<p>If you don’t have time to party/socialize in undergrad there is something wrong.</p>
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<p>Not sure this has been mentioned, but def. look to attend an undergrad where you’ll graduate debt-free. Your med school debt is going to be terrifying; you seriously don’t want to go into that already owing $100k for undergrad.</p>
<p>There’s a lot of ground in between debt-free and $100K.</p>
<p>Hello. Im a senior student trying to apply to college. Tomorrow is the deadline for most colleges. But idk where apply.
I came from Cuba at the end of 9th grade and i was placed in ESL ( English Second Language classes until 11 grade.
Right now I have 4.0 ( unweighted GPA) AND 5.0 ( Weighted gpa)
My SAT scores are not that high. just 1760
M 620
R 530
W 610
Im first generation going to college and my family has a low income
I was an actress in Cuba and i have 400 community hours.
I had also won a lot of awards.
I am a resident in Florida and i want to apply to private outstate universities.
WHERE SHOULD I APPLY?
I want to major in biology</p>
<p>The application process for any college takes a a good deal of time and I’m sorry, but I don’t think that one day is enough time…But I would recommend Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University in Tallahassee, Florida. It’s a relatively easy college to get accepted into, offers generous scholarships, has good departments, and is pretty much just a great school.</p>
<p>Granted, I graduated med school in 1987, but looking at my alumni publications, little has changed. I attended Johns Hopkins School of Medicine and did subsequent training at Harvard/Mass General, where I was also on the faculty. I attended the Univ of Texas for undergrad. Several of my classmates also attended state schools, though others attended “elite” schools. Some of my classmates attended small schools I had never heard of. They had done well there, and/or did good scientific research and showed that they were service-oriented. In some cases, Hopkins had had good experiences with these smaller schools or knew reliable recommenders at these schools whom they trusted. In short, you do not have to go to a so-called top school to get a good slot in a medical school. One thing I wouldn’t suggest, and that is grinding out a hard major at a hard undergrad school for four years; you’ll be doing it again when you get to med school.</p>
<p>I know of two Cal State schools that claim 100% of their pre med students get into med school. I also know that every med school gives the same degree. So what does it matter where you go to college?</p>
<p>Some undergrad schools “weed out” med school applicants prior to the end of their undergrad careers. The ones who they think will succeed are given mentoring and recommendations by the pre-med committees. They should have a very good placement rate. Other schools do not weed out and “allow” anyone to apply. Those schools might have lower rates of acceptance. You need to be careful when you compare admission rates to Med School to know what the policy is at the undergrad institution.</p>
<p>In my med school there were people from all types of backgrounds and all types of undergrad schools. What did they call us ALL when we graduated: Doctor. </p>
<p>NO one has asked me (except my children) what my class rank was in undergrad, and what my MCAT scores were. No one has asked what my class rank in med school was. They may seem ultimately important now in the application phase, but in the long run are meaningless once you matriculate in a med school.</p>
<p>If you want to pursue medicine,you can, no matter what undergrad school you attend. Work hard at whatever school you attend to maintain good grades, and do decently well on the MCATS. If you have your heart set on Harvard Med or a few of the other “name” med schools, you might fare better with a “name” undergrad. But not necessarily. Top graduates from any school who are at the top of their undergrad classes with excellent MCATS will be looked at everywhere as strong candidates. BUT you DON"T need to be at the top of every statistic to get into med school. You just need to be strong enough, but you don’t need to be PERFECT.</p>
<p>We have a family friend who went to college at a university ranked in the top 10 nationally, Duke, that is known for producing a lot of premeds (perhaps even more so when he was there, some 30 years ago). The premed courses at that time were graded on a brutal C+/B- curve, which meant that a lot of premed students studied hard, did well on there MCATS, but graduated with low GDPs, compared to those at less competitive schools. According to this friend, however, medical schools all knew how tough Duke premed was, and viewed applicants accordingly, so that having a 3.4 from Duke might be more impressive than a 3.8 from a school nobody’s heard of. GDP isn’t everything, of course, and the school you went to is very minor compared to other factors… but it can make a difference.</p>
<p>GPA is compensated for based on your school, but its a compensation not a bonus. It isn’t really worth worrying about frankly unless you are going to a rediculously grade deflated school, because ultimately there are some limits to the compensation (typically people say that the compensation never rises above .3 GPA points).</p>
<p>I worked in the school of medicine admissions office of a very large medical school. You need the right prereqs, a high gpa, and high mcat scores. The State University grads did as well on the mcats as the smaller lacs and prestigue schools in general. The Ivy and prestige school kids only got in if their grades were up to snuff. I saw several kids go from Ivy league to grad school and then to med school to get their grades up. I always felt badly for the undergrad pharma and engineering students. They always had the highest MCATs and the lowest grades. Again, it often took a year of grad school to bring the grades up to where they needed to be after more strenuous undergrad coursework.</p>
<p>so how do u find out which school prepares u the best? or IS there a school? some would probably say that it all depends on how much time and effort U put in. however, it also kind of depends on the quality of the faculty. im currently going to a state school for one of my classes and the teachers have some pretty bad reviews and some have good too. but i think when a college is known for a certain major, the teachers that teach courses in thaat major, should also be phenomenal. </p>
<p>if u dont think it matters which school u go to, i guess it kind of boils down to where you want to live. NYU and USC are almost equivalent (i think) but they are in two totally diff locations and have two totally diff campus styles. </p>
<p>would it be worth going to community college to attend a prestigious university? even if i have a high high school gpa? i feel like people who messed up in high school get a 2nd chance by doing this, but what about the kids who DID try from the beginning and DID make the gpa? </p>
<p>what holds people back from going to medical school? not studying enough or just not getting the concepts?</p>
<p>I don’t think I would choose a cc just to make grades. Be honest with yourself, first of all, physicians have the highest IQs on average of all professions. In general, physicians are very bright. Are you? Do you have to work really hard for great grades? If so, MAYBE medicine is not for you. You will be competing with really smart people all the way through. This is by intention. Medicine is a career that will kick your butt. I know. I’m married to a doctor. There are lots of great medical careers other than physician. There is going to be a huge demand for nurse midwives, nurse practitioners, nurse anesthetists, etc. I think you should find an undergraduate school that “fits” you. Smaller? Larger? City? Rural? Keep in mind that often the prestige of a State school revolves around the research coming out of the university and a dept. may have a big reputation for that, rather than the quality of the teaching, and many of the entry level lectures may be less than ideal.</p>
<p>well i mean, if i did go to CC, it would just be to have a chance to be in a pool that is less competent. and whats the diff between a nurse and a doctor? what types of diff tasks do they take on, pay rate, etc? right now, i have a 4.2 gpa weighted so its not really to make the grades but just get another chance at the application process. i could easily get into say Loyola Marymount or Occidental.</p>
<p>I think that you should attend a College/University that fits you. This will be an institution that allows you to grow and be educated in a manner that works best for you. Cost may also be an issue as medical school is expensive and you will not want to have a lot of undergraduate debt to go with medical school debt. NYU has poor financial aid and transfers to most schools tend not to get very good financial aid packages. It would also be good to go to an institution that is grade inflated. Generally selective private schools such as the ivy’s tend to be more inflated than public schools. Study any academic major you like.
Going to any American medical school is fine. A prestigious medical school will only be of some help to you if you wish to enter a very competitive residency such as dermatology, ophthalmology or orthopedics etc., or a “top “ residency for future academic career. It might also be of help if you enter a field that requires marketing like cosmetic plastic surgery, refractive surgery, cosmetic dermatology etc.
It has been a long time since I had any connections to medical school admissions but I do have many friends who are still active and it seems that not a lot has changed over the years. I am familiar with the medical schools at UCSF, UCLA, Penn and Yale.
I attended a public school that does not discriminate against OSS and 80% of my class was in state. 80% of my class attended a USNR top 50 ranked National University. Most attended one of the University of California schools. The most popular undergraduate schools were UCLA, UCB and Stanford. 5% attended a top LAC like Pomona. 5% attended a lower ranked National University. 10% came from all other schools. Very few came from the Cal State university system. Most of the URM’s in my class came from this last pool of undergraduate schools. USC had one student in my class.
Yale and Penn had very high numbers from other Ivy league schools, Flag publics like North Carolina, Michigan, UCLA, UCB, Texas, Wisconsin, Virginia etc., and top LAC’s. I am not familiar with medical schools that are not research oriented.
You should also know that most who enter college thinking about medicine do not end up in medicine. The road is very competitive and difficult and a majority end up going in a different path for all sorts of reasons. A lot of people change their majors in the first year or so.
If you apply for medical school the most important factors will be your GPA and MCAT scores. Your state of residency is also a important issue as most public medical schools do not take OSS. It is easier to get into medical schools if you are a resident of certain states and more difficult in other states. What classes you take, what undergraduate school you attended, LOR’s, class rank, and extra curricular activities etc. would all be evaluated as the admissions process is very competitive. The problem here is not with the few top end students who have a 4.0 from Stanford and a 40 MCAT etc. Those students get accepted by many of their top choice schools.
The problem for most of the applicant pool is that many people have very good grades and MCATs. There are just too many of these good applicants for a small medical school class. All aspects of your life than come into play as well as some luck.</p>
<p>mjscal…Exactly. My only other advice. Don’t take an engineering undergrad.
babygrl. A nurse these days is pretty well compensated. A BSN with some experience can easily make 75,000. Physicians earn incomes that are all over the board. I’ve seen some public health docs make 100,000. I’ve seen some opthalmologists make a million. I suspect the “average” family practice doc makes 150, and the average specialist makes 300. Mjscal mentioned opthalmology, orthopedics and dermatology as tough residencies to get into…for sure…as is cardiology. Those guys also generally make more. They are also usually the cream of the crop. Actually, since all med students are the cream of the crop, I would call them the CREAM of the cream of the crop. And the life of a doctor is no picnic. My husband, in practice in a small town must cover that hospital no matter what. When a couple of docs resigned a few years ago he worked weeks without a day off, covering nights and weekends…which went on for months due to the undersupply of specialists in his field.</p>
<p>If you can go to a decent college, earn a 3.7+, have MCATs that are in the right range and apply to your state medical school and can get through an interview…you’ll probably get in. I don’t know that I’d try to pit myself against “less competent” students, though. You need to prepare yourself for a rough road.</p>
<p>Have you considered Osteopathic medicine? There is a new osteopathic medical school opening in our state. Just another alternative, if you are interested in primary medicine.</p>
<p>Thanks all for the excellent advices. I have been thinking about my boy’s pursuit of medical school. I am very much worry about paying for the college expense. I learned about a friend spending more than $250,000 on his daughter who went to OOS college and subsequently NYU for medical school. This does not include the debt accumulated. I start to believe that it would be the best for my son to go to the in-state undergraduate college for the following reasons:</p>
<p>1) He can do very well academically in a decent state college as opposed to a elite school with so many more capable competitors.
2) He can get merit scholarship and will accummulate little debt.
3) He has better opportunity to get REU and internship because of his grades.
4) He would get better LOR’s</p>
<p>At that point, he can decide if he would like to take on the $300,000 loan for medical school. The last question I have is about the opportunity of a student to become a speialist. I am under the impression that most students from elite medical school would be able to become specialist. Hence, that is the major reason for so many students wanting to go to the elite medical schools, right? What are the chances of a student from a medical school ranked 50th (per US News & WR) and another student from a medical school ranked 10th to become a specialist? Would that be determined in the residence match?</p>
<p>Top elite, private schools actually offer excellent financial aid for poor students. I assume you are in the middle class, which tends to get shafted somewhat in the financial aid process. In that case, you have to decide what amt of debt is reasonable. Top private colleges generally provide smaller classes, more research opportunities, better chances for LOR’s, better advising. That’s probably not worth 100k in debt. But, you have to decide whether that’s worth 10 or 20k of debt (which is small compared to the overall med school debt). As a note about internships: the most competitive ones I’ve seen take students who have high grades AND come from prestigous colleges. These programs are highly competitive. High grades alone are usually not enough. </p>
<p>Specialist specialties tend to be more competitive than primary care fields and also tend to require med school research. Since top schools have, on average, brighter students and are more-research oriented, it’s not surprising, they have slightly increased proportion of students entering into specialties (vs. primary care). In addition, for the most competitive specialties, it can be helpful to come from a name-brand med school. But, by far the most important factors for getting into a competitive specialty are your 3rd year grades, USMLE scores, research, LOR’s.</p>
<p>To clarify: a student from any medical school has a very good chance of becoming a specialist of some kind. There are some particular specialties where it helps to have a big-name school on your resume–but those specialties are relatively rare, and the big-name program isn’t that helpful in and of itself.</p>
<p>Of course, the top programs are filled with the brightest students, who thus tend to do best in the match.</p>
<p>I think top schools, on average, have wealthier kids. Sometimes that also means smarter kids. My husband was a hick who went to undergraduate school on a scholarship. He went to a no name undergrad school and was accepted to UK med school. He was in the middle of his class and he got a residency in radiology. He scored 99th percentile on his boards. He could have done a fellowship, but chose not to. The dirty little secret about medical school is that whether you go to Harvard or UK, your reimbursements will be exactly the same. The one place your fancier credentials will be important is if you decide to teach or go into academic medicine…where you will be grossly underpaid.</p>