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How likely is it to get into your own undergraduate school's medical school? How about if its in the city that you have lived your entire life as well. Is there any benefit for you?
Chances of getting into your undergraduate's med school
- Thread starter WestCoastNative
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I happen to be going to my undergraduate's medical school in the fall. I think you have an advantage but it's still by no means easy. In terms of being from the area of the school, it probably depends on each school, but I do know a number of schools which appear to favor local applicants.
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It all depends on the school and their preferences. At my med school, you had a better chance of getting in if you went to the lesser ranked school in the state than going to the med school's undergrad. But that's because the med school undergrad program had like 400 people from their undergrad apply and 50 got in versus the 10 from the lesser ranked school and 4 of us getting in. Percentage wise, it was better to not apply from their school.
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It depends on the school, and also how much you took advantage of the fact that the med school and their faculty is nearby. Proximity by itself is helpful to try and build connections or get connected to a lab or PI to potentially write you recs.
Since med school in general is significantly more competitive than most undergrad admissions, there are also schools that will pass over their own undergrads to try and recruit from more competitive schools like Ivies and etc. My undergrad was supposedly notorious for not liking their own undergrads, but it was a huge school with a ton of premeds.
At my current med school, the associated undergrad is probably the #1 or 2 feeder school, but the undergrad itself is already competitive to begin with. Despite being the #1 feeder school however, it's still only ~10% of the med student body.
Since med school in general is significantly more competitive than most undergrad admissions, there are also schools that will pass over their own undergrads to try and recruit from more competitive schools like Ivies and etc. My undergrad was supposedly notorious for not liking their own undergrads, but it was a huge school with a ton of premeds.
At my current med school, the associated undergrad is probably the #1 or 2 feeder school, but the undergrad itself is already competitive to begin with. Despite being the #1 feeder school however, it's still only ~10% of the med student body.
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I'd imagine you'd get somewhat of a boost since people on the adcom may be more familiar with the associated undergrad and may feel more comfortable about applicants from the school. This is purely conjecture since my school doesn't have its own med school.
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Depends on your school. A place like Pitt or Michigan... not so easy. A place like Loyola... probably a lot easier.
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There is a positive correlation, but it's not huge because of the competitive nature of this process. My undergrad's med school class definitely has a significant amount of students from the undergrad school, probably like 20%.
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What he said. You gotta be top notch at UMich to get somewhere.
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Depends on where you rank. Your home school is the one most likely to get an application from all of your classmates. So unlike applying broadly, you know what competition you are being compared to. There will be no question that classmate X's A in Dr Smith's bio 101 i better than your A-. It becomes a head to head competition, In a Way it wasn't if you applied to a school nobody else in your program focused on. Your school won't take over a set percentage of you unless it's a State school, as it would destroy diversity. That might give the top candidates an edge, but make it harder for everyone else from that school. So if you are a good applicant for "a" med school, but not so competitive compared to those in your class, you have less chance of getting in at your home school. If you are top in your class, you have a big edge.
