Csula?!

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Sai111394

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I'm going to be a freshman at CSULA starting this fall, I chose this school because they offered me the Presidential Scholarship, which is a full 4 year scholarship. my question is, will going to this CSU affect me negatively in the future?
 
Sai111394 said:
I'm going to be a freshman at CSULA starting this fall, I chose this school because they offered me the Presidential Scholarship, which is a full 4 year scholarship. my question is, will going to this CSU affect me negatively in the future?
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Short answer, no.

Long answer, the impact of prestige is constantly debated on here, but going to a full four year university and doing well will allow you to be competitive for US MD programs. A better school probably has some impact on your application, but your school will definitely not be the difference between gaining admission or not, with an otherwise equivalent application. Do as well as you can and don't worry about school name, etc.
 
Sai111394 said:
I'm going to be a freshman at CSULA starting this fall, I chose this school because they offered me the Presidential Scholarship, which is a full 4 year scholarship. my question is, will going to this CSU affect me negatively in the future?
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CSU = game over for MD. You could MAYBE try for DO.

Best bet is probably nursing at this point though.
 
what makes you say that? have you personally gone through the process?
 
RecycleRinsed said:
CSU = game over for MD. You could MAYBE try for DO.

Best bet is probably nursing at this point though.
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Ironic considering the SDN'er who's going to Johns Hopkins this Fall from a CSU.
theseeker4 said:
Short answer, no.

Long answer, the impact of prestige is constantly debated on here, but going to a full four year university and doing well will allow you to be competitive for US MD programs. A better school probably has some impact on your application, but your school will definitely not be the difference between gaining admission or not, with an otherwise equivalent application. Do as well as you can and don't worry about school name, etc.
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Shorter long answer, it won't be the factor that holds you back.
 
Sai111394 said:
what makes you say that? have you personally gone through the process?
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I went to CSU, applied to med school 12 times, and got rejected from every school. My parents sold all four of their kidneys to pay for my application expenses. After months of working the phones, I finally got a meeting with one Dean of Admissions. Dean Nusselbaumer from Big State School of Medicine. I sat down in the leather chair across from his cherry desk, and said, "Hello, sir. I'm XX. I did my undergrad at CSU and earned a 3.9875 GPA." At that point, he SPIT IN MY FACE! He literally used his mouth to propel sputum at my face! He pulled a K-Bar on me and got all Crazy Marine and chased me out of the admissions office.

The point is this: It doesn't matter where you go to college. At all. Most science that is taught in your entry level science classes and tested on the MCAT has not changed since before you were born.
 
RecycleRinsed said:
I went to CSU, applied to med school 12 times, and got rejected from every school. My parents sold all four of their kidneys to pay for my application expenses. After months of working the phones, I finally got a meeting with one Dean of Admissions. Dean Nusselbaumer from Big State School of Medicine. I sat down in the leather chair across from his cherry desk, and said, "Hello, sir. I'm XX. I did my undergrad at CSU and earned a 3.9875 GPA." At that point, he SPIT IN MY FACE! He literally used his mouth to propel sputum at my face! He pulled a K-Bar on me and got all Crazy Marine and chased me out of the admissions office.

The point is this: It doesn't matter where you go to college. At all. Most science that is taught in your entry level science classes and tested on the MCAT has not changed since before you were born.
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While the sarcasm is appreciated, this is way oversimplified. It is simply so much more likely that there is some instance where an applicant's school pedigree benefits them than it never come into play either way. Can going to a top school make you look better as an applicant? Maybe. Can going to a crappy, underfunded, unknown school make you look worse? Maybe. Is it likely that either of these factors will ever be deciding in getting anyone accepted or rejected? Probably not.

But can we definitively say it doesn't matter at all? Not a chance.
 
I go to med school at a UC, and our class has a (small) number of people from the csu system, including csula. On one hand, compared to students from the UC system the amount of people are miniscule (mainly LA, Cal, Davis, SD, and Irvine). However, since these students did get in (and are just as intelligent and capable as the others), its not like coming from a csu school is an automatic reject either. I dont know and dont care to know people's stats, activities, etc, so I hace no idea if a higher bar is set, but that notion sounds a bit ridiculous. It could also be because UCs (especially UCLA and Cal)are litterred with premeds, but I dont know. So I say it wont necessarily hinder you as long as you have good grades, activities, etc just like everyone else. I also dont know how this would be for schools outside of the west coast, since I assume that ug prestige might help if the applicant is from far away (but keep in mind its only an assumption)
 
gettheleadout said:
Ironic considering the SDN'er who's going to Johns Hopkins this Fall from a CSU.
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Wow, impressive. Thanks for sharing this piece of info. Btw, you know a lot of where people are being accepted. Do you get this info from the mdapps??
 
All I know is that there are WAY less pre-meds at CSULA, compared to UCLA, UCSD, and UCI, all 3 of which I got accepted to, which could be the reason that there are not many CSU kids at medical schools?
 
gettheleadout said:
Ironic considering the SDN'er who's going to Johns Hopkins this Fall from a CSU.
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I can also vouch for this. He was also accepted to many other very fine institutions.

I also saw another guy from a CSU more than once on my interview trail.

So, while the CSU won't give you any special prestige points, it is much smaller factor compared to all the other factors you have control over.
 
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Thank you for making me feel better about my decision!!!!
 
Just make sure you have really high grades. Don't let anyone make you feel bad for not putting yourself into UG debt.
 
I once had a taxi driver who graduated from CSU. He got into med school but had to defer his admission so he could make some extra money.
 
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