<p>Does undergraduate institution matter for prestigious medical schools (ranked in the top 20), or is it still just a GPA game?</p>
<p>Am I better off graduating from Cornell with a slightly lower GPA, or William & Mary with a higher GPA?</p>
<p>i think everyone would agree any med school is considered prestigious o.O</p>
<p>More residency opprotunities from a top medical school, and I am considering ophthalmology.</p>
<p>yes, but then if you r in the top of your class in a "mid tier" school, there should really be no worry regarding residencies</p>
<p>Cardene, that's really not true. </p>
<p>The best that can be said about the relationship between prestigious medical schools and residency is that it can't hurt to go to a "top" (and that's an extremely relative term) medical school. However the exact "boost" it will be towards your application is probably really hard to quantify. </p>
<p>Considering that 94% of US seniors successfully matched this year, and 84% of those students got into one of their top 3 choices, I'd say that for the most part, residency "opportunities" are not dictated by which medical school you go to.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.nrmp.org/2007pressrelease.pdf%5B/url%5D">http://www.nrmp.org/2007pressrelease.pdf</a></p>
<p>Finally, while you may be considering ophthalmology...you're still in HS. You have almost 8 full years, and many, many, major hurdles to clear before you decide. You're interests will likely change a lot. I'm in my second year, and while I've narrowed it down to pediatric subspecialty, my thoughts on which one literally change from weekly. (Peds GI is the current front runner). My good friend who is an M4 and just matched to Anesthesia didn't know he wanted to do that until his surgery rotation 3rd year which he had in March and April, less than a year before he had to make a decision. Keep your options open.</p>
<p>If you look at the match lists of various med schools (which you shouldn't do considering you're in HS) you would be surprised at the success of some schools in getting their students into top residencies. US News rankings aren't everything.</p>
<p>See thread: "Grade inflation isn't the only thing". The answer is that it's not just a GPA game.</p>
<p>But it's also not just a prestige and GPA game, either. Bottom line is nobody has any idea what's going on.</p>