Medical School Acceptance Rate

<p>I would like to know the acceptance rate for medical school for those students that that U of Mich as undergraduate school. If you have a link that has other school's acceptance rates that would be appericated too. Thanks</p>

<p>I always tell this story to students who want to go to Medical school. My cousin graduated from a top HS with a 4.0 unweighed GPA, over a 1400 on her SAT, a 34 on her ACT and a bunch of 5s on her APs. She really studied very hard her first two years at Michigan. At the end of the Sophomore year at Michigan, she had a 3.5 GPA. At that point, she realized she was not going to get into a top medical school and she did not want to study away her entire youth, so she transfered into Engineering, graduated with a 3.5 GPA, worked for a major company and is now getting an MBA at one of the top 5 MBA programs in the nation. </p>

<p>In short, the competition at Michigan is fierce. People see that mean SAT of 1310 and 50% acceptance rate and figure it is only relatively difficult. But 25% of the Michigan students have SAT scores over 1410. Usually, those students graduated with 3.9+ unweighed GPAs taking some of the toughest high school classes and they are usually among the top 1% or 2% of their class. And yet, only 10% of Michigan will get an A average. So the 3.6+ students are Michigan are usually very strong.</p>

<p>But I do not want to discourage you. Michigan sends more students to medical school than any other university in the country. Last year, close to 400 Michigan students went to Medical school. That is a large number to be sure. As a percentage, today, roughly 60% of Michigan students who apply to med school get in. That's not bad when you consider other top schools like MIT, Chicago, Cornell and Northwestern are also in the 60%-75% range. </p>

<p><a href="http://www.lsa.umich.edu/lsa/detail/0,2034,12361%255Farticle%255F5457,00.html%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.lsa.umich.edu/lsa/detail/0,2034,12361%255Farticle%255F5457,00.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>One word of caution, many universities advertise that they send 90% of the students to medical school. In most cases, there are three reasons for this lofty percentage.</p>

<p>1) The school grades very easily, so the students end up graduating with deceptively high GPAs. At Michigan, good GPAs are hard to achieve and even harder to maintain...especially in the sciences.</p>

<p>2) The school only allows top students to apply to medical school by discouraging some students from applying or by denying other students recommendation forms. Michigan will not stop anybody from applying to medical schoo.</p>

<p>3) The schools are usuing slightly old data. Medical schools have become much more selective over the last 3 or 4 years. Michigan used to have over 80% acceptance rate into MEdical school...but it has dropped to 60% in the last 2 or 3 years. </p>

<p>So e123, if you are a very strong student, Michigan is a great place to go for premed. On the other hand, if you are a 3.75 unweighed GPA, 1300-1350 SAT, top 10% but not top 3% of your HS class (typical Michigan student), Michigan is probably not the best place to go to college if getting into a medical school is your goal. Michigan is very tough. Only the top 10% get GPAs over 3.6 and to get into a good medical school, you need at least a 3.5 GPA.</p>

<p>I am a typical michigan applicant, I also applied to UNC, Baylor, and UT-Austin. I was accepted into Baylor already. Which one of those would you consider if my ultimate goal was to attend medical school? I also think I can maintain a 3.6 Gpa, but not certain.</p>

<p>Thanks for your first reply, greatly appericated.</p>

<p>Those are a bunch of awesome schools. Clearly, Michigan, UNC and UTA are better choices than Baylor. All three are tops in my books. Great college towns, great student bodies, great school spirit etc... And if you get a good GPA at any of those three schools, you can pretty much get into a good medical school. </p>

<p>Furthermore, all 4 schools are affiliated to top 20 medical schools, so that's a plus. </p>

<p>In terms of overall academic excellent, I would say Michigan is the best, very closely followed by UNC and then, UTA. But all three are excellent schools. I would say among state universities, Michigan is anywhere between #1 and #4 (Cal, UVA and UCLA are just as good). UNC is anywhere between #5 and #8 and UTA is anywhere between #6 and #10. But those are just estimates...all three are great.</p>

<p>As usual, Alexandre is on the mark.</p>

<p>I would just add the following clarifying points.</p>

<p>*MIT's pre-meds who apply to med-school get in at a rate is 76%. Furthermore, it should be pointed out that among the elite programs, MIT seems to be an anomaly. At Harvard, Yale, Princeton, and Stanford, about 90% of their premeds who apply to med-school get in. </p>

<p>*I would also comment on Alexandre's point #1: that some schools grade very easily and thus students come out with deceptively high gpa'a. To that, I would have to say: "So what?". In fact, I would argue that if you want to go to med-school, then going to a grade-inflated program is exactly what you want. Basically, the criterion for determining what is a good premed program is one that helps as many of its students to get into med school as it can. Whether you think it is fair or not fair, if a premed program gives out lots and lots of undeserved high grades which helps its students get into med school, then it's a good premed program because it is helping its students get into med-school. As a corollary, that's why I think that places like Harvard, Yale, Princeton, and Stanford are some of the best premed programs around not only because they are top-notch schools, but also because they tend to grade easily (at least, relative to many other top schools and certainly relative to a place like MIT). </p>

<p>But the basic point is that if you want to go to med-school, then you want to choose a premed program that will maximize your chances of getting into med-school, and if that means going to a school where the grading tends to be easy, then so be it. What's the point of going to a 'prestigious' school for premed, getting mediocre grades there, and then not getting into any med-school? The whole point of premed is getting into a med-school.</p>

<p>*Finally, I would also add that all of the 'acceptance' percentages have to be mentally corrected in the following manner. All of those percentages have to do with peoplew ho actually apply to med-schools. As Alexandre has alluded to, many (in fact, I would say most) people never actually get around to applying to med-schools. A few of them decide that they want to do something else, like a PhD. Some of them get a great job after graduation and decide that it's better than med-school. Some of them decide that the physician-lifestyle is not for them. </p>

<p>But the vast majority never get to the application stage simply because they don't think they can get into med-school. I think it's safe to say that a giant chunk of Michigan incoming freshman have premed on their mind. Only a tiny fraction of that big chunk will actually go all the way to actually applying to med-school. There's a lot of "premed-melt" along the way. Many of them melt away as they go through their years at Michigan and realize that their gpa is simply not good enough. When you get a 'C-' in your first Michigan science class, you start to think that maybe you're not going to be able to get into med-school. A bunch more melt away after they get their MCAT scores back and realize med-school is probably not in the cards. </p>

<p>The point is that the premed acceptance rates of Michigan or any school usually vastly understate the number of students at that school who actually want to go to med-school but cannot. Plenty of students want to go to med-school but never apply because they know that their grades/Mcat/whatever aren't good enough. If you're getting straight C's at Michigan (or anywhere else), you're not going to apply to med-school, even if you want to go.</p>

<p>^^I second that-- if you're 100% sure you want to go to med or law school than Michigan isn't the easiest way to that goal.</p>

<p>Ask the 25% of the organic chem class who FAIL each term (If you get anything less than a B in this or other "med-meters", you're basically not going to med school). These aren't stupid kids, either.</p>

<p>Also, Michigan doesn't have the "MIT" type prestige to it. It's a great school, no doubt, but saying I went to Michigan isn't going to get you into Yale law or Stanford med by making up for a sub par (Re: non-inflated) gpa. Law and med schools are almost 100% numbers driven. </p>

<p>I had friends who 4.0'ed the pre-med track at places with less percieved prestige - - Albion, MSU, Western Mich etc. I also had friends who did the same at Dartmouth, Brown, and top LACs. They acheived these top grades while being no smarter (and in the former case -- often not nearly as intelligent) and not working nearly as hard as the kids failing at Michigan.</p>

<p>I think its a dissappointment when people learn that the kids who are (comparatively) slacking and getting med-meter 4.0's at Dartmouth etc are the ones getting into Harvard Medical, and kids getting 4.0's at the Albions of the world are the ones getting into lower tiered schools (Wayne State etc).</p>

<p>There's often no room for the Michigan kid who had to bust his *** for his 2.5-3.0</p>

<p>Thanks for the input! If you attend a"prestigous" school will they not teach the science classes better than as opposed to 4 teir school? Will that not maximze my chances on preforming well on the MCAT? Thanks again</p>

<p>To an extent, yes. However, if you have chem C's on your report card, you're not getting into med school -- you might as well save the $$ in taking the MCAT.</p>

<p>I wasn't really discussing differences in quality between institutions. The point I was trying to make is that some schools will treat a 70% in chemistry as an A- and some with treat it as a D. Some will give tests with just a spot for the answer -- which is either right or wrong -- and some will look at the work for each problem and give you partial credit for what you did before you went wrong. Exact same books, same basic test material etc.</p>

<p>In short...</p>

<p>Grade inflation: if you're going to med-school you want it; michigan doesn't have it</p>

<p>E123, what Maize and Blue and Sakky are saying is that some schools will grade you easier than others. At schools like Michigan, you have to earn your Bs and As are very difficult to come by. To maintain a 3.6+ GPA, you need to really study hard and at the same time, be one of the best. If you are one of the best, and you study hard, your options will be plentiful come graduation time. On the other hand, if that is not the case, you must prepare for plan B!</p>

<p>God you guys are all so freaking disheartening. </p>

<p>I got accepted to michigan, I am 100% sure i wanna do medicine and now your making me think, o **** this sucks. </p>

<p>I REALLY REALLY want to go to michigan cause its always been my favorite school. I think if i really work my ass off and do the work and get it done with a 3.5-3.6 ill be fine. But you guys geez. It feels as if it will be a HUGE RISK. </p>

<p>Tell me how its harder too. Like seriously, as a H.S kid i dont know how hard it can get. If you study study study and make sure you understand the material in a chem or physics class or w/e, isnt it possible to get an A or B on the test? ya know, like if you work UBERhard and get as much help and w/e. We know michigan will be hard but for the passionate guy who really tries and does decent at mich lets say 3.5-3.6 29 on mcat, wont that get me into med school. READ IT CAREFULLY, not GOOD med school, A MED SCHOOL, quite frankly all med schools are hard to get into so getting into 1 is an achievement. </p>

<p>What do you guys think?</p>

<p>Let me put it to you this way, Umardarr</p>

<p>The average admitted MIT premed had a GPA of 3.7/4 and an average MCAT of 32.9. When I say 'admitted', it means that those MIT premeds who were not admitted were rejected by every single med-school they applied to. Yep, that's right, every single one.</p>

<p><a href="http://web.mit.edu/career/www/infostats/preprof.html%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://web.mit.edu/career/www/infostats/preprof.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>The average admitted Princeton premed had a GPA of somewhere around 3.4-3.5 and an average MCAT of 32.6</p>

<p><a href="http://web.princeton.edu/sites/hpa/2004.pdf%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://web.princeton.edu/sites/hpa/2004.pdf&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>I think we would all agree, even Alexandre, that both MIT and Princeton are more prestigious than Michigan is. Yet the statistics of the successful premeds from MIT and Princeton are as stated above. So, umardarr, you tell me, do you think that a 3.5-3.6 from Michigan and a 29 MCAT are sufficient to get you into med-school?</p>

<p>Actually, yes. I think those stats will get you in, and you can easily get to med school from Michigan. The point I was making is not AS easily.</p>

<p>Just don't become a drunken bum your Freshman year ;)</p>

<p>
[quote]
Tell me how its harder too. Like seriously, as a H.S kid i dont know how hard it can get.

[/quote]
</p>

<p>Thats the difference. HS classes are designed so that anyone who puts in the effort (RE: takes notes and goes home and does an hour of homework) will get an A. Even honors/AP/ect. Not so in college. Some classes are actually designed to fail kids. Known as "the weeders," these intro classes (organic chem, intro econs, ect) weed out the kids whose abilities won't get them far in the field. Basically, you either know it or you don't. The kids getting the A's are often the kids not studying at all and the kids failing are often the ones who live in the stacks.</p>

<p>i get ur pt that its gonna be hard. its hard everywhere. im just sayin with determination i can get in. cause im the kinda kid who occasinally parties, ALWAYS does his hw, studys for everything and works his ass off to get help. So im just sayin, i hope i cope against everyone else in bio class at mich. remember it smore than tests and gpas (even tho its #1) my dads a doc so i can do so many summer stuff with hospitals, i will do research, u know the jist. im just hopin all goes well lol</p>

<p>believe me, i dont drink lol im Muslim, im not even ALLOWED to drink lol</p>

<p>Yeah, Michigan sends literally 100's of kids to med school every year. You'll be fine. Work hard.</p>

<p>...and I didn't say never go to a party. I said don't becoem a drunken bum.</p>

<p>UMadar, if you get a 3.6 GPA at Michigan, you will be in good shape to get into a good medical school...provided you do well on your MCATs...and a 29, although good, will not get you into a top program. But I do not want you to misunderstand me, Michigan is a great place for pre-med. About 400-500 Michigan students go to Med school each year. That is HUGE. Many of them go to top Med schools like Michigan, Harvard, Johs Hopkins, Wash U., Northwestern, Chicago, Columbia, Cornell etc... Just don't expect any freebies. But I think you already know what to expect. Like you said, premed students almost everywhere have to study hard. All I was saying is that a 3.6 at Michigan does not come easy. People underestimate Michigan because it is not impossible to get into. But once in, Michigan is tough. As far as what you need to get into top Med schools, it is not just academic. You have to be passionate about the field, you have to take part in research and have some valuable internships and you have to articulate your reasons for wishing to become a doctor well to the adcoms of the Medical schools. I have known students with 3.9 GPAs and 35s on their MCATs who were rejected by schools that students with 3.6 GPAs and 33s on their MCATs got into. The difference maker here was the essays and the interview. </p>

<p>But I repeat, Michigan is a great place for pre-meds.</p>

<p>Let's forget about getting into a top med-school for a moment.</p>

<p>The average GPA for matriculants at ALL medical schools that are party to the AAMC in the year 2004 was a 3.62, and the average MCAT was a 29.9. That's not just for the matriculants at the top medical schools, but rather for all medical schools in the AAMC. </p>

<p><a href="http://www.aamc.org/data/facts/2004/mcatgpabymaj1.htm%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.aamc.org/data/facts/2004/mcatgpabymaj1.htm&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>Furthermore, as I and others have pointed out numerous times here on CC, evidence of any sort of advantage for attending a prestigious program as far as med-school admissions is concerned is scanty at best. Bottom line - don't expect much of a boost from the adcom just because you come from Michigan. Your GPA and MCAT score are going to be compared straight-up with the GPA's and MCAT scores of applicants from other schools. And what is undeniable is that a 3.5-3.6 and a 29 MCAT score is below the average of matriculants to all AAMC med-schools in the entire country in 2004. </p>

<p>Furthermore, I would also point out that the admissions statistics for med-schools have been rising for about a decade and show no signs of stoppping. For example, in 1993, the average matriculant was getting in with only a gpa of 3.47 and an MCAT of only a 28.2. So an incoming freshman of today who will graduate in 2009 will most likely be competing against a pool of candidates that will score even higher than 2004's matriculants. </p>

<p><a href="http://www.aamc.org/data/facts/2004/2004mcatgpa.htm%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.aamc.org/data/facts/2004/2004mcatgpa.htm&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>I agree with Sakky to a great extent...but not entirely. A 3.6 student at MIT oor a 3.7 student at Michigan will be taken more seriously than a 3.9 student from a mediocre university...especially if the MIT or Michigan student has a higher MCAT score.</p>

<p>But Sakky is completely right in saying that Med schools, although not to the same degree as Law schools, are very numbers driven. And he is also correct when he says that it is getting more difficult to get into medical school. Competition for all major programs of study has been growing in the last 15 years. Finally, he is right when he says that if you have a 3.4 GPA from a school...any schoool, your chances of getting into a medical program will be slim.</p>

<p>I remember back in 1988, Harvard, Yale, Princeton and Stanford used to have acceptance rates in the 25% range...and MIT and CalTech had acceptance rates in the 30% range. The mean SAT score at all those schools was in the 1330-1370 range (which translates to 1400-1450 in post 1996 standards). Today, those schools accept anywhere from 10%-15% of their applicants and the mean SAT score at those schools are between 1460 and 1530!!! LOL </p>

<p>Mean GMAT scores at top 10 MBA programs used to be in the 630-670 range back in 1995. Today, they hover in the 690-720 range. </p>

<p>In short, like Sakky pointedout, schools in general, undergraduate or graduate, have become more selective in general over the last 15 years.</p>

<p>cool...got some good info</p>

<p>While on the med school topid, I was wondering if the UMich med school gave any preference to UMich undergrads in admissions? I remember the admissions officer mentioning something to this regard during my info sessions.</p>

<p>Yes. Usually, anywhere from 50-60 Michigan students make it into the Medical school each year. This may not sound like a big number, but when you consider that Michigan only accepts 300 students into the Medical school, that's a significant number. Of those 50-60, anywhere from 35-45 actually enroll in the Michigan Medical programs (the others decide to go elsewhere, usually to schools like Johns Hopkins, Harvard, Duke, Penn, Stanford and Yale). Harvard usually makes up the second largest group of students accepted into the Michigan medical school, with fewer than 10 enrolling. So clearly, Michigan favors its own. Here is a look at the last 4 classes that got into Michigan MEdical school:</p>

<p><a href="http://www.med.umich.edu/medschool/admissions/classprofile2004.htm%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.med.umich.edu/medschool/admissions/classprofile2004.htm&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p><a href="http://www.med.umich.edu/medschool/admissions/classprofile2003.htm%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.med.umich.edu/medschool/admissions/classprofile2003.htm&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p><a href="http://www.med.umich.edu/medschool/admissions/classprofile2002.htm%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.med.umich.edu/medschool/admissions/classprofile2002.htm&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p><a href="http://www.med.umich.edu/medschool/admissions/classprofiles.htm%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.med.umich.edu/medschool/admissions/classprofiles.htm&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>As you can see, in 2001 and 2002, far more Michigan students (60 or so)joined the Michigan Medical school than in 2003 and 2004 (35-40). That's because Michigan discontinued its Interflex program (7 year program undergrad and Medical school) in 2002. Also, many Michigan students have been getting acceptances from other top Medical schools and are chosing to go for a change in scenery.</p>