Hello all, I’m a senior in high school currently and I plan on going to the University of Illinois at Chicago despite getting tons of recruitment letters, brochures, etc. from top tier schools. My reasoning behind this decision is that I’ll be relatively close to home, I want to be in the city of Chicago, and I also plan on being very involved with the Obama Foundation. That being said, I know UIC is not a well known school and does not necessarily have the same educational opportunities as Stanford, Princeton and other schools. However, the school has everything I am looking for and I enjoy the campus very much. Keeping this in mind, I want to be a physician and would really love to get into Harvard Medical School or another r top notch equivalent. Would going to a lesser known school give me a disadvantage in the admissions process for medical school? Do I have the same chance of admission into a top medical school as someone who went to Yale for their undergrad as long as I maintain a good GPA and have a good MCAT score?
There’s a lot to unpack in your question:
- It's very easy to get tons of recruitment letters from top-tier schools, but very hard to get admitted there. It may very well be a good idea for you to apply to some of those schools, but don't assume you will be accepted, no matter how good your record is.
- UIC can be a great place for your undergraduate study if you want to go to medical school. But Illinois public universities are not cheap, even for residents. Current all-in cost of attendance for a pre-med student at UIC living in a dorm would be over $35,000/yr, before financial aid. The sticker price on places like Stanford or Yale is much higher than that -- maybe twice as much -- but they also award much more financial aid. So if you were admitted to one of those colleges, it might very well be less expensive for you to attend than UIC. And that's really important if you want to go to medical school, because medical school is really expensive and financial aid other than loans very limited.
- If you go to UIC and have great grades (not just good ones), great MCATs (not just good ones), and meaningful involvement with public service activities, you will be a strong candidate for medical school admission anywhere. But as with colleges, "top notch" medical schools are very selective. Lots of strong candidates get rejected there.
- Compared to other fields, going to a "top notch" medical school vs. an average fully accredited medical school (such as UIC, for example) makes a lot less difference to your career prospects. If your main ambition is to be a great doctor and to treat patients, the difference between Harvard Medical School and UIC Medical School will be relatively unimportant. If you were talking about getting a law degree, or an MBA, or a PhD in most fields, there would be a vast difference between Harvard and UIC, but that's just not the case in medicine. It's OK to aspire to going to a famous medical school, but in the scheme of things it's not that important.
- Waaaay more students from colleges like Yale or Stanford compared to UIC get accepted at and attend top-10 medical schools. Yale actually has data on its website; in recent years, more than 40% of Yale College graduates who went to medical school went to top-10 medical schools, a total of 191 over the past three years, including 30 (10 per year) at Harvard. I don't know precisely what UIC's figures are, but they won't be anywhere near that.
Does that mean that Yale provides so much better an education than UIC? Probably not. What it probably means is that the average Yale pre-med entered college with much better academic, test-taking, and self-promotion skills than the average UIC pre-med. If some of those Yale pre-meds went to UIC instead, they might very well be as successful (or almost) as they were at Yale.
Maybe not quite as much. Being surrounded by lots of other super-smart, super-ambitious students can make someone push himself harder to achieve more. But sometimes, too, it can make someone lose faith in himself, or fall down the curve in science classes to the point where he is no longer a competitive applicant for medical school. There have been studies documenting this – students with less academic preparation going into college may be more likely to make it through their pre-med requirements and get into medical school if they go to a less competitive college. Some people who want to be doctors will be better off going to Yale (or the equivalent), and others will be better off going to a college like UIC.
Those brochures mean nothing: they are sent to students after a standardized test that scores in a certain range. My kids didn’t check the box on the test and didn’t get a single one, thank heavens. (These marketing efforts are aimed at increasing applications, not acceptances, thereby increasing selectivity on the rankings.)
What do you mean by “recruitment letters”?
UIC is a great choice and you are already happy about it. Don’t project too far into the future. Do what will make you happy for the next 4. You may change your mind about medicine but if you don’t, you will still be in a good position for entrance in a good program.
It can.
I was on an elite Med school admission committee for 2 years
Most medical schools will give the nod to the candidate from an undergraduate school deemed more prestigious/rigorous - all else equal.
Many also show a degree of preference for their institution’s undergrads.
In your experience, considering the subjective nature of ECs, LoRs, PSs, interviews, did you find that candidates tended to be “all else equal?”
Hard to generalize, those from both name brand and lesser known schools are accepted and rejected, of course - including the medical scientist programs.
When it came to borderline cases the prestige of the undergrad program seemed to hold the most sway.
I was on the admission committee just 2 years and it was quite awhile ago . . .
I will say in my career I’ve worked with all types from
Harvard Phi Beta Kappas/ AOA’s on down and the two most brilliant researchers I know graduated from small colleges I’d never even heard of.
@Questar Even today where one attends college is not of zero importance. Most who start as premed change their minds. Of those that actually apply 60% do not start anywhere. Most only get one acceptance. The completion is quite brutal. I do believe that med schools use where an applicant attended further along in the review process as in whether to decide to wait list or not, or pull an applicant from waitlist.
@Panera Ui Chicago is not Podunk U. Just because one went to Stanford, Princeton doesn’t mean their med school app gets thrown into the accepted pile. Being at UI Chicago will give you the resources and opportunities you need to get into med school. Whether or not you take advantage of them and produce a competitive app is on you, not where you attend. UI Chicago appears to be a place you’d be happy at which is important as if you fit in and are happy, you’re more likely to do well, especially GPA wise. Also keep in mind getting into any med school is not just about GPAs/MCATs, it’s the entire app including interview. Kids with top GPAs/MCATs do not get into Yale. In 2016-2017 cycle, 5459 applied, 104 started at Yale. Don’t get so hung up on Yale. All US med schools are good schools and can serve as a platform to whatever area of medicine you are interested in. Good luck.