an 10-90 range of 3.7-4.0. Sure, you need a great GPA, but there are plenty of 4.0s who get turned down in favor of the 3.7. Likewise, the mean MCAT is 36 w/ 10-90% range being 32-40. Once again, 32’s really not that high (it’s a great score, but nothing outstanding, persay – around the 85th percentile), but 10% of the class has a 32. The ranges are pretty wide and there are surely plenty of people who are very high on each who don’t get in. Obviously, if you’re not able to get a GPA of 3.8+ w/ a high (35+ MCAT) you’re probably not HMS material to begin w/, but even if you do manage a 4.0/38, you’re not likely to be admitted on that alone. (Check the AMCAS grid for proof – about 10% of applicants w/ a 3.8+/39+ get rejected from ALL schools every year!)</p>
<p>Secondly, the truth is, who the heck cares about going to HMS to begin w/?! The central point of this thread really should be that unless you’re going into research, HMS is probably not a particularly good match for you and certainly not worth destroying your college years to get that 4.0. Go wherever you’ll get the cheapest and best clinical education if you want to work as a clinician/practitioner.</p>
<p>On a side note, you mentioned doing ECs to the pt of not sleeping, etc. That would seem to be an issue of prioritization. An effective premed doesn’t just sign up for club after club. S/he is somewhat methodical but in a natural way. If you want to get into med school, you should have a few focused short-term goals, not 60 hrs/wk of club meetings, “leadership” trainings, “shadowing,” etc. that is of dubious value except in extreme moderation. When people are this crazy with their schedules, it shows they have not truly thought through their activities. I do not mean every activity a premed student does should be for getting into med school (it shouldn’t!) but wisdom should tell you that spreading yourself too thinly is only going to cause problems down the road, and I have certainly watched premeds fall into that trap never to emerge.</p>
<p>What do you guys think of Mt. Sinai School of Medicine?
I will most likely be externing there and I don’t really know much about school/location except that its in the Upper East Side of Manhatten</p>
<p>Brother got in with 3.8/37 from UCLA. He says the interview is most important. You have to charm the hell out of people and relate your experiences to your field.</p>
<p>why settle for Harvard when you can strive for the best: JHU?</p>
<p>Mt Sinai is an excellent school of medicine; it’s ranked #22 in terms of medical schools that specialize in research. The Upper East Side is an affluent area of Manhattan and Mt. Sinai is right in the heart of that that affluence.</p>
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<p>Well, not really. We’re on the edge of the UES and East Harlem. You go into the hospital on Fifth Avenue, and you’re in one of the wealthiest neighborhoods in the United States. You exit out the Madison Avenue exit, and you’re in East Harlem, the zipcode with the highest rates of childhood asthma in the US. Sinai serves a broad range of people from a wide spectrum of socioeconomic backgrounds.</p>
<p>apumic</p>
<p>this is why HMS matters to me i want to do a MD/PhD, so i can do research as well as get my doctorate in neuroscience. Harvard is the best for research, and I am willing to pay the costs of it. HMS does stand out to your future jobs. Do you really think that they will pick the temple grad over the harvard grad?</p>
<p>spaul, you’re really overestimating “name brand.” At that point, what will matter most is your board scores and research experience, not what school you went to.</p>
<p>Define best for research spaul.</p>
<p>You’re not HMS material, spaul2. The B’s and C’s you got in HS that got you into Washington College (with its 70% acceptance rate, and 35k+ tuition bill) are the same B’s that will lead to an early rejection from HMS. If name-brand is so important to you, why do you go to an unrecognizable college? B’s at a tier 3 private college, and a neurotic (almost unhealthy) attitude about the importance of getting into Harvard are not the path to success.</p>
<p>Work hard, but relax too. Don’t expect to get into Harvard MSTP even with a 4.0 / 40+. You’re obviously an insecure kid, who needs reassurance. Reality check: you probably are not among the best at WC, you will most likely not get into Harvard nor Columbia, and this unhealthy obsession and unrealistic goals you set for yourself will screw you. </p>
<p>MIT undergrads with 3.65s and Chemical Engineering degrees under their belts regularly get rejected from such schools. What makes you think you have a snowball’s chance in hell?</p>
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<p>Depends. If the Temple grad applied himself and was more productive than the Harvard grad then heck yes they’ll take the Temple guy. At my UG, I did research w/ an up-and-coming but highly successful researcher who studied under the most powerful (without question) and influential researcher in his field (as in, the entire mainstream field, not just his own specialty; he is known as a “god” in his field). My UG is well-respected but it’s not a top-10. At the same time, a rec from the woman I worked under can do (and has done) wonders. It’s about how productive you are as a researcher. I was productive under her and it has helped enormously post-grad. Now that I am doing my post-bacc at a newer school in a fairly prestigious university system, I am beginning work under an immunologist physicians have told me is a world-reknowned cancer researcher. Once again, not at some big top 10 university. Some of these researchers (e.g., the research advisor I had as a UG) have had the opportunity and/or experience of working at a big-name school and decided they really don’t want that atmosphere and/or they are simply tired of it and would rather train up new students and make them successful. It’s ultimately about how productive you are as a student and, in many cases, name-brand schools are not necessarily going to be the place that best enables you to be productive.</p>