Hey guys!
How important is the prestige/ranking of an undergraduate university when it comes to getting into medical school? Is it better for me to attend a small unknown local college (but pay no tuition) or attend a prestigious ivy league?
Thank you so much
It is better to attend the local school (or an in-state public), get a stellar GPA and graduate with no debt. Just to be sure, what’s the name of the local school?
What year in HS are you?
@ClarinetDad16, OP is a high school sophomore.
OP, I think what matters is that you do well at whatever college you attend. I think you need a high college GPA and strong MCAT score to have a chance to get into med school.
OP, take things one step at a time. Enjoy and learn a lot. Keep your options open.
Not very important.
So you should have other reasons for wanting to attend a highly selective college.
One good reason would be if its net cost is lower than the alternatives (as it is for some low to middle income families). Another reason would be if cost is not an issue at all for your family and you are convinced you could get a better education (or better college experience) at the more selective/prestigious school.
Often the decision is less clear-cut. If the more selective/prestigious school would have a higher net price, then your family has to decide how much it is able and willing to pay. Compared to average colleges, the most selective/prestigious colleges tend to have smaller classes, more distinguished faculty, better facilities, and higher concentrations of talented students from all over the USA. None of that will necessarily improve your chances for med school admission.
Online net price calculators can help you estimate the net price of any college that interests you. About 60 colleges claim to cover 100% of demonstrated financial need.
http://www.usnews.com/education/best-colleges/paying-for-college/articles/2016-09-19/colleges-that-claim-to-meet-full-financial-need
Some other, less selective colleges offer full tuition (or full ride) merit scholarships for qualifying stats.
http://automaticfulltuition.yolasite.com/
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it better for me to attend a small unknown local college (but pay no tuition) or attend a prestigious ivy league?
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Why one extreme or the other?? There are many schools in between!
I wouldn’t recommend EITHER school and this is why…
a totally unknown school could be an issue. While med schools have heard of hundreds of schools, so unknown school may be an issue and may not offer much premed advising/support. That said, it wouldn’t be impossible to get into med school from such a school, particularly if your state has med schools which likely will know of this school.
an Ivy typically has too many super-star premed students yet they still weed. Many Ivy former-premeds later regret going Ivy because they realize that they may not have gotten weeded out if they had attended a lower tier school.
Vandy isn’t an Ivy, but it is Ivy-like, so I’ll retell this story that I’ve mentioned before. A premed student here on CC went to UT-Dallas first and got a 4.0 GPA. He thought UT-Dallas wasn’t prestigious enough, so he transferred to Vandy. After one year at Vandy he posted here on CC that his GPA took a dive and his GPA was no longer med school worthy. Do you think he regretted the transfer? Yes. Do you think that med schools would have had an issue with him getting his degree from UT-Dallas? No. Not at all.
If you have your heart set on going to med school, and it’s not just some romantic fancy, then choose the smart path to get there.
Med schools really care about cum GPA, BCPM GPA, and MCAT scores. A premed should also have some medically related ECs and shadowing, and some research experience.
Contrary to what many think, med schools don’t care if the college has a ranked science program or not. They know that accredited colleges have science classes that are good enough. Premed prereqs are rather low-level science courses, so attending a school with a highly ranked program doesn’t mean much.
Med school applicants do NOT get a pass for a lower GPA because they went to a top school. No way. Med schools don’t view a 3.5 from an Ivy as being better than a 3.75 from a flagship public. The Ivy student would very likely see many rejections and may not get into any med school.
And a premed can major in anything. He can be an English Major or a French major, and as long as he also takes those lowish level premed prereqs, he can apply to med school. Many doctors have undergrad degrees in non-science majors.
(BCPM GPA is the the GPA from all bio, Chem, Physics, and math courses…not just the prermed prereqs)
@mom2collegekids - just curious as to what GPAs are needed for med school and what high means. Have a few friends with kids considering this all . . .
For an unhooked traditional applicant…should have a 3.7+ cum and BCPM GPA plus adequate MCAT…and submit to AMCAS in JUNE!!!
This grid may be of interest:
https://www.aamc.org/download/321508/data/factstablea23.pdf
Other tables:
https://www.aamc.org/data/facts/applicantmatriculant/
^^Those grids are very misleading to a traditional unhooked applicant.