[B]Any Difference? [/B]

[Daharsh]

I want to know that while accepting applicants for a seat in medical school, will they consider the university an applicant is coming from? Like if I am from a simple and not so big and prestigious university like harvard, so will it make a difference while I apply to a medical school. Will a student from the big and good university have much good impression than me? Anyways, If I transfer from my small and good state university to a big and more prestigious state university, will it make any difference?
I will appreciate the advice.

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[Law2Doc]

Will a student from the big and good university have much good impression than me?

With phrases like the above, you'd better have someone proofread your PS whatever you do.

Yes there are advantages coming from "name brand" schools, but probably not as much as some people on here will assert and certainly not enough to merit transfering elsewhere. If you get A's and do well on the MCAT and have oodles of cool ECs and interview well and pull together good essays, you will be fine.

 

[BigRedPremed]

With phrases like the above, you'd better have someone proofread your PS whatever you do.

Yes there are advantages coming from "name brand" schools, but probably not as much as some people on here will assert and certainly not enough to merit transfering elsewhere. If you get A's and do well on the MCAT and have oodles of cool ECs and interview well and pull together good essays, you will be fine.

I agree.

If you do a search, you can probably find a lot of threads on this topic. Generally, everyone agrees that the name helps. The disagreement lies in how much it helps. But you are definitely not screwed if you attend a state college.

 

[Instatewaiter]

I want to know that while accepting applicants for a seat in medical school, will they consider the university an applicant is coming from? Like if I am from a simple and not so big and prestigious university like harvard, so will it make a difference while I apply to a medical school. Will a student from the big and good university have much good impression than me? Anyways, If I transfer from my small and good state university to a big and more prestigious state university, will it make any difference?
I will appreciate the advice.

Terrible

To be serious though, the school you attended does make a difference but not as much as most people on SDN will say. A 3.0 from harvard is not better than a 3.7 from University of Delaware (Ranked 67 by USnews). Most schools will use a tier system. They will give preferance to top tier schools. Some will add a few tenths of a point to the GPAs of kids from to top tier schools and subtract from bottom tier schools. Others will just give a small preferance to better schools.

So the bottom line is, if you go to podunk U and have the exact same stats (GPA, MCAT, ECs etc) as a kid from Princeton, chances are he will be ranked marginally higher. If you have good stats though, you will get in somewhere. Make sure to do as well as you can. If you have near 4.0 and over a 30 MCAT it really won't matter where you go to Ugrad unless you are trying to get into a top medical school like UCSF. Then in all reality, you probably won't get in unless you went to a great undergrad college.

An example: A friend of mine who goes there told me that until last year, Virginia Commonwealth University (a third tier undergraduate school ) had never had anyone get an interview from harvard medical school.

So the name helps especially for very good schools, but if you do well, you will not have a problem getting in to a decent school.

 

[kypdurron5]

Hey...there's no reason to get on this guy about grammar, he may be an English as a second language individual. Just helpfully correct him and move on...there's no need to rake him over coals!! If you've ever tried to learn a foreign language you might have some sympathy.

As to your question....in a word, yes. During a U of Michigan student/adcom online discussion they even admitted to having stats on almost every school in the country that tells them things like average GPA's, MCAT scores, etc. Coming from Harvard with good numbers definitely puts you above someone with the same numbers coming from Harvard Community College of Bug Scuffle, Tennessee. It shouldn't stop you from applying, but the cold hard truth is that it does make a difference; just like being a URM with equivalent numbers as a non-URM would give you an advantage, or as someone with published research vs. someone with none, etc.

 

[maestro1625]

well before MWillie, Solitude and others come in here to start a flamewar, I would like to compliment the OP for attempting to make his post stand out in bold font rather than simply using all caps... it failed, but a nice effort none the less.

/carry on.

 

[solitude]

well before MWillie, Solitude and others come in here to start a flamewar, I would like to compliment the OP for attempting to make his post stand out in bold font rather than simply using all caps... it failed, but a nice effort none the less.

/carry on.

one flamewar per week is enough for me