Does med schools take into account what college you graduated from?

[healingwave]

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As stated in the topic, does med schools consider the difficulty of the college you graduated from? Let's say a student with a 3.5 from The University of Texas at Austin compared to a student with a 3.7 from the University of Houston.

 

[exacto]

Short answer, no. Long answer, maybe.

They care way way way way more about your gpa and Mcat. But let's say you have two identical candidates with the same background, extracurriculars, work, Mcat, gpa, etc. but from different schools. Then maybe they might look at the more impressive university first....but in real life, it plays about .01% of what actually counts.

 

[Dr. Death]

No. exactos theoretical scenario has never and will never exist. Not only because no two people have the same resume, but because this is not how admissions works. It's not you vs. the guy next to you.

If you were posting this in the pre-allo forum I might be tempted to say yes. But in pre-osteo the answer is firmly NO. I went to a college that was a community college the year before I started there. Many of the classes were as easy as high school so I was able to get a high GPA. I was offered interviews and/or accepted at many of the top DO schools.

 

[AnatomyGrey12]

As stated in the topic, does med schools consider the difficulty of the college you graduated from? Let's say a student with a 3.5 from The University of Texas at Austin compared to a student with a 3.7 from the University of Houston.

Definitely a strong NO on this one. How is an adcom supposed to know a 3.5 from UT Austin is as good as a 3.7 from UH? They don't care. Now for MD if you have. 4.0 from a small state college and a 507 and another student has a 3.4/515 from MIT then yeah it will probably matter a little, but DO schools don't care. Even on the MD side it's not like adcoms are comparing students GPAs based on the undergrad. That would be so exhausting

 

[oogieboogie123r]

Unless your college is locally known for being a hardass, I'd say no. They might bring it up in an interview, but it's not gonna be a make it or break it.

 

[BunnyMan17]

I've talked to some adcoms and they say it might a bit if they have enough internal data from students matriculating into their school from X,Y,Z undergrad. But usually not a ton.

This isn't a perfect analogy but I've always thought of it as joining a travel sports team for a few years in hopes of making it into the majors. Let's say you have team A (super competitive, nationally ranked, etc.) and team B (local team, solid, but not well known). Just because you join team B does not mean you won't kill it and make it to the majors. Just because you make it onto team A doesn't guarantee anything either. Also the major league teams may or may not even know the difference between team A and team B. However... spending years in team A, surrounded by people who started out at "the top" could force you to perform at a higher level/not be complacent. For example, I go to a pretty intense undergrad and I really think that prepared me better for the MCAT than the ridiculously expensive review course. Anyhoo, just my 0.02

 

[DetectiveAlonzo]

Nope. Community college pre reqs here.

MDs won't either (most of the time) if you excel on the MCAT.

This is if everything else is equal though (extracurriculars, PS, LORs, etc.)

 

[scpod]

Actually, it does matter. There are education journals that essentially rank every institution of higher learning. A simple algorithm can compare a GPA from Harvard vs Podunk Community College. Admissions to Medical Schools is pretty much a science of its own. They want to pick people that will excel at their particular institution. That said, it probably doesn't make as much of a difference if you have an otherwise stellar application.

 

[healingwave]

Thanks for the info!

Actually, it does matter. There are education journals that essentially rank every institution of higher learning. A simple algorithm can compare a GPA from Harvard vs Podunk Community College. Admissions to Medical Schools is pretty much a science of its own. They want to pick people that will excel at their particular institution. That said, it probably doesn't make as much of a difference if you have an otherwise stellar application.

 

[Ho0v-man]

Yes and no. At one of my interviews, the interviewer brought up that he'd never heard of my undergrad and I think the fact that it's a "low tier" school hurt me. (Ironically this was what I consider a "low tier" DO school but whatever).

But mostly it doesn't matter. Most of my prereqs were from community college, my LORs were from masters level community college professors and I have no research and almost no ECs of any kind (I just worked a lot and they all seemed understanding).

I got more IIs than rejections so I guess it's fine.

They really just care about grades and MCAT.




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[gyngyn]

As stated in the topic, does med schools consider the difficulty of the college you graduated from? Let's say a student with a 3.5 from The University of Texas at Austin compared to a student with a 3.7 from the University of Houston.

Is Austin supposed to be harder?
If we don't know the difference, it won't make a difference.

 

[healingwave]

Yes, it is considered a better school than UH.

 

[Goro]

Fool's errand time! It's not a zero sum game. Both kids would be evaluated on the strength of thier apps. Both would likely get lots of IIs.

UG schools are known feeders for med schools. While Admissions deans might know of the rigor of programs, I sure don't. We get a lot of kids from our state schools, and from the UC system. But I don't know if UCLA is any better than, Davis or Merced!

As stated in the topic, does med schools consider the difficulty of the college you graduated from? Let's say a student with a 3.5 from The University of Texas at Austin compared to a student with a 3.7 from the University of Houston.

 

[healingwave]

Thanks for the input!

 

[DetectiveAlonzo]

Put it like this.

I went to a CC and took all my pre reqs there. I am in medical school next to a guy from Stanford, two folks from Yale, a chick from UCLA, a ton of folks from UC Davis and UC Berkeley.

I'm telling you, it is about that GPA and MCAT!