Hi everybody,
I am a 2nd semester freshmen of GSU; majoring in physics with Pre-Med concentration. The college seems pretty easy so far, and I am getting all A’s. Financial is another reason I am at GSU. Ultimately, I want to get into top medical school, but I am really confused. Should I transfer to a prestige college like GT or Emory? But transferring might/can hurt my GPA because their courses are tougher than of GSU (i think). Do US’s top medical colleges (particularly Emory Medical School) look where you graduate from? Can someone please give me some advice? Should I transfer or stay here?
A few comments…
Why the insistence on a top medical school?
Medical education in the US is relatively flat. Unlike undergrad education, there is very little difference in the quality of training from school to school. The medical education curriculum is highly standardized and the content is identical no matter what med school you attend. All US med students take the same standardized national exams after their second and third year. (And again at the end of their first year residency.)
IOW, all US med school are excellent. And you won’t get any bonus points when applying to residencies for attending Emory instead of Morehouse or the Medical College of Georgia.
BTW, where you go for residency is much more important than what med school you graduate from. If you look at the list of faculty at top ranked med schools, you’ll see that those physicians come from every type of med school imaginable–from the top ranked to the bottom ranked and that the bulk of faculty come from state med schools.
Generally speaking, where you go for your undergrad education has only a small influence on where you'll get accepted into med school. Medical school admission is not about where you go to college, but *you* accomplish during college. What your GPA is, what your MCAT score is, your grades in your pre-reqs, what your LORs look like, what activities you are involved with, your reasons for choosing medicine as career, whether or not you have demonstrated leadership, initiative, compassion and persistence in the face of hardship, how well you express yourself in writing and during interviews..... all of these things are more important than the name on your diploma.
If you feel like your current college is good fit for you academically, socially and financially--there's no reason to transfer. Stay there and be as successful as can.
Oh--and the idea that classes are harder at prestige schools is a pretty much myth--especially in physics which is hard everywhere. (We have physicists and physics majors in my house....)
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Ultimately, I want to get into top medical school, but I am really confused. S
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Don’t lose the forest thru the trees. There’s no need to go to a “top med school”. All US MD med schools are excellent.
You could end up ruining ALL your chances for ANY med school by transferring to another school.
A student posted on this forum, maybe about a year ago. He had a top GPA at UT-Dallas. But he thought the way you do, and thought he needed to transfer to a “name” school…so he did. He transferred to Vanderbilt. Then he posted here on CC. He was very upset because his Vandy GPA was in toilet.
What did he gain? Nothing. What did he likely lose? Any chance to get into any US MD school.
Don’t be that guy.
Thank you for all your advices.
Top medical school because:
Those 4 years in college are going to be crucial part of my life because those 4 years will teach me things that will stay for the rest of my life; not what I learned in undergrad school (well, I am not saying undergrad is useless, these 4 years are also very important too. This is the reason I am asking should I transfer). So, why not make use of these 4 years in a good school and get to experience what students in “top medical schools” experience. And by no means I am saying that other medical schools are not good, but they are not good as “top medical school”. HMS is not same as Mercer Medical school. The residency programs look how you performed in medical school and where did you go for medical school. My friend who just graduated from Georgia Medical School did not get the residency program at Grady, where as a friend at Emory got into Grady. But, there are doctors from all different medical school. I know for certain that college name partially comes into play when applying to residency.
I am just asking do State Colleges stand a chance of getting into these “top medical colleges”?
Ultimately, I will have to go where I get accepted. But, I will chose HMS over Mercer anytime, even though they teach the same stuff. 
Just because one person you know didn’t get their top choice residency doesn’t mean that where he attended med school had anything to do with it.
If you want to see what residency program directors value in applicants, here’s a survey of how they weight various factors:
[url <a href=“http://www.nrmp.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/PD-Survey-Report-2014.pdf%5DResults”>http://www.nrmp.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/PD-Survey-Report-2014.pdf]Results of the 2014 NRMP Program Director Survey
You’ll notice that the #1 factor is USMLE STEP 1 scores, immediately followed by SLOEs (Specialty Letters of Evaluation), and MSPEs (Medical Student Performance Evaluations/Dean’s Letter).
Graduate of highly regarded medical school is down at the bottom of the list, only slightly above not needing visa to enter the US and not having a Match violation.
BTW, the US News rankings of “top medical schools” is a bunch of hooey. The ranking is largely based on how many federal research $$ a program gets and MCAT scores of its matriculants–which has nothing to do with quality of the education and the clinical training offered. The primary care rankings are based on even more specious items.
But to answer your question--yes, students who attend state universities can end up at "top medical schools".
http://www.nrmp.org/match-data/main-residency-match-data/
Yes they do, but there are two aspects to getting into residency. One getting an invite to interview. Second, in part, how a residency program director (PD) ranks you. Look in the most recent program directors survey above of what they consider important. Generally speaking PDs do care if you go to ANY US med school and DO NOT consider going to a highly regarded school a big deal in either interviewing or ranking.
Thank all of you for convincing me that school ranking does not matter in applying for residency. But why pre-med students want to go to these top colleges? I know I want to go these schools, I know my classmates too want to go there. Is it the name? or research felicities? Opportunities there or afterwards? Why?
Well, If I have to give one more reason, I would only say because of the name. I have no experience in medical field whatsoever and I don’t know about the research felicities anywhere. I say name because I am not from America and if someone non-American asks me where did I get your medical degree and I say Mercer, they don’t know what that is, well if I say Harvard or Johns Hopkins they all know these schools.
Why do you all think why pre-med students prefer those school?
Because they don’t understand the process of getting residency actually works.
Because they’re prestige whores. Or mistakenly believe the school name will give them boost for residency.
As for non-Americans–they don’t know anything about US medical education and only have heard of a small handful of names so they assume (wrongly) these are the only “good” schools.
Graduating from Harvard doesn’t automatically make you a better physician than someone who attended MCG.
Patients don’t care what med school their physician graduated from.
Insurance companies don’t pay you more if your diploma says Harvard instead of Mercer.
Your first challenge at GSU will not be med school. Your first challenge will be to be part of the 80% casualty group due to having bars lined up next to the dorms.
If you’re in the honors college, stay in the honors dorm, otherwise request a quiet dorm or a substance free/“healthy living” floor.
Second, med schools don’t really care where you went to college. They want you to be among the best students no matter where you went. You need to have the highest GPA, even in weedout classes. It means knowing how to balance your schedule - choosing your classes carefully and not overload. You need to have research experience. You need to have medical experience (become an EMT or CNA, volunteer at a clinic, shadow a doctor, etc). If you can TA intro to Bio and intro to chem, it’ll help you because teaching ensures you master the material and review it constantly -ie., good for resume, good for MCAT.
It’s all on YOU.