<p>Ok, I live in Washington state and I have UW as a safety safety school.</p>
<p>Yes, it has an awesome med school.</p>
<p>Will I have a good chance of getting in the UW med school if I get awesome grades and do research internships, etc., etc. </p>
<p>I have volunteering at their hopsital for 4 hours a week for many years- so yes I am familiar with them.</p>
<p>I am an Ivy League quality person though, but what do think is best.</p>
<p>To go to Hopkins/Cornell/UPenn/Dartmouth</p>
<p>or UW</p>
<p>the tution is different, but my goal is to be a doctor- specifically a dermatologist.</p>
<p>Also I know UW calculates the GPA based on your percent, do the Ivies do this as well- so technically an A is not a 4.0 a 98% or above is a 4.0?</p>
<p>Please give me the best advice because I have been researching about this for years.</p>
<p>First off, your undergraduate institution has little bearing on your chances of admission to medical school. Going to ivy/very prestigious school instead of UW MIGHT matter if you were basically tied with another applicant, but given the subjectivity of medical school admissions this is pretty much impossible. There are people at top medical schools from all sorts of undergraduate schools, mostly non-ivy…</p>
<p>Your most important concern should be finding a school/environment where you can excel and access research and clinical experiences necessary to make yourself competitive. You can certainly do this at UW through their honors program, undergraduate research program, and connections with hospitals, which you are already pursuing. Given the greater personal attention you will likely get as an honors student at UW I would say UW may be better at facilitating your preparation for medical school than more prestigious schools. And, it may be cheaper too…</p>
<p>On a personal note, I took a full ride to Georgia Tech and admissions to their honors program over more prestigious options, because I strongly feel that the personal attention and access to research and other benefits offered at Tech exceeds what I would have likely received at other institutions and it was free!</p>
<p>I would advise you to make your choice based on fit and opportunities to excel. That far outweighs some ranking (as long as we’re only talking about tier 1 schools, which UW is). However, if you feel another more prestigious school will offer you more opportunity to excel, is a much better personal fit, and/or costs are similar or not a concern, go for it. Just don’t trick yourself into thinking that having a particular name on your transcript is going to matter much to medical school admissions committees, and don’t give up greater opportunities at UW just for a name. Doing that may actually hurt your chances. </p>
<p>The reason why I think my scenario is not general is because the undergraduate school is UW : ) which has a breathe-taking med school and is different than what most people put on the threads/posts. I just feel that I have looked into this so long that having a specific person evaluate my circumstance with UW would have been more precise than a generalization that answers the bigger picture. However, those threads have certainly helped me in the past and present bluedevilmike, but I thought that UW is just a unique school to compare the Ivies and Hopkins with : ) thanks so much for the input above.</p>
<p>I have looked at every youtube and virtual tour out there (I even have some really special websites very few no about) and I wish I could spend the money to visit 4 or 5, but it’s a lot of money!!</p>
<p>On one hand, I admire your confidence and ambition as a high schooler. On the other hand, do you think you put too much pressure on yourself at such a young age? Also, do you really think you can see what specific career you will go into so many years later?</p>
<p>You are probaby more medical-career-oriented than my child who is many many years older than you (and has almost completed his pre-reqs)! At your age, he actually did not think that much about which college to go to until he got acceptances. He believed many colleges would be good enough for him and the admisson to any specific Ivy school is really not a shoo-in for anybody and he just needs to give it a a good shot. (I do not say your stats or qualification are not good enough. But sometimes, many others have very high stats as well. I know a kid who has had 15 APs and a very good rank plus many good ECs, but was still rejected by any of the Ivies she applied to.)</p>
<p>I would definitely go to UW and consider yourself lucky that you live in Washington. It’s one of the best state schools in the nation, and many (myself included) would be very happy to go there. Going to UW, especially in the honors program, would probably educate you just as well as any Ivy and shouldn’t lower your med school chances at all. </p>
<p>As for getting into the UW med school, I have no idea. Some, like OHSU, have a major preference for in-state kids, but I’ve also read that some (like California) prefer out of state.</p>
<p>UW is a great school. If you like it, then go there. If you get into an Ivy or the like, and you want to go there, go there. The fact is that of any matriculating med school class, there are students from no-name schools and students from big name schools. It is not where you go to school, it is what you do there. This question’s been answered to death and every single thread will tell you the exact same thing.</p>