<p>Sorry i don’t quite understand, would Penn actually prevent a student from applying to medical school to protect its own statistics? Do universities have the power to do that? I thought it was the applicants choice…</p>
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<p>Indeed. But also note the fine print, where Penn admits that 2/3rds of its students do not apply directly from college. They apply later, after working, doing a Master’s or a SMP, or whatever. Thus, it is easy for Penn to suggest/encourage students to apply later (which boosts their success rate).</p>
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<p>That seems a little unusual =S would I be better off going to Cal or LA then?</p>
<p>One correction in what I stated prior:</p>
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<p>Should be: </p>
<p>Nationally, ~ 1/4 of those who apply to med school in a particular year are those who’ve applied previously. So this would mean that ~ 3/4 of those are first-time applicants to M school, either from recent classes or those who’ve deferred but have not applied before. </p>
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<p>No, I’m not saying this at all and neither is bluebayou. Penn would be an excellent place to study in whatever premed field you wish … as would UCLA and Cal.</p>
<p>All I’m saying generally is don’t buy whatever statistics any u presents as gospel. Especially if they are doing whatever they can to promote them. </p>
<p>An 80% acceptance rate to med school by a u wouldn’t happen naturally unless we’re speaking of Harvard or maybe Cal Tech or MIT … those u’s with a higher % of genius-level students. </p>
<p>There generally has to be heavy involvement by the u to “tweak” the numbers: enticing students to defer as Penn does for better ins to its own med school, keeping exceedingly close tabs on those in the life-science departments with a higher eligibility within a premed track, helping students apply to “safety” M schools, etc.</p>
<p>I’m sure wrt the latter point, that Xavier in NOLa has an excellent med school, and many 1,000’s of students would love to go there, including experiencing the culture within that city. The point of more hands-on counselors is to encourage some of their students to include some of these med schools, again, to pump up the %'s.</p>
<p>UCLA and Cal students have many other choices including pharm and dental school. I know of someone who accepted UCLA dental school’s offer rather than attend an oos med school. I think it one of the U Marylands, not the one in College Park.</p>
<p>Generally, those schools who are promoting these high %'s of student acceptances are tending to their vineyards with much more avidity to the eventual promotion of their u’s. UCLA"s and Cal’s bio depts are excellent, but the counselors there though certainly not necessarily entirely indifferent, are certainly not the most caring and avoid tending as well as some of these other u’s … and they certainly don’t care to promote their respective u’s. All part of the public versus private u dynamic. </p>
<p>I guess the main point is there isn’t a natural 30% difference between Penn’s med school acceptances, 80%, and UCLA’s and Cal’s at, say, 50%. I would think the real differences would be a lot less, maybe ~ 10% or so.</p>