<p>I mean obviously pre-med students' goals need to be to have a high GPA and high MCAT scores, but does where they went to school also have an influence? I'm applying to colleges that are ranked from 1-100, but if I got accepted to schools that were in the high 100s and they were cheaper because I got more scholarship money would it be better to go there?</p>
<p>School rank/prestige counts for very little for medical school or graduate school. GPA and MCAT scores are king. As long as your school is properly accredited and you are NOT taking an online/distance degree you should be fine. Also avoid for-profit universities as most of their degrees are not valued very highly by med schools. If money is an issue the cheaper school may be a better option, as long as you like it and think you can succeed there.</p>
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<p>Higher ranked schools are simply more likely to have higher MCAT scores due to rigor… but really the difference is quite small. MCAT and GPA will determine probably 80% (or more) of your med school admission. The rest will be essays, interviews, and some extra curricular type activities.</p>
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<p>While professional schools (medical, law, etc.) are likely to be mostly GPA-centric, PhD programs do often care about your undergraduate school in terms of how strong your major department is, and whether it has a history of sending successful students to that PhD program who were successful.</p>
<p>Check your schools to see where recent graduates have gone and what stats they had. If they could get there, you can too IF you put the work in and have the people skills.</p>
<p>Classwork-wise, higher ranked schools tend to have more difficult (in depth) work (at least in the sciences and math - I haven’t compared other subjects). This is good if you want and feel up to the challenge, but isn’t so good if you aren’t up to the challenge since a high GPA matters a ton. The actual content in the classes isn’t really needed in med school (so I’ve been told by current med students) so that isn’t an issue.</p>
<p>Kids who love a challenge tend to be more bored in the easier schools. Some have told me they wished they’d picked a more challenging school. Some opt to transfer to “better” schools. Kids who aren’t so up to a challenge quickly drop out of pre-med if overmatched. They just can’t get the grades they need. Others transfer out or drop out. Getting the fit right is really important IMO. Sit in on classes and talk with other students at schools you’re considering.</p>
<p>Choose based upon YOU.</p>
<p>(I suspect some will come on here questioning the content of classes… all I can say is I’ve spent the past year comparing with both my kids and kids who return from college to the high school where I work… I’ll disagree with you - as will they - for the same classes, say, Bio 101 at both places. Feel free to post your opinion. 
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<p>If you are attending a 4 year college, very little.</p>
<p>I forgot to mention that I attend a dual credit high school so I will have 2 years of college completed after graduating high school because I did all of my classes at a community college. Now does it make a difference? Will having credits from a community college and a not Harvard-level school count against me?</p>
<p>Since you took them while still in high school, definitely not. If you did that during your summers as an undergrad it would.</p>
<p>Your grades from those will be factored into your reported GPA though so I hope you did well. Also, don’t use them to satisfy pre-med requirements.</p>
<p>When our son got his undergrad decision down to two colleges, he emailed the adcoms of two med schools prior to choosing (telling them which schools he was choosing between). Both of them stated they do look at the Barrons listings. One of the adcoms seemed to give it more importance than other and actually told him one was a “tier 2” school and the other was a “tier 3” school. He ended up attending the “tier 2” school. His SATS and grades are right in the middle of the pack. It is very challenging to maintain good grades as everyone is very competitive. It would have been easier at the “tier 3” school, but I wonder if he wouldn’t be as prepared for the MCAT.</p>
<p>Be careful accepting those credits at your 4 year school. Only do so if the professors in their respective departments think it’s a good idea - esp within your major (not a big deal outside your major). I’ve seen kids transfer in and find the classes were not on par with each other making their “new” class very difficult. Since GPA matters, “very difficult” has never been good.</p>
<p>This is really an aside, but how is it that many students have so many credits while still in high school? Is this related to where the high schools are located? For instance, I live on the east coast and never heard of students getting so many credits in high school. And even if students take college credits, they never use them in college beyond just a few credits. But 2 years worth? </p>
<p>Is it possible that the high school can’t provide a challenging curriculum? And how is it that colleges accept so many? My son had plenty of AP credits, mostly scoring 5s, but his college only accepted a max of 15 credits. This was also true for my other children, max 15 credits.</p>
<p>Maybe it’s not truly an aside question, because this detail may speak to the school’s rank. </p>
<p>OP, I heard there is a correlation between students who go to a public university will go to a public university (usually their in-state) whereas students who go to a private research university will more often go to a private medical school.</p>
<p>In state colleges accept dual credits from the local community colleges. Many high schools have programs to get an associates degree while in high school and when students mention 2 years, that is what they are implying. </p>
<p>If they applied to an out of state or a private school, in most cases these credits won’t count at all.</p>
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Many state government’s financial is not in a very good shape. Therefore, public colleges may choose this policy to get their students out as soon as possible to save money. It saves the student’s money and boost his/her ego too. It seems to benefit everybody, until the med school application cycle comes in, when they find their AP credits and dual college credits are not highly regarded by adcoms (due to the low quality of the student pool who are in the class), if they are accepted at all.</p>
<p>For whatever reason it may be, like texaspg posted above, these credits won’t count at all at a top private college in most cases, or count very little.</p>
<p>OP, go to the “best” college where you think you could still get good enough grades. Only you would know (better than anybody else here) whether, at a particular college, you could still get good grades. Some CCer posted that, as a rule of thumb, you should only go to a school where your SAT/ACT scores are in the top 25 percents of the class at that college.</p>
<p>Highly ranked schools are more likely to have students who ALREADY perform well on standardized exams. That’s it. So, choose the school that is best for you. Like I’ve said in previous posts, I know of a physician who completed all of her pre-med requirements at a community college.</p>
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<p>Do see the fallacy in this… there is “a” doctor who did this - not many who are applying who are finding this works well. We don’t even know when this person applied or what their specific circumstances were. For any rule, there are exceptions. Do you want to HAVE to be the exception or give yourself better odds?</p>
<p>When we heard from med school admissions (group sessions) they all said cc credits (pre-reqs) were a nick on an application when the student knew they wanted med school the reason being that those courses are perceived as easier and the students tend to do so to take the easy route (not a character trait they like seeing). They are not a fatal flaw, but a nick. They also said they were more lenient on those who decided later in the process to do med school and had already done cc courses.</p>
<p>It could be worth it for you to attend some med school admission days. Those we attended were for undergrad students interested in med school (each college had both), but they had med school admissions folks there to answer questions. We did two private and one public. They pretty much all said the same thing…</p>
<p>No effect, zilch…with many examples around me.
Just got to have what it takes,…and it all depends on a student.</p>
<p>I disagree with the statement that medical schools don’t care about those applicants from elite schools.</p>
<p>I think that the question should be based on whether the undergraduate “elite” school has grade inflation.</p>
<p>My daughter has just graduated from Williams College, which is a very elite school. It has a very fine reputation. This includes the fact that getting A is very hard. This is obviously going to affect the GPA.</p>
<p>The pre-medical program counsellor discussed chances if getting into medical schools with my daughter. She was told the following:</p>
<ol>
<li> If the GPA is around B+ (3.30 and higher) then there is a 80% chance of getting accepted by some medical school.</li>
<li> The average GPA for those accepted by any medical school is 3.49.</li>
</ol>
<p>My daughter finished with 3.45 GPA with an up trend. She spend 1 semester at the Autonomous University of Madrid, a very prestigious school, with classes in Spanish. She 2 A and 2 A-. Unfortunately, those courses aren’t included in GPA.</p>
<p>My daughter was told that the MCAT would be difference. If you have very high GPA then it is expected that the MCAT is correspondingly high. If the MCAT score is relatively low in relation to the GPA then the GPA is discounted.</p>
<p>The medical schools are going to look at the applicants and compare them to those who are applying. There is a comparison with those who apply from the same schools. The medical schools know the profile of applicants from undergraduate schools. Williams College has a very good reputation.</p>
<p>My daughter is taking a year off so she took the MCAT in April and got 32, which is not a bad score. She is going to retake next month in order to get at least 36, This is in line with those from her school.</p>
<p>Using LizziM spreadsheet she would have a good chance at many medical schools.</p>
<p>There is another consideration. Since there is grade inflation at many of the Ivies, there is a defacto penalty. This means that it is expected that applicants would have higher GPA/MCAT.</p>
<p>My daughter has friends who go to Brown University and they were told that unless students had at least 3.75 then forget about applying. The pre-med office will not process the paper work. It seems that it isn’t too hard to get A.</p>
<p>Those from schools with no grade inflation would be awarded extra points.</p>
<p>I wouldn’t want to blanket say that applicants “elite” schools have no advantage. It just depends on the school.</p>
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<p>I guess my question would be what constitutes an “elite” college? Schools in the top 20 on USNWR? Top 25? LACs in the top 10?</p>
<p>I think it is better to look at how many students (say, N students) successfully get into med school each year from your college. Try to be one of the top N students and you are likely fine.</p>
<p>For college admission, most accepts the fact that, for a given high school, likely only top N students would get into, say, HYPSM. So the rank of the student is more important. Why would med school admission be much different?! For example, you really can not compare the GPA of a student from a top private top high school (which sends TONS of their students to a top college) and the GPA of a student of a just above average public high school, right?!</p>