<p>yet another hs seinor aiming to become a doctor..seeking advice before i make my decision..
my hope is that after 8 more yrs of education..i get accepted into some university hospital..</p>
<p>i have following choices right now:</p>
<p>-Brandeis U
-NYU
-Occidental (LAC)
-UCI
-UCD</p>
<p>in terms of academic index, i already know that brandeis and nyu top the rest.. but is there any incentive for me to go to harder college for med school?</p>
<p>i know that if i go to brandeis i'll have lower gpa than say uci...</p>
<p>from my experience, adcom don't really care if you are from a competitive school or not..i'm currently going to hs where it's top 20 in the nation and look where it got me..my gpa wasn't too bad either. 3.7uw..</p>
<p>what do you guys recommend? please advise me..</p>
<p>it doesn't matter. you are right that going to a top school isn't a necessary ticket to making it to med school. however, it is hasty to speculate that your gpa will be higher at one school than at another. go where you will be happiest and where you feel will succeed. visit each of the campuses before you make your decision.</p>
<p>I agree that it is most important to go where you feel you fit and will do well, and to a place that you can afford. It is very costly to go all the way through a medical education and you will find yourself living on far less money when friends with regular jobs have gotten settled in their twenties. </p>
<p>If all the personal, happiness, and affordability factors are equal, for some medical career goals (more academic), it can be advantageous to choose the more competitive/prestigious college. I am a faculty in a large medical school. I help train residents and fellows, write rec letters for people applying to med school and residency, and conduct applicant interviews sometimes. It may be wrong, but admissions committees for fellowships and residencies do look at the institutions attended by applicants, all the way back to college. People can be judgmental and elitist in this business, no question about it. If you want to be a practicing physician and not an academic, prestige matters less (how much less I don't know). Good luck.</p>
<p>I think what Parental Unit is getting at is that prestige can play into a decision, but it's not going to make or break you. It's not going to make up for serious or even mild deficiencies. I think they are also saying it's impossible to tell how much a prestigious institution affects you. It's probably a case-by-case sort of assessment.</p>
<p>Prestige of undergraduate institution matters very little in securing a private practice job. Some physicians and patients may expect more or less of you because of your educational pedigree, but ultimately your demeanor and performance factor more importantly.</p>
<p>The perceived quality of your residency program, however, can improve or hurt your private practice prospects.</p>
<p>Furthermore, Parental was mostly discussing academic tracks, where we have always acknowledged that prestige probably would matter quite a bit. Of medical school, not of undergrad.</p>
<p>If you're at UCI and UCD you sound like a CA resident. If you're at the only top-twenty school we've got in the state (no, not the one I went to), then I'm sure their advising department will be very adequate in discussing your options.</p>
<p>Personally, financial aid not withstanding, your choice is an easy one.</p>
<p>Out of those schools Brandeis has by far the best premed program. Over 75% of Brandeis students get into their first choice med school. The national average hovers around 45%.</p>
<p>From Brandeis you need a 3.4 GPA or better to be in the running. Med schools know Brandeis's reputation for the cutthroat pre-med track. </p>
<p>25% of each incoming class comes into Brandeis planning on doing premed. Only 25% of that 25% actually continue on with premed. Perhaps thats why med schools are so keen on the Brandeis applicant.</p>
<p>1.) The national average for students to get into ANY medical school is 45%, and rumors have it that it's closer to 40% this year.</p>
<p>2.) If Brandeis actually had a 75% rate to first-choice medical schools, that would be a ridiculously high statistic. You may color me extremely skeptical, but I will prove amenable to changing my mind if you can provide documentation.</p>
<p>3.) "Cutthroat" and high attrition rates are usually marks of a bad premed program, not of a good one.</p>
<p>Yeah, I'm willing to bet the statistic is admitted to any medical schools on the first try -- analogous to Duke's 85% or Stanford's 74% and MIT's 75%. I mean, when you're talking about, say, Stanford Med, with a 2.9% admissions rate, I can't imagine that Brandeis gets 75% of their kids into their "top choice" schools. Especially when I've never met a Brandeis kid in all my travels.</p>
<p>Hey bluedevilmike. I am also trying to decide between a few schools (JHU and Brown). Where did you get those numbers (Duke's 85%, Satnfords 74%)?</p>
<p>i'm aware that brandeis has a good med program...by good i mean that it is very cutthroat and bloody..i heard they "filter out" premed students by not giving recommendation letters...this could be why their % rate is so high..</p>
<p>I think that's grounds for a premed to avoid there on face. I really do. I really think this is a negative enough thing that in and of itself premeds should not go there -- cutthroat? Severe screening?</p>
<p>Beyond that, I worry that it represents the institution as a whole. If the entire school is unfriendly and more worried about protecting their statistics than helping you as a student... man. Big, third-tier public schools may be hard to find things, but at least they don't go out of their way to sabotage you.</p>
<p>Interestingly enough, the premed program here at Brandeis is not competitive between students. The competition is with yourself. No students will ask one another's grades, etc.</p>
<p>Further, the reputation Brandeis has for an incredibly difficult premed track is exaggerated. If you couple the already tough courses with a lack of any grade inflation, students get worried, and build a negative opinion of themselves. No student is going to want to leave school with a 2.7 GPA, even if it means switching majors. It are these students that will talk about how incredibly hard premed is at brandeis.</p>
<p>Note: I cannot find any documentation that the number is for first choice med schools. Perhaps what I was thinking of was more along the lines of "some of their first choice schools", or very often "get into their first choice schools". My apologies for any confusion.</p>