<p>I have heard that a degree from a prestigious school for your undergrad does not matter for med school admissions. Is this true?</p>
<p>It doesn’t matter.</p>
<p>What matters are your overall GPA, your GPA in the pre-med courses, your MCAT score, your letter of recommendation, and any internships, volunteer work, or research you have done that is related to medicine.</p>
<p>Does you major matter? Do they take into account a harder major may lead to a lower GPA?</p>
<p>Your major doesn’t matter. You don’t get “bonus points” for what you think is a harder major. Nor do you get bonus points for a double major or extra minors.</p>
<p>A school’s “prestige” doesn’t matter. It might hurt a bit if you go to a podunk U that no one has heard of, but if you attend a good school with good science classes, then that’s good enough.</p>
<p>mom2collegekids has it right. Any respectable university, which includes dozens of public universities (including your state’s flagship), dozens of LACs and dozens of private universities (over 100 colleges and universities in total) will be perfectly ok. What is necessary is a high GPA (definitely over 3.5, preferrably over 3.7), a good MCAT score and good medically related internships, research and extra curricular activities.</p>
<p>I’d venture to say there are probably 300+ colleges that can get one into a higher level med school (you do want a name they recognize, but it need not be Ivy or equivalent) and oodles more that would suffice for a state med school (based upon what I’ve seen IRL locally). Where you go you want to be at or near the top of your class with a good GPA, MCAT and extra curriculars.</p>
<p>That said, the rigor of your undergrad will vary based upon where you choose to go. In general, the higher the stats of the incoming school the more/deeper content in the classes (that’s not 100% in all classes, but it’s generally true from what I’ve seen from returning students - I work in a high school). There are schools that expect an AP level Bio as the foundation coming in and go deeper from there and there are schools that essentially repeat an AP Bio class. Some larger schools may offer two different Bio 101 types of classes and let you choose.</p>
<p>Also, pending how deeply you want to study your major, going to a school that specializes in it will provide more course offerings and perhaps research.</p>
<p>None of that matters for getting into med school. It’s all a personal fit deal looking at undergrad. Many higher academic students prefer the in depth of a higher level school. Some who are absolutely certain they want the med school path choose a lower level school to better ensure their ability to handle the courses (nothing is CERTAIN - you’ll still need to study). Again, I’ve seen it happen both ways (successfully). Visit schools you are thinking about and sit in on classes plus talk with students to get an idea of what fits you better.</p>
<p>Also, consider cost. You want undergrad to be inexpensive via cost, merit, or need-based aid. That will set you up better for paying for med school. Cost should actually be a higher consideration than some aspects of fit IMO, but that depends upon your finances.</p>
<p>And have a backup plan. Currently, less than 50% of those who apply to med school make it in - even with the highest stats and MCAT the acceptance rate is only around 91.5%. That means almost one in ten needs their backup plan. You can look at some Tables here if more interested in stats (Table 24 does MCAT and GPA):</p>
<p><a href=“https://www.aamc.org/data/facts/applicantmatriculant/[/url]”>https://www.aamc.org/data/facts/applicantmatriculant/</a></p>
<p>You can look here if you want to see a sampling of undergrads recently at WUSTL (a Top 10 med school that nicely posts such info - most do not - scroll over Undergrad Institutions Represented):</p>
<p>[Who</a> Chooses WU](<a href=“http://medadmissions.wustl.edu/HowtoApply/selectionprocess/Pages/WhoChoosesWU.aspx]Who”>http://medadmissions.wustl.edu/HowtoApply/selectionprocess/Pages/WhoChoosesWU.aspx)</p>
<p>Remember WUSTL’s list isn’t the “final answer” for all med schools. It’s just theirs (and only seems to list schools with at least 3 attending).</p>
<p>If considering undergrad schools, ask to see where recent graduates applied successfully to see if schools you’d like are on that list. If so, that school can work for you IF you put forth the effort to be at or near the top. It’s not the school’s job to do that for you. It’s your job at that point.</p>
<p>Here’s a list of undergraduate schools represented at Vanderbilt Medical School:
<a href=“https://medschool.vanderbilt.edu/admissions/undergraduate-schools-represented[/url]”>https://medschool.vanderbilt.edu/admissions/undergraduate-schools-represented</a></p>
<p>^^^ Thanks for Vandy’s list. I hadn’t seen that one before. They seem to be super diverse, except, of course, for preferring their own undergrads to a degree (as many med schools tend to do). However, I suppose if WUSTL were to shorten their list to just including 4 years they’d probably look very similar with diversity.</p>
<p>I got more curious and came up with this page summing up U Rochester’s Class of 2015. It’s a good read for anyone contemplating med school IMO.</p>
<p>[University</a> of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry - Class of 2015 Profile - Rochester Medicine - Summer 2011 - University of Rochester Medical Center](<a href=“http://www.urmc.rochester.edu/news/publications/rochester-medicine/summer-2011/online-specials/class-of-2015.cfm]University”>http://www.urmc.rochester.edu/news/publications/rochester-medicine/summer-2011/online-specials/class-of-2015.cfm)</p>
<p>Thank you all so much!</p>
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<p>Presumably, Vanderbilt gets many applications from its own undergraduates. It’s impossible to tell from these figures alone how much preference they might get, if any, compared to others with similar stats.</p>
<p>The prestige itself does not matter, as many posts have pointed out. However I think there is an important 2nd-order effect. The students that get into a stronger school are often ones that are aiming high. So as a student you see examples around you of what you need to be doing; how many HS students know that you need patient-related experience in order to be a viable candidate for med school? At a larger impersonal school nobody is going to make a point of telling you, and you might not be aware of any of your peers doing it. Furthermore much as it may chagrin us to admit, peer effects play a role. The way you dress, the music you listen to, and so on are significantly influenced by those around you – and so are study habits and ones approach to academics.</p>
<p>So while you don’t get brownie points for attending a prestigious school, I wouldn’t swing to the opposite conclusion that where you go doesn’t matter. Pick a school where you’ll be around other kids of the type you’d like to be.</p>
<p>Unless a student is a very strong student with really high stats, I would totally avoid a tippy-top school if I were pre-med. </p>
<p>We see this all the time in the pre-med forum. Kids who were in the middle quartiles when acceptd by their dream school are now upset that their GPAs aren’t that great. They’ve been competing with the tippy top Vals and Sals across the nation at IvyU while they themselves just got in by a total lottery win. </p>
<p>Pick a good school that has good science programs where you’ll be in the top 10% of the school. Then work your fanny off in your pre-med pre-reqs (and in all of your other classes). Pre-med pre-reqs are hard at every school because only certain majors (usually STEM) take those particular classes. those are the weeder classes, and profs often limit the number of A’s. </p>
<p>Snag every A out there. Get to know your profs. See if any have any research opps for you. Get their LORs for internships and REUs. Then they’ll write your LORs when it’s time to apply to med school.</p>