Will attending a lesser known college decrease my chances of going to med school?

Pre-Med & Medical School High School Student Topics
1

<p>into med school? i want to attend USC or NYU eventually. and i didnt get into NYU under ED but my scores are definitely within the range and it was just a 50 50 chance of me not getting in compared with others' apps. </p>

<p>if i go to chapman university or something not as good as usc or nyu like pepperdine, will i most likely not get in to USC or NYU? where would i have to go to get into USC as an undergrad? </p>

<p>and schools DO affect ur chances. for instance, my high school is not very competitive compared to prep schools in los angeles or new york, so a lot of kids dont get into top notch schools from my high school. thats why im scared of going to a not very well known school. if i dont go to chapman or pepperdine, i could go to community and transfer.</p>

2

<p>

Didn’t you just answer your own question?
Besides, talking about undergraduate admissions, I disagree. The high school that you go to usually has to do only with your parents, not you.
I’ve heard that many medical schools don’t care as much about wha college you went to as long as you have good grades, activities, etc.</p>

3

<p>oh yeah i guess i did lol but i didnt want ppl to reply with “it doesnt matter where u go” unless they had somethin to back themselves up. well i also kinda meant that high school affects where u go for undergrad.</p>

4

<p>Where you go to college has little to do with med school admissions. Get the best education you can, but great grades from a lesser known school are likely to trump so-so grades from a CC approved top 10 type school. Far more important is how well you did in school and on your MCAT and what kind of extra-curricular activities have you participated in. And in relation to the latter, it doesn’t have to be medically related ( though that doesn’t hurt your chances) but they do want to see commitment and leadership. And it’s fine to have certain med schools as a goal, but again, that doesn’t matter a bit if your goal is to practice medicine. Your residency will have far more to do with what kind/quality of physician you become than your medical school. The curriculum in med schools across the country is pretty similar. A prestigious name may help if you desire a career in research.
Most of the people who do well coming from prestigious undergrad programs succeed because they are the type of driven, determined, talented people who could get into those programs. The program didn’t make them great; they were that way when they got there. Med schools recognize this and they allow people to develop their greatness at Cal state Chico, the University of S. Dakota and Western Mich. U. to name but a few. Good luck</p>

5

<p>4.0 from Unknown U trumps 2.5 from Harvard.
4.0 from Harvard trumps 4.0 from Unknown U.</p>

<p>How much the school name matters varies from med school to med school. My guess is that the schools focused on producing academic physicians would value name more (although would still take a superqualified applicant from a no-name school) than state schools focused on producing PCPs and physicians to serve the state. </p>

<p>Name matters. By how much, we may never know. What matters infinitely more is that you have a high GPA and MCAT scores and good EC’s because those are what get your foot in the door and get you interviews. And by the time you apply to medical school, there’s not much you can do to change the name on your diploma, so why worry about it?</p>

6

<p>This case is analogous to college admissions. Does the HS you attend affect your chances of getting in a good college? Not really. Its all about what you do.</p>

7

<p>I would disagree a little bit with Atypicalguy because college reputations are slightly more defined than high school reputations, and it’s not like a good amount of high school students look at the reputation of their high school when they enroll - it’s usually the closest high school as assigned by their district.</p>

<p>Will it decrease your chances?
The short answer would be yes, but as long as you work your hardest and become a stellar student, then your chances shouldn’t be that much lower than a student from USC or NYU.</p>

8

<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/pre-med-topics/377780-premed-forum-faqs-read-first.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/pre-med-topics/377780-premed-forum-faqs-read-first.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

9

<p>phonyreal98 - nobody gets a 2.5 at Harvard these days. Grade inflation there is huge - the average GPA is 3.4.</p>

10

<p>No, it doesn’t. All that matters is that you keep a high gpa, take all your pre-requisites for MD school, shadow doctors, participate in ECs, and have fun. And at this stage, don’t even stress to much about MD school.</p>

<p>And if you need anymore information regarding MD school, the life of doctors, healthcare, visit this site: [Student</a> Doctor Network Forums | An educational community for students and doctors spanning all the health professions.](<a href=“http://■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■/index.php]Student”>Student Doctor Network Communities | Student Doctor Network)</p>

11

<p>“Grade inflation there is huge - the average GPA is 3.4”</p>

<p>nemom, you have absolutely no basis for saying it’s due to grade inflation. You ever thought maybe Harvard students just work their asses off for that average GPA? Quit believing everything you hear.</p>

12

<p>Grade inflation or not, why shouldn’t some of the top students in the world have a GPA of 3.4? Anything less, in my mind, would be too low. These kids are the smartest out there and all had close to 4.0s if not 4.0 in hs, so why should they be below 3.4 on average?</p>

13

<p>^ I would agree. </p>

<p>Lets say, a 3.3 from an Ivy League versus as 3.9 from an unknown/not well regarded school. Which one would prevail in the eyes of Med (or any other grad school) admissions?</p>

14

<p>Grad schools–and especially med and law school–have a pretty standard formula for admissions, involving a combination of MCAT/LSAT scores and college GPA. It may in fact work to your advantage to be from a lesser known school if that secures you a higher GPA. Generally, the admissions advantage to grad school from well-known schools is contained to students who attended undergrad at the same institution, so attending NYU for undergrad wouldn’t have given you any particular advantage if you were to apply to Harvard Med School. Go to the best fit school out of those that accept you and maintain a high GPA.</p>

15

<p>I wish I knew when I was at college that the prestige of the college doesn’t matter for medical school. That’s because the medical school level of prestige does not matter nearly as much as you think. I can tell you based on personal experience in hospitals that very few care which medical school (let alone college) you went to. Unless it is something really unusual, like the Joey Smith Medical College, Nassau, Bahamas.</p>

<p>You should be asking, is there some reasonable medical school I can get into? Just reasonable. I mean any state university looks good enough. In the real world, almost no one will ever care that it was not Harvard. They may even be relieved.</p>

<p>I can see two reasons for emphasizing prestige of college for med school (also applies to med school):

  1. you want to be an academic first and a clinican second; going to the elite colleges will help you get into the elite research oriented program that will help you then make your way as an academic more easily.
  2. you are dead set on one of the most elite medical schools or nothing else. Maybe you grew up in Boston and have to work at Mass General or else you will die. Okay, realistically, the elite college will help.</p>

<p>But please people, we are talking about a very small fraction of students. And you should be grateful to the AMA for making certain there is a shortage of MDs. Not only are they short many medical disciplines, they are so short they have to seek MDs from overseas. And this is a recessionary period!</p>

16

<p>I think I can answer this for you. I went to an Ivy and did well, and went to a US medical school in NY. Yes it matters. Competition for US medical schools is intense. You need to go to a great undergrad, do great there, and well on your MCATs.<br>
If you want to increase your chances significantly over others…that is how you do it.</p>

17

<p>i’m family friends with a lot of medical school professors and adcoms, including several dean of admissions. since i’ve been thinking about med school, i’ve asked them a bunch of times if it matters where i do my work.</p>

<p>they said high grades and MCAT are always a must, but a slightly lower gpa (meaning let’s say a 3.6 instead of 3.7) at a harder school may be forgiven, but if there are tons of other people from state schools or random schools with 3.8+s, then that person loses out. they also said that when reviewing apps, they’re not taking the time to read over your entire transcript, so they take a look at your required courses and overall gpa and then look at what school you went to. they know what to typically expect of students from different schools, so in that way your undergrad school does matter. they also were willing to take students, like i said, with slightly lower gpas from better schools if that’s around the numbers they get from that school normally.</p>

18

<p>Don’t worry about undergrad, worry about doing well in undergrad.</p>

<p>katalytik- I too did well at my university, did well on the MCAT, and now go to medical school in NY. The only difference is that I went to a low ranking public university. I wish I could claim that it was because I was such a super stellar applicant that my grades, ECs, letters, and MCAT blew away every elite student from the Ivy League, if anything I’m average. Did the universe go awry, or are anecdotes not the way to prove a point of view (and my oh my are there soooo many anecdotes available on SDN and here on CC).</p>

19

<p>Post #17 is on the money.</p>

20

<p>babygrl9205,</p>

<p>I can speak to you from personal experience. The cream will rise to the top. </p>

<p>While I was in primary and secondary school, my parents moved around the country to gain promotions. They both worked for the I.R.S. I started school in DeKalb County, Atlanta, GA (a great public school system). I ended up in a rural county school system in Northern Kentucky where I did well in spite of the school system, not because of it.</p>

<p>I became a National Merit scholar. There was no studying in my day. We just showed up one day and we were given a test to take.</p>

<p>Because of finances, I gratefully accepted a half-tuition scholarship to the University of Louisville rather than a very small National Merit Scholar grant to Michigan State University. I loved my college experience at U of L and thrived there. </p>

<p>I wish I had taken the time to enjoy a 4th year there, but in a hurry to move on with my life and to avoid further debt, I applied for medical school at U of L as a 3rd year student. With my 3.9+ GPA, I was accepted pending satisfactory performance on my MCAT.</p>

<p>I attended medical school on a Navy scholarship, then repaid my debt with service in the Navy.</p>

<p>So, I am a product of the public education system. Since high school, the expense for my education was not paid by my parents. (Please note, my father was disabled and on dialysis at home and my mother was working and taking care of my dad. They couldn’t pay for my education.) I won scholarships, worked, and took out student loans. Today, I earn as much as my Ivy League educated fiance’.</p>

<p>My experience is that, barring entry into the elite academic institutions, superb performance in a 3rd tier college can successfully get you to your M.D., and beyond–without costing you a fortune.</p>

<p>Best of luck to you.</p>