<p>I know that a degree from an Ivy can be really beneficial for people who go into business (MBA, finance, all that). But is it totally worthless if you want to go into medicine? If you go to an Ivy for undergrad is it easier to get into any med school? And if you to go an Ivy for med school, does that help you at all, ever? Also, I live in Ontario. If I want to go into medicine, would it make a difference if I went to a US school like Hopkins or Georgetown, as opposed to U of Toronto or McGill? Thanks!</p>
<p>?? The Ivys have top ranked science programs and graduate med programs as well…</p>
<p>Hopkins and Gtown have more prestige than most Canadian schools, so yea big difference.</p>
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<p>If I’m a med school admissions officer and I have a 3.7 kid from Rutgers and a 3.0 kid from Brown and they have the same MCATs and relatively similar activities, I’m picking the kid from Rutgers.</p>
<p>But I actually e-mailed Harvard and Penn’s med school admissions officers about this. I’ll get back to you ASAP.</p>
<p>Thanks so much for that! ^
And I know those schools are prestigious, but will prestige matter when you go for residency or apply for a job?</p>
<p>That said, if you have a kid with a 3.7 from Brown and a 3.7 from Rutgers, you’re taking the guy from Brown. Ivy leagues have the brand name effect, it really does make a difference.</p>
<p>"Thank you for your interest in Harvard Medical School. The college you attend and major you select will have far less bearing on your chances of gaining acceptance than what you accomplish once in school. I would suggest opting for the field of study that offers the most opportunities to grow both academically and personally. HMS is looking for well-rounded men and women not necessarily students from a particular type of academic background. I am sorry that I cannot be more specific in answering your question.</p>
<p>Good luck and we will look forward to seeing your application."</p>
<p>Harvard Medical School just e-mailed me this.</p>
<p>Well, there you go guys.</p>
<p>The school one has an education from does have a bearing on admissions, but gpa outweighs that factor. Generally, the higher gpa is more important than the more prestigious school. How easy/hard it is to get a good gpa at a certain school should be a factor that one should be looking at. For example schools like Brown and Harvard inflate gpa making med school acceptance easier while schools like Princeton deflate gpa making med school acceptance harder.</p>
<p>^That’s what I thought. Thanks a lot, I appreciate that you actually went and asked. 
</p>
<p>After med school is over, will any of this matter in terms of getting into a good residency program? And will it count when you start looking for a job?</p>
<p>^Just my personal opinion, but I highly doubt it. Becoming a doctor, etc… has far less dependence on a prestigious college than does becoming a lawyer or journalist or whatnot.</p>
<p>Quick question here. Lets your undergrad. school is not ivy league.</p>
<p>Lets say its a school like University of Pittsburgh or Lehigh University (a tier 1 school but not up there). Would it be better to go to Pitt or Lehigh or would it be better to go to some second tier school like Immaculata or Widener (because of the cost of attendance in the second tier school is lower than the first)?</p>
<p>In other words, does it matter whether you go to tier 1 or tier 2 school? Will medical schools understand your choice of undergrad due to financial difficulties?</p>
<p>^^^ Someone emailed Harvard Med School and posted their reply up there.
I don’t know about all med schools, but I assume the response would be pretty similar. :)</p>
<p>I read the response from Harvard. I just felt that maybe if it wasn’t top tier but other tiers maybe even community college, would it make a difference? Yeah, so I guess the response would still be the same.</p>
<p>(1) GPA
(2) Recommendations
(3) Research Opportunities
(4) Leadership Opportunities
(5) Shadowing Opportunities</p>
<p>Choose the school that will allow you to check off all those boxes and you will be a very competitive medical school applicant. All the Ivy League schools provide this, but you’ll find that there are a lot of colleges that are “hidden gems” out there as well - and they cost far less. </p>
<p>Residency is determined by USMLE scores, med school GPA, research experience, recommendations, etc.</p>
<p>For the record, I just asked Saint Louis School of Medicine and University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine to get their opinions too, so that we can get more than one opinion from an Ivy League school.</p>
<p>Penn still hasn’t gotten back to me, we’ll see what they say too.</p>
<p>^ Wow Excavalier, this would be quite useful for everyone! Thanks.</p>
<p>Penn’s response:</p>
<p>"1) The class that matriculates in to our program come from a wide array of undergraduate institutions. We have students who come from large public state institutions, small liberal arts schools, private schools and smaller state schools as well. You need to choose the institution that is going to be the best fit for you academically. You need to choose a school in which you are comfortable not just in the classroom, but within that campus community. Not all of your recommendations are going to come from experiences you have in the classroom setting. So, you should not pick your school based on reputation.</p>
<p>2) Study whatever it is that you are most interested in pursuing. Roughly 1/3 of our matriculating class are non-science majors at their undergraduate institution. By studying what interests you, you are more likely to do better academically, which will in turn serve you better when it comes time to apply to schools and when you go to ask for letters of recommendation.</p>
<p>Best wishes,
Penn Med Office of Admissions"</p>
<p>Saint Louis’s response:</p>
<p>"Dear Jim,</p>
<p>Thank you for your interest in Saint Louis University School of Medicine. Every aspect of your application will be taken into consideration and all majors are considered. As long as you have completed the requirements your application is given full consideration. Thank you."</p>
<p>Bang.</p>
<p>Thanks! Alright, so I’m sure we can all agree now that to get into an Ivy for med school, you can be from any undergrad school as long as you took full advantage of the opportunities you were offered there… right?</p>
<p>But I still want to know more about whether or not a degree from an Ivy League med school will matter at all, like it does for lawyers and businesspeople.</p>