Comparing students from the same college

[Tropicana100]

Advertisement - Members don't see this ad

Do schools group students who went to the same college together and then select the best among them for interview?

 

[postbacker]

Do schools group students who went to the same college together and then select the best among them for interview?

My guess is that adcoms develop a "feel" for the quality of applicants from a given school and that influences decisions, but I wonder if they really go to the trouble of separating applicants by schools - it would be interesting to hear from an SDN adcom if this is done (something like that is done for college admissions where adcom members concentrate on a geographic area or a certain set of high schools to develop a familiarity with applications from those places)...

Another factor is that applicants from a UG with a committee letter may get a boost (or get screwed) by the opinion of the committee, effectively getting compared to their classmates...

 

[IceMan0824]

Do schools group students who went to the same college together and then select the best among them for interview?

How would you account for the subtlety of varying majors or experience? The definition of best would be so subjective. Then again, the entire process is subjective.

I wouldn't doubt that school might try to cap the acceptance ratio from a certain school if it gets excessive, but I don't think they actively consider it unless the need arises.

 

[MyInitialsAreJC]

There are two other premeds from my school (its kind of small) applying to a bunch of the same schools this cycle. It's hard to imagine that we wouldn't sort of get stacked together, at least in the adcom's heads.

i can't help feeling like i'm competing with them . . . so i'm gonna put itching powder in their clothes before they interview.
__________________
http://www.myspace.com/9691443

 

[flaahless]

There are two other premeds from my school (its kind of small) applying to a bunch of the same schools this cycle. It's hard to imagine that we wouldn't sort of get stacked together, at least in the adcom's heads.

i can't help feeling like i'm competing with them . . . so i'm gonna put itching powder in their clothes before they interview.
__________________
http://www.myspace.com/9691443

Out of 5000+ applicants, I doubt that they would even recognize that you 3 are from the same school.

 

[Tropicana100]

It seems like certain schools consistently (year after year) accept many people from my school, while others take only 1-2.

 

[LovelyMD]

It seems like certain schools consistently (year after year) accept many people from my school, while others take only 1-2.

Haha, this seems to be the case for my school as well. I can think of 2 schools where my undergrad is the most highly represented undergrad, whereas other schools seem to take few people... although I don't know if it's because they assume we'll go elsewhere, or if many people from my undergrad end up withdrawing from these schools, or some other reason.

 

[ChubbyChaser]

Or my school where we have at most 2 go to any medical school in one year

 

[BrokenGlass]

Do schools group students who went to the same college together and then select the best among them for interview?

It's quite possible and it's not that hard to do.

 

[Tropicana100]

It's especially relevant if they compare 2 people who have taken the same classes, or even gotten a LOR from the same professor. That's a scary thought.

 

[LizzyM]

most everything is electronic now so it is very easy to look at all of the applicants from a given UG institution as a group. I can name at least 10 schools that send 30 or more applications to the med school where I'm on the adcom and most of the time I deal with applications from just one region of the country (so that we are more familiar with a smaller number of schools).

Comparing 10 students from the same school removes one variable from the mix. It also streamlines the reading of LORs because the reviewer gets to know how that school ranks students, the formulaic phrases in the committee LOR, the common extracurricular activities.

You are competing against the other applicants from your school and all the other schools, too. Your chances of getting an interview may be as low as one in 10.

To know if a lot or a few students matriculate, it really helps to have the denominator. What proportion of the applicants from x college are interviewed, accepted, and matriculate? If all you see in the numerator you really can't comment on "a lot" versus "very few".

I could fill all my interview slots with good applicants from just 10 schools. Instead, we do try to choose the best from a wide variety of schools including private research intensive universities, public universities, and liberal arts colleges.