<p>I want to study pre-med and go to Ivy med-school or Johns Hopkins med- shcool to be a specialized surgeon.</p>
<p>Do I have a good chace of going to Ivyleage med school if I have high GPA, MCAT scores from any school?</p>
<p>Will graduating from a top school make things easier for me than graduating from some community college or less well known school?</p>
<p>Any advice will be appreciated. Thank you.</p>
<p>I'd caution the 'any' school part of you statement. Going to a top 50 undergrad would make a difference in acceptance to a top 50 program. That said, going to an ivy for undergrad doesn't really improve your chances at an ivy med program. There's no statistical evidence to support that.</p>
<p>But if you graduate from any state U with a stellar GPA AND great MCAT scores than you've certainly got a decent shot. The problem is getting the great GPA and scores.</p>
<p>There's also a difference between a less well known school and a no name. Your state U is probably fine, but would a top public/private probably be 'better' maybe.</p>
<p>Rethink the whole ivy league med school mentality. It is incredibly difficult to get into any med school as it is.</p>
<p>Anyways, you don't need to go to a top undergraduate school, but certainly community college would be a disadvantage.</p>
<p>getting accepted to Brown PLME is the best way to go to an ivy league med school ;)</p>
<ol>
<li><p>It doesn't matter where you go to med school. Plain and simple, it doesn't matter. It isn't like law school where there's a competitve hierarchy when it comes to getting jobs. Like others have said, getting into any med school is extremely difficult. So they all get the same respect within the field. Name just isn't important. </p></li>
<li><p>That said, if you're dead-set on an Ivy, it's going to take a lot. You'll want to get somewhere around a 4.0 from a well-respected school (not necessarily a top 20, just well-respected); at least a 12 on each section of the MCAT; some sort of internship, research, or experience (volunteer work or job shadowing at the very least); well-rounded undergraduate years; an amazing essay; and good charisma to take to that interview. It wouldn't hurt to major in something obscure or uncommon (they like diversity). And even then, your chances are only average.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>You have a misconception about medical education. You do not need to go to any Ivy league medical school to be a surgeon. You can go to any medical school work hard and get a good residency. Ivy league colleges are some how considered the best. Ivy league medical schools vary to a larger degree in reputation. For example, Wash. Univ (St. Louis) is thoght to be a better school than Dartmouth or Brown.</p>
<p>And actually, from what I've read, a lot of the public med schools (such as UWash), are actually more oriented towards patient care anyway.</p>
<p>A lot of the "prestigious name" schools are more oriented towards research.</p>
<p>I agree with everyone else about the misconception, but here's some info anyway. I'm a double major and pre-med at Johns Hopkins, and we have an 85-90 percent admit rate at med schools, including the top ones (Hopkins, similar tier). Take a look at all these types of people:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>A guy I know who did research since freshman year, started shadowing in soph, and volunteers for no credit in clinic. Super high GPA.</p></li>
<li><p>A transferee from Montgomery College, a community college. Did well here, no super ECs, and there you go.</p></li>
<li><p>Not such a good writer, but ~40 on MCAT and good grades. Cookie cutter type, but not as nuts as #1.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>A general note on the top kids here, including gf lol--very high GPA, lots of volunteering and clinical xp. Research is not so relatively important, incidentally. High MCAT for sure. And, volunteering, volunteering. AED, the pre-med honor society, focuses on that especially. However, like undergrad prep, way better to do 1-2 things than tons of stuff, and be good. I don't even do that much med school stuff, rather help the city and meet people like the district people, mayor, city council etc. to weigh in on helping. </p>
<p>Finally, a feather in your hat is humanities (and diverse courses, even engineering). Med schools want diverse people. Think of how many bio majors come from JHU--thats why i double in anthro, beside the fact that I love it.</p>
<p>Very lastly, study abroad doesn't hurt at all. By some miracle I and a friend get the chance to hit Oxford and LSE, and preprof says it puts you above the rest. I guess we'll see.</p>
<p>Hope this helps</p>
<p>thanks so much -
I guess I need to reserch some more about med school.
Thanks</p>
<p>sure, no problem. lemme know if i can help more, god knows i run into these neurotics every day. Dare I count myself among them?</p>
<p>starling,
The OP on this thread is a good summary about how to prepare for med school:</p>
<p>Go to the best school with the most inflation. Harvard or Stanford...</p>
<p>By the way, you can't really go to a community college and expect to get into most medical schools, as almost all require a bachelor's. </p>
<p>Besides, if you do go to a CC, one assumes you'll transfer...</p>
<p>
[quote]
getting accepted to Brown PLME is the best way to go to an ivy league med school
[/quote]
</p>
<p>or Northwestern HPME</p>
<p>I had 3 med-school bound roommates at Dartmouth my senior year so I witnessed much of the process. They ended up attending Penn, Cornell, and Harvard respectively. Here were their profiles:</p>
<p>Student 1:
GPA 3.85
Major: Philosophy
MCAT: 35
ECs: Research two summers
Accepted: Penn, WashU, Georgetown, Dartmouth</p>
<p>Student 2:
GPA: 3.73
Major: Biology
MCAT: 37
ECs: Wrote great thesis senior year and got great recs
Accepted: Cornell, Tufts, UVM, others</p>
<p>Student 3:
GPA: 3.77
Major: Psycology
MCAT: 35
ECs: Research, published, amazing ECs, best recs possible
Accepted: Harvard, Cornell, Yale, others
(This guy was amazing, he really impacted campus life with his ECs)</p>
<p>Those poor babies. :p</p>
<p>:rolleyes:</p>
<p>wow, those stats are amazing..thank you guys, it really helped.
altough, I cannot afford Ivyleague undergraduate by now, hopefully applying from big state undergraduate school will help me to go to prestigious med schools</p>
<p>starling,</p>
<p>Why are you worried about going to a prestigious medical school?</p>
<p>Only one way to do it.</p>
<p>study hard.</p>
<p>Where you go and what you study isn't going to make much of a difference as long as you do well. </p>
<p>I disagree with the follow the grade inflation comments. In my opinion, it's much better to be challenged, get a good preparation for the MCAT and conditioning for medical school. Call me crazy, but I think there's something to be said for a rigorous program where you learn a lot, rather than coast through to med school...plus med school's hard, always nice to go into things prepared.</p>