"STUDENTS WHO DIDN’T attend an Ivy League college sometimes wonder if they have a slimmer chance of being accepted into medical school.
While I cannot speak for every admissions committee member at every medical school, I can say that, in general, a high GPA and MCAT score will catch the committee’s attention even if you come from a tiny, nearly unknown college.
But perhaps the better question is this: Does earning an undergraduate degree from a prestigious school carry more weight?
It’s important to know that some prestigious colleges employ maneuvers to give their students a leg up. For example, some allow students to retake a course to achieve a higher grade. The student’s initial grade, even an F, won’t show on their transcript – only the grade they received the second time around." …
Everything in the article may be totally accurate, however the headline
“Medical Schools Don’t Care Much Where Applicants Went to College
You don’t need an undergraduate degree from an Ivy League college to get into med school.”
doesn’t make much sense; there are a grand total of 8 Ivy League schools, and they don’t supply 100% of the matriculants at US medical schools. And there’s a big difference in saying “schools don’t care” and ignoring the dozens and dozens of fine schools that aren’t Ivy(Stanford, etc etc). It’s a flawed comparison. It would be better to simply state “Medical Schools don’t care where you went to UG” but in light of the limited experience of the author, that would be a major stretch.
And it’s worth noting that Dr Franco is no longer active in the medical school admissions business, and it appears from this article her experience applies to exactly one medical school.
Often, these USNWR articles are less than useful to aspring medical school applicants.
Having gone through the medical school admissions process and attended medical and graduate school with students from a wide variety of undergraduate institutions I can say unequivocally MEDICAL SCHOOLS DON’T CARE WHERE YOU WENT TO UG. As stated in the article, its about GPA and MCAT (this admission data has been compiled over and over again with the same result). A better question might be to turn it around and ask, has anyone ever shown a more prestigious school gave them an advantage for medical school admissions? I would like to see any data to support that contention…
Since the student signs a statement attesting that the application has been filled out truthfully, omitting a prior or replaced grade is considered an ethics/honor violation and will result in an applicant being blacklisted by AMCAS and having any med school acceptances revoked.
GPA and MCAT are what will get you an interview for Med school…or not. But really, your interview can make your break your chances for admission. Don’t forget the importance of the interview.
And have to disagree that where you go to school doesn’t matter. For my state flagship, it matters, if only a little. They work on a point system, and raters are authorized to add points for school attended(this information is from a person who has sat on the admissions committee for years).
Is this the only medical school in the country which considers that? No idea, since medical school are proud of how opaque the process is.
And don’t agree that research is only of assistance in applying for research intensive medical schools. All three of recent applicants said that research was a big help, especially in interviews, where interviewers seemed, at times, searching for something to talk about, which led to “tell me about this research you’ve got listed”.
So all were very happy they had done the research and very happy they had listed it on their app.
It wasn’t the research per say that helped those students but their fluency in discussing it.
I know other students who have been asked about the choral singing groups, their backpacking trips, the sports teams they played on, their involvement in baking competitions, etc.
Interviewers are looking how well an individual can communicate with others. It’s often informally referred to as the “lunch test.” As in, “Would I like to eat lunch with this individual every day for a week when they’re on my rotation?”
Also, whether an interviewer find a student’s research worth talking about largely depends on the interviewer’s familiarity with the topic. D1 did 4 years medium energy particle physics research in undergrad. Did ANY interviewer even ask about it? Never.
D2 had a MD/PhD applicant-worthy research portfolio in neuroscience/neuropsychiatry. In her interviews it was hit-and-miss. One of her interviewers she was assign to happened to be a psychiatrist; they spent their entire interview–and went over the allotted time by 30 minutes-- discussing her work. At other schools and with interviewers who had other interests, her research was never brought up. But she was asked about her solo hike of the John Muir Trail more than once.
Of course it depends on whether it’s discussed,but as others have pointed out, the interview is very important in determining if a candidate will be accepted. In these admittedly anecdotal cases, it made a very big difference. So I don’t think it’s accurate to dismiss research experience as a factor in medical school admissions.
I’d also note that research is one of the core competencies listed by AMCAS:
This only requires a knowledge of the research process that can be developed during a rigorous undergrad science class and science lab–not an independent research experience or research project.