So, I know this question gets asked a lot, but I’m attending a *really small state school. There were a total of 17 students last year who graduated with a Bachelor’s in Biology last year. Overall, though... Great staff, small classes (good for getting to know the professors), guaranteed research opportunities and shadowing at the local hospital, local, VERY affordable, and there’s been others go to med school in the past from here. I’m a non-trad, so still learning the ropes a bit. There’s a lot of people who get their associates from here and go up the road to the bigger research university (it’s literally 15 mins away) and that seems to be the route most prefer, although I don’t see the biggie with staying where I’m at. Any thoughts?
Does super small state school REALLY not matter?
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Doesn't matter.
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It might matter, especially if med schools haven't seen applicants from your school before, but if you get a strong GPA and do well on your MCAT, you will be okay. You will just get pretty much no benefit of the doubt if you have a mediocre or less than mediocre application than if you had gone to a school that med schools were more familiar with.
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It really doesn’t
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I'd also agree it shouldn't have a large impact. I've had an admissions director this cycle go as far to say that he has noticed a level of "grittiness" to students, particularly non-traditionals, that are successful at the smaller state school level. Some of these considerably lack many of the resources to give you the edge in applications (shadowing, advisements, research, etc.) but it doesn't seem that your school has that issue.
