Purely on the basis of getting into a top grad school, particularly for a PhD, but also somewhat true for professional schools, excelling at any respectable undergrad school will do.
Want to work for Goldman Sachs? Go to a high price, elite school where they recruit.
Putting a value on an expensive school with a 1:7 faculty:study ratio surrounded by committed students who are as smart if not smarter than you is a tougher, more subjective call.
“What I always wonder is how many students who go this route (choosing less expensive state school) actually wind up going on to medical school.”
-The number of these kids does not depend on the UG they attended, but rather on the type of the students. The number of applicants who got accepted to Med. School is equal to the top 40% of the applicant pool (about 60% do not get accepted). How it is divided between UG is not reflecting anything, but the caliber of HS students accepted to a certain UG. Assumption that every very top caliber of HS graduates ( for simplicity, let’s talk about ranked #1 in their respective HS class ) end up applying to top 10 - 20 UG’s like Ivy/Elites, this assumption is NOT correct. While Ivy / Elites end up with the higher number of such kids, in-state publics still get a good number of them. Yes, specific in-state public will have less kids represented at some Med. School class than (as an example), Berkeley. It does not tell you that Berkeley prepares them better or Berkeley graduates have advantage applying, it tells you that Berkeley accepts much higher number of high caliber kids.
So, if you are such a kid, then choose what you want. If Harvard is desirable, then attend there. If not, attend wherever you wish (including un-known local college that provides an advantage of living at home with parents, I know several examples of such, because parents were proud that kids were smart to choose such a cheap option). Just keep in mind that the name of Harvard will NOT provide any advantage in acceptance to Med. School, at Medical School or during residency matching cycles.
It could be because the crowd you hang out with happen to be nicer people. It could also be because once the college of interest is out of those with name recognition, people just don’t “care” that much any more. They don’t think it’s something particularly better than the local/public colleges they are familiar with hence the “is it a good school”/“where is it” comments. They are of course not snarky questions but rather genuinely polite response in college talks without much emotional reaction, which is nice and is what I’d hope they’d do in “any” college talk.
Given the competitive nature of medical school admission, I’d say many of them don’t. That said, my observation is that compared with their counterparts in state schools, more students in private/elite schools who had medical school plan change their minds by the time they graduate and end up not going to medical school. I know it’s an exaggeration but what comes to my mind “elite colleges are where medical school dreams go to die”. 
Sorry. I guess I was not very clear. I just see many people focusing heavily on cost if medical school is in the future. I do understand that, but not every kid who claims to be pre-med stays that way. If an undergraduate school was chosen because it was the cheapest option and because one thought the best grades could be earned there (which is what is often espoused on here as what one needs to do) and THEN the kid changes his mind about medical school, that choice might not have been the best choice that could have been made.
I do understand that cost has to be A factor. It just seems as though many of the pre-med folks place significant emphasis on cost. Maybe the kid would have been happier at a private LAC that was affordable if med school were not on the horizon, but it was dismissed because of “we have to save for medical school.” Kid chooses Big State U and then changes mind about med school. I get that you save the money anyway, but maybe a better fit could have been had. But, I get it. No one has a crystal ball. And, as I stated above medical school was not a consideration for ds. He might wind up in an MBA program or in law school someday, but that’s going to be on his dime. Just a different POV, I suppose! 
If the student did not come from a competitive high school and aced it there, there may be some truth in this. However, if you are among the best (say, top 5) from a competitive high school in the best school district of a major city or a “power” prep school, you could likely also make it at an elite college. After all, the percentage of premeds from an elite college who succeed in getting into a med school is higher (could be much higher) than their counterpart at a state school. A good student is a good student no matter where he attends the college and there are just a higher concentration of good students at a top college, resulted in their higher admission rate to a med school. (This does not imply it is easier or harder at such a college, an elite one or a state one.) Only you would know whether you could make it in a different environment.
BTW, the success rate of going from an elite college to an elite med school is likely higher due to the inbred or “incest” phenomena. (e.g., elite colleges routinely send a lot of their students to their affiliated med school or comparable ones.) But many would argue that you do not have to go to an elite med school and all med schools are “equally good” - there is some truth in this statement as well, depending on the goal of your life. After all, as I heard, the pay at a more rural, flyover country for the same specialty is higher than the large cities on the coast.
Interesting thread. Many SUNY stickers here in the burbs! Stickers are the first time I even saw the names of many of these schools! It’s the law here. You have to out put on the college sticker, or the stick family…
I want mine to say: “My kid goes to ___________and all I got was this lousy sticker…”
" It could also be because once the college of interest is out of those with name recognition, people just don’t “care” that much any more. They don’t think it’s something particularly better than the local/public colleges they are familiar with hence the “is it a good school”/“where is it” comments. They are of course not snarky questions but rather genuinely polite response in college talks without much emotional reaction, which is nice and is what I’d hope they’d do in “any” college talk."
Right. Only on CC is there supposed to be this reaction of “Where does your kid go?” “He goes to (insert Elite School)” and the questioner is supposed to be all “OMG that is just so amazing, I am soooo impressed, can I shake your hand, what is your secret, how did you ever get such an amazing child< I bow in your direction!” As opposed to the real world, where regardless of whether the answer is East Nowheresville U or Elite U, the response is typically “That’s nice! Hope he enjoys it there!” and then the conversation moves on. Don’t kid yourselves that people care all that much.
I am going to a send-off barbecue for a friend’s son. In my personal opinion, he turned down a chance at Generally Accepted as Elite Even on CC U for what I personally consider a Nothing Liberal Arts College in the middle of nowhere, without any particular redeeming factors. But why would I ever say that to her? It’s simply not my business. I’m not going to speculate on her finances or the reasons she has. If she cares to “explain” herself, great, but she needn’t justify anything to me.
@mcat2: I completely agree with you. I was talking about the “change of heart” factor. Regardless whether they will be able to make it to medical school in the end, it seems to me that more students in private elite give up their plan of going to medical school and decide to pursue a different career. Of course, just as in the state publics, a good number of students have to give up their medical school dreams because they can’t “make the cut”.
I’ve got a d who just graduated from a top 5 LAC. My next door neighbor knows the name because she’'s originally from Boston. My other neighbors know she went to school in Boston someplace just because they may have run into us when we were heading to the airport or some such. Guess what? I. Don’t. Care. College choice has nothing to do with impressing the neighbors. Nothing.
But posters here are exchanging their real life experience, not what’s considered “supposed to be” on CC. And just who is really expecting that kind of reactions as you described anyway? Care to give a few CC ID’s who expressed that desire/expectation?
If parents live in an area with a very high cost of living, and will be having a couple kids attending expensive colleges that offer good need-based aid, those parents actually may be better off moving to a place with a lower cost of living, even if it involves a major pay cut. That is because many colleges do not consider cost of living in their financial aid formulas.
Therefore, parents living in places with very high cost housing and taxes may be in a position where they have don’t have enough income to pay the expected family contribution. However, if they move to a lower cost area,even with much lower incomes, they may be expected to contribute a much lower amount towards college expenses, and could come out ahead. They may also end up with nicer housing for a fraction of the cost.
@PurpleTitan, yes, I have “noticed that mediocre LACs with high list prices have been heavily discounting (with “merit” money) for many of their students in recent years. These days, the only kids who are paying full-price at mediocre LACs are mediocre/poor students (who obviously come from wealthy backgrounds).”
LACs are a business. That business model (lower prices for grade-A customers, and full prices only for grade-B customers) isn’t sustainable; it will lead to a downward spiral for those LACs. They’ll receive less tuition now and lower alumni giving in the future.
@marian - My second post about where to go to school to have better job prospect was meant for students who end up going to a smaller, less recognizable school. We were discussing whether it matters where you go to school to get employment and where companies recruit. If you go to a well nationally (globally) well known school, like Cornell, then it doesn’t matter where the school is, but if you go to a less well known school then you would benefit from having large companies nearby.
Sorry I wasn’t clear.
I agree with you completely.
If you go to a school that attracts recruiters from all over the country, it doesn’t matter where that school is located. But if you go to a school that primarily attracts recruiters from the local area, it would be great if you liked that area and if there were plenty of jobs there.
^this is why OP’s @fatdog11 dd won’t be “hobbled for life” if she goes to the University of Arkansas. Walmart - and ALL the vendors who support it, Tyson Foods, and others pull heavily from the University of Arkansas.
Sorry. I can’t help it. Many in my family went to the U of A, and I get tired of it being dissed on here.
" If an undergraduate school was chosen because it was the cheapest option and because one thought the best grades could be earned there"
-No matter what is a plan, Med. School or not, having these 2 as top criteria is a very wrong approach that most likely will backfire in a big way. The first criteria is valid, but not the top criteria. The second one should be dismissed all together. The most important in pre-med life is that college fits a student very well, there is no reason to experience additional stress simply because a kid feels that she does not belong there. The place should be very carefully chosen where applicant feels that she may be happy. This aspect at least will remove some burden of adjustment.
However, there are plenty of AFFORDABLE colleges where kid will be happy. It requires much deeper research than simply ranking and name recognition. It is tedious and time consuming with many visits, conversations and overnights but it all worth it.
@panpacific, Although this may be true to a certain degree, a flip of the coin is that just because they go to an elite college, some doors may be more open to them and it is more likely for them to change their mind.
Last time I heard of it, about 40% of Princeton graduates join the finance/consulting industry every year. Other top colleges could be not very different (I remember one CCer from Duke once posted he sometimes felt that every good enough students are on some kind of preprofessional track, with or without graduate education in their future plan after graduation from Duke.) Maybe some of them were aspiring premeds when they set their foot on campus. But the environment they are in may make them more likely to change their heart because other good choices may be more abundant than when they go to a no-name or directional college. I saw a report somewhere that the percentage of engineering students from
MIT joining the traditional engineering career path right after graduation is actually lower than that joining non-engineering career path (using their engineering skills on other non-engineering jobs.)
In DS’s freshmen suite of 6, four took the premed prereq courses. Only two continued on this path till graduation. One joined the Wall Street (from a family likely with good enough connections - why “wasting” the opportunity his family could easily offer him and choose a long road (another 8+ years) with less than 60k annual income?!), and the other suitemate actually finished the premed sequence (and in a STEM major) but attended a law school (Harvard Law) instead. I think both of them could make it to a med school if they choose to do so (i.e., the grades are not the factor; the change of the interest is.)
@mcatt2, do you consider it a loss that the two students from your son’s freshman suite who dropped the idea of going to medical school chose other careers?
One of them got admitted to a law school that’s ranked highly enough so that he will actually be able to get a job practicing law when he graduates (unlike many students from lower ranked law schools). The other chose a job that pays enough so that he can actually support himself in NYC and that has long-term career potential. These don’t seem like inferior choices. They’re just different choices.
There are lots of careers that a science oriented kid might love that do not involve patient care. It is narrow-minded to think that only MD’s are “making a difference”.
Consider the fact that only about 40% of applicants get accepted to Med. School. I am talking about ALL applicants tp collective pool of Medical schools, not any specific Med. School. there are many more who quit way before ever applying, many actually quit after the first semester of freshman year. There is no loss here, some were just not as dedicated as others because they recognized other fields that they may be interested in. The “desperate” bunch get in eventually, they keep on trying, there are cases out there with people applying in 6 or so cycles. Lots of time they get to be real experts at something like Anatomy, they get their masters and actually working and/or helping current Med. Students or doing some research. One got to be a very desperate and determined person to pursue the most torturous career in a world.