how big of an impact does what undergrad school i go to have on what medical school i go to? If i choose to go to a top SUNY for example for nice financial aid and proximity to my house, rather then a more selective undergrad school would it have a big effect on my chances for a very prestigious med school say for example harvard med or JHU med?
Assuming i get very high grades, nice recs, and have good research and ecs
No! Especially if where you go to offers you a nice financial aid package; med school is expensive! Better to save on your undergrad education.
It depends on your aspirations, and how much you’re willing to pay.
“Selectivity of undergraduate institution” plays just as big a role in admissions at private institutions, which comprise the majority of the top 30 medical schools, as MCAT/GPA. A better undergraduate will also provide you with more, higher quality research opportunities and premedical advising (mock interviews, easier to get shadowing, etc). At the same time, a high GPA from a more competitive university is more valuable than one from a lower-tier university. While there isn’t too big of a difference between, say, USC and Harvard, I would argue that a small SUNY might not provide you with all of the resources you need.
^^^
No.
would it have a big effect on my chances for a very prestigious med school say for example harvard med or JHU med?
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Your chances of getting into a top ranked med school will be based on your GPA, MCAT, and whatever else you do.
That said, no one should be focusing on getting into any particular med school or level of med school unless one is seeking Academic Medicine MD/PhD.
Any premed should be honored to get into ANY US med school. They’re all excellent.
Why would you feel the need to get into Harvard med or JHU?
Indirectly, a smaller, selective school MIGHT have a benefit, but not for any of the reasons @Allopathie stated. You can learn just as much and get just as good of grades, MCAT and research opportunities at a big state, but with two caveats. One, it’ll be all on you to make your way. Two, it will be much more competitive as most big institutions tend to grade on the curve. Small selective schools are known for grade inflation. At schools like Brown, everyone graduates Summa Cum Laude.
So, what does one do. First, GPA, MCAT and prerequisites rule all. Second, look at your school’s placement rate into medical school. If it’s very low, find out why. Just as big, med school is EXPENSIVE. Don’t rack up UG debt.
Lastly, unless you want to work at a prestigious upper east coast teaching hospital, it doesn’t matter where you go to medical school. Residency will be a bigger influence on your quality as a practitioner, but for getting a job, that doesn’t matter much either.
My daughter’s friend graduated from a small school in the northeast that most have never heard of and is not particularly hard to get into- relative to the schools spoken about on CC. She is currently in her first year of medical school. @mom2collegekids is right.
No, save your money, if you can.
Allopathie is a high school student. Take his advice on medical school admission with a grain of salt.
To the OP: There are 10 medical schools in the US that do not have a family medicine department:
Columbia
Cornell
George Washington
Harvard
Johns Hopkins
New York University
Stanford
Vanderbilt
Washington University in St. Louis
Yale
The two medical schools that you mentioned, Harvard and JHU, are in this short list. You will also notice that this list is largely consisted of elite medical schools.
Among all specialties, in terms of salary, family medicine ranks fairly low: http://www.profilesdatabase.com/employers/resources/2015salaries/
Family medicine is very noble, and if you want to practice in family medicine for a community that you care, Harvard and JHU is probably not a good fit for you because the training at Harvard and JHU will not center around family medicine. Just look around those family doctors in your town, you will not find too many of them having an MD degree from Harvard or JHU.
Graduates from Harvard and JHU tend to be placed at those big-name residencies with more focuses on lucrative specialties. Note that there are also elite, concierge medical care providers out there that charge far more and pay more for their medical doctors. In those places, you would see more MDs from Harvard and JHU. If this is the kind of medical career path you want to pursue, you may want to look into what constitutes a feeder school into elite medical schools. The following link gives you some idea: https://med.stanford.edu/profiles/browse?affiliations=capMdStudent
A top SUNY school would be a fine springboard for med school (assuming your GPA, MCAT, resume etc. are in order).
Big? absolutely not
@prof2dad Did the OP express an interest in Family Med?
As for your list, are you saying that those schools do not have their med students do a Family Med rotation?
@mom2collegekids “Lydia Flier said Harvard students have little exposure to family medicine, in part because there’s no required clinical rotation in the specialty.” https://www.statnews.com/2016/04/05/harvard-medical-school-family-medicine/
The OP did not express an interest in family medicine. I thought it would be helpful to include it for the sake of completeness. After all, If what I got is correct from my MD students (I taught business executive courses for our medical school and hospital), family medicine is the largest speciality. Thus information relating to family medicine could be relevant to the OP.