<p>I am a passionate, hard working person. I have not always been like this, I attended a rather difficult high school and got 3.35 and 3.4 in my Freshman and Sophomore year respectively. Junior and senior year were in the 3.65-3.7 range. My highest ACT score was a 28. The first time I took it in September of my junior year I got a 21, so in a year I raised it 7 points. I played varsity soccer for two years as well as being involved in many clubs around my school. I have always had a full schedule and taken a total of four AP classes (my school only offers nine, many of those I don't have the math or language skills needed to take them). So I applied to many schools and currently I have only gotten into MSU. I was deferred from UofM and UM, all other schools I applied to are much more exclusive than those two. So what I wish to know is with my newfound desire and passion to learn and succeed can I attend MSU get a good GPA start studying for the MCAT as well as do some volunteer work and clubs around campus and have a shot at Harvard, Yale, Stanford, or Hopkins medical school? More importantly, my question is will I be looked down upon four years in the future for attending a State school? Will the students who attended higher ranked Universities be favored for spots in exclusive med schools? Do I still have a chance to attend an Ivy League school?</p>
<p>The simple answers are: yes you could get into one of those schools. No they won’t “look down upon” you.</p>
<p>I think a better question is: why Yale? (Hint: “Why not Yale? It’s one of the best schools in the country!” is not a viable answer).</p>
<p>Too early to choose your Med. School. Your immediate goal is getting college GPA much closer to 4.0 than your HS GPA, and why not 4.0. As MCAT score is estimated being within 2 point of your ACT, you will need much higher to get to schools on your list. However, I do not understand why you decided to pick this Med. Schools, especially that early in a game. Most applicants compile list after they take MCAT. Your list has to match your stats, otherwise you would waste resources (time/money). But before you even get there, you need to stay on pre-med track. Keep in mind that most fall out (that includes HS valedictorians who simply cannot keep up with requirements or decided that medicine is not for them). the name of your UG will have almost no impact on your Med. School acceptances, so might as well not even consider Med. School while choosing your UG, choose the best match to your personality and wide range of interests, which will help you to do the best in UG - the only important factor applying to Med. Schools.</p>
<p>yes! I know that my kids’ flagship has kids now attending ivy SOMs. I know 2 that were accepted to Yale SOM…but I think they chose other elite SOMs.</p>
<p>To be perfectly honest…I don’t think attending a state school will be your obstacle. I think your inability to test very high will be. The ACT does have a correlation to the MCAT in scoring ability. If you score in the 27-31 range for the MCAT, your chances for an elite SOM will be low unless you’re a male URM.</p>
<p>As mentioned your GPA and MCAT will be your biggest obstacle. With that being said, two of your instates (U-M and Wayne State) are harder to get into for medical school. My son, a current UG at Yale and medical school hopeful is also looking at Yale as well as NU and Columbia. Here are the top schools in relation to GPA and MCAT:</p>
<p>Top average MCAT scores:</p>
<p>WUSL 36.5
Columbia 35.2
UM/UPenn 34.2
UCSF 34.0
Vanderbilt/Cornell 33.6
Harvard 33.2
Northwestern 33.1
UCSD/Wayne State/Yale 33.0</p>
<p>Top Average GPA Scores:</p>
<p>WUSL 3.83
Mayo/Harvard/USF/Baylor/UCSD 3.8
Columbia 3.79
Vanderbilt 3.78
UPenn/Pitt 3.77
Wayne State/UCSF/Emory 3.75
UM 3.72
Florida 3.71</p>
<p>NU and Yale were 3.67 and 3.6 respectively</p>
<p>
I don’t think there is anything wrong in picking desired schools early on. It allows you to set goals for both GPA and MCAT if you desire to attend those schools. Obviously, your list may need to be modified if you don’t reach those goals, but I think having a focus is actually beneficial.</p>
<p>Kdog044
My D. was accepted to NU - if you mean Northwestern Med. School(Feinberg), if you care to have any info.</p>
<p>BTW,
Goals always have to be set to GPA=4.0 and MCAT=33+ no matter where you plan applying. there is no reason to set lower goals, but if you wish you can set higher.</p>
<p>MiamiDAP, Yes I was referring to Northwestern. My son loves the school (and Chicago) and was headed there for UG until he received his acceptance at Yale. He has a ways to go yet but I’ll keep your offer in mind.</p>
<p>P.S. I think a 4.0 GPA is more of an ideal and not a goal. I think shooting for 3.7+ is more realistic. That way, you are not devastated when you get your first grade below an A.</p>
<p>I personally know >10 students from state schools who went to “name” private schools - Stanford, Yale, Penn, etc.</p>
<p>I also about the same number who went from Ivy League Undergraduate schools to state public medical schools.</p>
<p>Kdog,
Yes, you have to keep it cool, grade is not the reason to have a heart attack. And it is important to have a balanced life, having fun on the weekends, spend time with friends, have some personal EC’s like trip abroad, music, sport… After saying that, goal of 4.0 is very attainable and possible, we are not talking about Rocket science here. Keep in mind that UG is still much much easier than Med. School. Might as well learn how to work extremely hard, and even straignt A’s in UG are much easier to obtain than mere keeping up at Med. School. Goal of 3.7 is OK as long as you can guarrantee 3.7 with this goal, it is on a border line… too close to cut off.
BTW, D. is surrounded by Ivy / Elite graduates in her Med. School class (she did not choose NU). She and others (including few from her UG) did not have problem getting accepted from state UG, nor they feel any inferior in comparison. In fact, D. was selected for opportunity that had only 10 spots with many who applied, which tells her that she is treated the same as others in her Med. School class, she has no idea why she was selected.</p>
<p>I am a graduate of both MSU (undergrad) and UM (grad school). You will have plenty of opportunity at MSU. You are just thinking about the name of the college and not about what you can accomplish there. You need to think about volunteering, leadership positions, research with professors, being a TA in science class as well as your GPA. </p>
<p>It may actually help you to go to a slightly less prestigious college, because you may find it a little less competitive and may have more opportunities for research. </p>
<p>And since you are a Michigan resident, you have UM medical school in your state as an instate student, so definitely be thinking about that. It is a great medical school and right up there with the ones you mentioned.</p>
<p>
Well a 4.0 wasn’t attainable for my son and he never had below an A in his life before college. If his goal was a 4.0 he would be devastated thinking he has no chance at medical school. I also don’t believe a 3.7 is border line. Perhaps at the elite schools, but there are many others who have around a 3.5 average. I personally know someone who went to U-M for UG, had around a 3.3 GPA, and is currently at Ohio State medical school. I don’t know his MCAT but I don’t believe it was higher than the low 30’s.If you look at the statistics from 2009-2011 you will see that for a MCAT of 30-32 and a GPA of 3.6-3.79 74% of the applicants were accepted and that jumps to 83% for the ones who had 33-35. Having the same MCAT’s with a 3.8-4.0 only increase your odds by less than 10%.</p>
<p><a href=“https://www.aamc.org/download/157958/data/table25-mcatgpa-grid-white-0911.pdf[/url]”>https://www.aamc.org/download/157958/data/table25-mcatgpa-grid-white-0911.pdf</a></p>
<p>
There is not a single student in DS’s graduating class who scores a 4.0. I heard that it is likely that every three year, there may be a single student who graduates with a 4.0. He was at a college which is rumored to have the grade inflation (especially speculated by those CCers, parents or college students, who are more familiar with the grading standard at a state school.)</p>
<p>I always think it is more meaningful to talk about the rank among premed students (or at least among the graduating class), than the GPA itself. This is already the case for college admission: GPA does not carry much weight but the rank does (unless you are graduated from a prestigious prep school which does not rank the students at all and a very high percentage of their students are very competitive.) I think it will eventually be the case for med school admission as well.</p>
<p>Just think about this: If, in most years, the med schools as a whole admit, say, 50 students, from your college and you rank 100th among the premed students in your class, it is likely that your chance will be smaller than a student from your college who ranked 40th. A problem for this method is that it is hard to rank the “soft” factors. (and the rank or stats of URMs should not be included for the class rank (or GPA)/MCAT grid, as it is done properly by Cornell.)</p>
<p>It is possible. I interviewed at Yale in September with two applicants from Williams, and one from a Florida state school (UF I believe…).</p>