<p>Hey, </p>
<p>I want to start a list of medical school placement rates so that all of us can have an easy reference point. So if you know this for any schools that aren't previously on the list, then please post it. We can use all the facts we can get. I'll start:</p>
<p>Hopkins: >90%
Notre Dame: ~80%</p>
<p>btw: By Med School Placement Rates I mean how many premeds does an Undergrad institution matriculate into medical school for those that don't know what I'm talking about</p>
<p>Colby College: ~75%
Hopkins: >90%
Notre Dame: ~80%</p>
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btw: By Med School Placement Rates I mean how many premeds does an Undergrad institution matriculate into medical school for those that don't know what I'm talking about
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<p>Uh, you have to keep in mind a subtle but important addendum. It's not really about how many premeds does a particular undergrad institution matriculate into med-school, it's really about how many premeds THAT APPLY from a particular undergrad institution matriculate into med-school. Many premeds never even apply because they know they won't get in. Let's face it. If you're a premed with a 2.1 and a terrible MCAT score, you probably won't even apply because you know you're not getting in anywhere. </p>
<p>That leads to a way for institutions to manipulate its placement rates. They can simply discourage marginal candidates from even applying in the first place. Johns Hopkins does this by threatening to write poor committee rec letters for marginal candidates from discouraging them from applying at all. Some undergrad institutions are even more draconian in simply barring marginal candidates from applying at all, generally by refusing to write rec letters for them, which prevents them from completing the application. Harsh grading standards also tends to discourage weaker candidates from applying. For example, if you're not that good of a student and you end up with a 2.1 GPA, you're probably going to be discouraged from applying. </p>
<p>The point is, placement rates don't tell the whole story. Any institution can boast of a 100% placement rate by allowing only the strongest candidates to apply.</p>
<p>yes listen to sakky, those numbers sometimes dont tell the whole story</p>
<p>WashU 90%; 3.5 GPA upwards; 50% 3.1-3.5 GPA
Emory 95%; 3.5 GPA upwards; 30 MCATs at least</p>
<p>Brandeis 76% unfiltered
MIT 76%</p>
<p>Colby is 100% of students 3.5 GPA and "good" MCATS (whatever that means) who apply are accepted.</p>
<p>More important, to my way of thinking, is the average GPA and MCAT score among admitted applicants - the lower, the better a sign about the school.</p>
<p>University of Michigan: ~ 60% (students of all backgrounds, gpa's, scores)
Average GPA: 3.3-3.5
Average MCAT: 30-31</p>
<p>Well, the lower the gpa, the better about a school, it implies some level of respect of medical schools for the grading standards of the college. </p>
<p>However, low MCAT's among admitted students would be a different story. MCAT's standards are national, and a college that showed a low average MCAT could only do that by getting the students to apply to lots of less competitive medical schools. Even that would not go far, since the "low competitive" schools are still pretty tough. </p>
<p>You probably want to look for colleges with High average MCAT's among applicants, since the MCAT's largely test what you learned in college. The scores students get are a combination of the ability of the students who enroll, their education while in college, and what they believe about their chances of being admitted.</p>
<p>yea University of Virginia has about a 3.1-3.5 average I remember hearing...its very hard to get above that here for premed</p>
<p>afan:</p>
<p>High avg. MCATs for admitted students would indicate that med. schools were disrespecting the school, forcing students to jump over a higher bar.</p>
<p>While you're right that you need to control for the kind of school, I still think low MCATs are a better sign than high MCATs - med schools may have "standards", but they are willing to vary those standards by quite a bit, depending on how they feel about your school and the rest of your track record.</p>
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look for colleges with High average MCAT's among applicants
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<p>Not among admitted.</p>
<p>I do not buy the idea that medical schools accept lower MCAT's from certain colleges out of "respect" for those colleges. I think they expect the "better" colleges (whatever that means) to show high MCAT's. The MCAT is a great leveler.</p>
<p>Would a college dictate where premeds apply for medschool to boos numbers of students who get into their 1st choice medschool? Like tell non perfect students not to apply to Hopkins or Harvard med as reaches, but instead to look at lower tier med schools to increase acceptance rates and number of applicants who get into their 1st choices?</p>
<p>1.) Sorry afan, I did misread, but I still disagree. You're right that you should look for a college with high MCATs among their premed students, but I still do insist that it's possible - even likely - that students from some schools don't need to do as well on the MCATs. Reason? MCATs are just one predictor of how well a student is going to perform in medical school. In the context of a broader application, it's only one component. Great advising/good letters of recommendation, solid courses, a strong undergraduate institution with a good track record - all of these things will help offset low MCAT scores. I maintain that there is variation among undergraduate schools' MCAT scores for reasons other than selectivity of medical schools. Or, at least, I maintain that that's the way I would envision things playing out.</p>
<p>2.) There are some schools that have developed reputations for blocking some students from applying entirely. Whether schools specifically tell kids where to apply or not... my school definitely asks kids to broaden their ranges if their choices are unrealistic, but I've never heard of anybody being told not to apply to a certain place.</p>
<p>3.) Further, I've never seen an undergraduate institution advertise what proportion of its students get into a "top choice" medical school.</p>
<p>i don't think there is a single school in the world that will give their freshmen class a guarantee that if they can maintain a certain gpa, they can make it into med school. Unless they say "you get a 4.0 and we guarantee you a seat in a med school" but that's just ridiculous. Most of these precentages don't take into the fact that there is a HUGE attrition rate. HUGE!! After first quarter at UCLA, I heard that like 20% pursue another career. AFter the first year its like 50% more drop out of "premed track." Also, I doubt UMich says that 60% of their students make it to med school with all kinds of gpas. From what my cousin tells me (premed at UMich) the attrition rate there is also really high.</p>
<p>I suspect Michigan means, "Of the students who eventually apply to medical school, 60% are admitted somewhere." This is very different from, "60% of our students who wish to go to medical school end up going", or "60% of all of our students go to medical school."</p>
<p>The first claim, I find believable.</p>
<p>It is unlikely that picking the correct college will have much effect on whether you get into medical school. The places with large proportions of the class headed to medical school accomplish this because they enroll highly talented students. THese kids get good grades in college, high scores on the MCAT, and enjoy good results in med school applications. </p>
<p>For any given individual, choose a college where you think you will do well. This means they have a major you want, you like the environment, and the teaching style suits you. Maximize your chances of doing well. It probably does not matter whether you go to an elite college, and are well back in the pack academically, or to a less competitive place and are closer to the top. At a place like Princeton, being an average student is a good basis for applying to medical school. At a college that enrolls fewer top students, the average student may not be medical school material, but all you need to care about is whether you are. You have to do well on the MCAT anyway, so you want to learn a lot. The raw acceptance rates do not mean anything, for the reasons noted above.</p>
<p>While for the most part what afan said is true, you also have to look at it from a different point of view.</p>
<p>If you do go to a top 10 school (ivies, etc) you will be looked by medical schools as being a little more appealing just because of the name on your diploma. </p>
<p>Of course, GPA and MCAT are important but some of the smaller, unknown schools may not prepare you well enough for the MCAT so that basically takes care of itself. However, at top schools the science courses will prepare you for the MCAT (if you do the right thing and actually take it seriously)</p>
<p>so to a certain extent what college/university you go to doesnt really matter, but it does in different ways that most people dont talk about.</p>
<p>Afan, very well said. I think I'm going to use your "maximize your chances of doing well" line from here on out - I really like how concise it is, which is something I struggle with.</p>
<p>Doogie, you're wrong for several reasons:</p>
<p>1) The MCAT isn't really about knowing the science - it's about using it and thinking critically about scientific problems. There's a reason why the MCAT is passage based and it's because such a set requires students to sift through the information presented, picking out the relevant parts and using them appropriately. The science is simply a vehicle to test that ability. Being able to explain all the science doesn't guarantee you a high score on any section of the MCAT. In my opinion, as a former Kaplan instructor of the MCAT, science knowledge even falls behind proper test management (as that can sink your score no matter how much science you know).</p>
<p>2) The science on the MCAT really isn't that advanced. If you are a science major you are going to know far more in your subject area than anything that will be tested on the MCAT. Taking Kaplan or TPR is usually sufficient for most people. There are a plenty of people who take Kaplan concurrently with one or more of the "required" science courses (typically physics b/c a lot of people take physics during their junior year so they're in the course and Kaplan at the same time in prep for the April MCAT - but I had plenty of students who took organic and kaplan at the same time) and will take the MCAT before completing the course, thus making Kaplan their only exposure to portions of the material. Even if you went to a very poor school and didn't feel prepared by the coursework, there are ways around that with prep courses.</p>
<p>3) The likelihood that any medical school is "impressed" by the name on one's diploma enough to give them any significant advantage in admissions is highly improbable. You can come up with all the hypothetical situations you want, but the fact remains that no matter what the student has to perform well, wherever they go. Yes, there may be some advantage, but it's likely so small to only be of use in some sort of unlikely tiebreaker scenario (let's face it, while there certainly must be some sort of conversation to pick the very last spot in a medical school class, the odds you are one of those 252 students - 2 at each medical school - out of some 39000 applicants is just not going to happen) The competition for medical school is so intense that I just can't reasonably fathom that any school is going to give a less qualified applicant a spot because of where they went to school. The advantage of going to an Ivy or other top level school has much more to do with the fact that the qualities that help one garner acceptance to a prestigious undergrad institution are very much the same traits that help one earn a spot in a medical school class.</p>