<p>OP, you can get to medical school from a state school, just as you can get to medical school from an Ivy. I have kids at an Ivy and at a state school. Both are happy, because both are exactly where they want to be. It’s up to you to decide the environment that’s best for you. Consider my neighbor who went to an Ivy with the intent of going to med school. The competition at the Ivy weeded him out. He still thinks “what if” he had accepted the full ride to State U. Bottom line, know yourself…many avenues lead to your goals. P.S. I would ignore most of JW Muller’s comments unless you’re into developing a pedigree for the sake of developing a pedigree.</p>
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Oh, no, the demographic pendulum is swinging the other way and has been for a few years. I’ve followed this for a while and there seem to be big boom/bust cycles in med school applications, roughly tied to how the economy was doing 3-4 years earlier. The best time recently to have entered college (if you were interested in medicine) was about 1998, before the dot-com crash. Everyone and their brother was going to work for a start-up and retire at 25. 2 years later, after the crash, it was too late for many who hadn’t taken any of the pre-reqs to retool and apply before they graduated. Cornell keeps a nice chart of national statistics; unfortunately they don’t go before 1993 now (although I guess I’m old, because to current HS seniors they were just toddlers then). See the chart at [Cornell</a> Career Services](<a href=“http://www.career.cornell.edu/HealthCareers/NatlAcceptInfo.html]Cornell”>http://www.career.cornell.edu/HealthCareers/NatlAcceptInfo.html) From a peak of almost 47K applicants a few years earlier, they fell to less than 34K in 2002 and more than 50% got in. For 2008 there were over 42K applicants chasing the same number of openings. With the current recession/depression I’d expect that the rates over the next few years will climb significantly (after all people always will get sick, right?) and probably peak in 2012.</p>
<p>Marian,
You left out the most important piece of my statement. The whole sentence was:
“How you can call #1 ranked kids from private schools with very top scores, who actually got invitations to apply from Harvard, Princeton, etc. not true Ivy caliber?”</p>
<p>I meant that if #1 is not Ivy caliber, then who is? Those also usually have tons of various EC’s, they are just type of kids with a lot of interests outside of academics. </p>
<p>Some of them choose state school because, as SUSANR64 absolutely correctly pointed out, they are shining stars there with a lot of opportunities and privileges that are available to the very top. I am sure, that some of them choose to participate in wild parties at college and that party life is plentiful at Ivy’s also.</p>
<p>combined BS/MD,
Dayton actually has one with U of Cinci. college of medicine. The other UGs in this program are Miami and U of Cinci. You need only MCAT=27 and GPA=3.45 to go straight to Med. School, no application, no interview.<br>
If OP is a senior, it is too late to apply to program like this, if a junior, then it’s something to consider. There are plenty of others in OH, more than in other states. Some of them are harder to get in than Ivy’s, though.</p>