<p>I was wondering if those who apply for med school/MDPhD/MSTP slots at the college that they graduated from have an advantage over those who did their undergrad/pre-med requirements at another school. This is given that they meet the requirements in terms of GPA and MCAT as well as research and other opportunities. If two candidates had equal stats across the board, would the one who attended the college for undergrad have an edge? Thanks.</p>
<p>Some med schools prefer their own undergrad students, others don't.</p>
<p>The answer is not very clear. The only conclusive evidence would be if you show that, for example, Penn Med requires a lower GPA/MCAT from Penn undergrad applicants vs. applicants from other undergrads. No one has that kind of data.</p>
<p>depends...if there is its not gonnaa be THAT much of a favor. I know at UM, if you look at their website, there is some proporiton of their class that were UM undergraduate grads...I think like 37 or 38 were from UM...out of the 160 or so...I'm not 100% sure. </p>
<p>It's still ridiculously hard nonetheless. Gotta have all the req and so forth.</p>
<p>I'm not sure you actually have to demonstrate that they get a GPA/MCAT advantage to prove that a school "looks out for their own". Obviously that would be clear, undeniable evidence, but I think if you could show that they took their own undergrads simply at a much higher rate than the rest of the applicant pool, that might be sufficient. You'd get a little bit of confounding because of differences in yield - someone who did their undergrad at a school is probably more likely to matriculate if accepted. The biggest thing is that you'd have to control for the fact that an undergrad is more likely to apply to that school in the first place, (you'd also have to control for in-state status). So if those 37 matriculants at UM were out of 40 applicants, that'd likely be a good indicator.</p>
<p>^You would also have to compare the qualifications of the applicant pools, which is what I was getting at. If Johns Hopkins Med took JHU undergrad students at a higher rate, would that really be shocking? Weill Medical College probably takes JHU undergrads at a higher rate as well. And Harvard Med...JHU produces a lot of good applicants.</p>
<p>Even if we're looking just for acceptance rates, I don't know of any med school that releases data on how many were accepted/applied from a particular undergrad.</p>
<p>Also, if there is a disconnect in prestige b/w the undergrad and the medical school, you will see skewed numbers. If the medical school is highly ranked, selective, and prestigious and the undergrad is not, you're probably not going to see high acceptance rates. It doesn't mean that the med school doesn't favor its undergrads. It just means the undergrad doesn't produce enough good applicants.</p>
<p>Similarly, if there is a size difference, you will also see a deceptive acceptance rate. For example, the Cornell undergrad is pretty large for a private school and thus produces A LOT of talented applicants (75 35+ MCAT scorers from the 200 seniors last year alone; Cornell had 400 total applicants so it most likely produced 100 or more applicants who scored 35+ on the MCAT). But, the medical school is very small, only 100 students. It interviews around 600-700 applicants. I don't know if Cornell likes its own undergrads or not, but even if it did, it simply cannot develop such a large percentage of its interviews to its own undergrads. It can't afford to interview every Cornell applicant with a 35+ MCAT score or a 3.7+ GPA. It has to draw the line somewhere.</p>
<p>In a perfect world, every school would release something like this:</p>
<p>Although Berkeley's data is horribly incomplete, it nevertheless does show some schools where Berkeley applicants seem to be having trouble getting into.</p>
<p>haha i guess i was a bit off with the UM thing lol....some of those stats are like holy crap...43 apply none get in with 3.9 36 mcat...ahhhhh!! lol</p>
<p>Numbers aren't everything. There's another family in my hometown who my family has known for a long time. Their son also applied the same year I did. He had unbelievable numbers - he was an engineering major with 3.9+ GPA and 35+ MCAT score. Suffice it to say that he got a few interviews and no acceptances - not even at his undergrad, Case Western. He had to reapply this year, and so far he's only gotten into Drexel. I assume he's a poor communicator of some sort - either in writing or in person.</p>
<p>The way I've heard it presented that if ALL other things are equal between two applicants and one of the applicants went to undergrad at the school and the other didn't, the one who did is likely to have the advantage.</p>
<p>GV: The problem is that that's not universally true. Some schools actually penalize their own undergrads. (Which if you ask me, actually makes more sense.)</p>