<p>What is more important College Name or Undergrad Experience?</p>
<p>Example: Top 25 % at an IVY or Top 1 to 3 student at second tier school where she does research, internships, have good grades and MCAT scores ?</p>
<p>She can get into the IVYs but she does not want to be a number and would prefer a smaller school, also they do not offer any Merit Aid, and we do not qualify for FA , but need it due to our parental issues draining us financially</p>
<p>OP, your daughter seems well qualified, but you may be underestimating the difficulty of getting accepted to the Ivy League caliber schools. Some of these places have acceptance rates in the single digits and turn away perfect SAT’s. Since you are not thinking you will qualify for FA, and these top schools generally don’t give merit, it’s kind of a moot point. </p>
<p>I know you would like D to be close, but you should at least consider Canisius, in Buffalo. She would probably get about 1/2 cost in scholarship and residency grants, they have a well established pre-med track, and there is a large medical corridor in Buffalo as well as the medical school at SUNY Buffalo to provide research/internship possibilities depending on her interests. The school is pretty intimate, so she would not be lost in a crowd. They look after the students, so I don’t think her age would be problematic.</p>
<p>I doubt that any Ivy student feels “like a number.” (Well, maybe at Cornell,lol) Superb customer service is one of the reasons these schools are so renown. </p>
<p>That said, do not jeopardize your finances to pay full fare anywhere, Ivy League included. Your daughter can get into medical school by going to a good state U. Thousands of grads do it every year.</p>
<p>Here is the basic profile for the U of Iowa medical school:</p>
<p>30% attended Iowa/Iowa State/UNI for undergrad.
15% attended small private colleges in Iowa, most of which you have never heard of, Central, Loras, Coe, etc.
55% attended out of state schools for undergraduate. Prestige schools such as Northwestern; no name schools such as Truman State, Knox; and other state flagships such as Illinois, Missouri, and Kansas.</p>
<p>You clearly don’t have to go to an ‘elite’ school to be accepted at a very good med school.</p>
<p>Most important: college GPA, MCAT score. Secondary considerations: EC’s, social skills (determined at interview). I do not know any others. I am a parent of first year Medical Student who had nice choices of Med. Schools (including top 20s) to attend and who graduated from state UG.</p>
<p>Ok…first of all, no one can be certain about “getting into the ivies”. They’re a crapshoot for all…even those with much higher stats. Your D’s test scores are a bit low for ivies, so they would be a big reach for her.</p>
<p>Important to med schools…</p>
<p>cum GPA</p>
<p>Science GPA (bio, chem, math, physics)</p>
<p>MCAT</p>
<p>volunteering</p>
<p>research</p>
<p>As long as the undergrad has good science courses, a school can prepare a student for med school. Good pre-med advising and Committee Letters are a big plus. </p>
<p>Going to a tippy top undergrad can backfire since so many top students are pre-med and A’s are limited for weeding purposes.</p>
<p>One of my good friends in [ivy] college arrived planning to become a doctor. The pre-med courses were very demanding and the competition was fierce. Tests were graded on a curve, and there was a cutthroat atmosphere among the pre-meds as people sensed that helping someone else could “ruin the curve.”</p>
<p>No other courses/majors at our school were ANYTHING like that. </p>
<p>She really couldn’t tolerate it and switched her major to History & Literature. She went to law school and became a health lawyer. She’s had a fine career, but I have absolutely no doubt that she’d have been a doctor if she’d gone to Penn State (her other option).</p>
<p>I did all my pre-med courses after graduating from college. I’d never given a thought to going to med school until a little over a year before I applied. I have always been glad I chose that route because I think I wouldn’t have gotten as much out of my undergraduate years if I had been stressing out about med school the whole time. (I sense that the environment for med school admissions is more competitive these days, with people building their application portfolios beginning in high school.) </p>
<p>If med school is what she really, really wants to do–she should go somewhere where she will be the Star-bellied Sneech. Get great grades and recommendations and research opportunities. And pick a school that gives Star-bellied Sneeches merit aid so you can save the money for med school.</p>
<p>All do. Good communication and social skills is becoming increasingly important.</p>
<p>Also two GPAs are reviewed, overall GPA and science/math GPA. Both generally need to be in excess of 3.6 to even get a secondary application and generally for the top 30-40 schools will need to be >3.7-3.8. MCAT needs to be above 30 and >35 for the top 25 schools. That said, you will see candidates (usually female) with a 3.9/28 with VERY strong ECs and research get in, usually to their state schools.</p>
<p>The exceptions to the above are made for URMs which contributes to the wide range of GPA/MCAT scores you will see reported even for top schools. If you don’t have a hook, you’d better be >3.7 with an MCAT at or above 33 to be truly competitive for most schools and >3.8 with a 35+ for the top 25 schools.</p>
<p>OP</p>
<p>There is a virtual trove of information on the CC Pre Med Forum. I advise spending some time there.</p>
<p>good catch mom2… i hadnt seen the sat scores…thats about a 32 act… OP definitely find some safety schools. only about 1 out of 10 applicants to ivies get accepted even with 36 act scores.</p>
<p>I don’t think the OP realizes how competitive ivies are…</p>
<p>Even with a 1400 M+CR, it will be difficult to get large merit (like full tuition) in the NE at schools ranked in the mid-tier (old style ranking). However, if the family is just looking for - say - $10k-15k merit scholarship from a school that costs $55k, then that may be likely. That would leave about $40-45k per year to pay…still a lot.</p>
<p>This is how we approached this situation with our pre-med son…</p>
<p>We wanted big merit for undergrad so we could help with med school costs.</p>
<p>We knew that pre-med pre-reqs are weeder courses, so we wanted his stats to be well in the top 25% of the school to help ensure that he’d snag the As in his classes. It has worked so far, he has a 4.0 both science and cum. </p>
<p>Again, if you go to to a tippy top school (especially when your stats are in the middle quartiles), the chances that your pre-med classes are going to be filled with students with stronger stats are very high.</p>
<p>basically same plan we have…son wants md/phd… undergrad no cost, at tier 1 university strong in sciences, known for medical sciences… working so far LOL</p>
<p>Hopefully, Curmudgeon will post on this thread.</p>
<p>His daughter had a choice of going to Yale undergrad (along with a number of other top private schools) or a very competitive, full ride offer at Rhodes. Picked Rhodes…now at Yale Medical school. There are others like her on CC…who have chosen state school honors programs or merit privates, have excelled in undergrad, and have had $$ left for med school.</p>
<p>Yes…that’s right about Curmy’s D. She went to Rhodes with big money and is now at Yale SOM.</p>
<p>There’s no harm in going to a mid-tier or LAC or whatever for undergrad in order to get big merit. And, as I mentioned earlier, it can actually be a PLUS to do so because you’ll be a top student, get great LORs, get the research opps, etc.</p>
<p>Mcat reigns supreme. It is the major statistics that drives admission. College prestige ranks last except for the most eminent medical schools. In between are GPA, demonstrated interests in medicine - this could be simply from a long line of physician in family to working with ambulance, and personal appearance. </p>
<p>I know of no students who can’t get into a med school if they had decent Mcats and average look. Less than stellar GPA could always be compensated with post-bac courses or simply a master degree in a hard core science. But if you don’t have the right Mcat score, you would need your parents to sit on a Board somewhere.</p>