I plan on becoming a physician. I know how difficult it is getting into medical school and how much emphasis they put on GPA and MCAT scores. I’m currently a rising senior in HS and wondering what type of university to go into. If I get lucky enough to be accepted into a Top 5 or 10 university (HPYSM) should I enroll there or plan on attending something less prestigious such as Northwestern or JHU? I know that there are more opportunities for premed students and more research exposure in big name universities with massive endowment. the only problem is that the competition will be extremely high and it will be hard to differentiate yourself from the pack.
This leads me to believe that the top universities may be practicing grade deflation. If I go to Harvard, for example, and get a 3.5 GPA will this be regarded the same as, below, or better than a 3.8 GPA at lower ranked school? I’m wondering because if I’m not at the top of the class, I may be shooting myself in the foot by going to a more prestigious university and scraping by with a low GPA.
This also relates with my other question: How impactful is the name of the university in admissions decisions?
Why worry about a choice between HYPSM and NW/JHU now before you actually have them. If you are unhooked your chance of getting into one of the HYPSM is like a lottery. This is like spending time and effort to figure out how to spend the lottery money before you win it.
How about paying attention to the percentage of each undergrad school’s applicants to med school who are admitted? It might be an indicator of quality of preparation.
Start with survey below to see how med schools ranked importance of various application components in deciding to offer an interview.
p14 https://www.aamc.org/download/462316/data/mcatguide.pdf
On one hand, where you attend and major are not important to med schools. On other hand, since most who start as premed change their minds, and of those who actually apply 60% fail to start anywhere, premeds need a Plan B, and being at a top school may offer you an edge with your Plan B.
Or it might just be an indicator that the school controls who is permitted to apply medical school via use of the judicious committee letter. (No committee letter means your application is likely DOA at most medical schools. Students know that, so most who do not receive their college’s endorsement just don’t bother to apply…)
The name/prestige of your undergraduate college plays a very, very small role in your chances for a medical school admission. Med school admissions are holisitic. While MCAT + GPA are often used as screeners by med school admissions, they are not the only factors med school look at. Once you meet the basic level GPA/MCAT for consideration (which are lower than you might think), it’s the “everything else” about your application that makes you an attractive candidate to med schools.
You also need to keep in mind that 75% of freshmen pre-meds never even apply to medical school. (They change their career plans along the way as their interests change & broaden and as they gain more exposure to the medical profession.) So picking a college based on hypothetical GPA considerations is very foolish.
@gurt567 - NW/JHU are actually much more harsh in their pre-med course grading than Harvard/Stanford, going pre-med in MIT is probably suicidal unless you’re a science genius, Yale is much pre-med friendly.
3.8 GPA from low ranked schools trumps 3.5 from HYP all the times. Among 8 Ivies, Brown is the most happiest school, and more pre-med forgiving (Brown allows re-take of any class without showing failed grade in “external” transcript).
@gurt567 GPA is more important than prestige. Med school admissions will take a higher GPA from a average school over a lower one from a prestigious university. However, coming from a prestigious school helps you still have a chance to get into med school with a low GPA whereas you’re chances at say U of Tennessee with a 3.0 would virtually none. Going to a top undergrad school also means a better chance of going to a top med school. However, this could be because students at top undergrad schools are already better candidates for admission to top med schools. A top school offers more resources, however, Johns Hopkins and Northwestern also have plenty of resources, opportunities and huge endowments. For this reason, many choose Hopkins and Northwestern for pre-med over HYPSM and these schools are more recognized as better pre-med schools than HYPSM by many. The only reason why one might prefer HYPSM is because these pre-med powerhouses such as Hopkins, Northwestern, and WashU are known for their tough weeder classes which many freshman don’t make it through. HYPSM excluding MIT, are friendlier to GPAs and there is high grade inflation. You should also consider Rice as a “less prestigious school”. Although it doesn’t have its own med shool, Rice has strong connections to Baylor med school and UT Southwestern which are not only top med schools, but are among the most affordable as well(20-40k less per year). Those med schools provide many opportunities for Rice undergrad students and you’re chances of admission to those med schools from Rice are significantly increased.
“HYPSM excluding MIT, are friendlier to GPAs and there is high grade inflation.”
Really? Princeton being “friendlier to GPAs and there is high grade inflation”? One reason why HYS enjoy greater admissions yield in comparison to P is because of the grade deflation still existing at Princeton in spite of ending it a few years ago. Old habits die hard, I guess. No one wants to go to Princeton to be a pre-med.
You can have good and bad quality teachers at any college. The preparation for the MCAT is the students responsibility. Courses content is not always aligned with the MCAT in mind. https://www.thecrimson.com/article/2013/5/16/mcat-test-prep-premed/
“Usually the classes are very focused on exploring what the professors are interested in and are not overtly helpful for the MCAT.”
“Students say that if anything, classes serve only as an introduction to the test material, rather than as instruction for the exam.”
In class you learn some of the content but you need to dive in more deeply and also learn strategy for the MCAT. It is not a memorization test. You need to utilize critical thinking and analytical skills so that you can apply your knowledge in the context given on the test.
OP, come back when you have your acceptances and then we can help you. No point guessing your gpa when you haven’t even taken a college class yet.
OP question makes sense, since wants to finalize the list of schools to apply. If you so sure about medicine, it makes sense to go a school where you are going to be in the top 20% or so (local state schools or private or liberal arts school). But it makes sense for top ranked school if you end up with Plan B (either you decided medicine is not the path since you found more interesting career during your college or did not like medicine during your EC once you got a feel for life for folks involved in medicine career or did not get competitive grade/scores etc). Or apply to few top ranked schools where you like and will be happy and also to some not top ranked schools where you can shine and/or also can save some money (low fees due to IS or got some merit / need aid etc) since you need lot of money for MD and many more years of study before you can earn (some of your HS friends would have semi-retired since they joined some silicon valley or wall street companies! just kidding, that is how long it takes to start work for medicine profession)
Thank you everyone for your detailed explanations! It is truly appreciated! I know I may be jumping the gun and “counting my eggs before they hatch” but it is because I’m trying to get a good idea of which schools to apply to and if it makes sense for me to spend money and time applying to the T10s.
Thank you for linking me to that AAMC site, it was useful in getting a deeper look into med school admissions. I’m honestly pretty surprised to see that publications and prestige of the undergrad are ranked in the lowest tier! My intuition said otherwise.
That chart provided by that same AAMC document that detailed the acceptance rates for students based on MCAT and GPA was also extremely helpful. It really shows how important those are. 3.8GPA and 518 MCAT and you have more than a 75% chance of making it to med school.
Maybe it does make sense to go to a smaller name university and get a higher GPA and save some money in the process…
After this summer I’ll most likely post a chance me thread (waiting because some test scores are yet to release) and I’ll also share admissions next spring as some have indicated me to do so.
It might be more useful to think of those stats this way: 25% of those with a 518+ Mcat (top 3% nationally) and a 3.8 cGPA (top 15% nationally) DO NOT get into med school. Why? because the “everything else” is lacking.
As to med school admission process, there’s a saying that one’s stats can get you to the door, but it’s the rest of the application that will get you through the door. One might have great stats, ECS, LoRs, PS, get interview invite, and then be rude, obnoxious, etc at interview and you can say adios to your chances at that school.
Focus a lot more on what you are going to do every summer from the summer after 12th grade and every summer while you are an undergrad, to prepare for medical school. Are you interested in clinical medicine or research medicine? If you want to do research, start to plan right now what summer medical research programs you want to apply for! Look at Ohio State, UC Irvine and others. That will help you both with career goals and getting into medical school. What you do matters a lot, over the summers. If you don’t figure out if you even like to work with patients, you will have wasted all four years of undergrad. This is your time to figure that out!
You are focusing on the grades which makes no sense at all. Focus on what type of college you will fit well, and focus on what major interests you the most and what sort of doctoring you want to do. For instance, do you want to talk to patients every day? Do you want to study radiography slides? Do you want to be in a lab finding new ways to treat cancer? How are you going to find out what you like best ? Find a college near a hospital so you can get clinical experiences
I suggest you look at Case Western Reserve U, as there are three hospitals all walking distance, a VA, Cleveland Clinic and University hospital. Its not about what you seem to think, you have to be happy to do your best in college, and and you have to figure out why you want to be a doctor in your four years, so you can convince your interviewer that you really know what becoming a physician means.
Because you are so over focused on grades, right now, are you even suited to working with people and helping them? Change your focus !
“If a medical school is LCME-accredited, it’s more than good; it’s excellent. Yet the U.S. News rankings ignore this accreditation.”
“The annual U.S. News and World Report rankings of American medical schools are ill-conceived; are unscientific; are conducted poorly; ignore medical school accreditation; judge medical school quality from a narrow, elitist perspective; and do not consider social and professional outcomes in program quality calculations. The medical school rankings have no practical value and fail to meet standards of journalistic ethics.”
I agree that us news ranking for med school is full of craps.
Recently found on a news that U Akensas med school hosted a computer controlled robotic brain surgery conference, over 200 renowned brain surgeon from all over the world converged upon Little Rock to attend and learn from the experts over there on the procedure. So, if you lookup the school ranking on us news you might find it’s in the lower tier.
