Does undergrad prestige matter?

[Premedkid002]

I will be attending a community college this coming fall. I made this decision to save money since my FAFSA didn't help me get enough financial aid and I would have to pay a lot out of pocket. I am going to a community college in New York which is known for sending its students to great schools throughout the country, including the ivy leagues.

I plan on getting my A.S in Biology and then transferring to a 4-year school to complete my B.S in Public Health. I asked my advisors about what schools I'm able to transfer to, and they gave me schools like NYU, Boston College, etc. However, I am very interested in another school that is close to this community college. Its a state school and doesn't have much of a name for it. Another option for me is a better state school known for sending many premeds into medical school. However I emailed a professor and student at this "better" school, and they told me classes would have about 100-300 students This is what worries me a lot, because I don't think ill get to really connect with my professor to ask him/her questions if I have any. Not only that, being a transfer student, I really need to protect my GPA at all costs. This "better" school has rumors of deflating grades. I can't afford a downward trend when I graduate from my 2-year school.

If I am to attend this "better" school, I would have to dorm which is another $12K on top of the yearly tuition. And the lesser-known school is closer to home, so I am able to stay home. I will be starting extracurriculars during my second semester of first year, and being near home would allow me to continue them without starting over.

I just graduated high school in June and completed my first summer class last week. My class had about 20-25 students. I was able to be in contact with the teacher more often since she didnt have too mich traffic towards her. I mainly took this class to get a sense of what college would be like, and I learned that being in a smaller classroom would be more beneficial to me. The school I am interested in transferring to (that doesn't have much of a name) has class sizes of about 30-40 students which seems more manageable to me.

What should I do? Do I go to a more prestigious school (state school) or a lesser known school (also state school). Or if not either, and if I have the opportunity (a decent scholarship), should I attend a well known undergrad such as NYU?

Any help would be appreciated. Also if you attend college in the NY area, please do comment on this thread. Would love to hear from you.

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[hopefuldawkter]

Go to the school where you are able to get the best possible GPA. That's all that matters. Undergrad prestige has minimal importance.

 

[Premedkid002]

Go to the school where you are able to get the best possible GPA. That's all that matters. Undergrad prestige has minimal importance.

So let's say I attend the school closer to me, with the lesser name for it. Would I have to take additional high-level courses to prove to medical schools that I'm capable of the tougher workload?

 

[Matthew9Thirtyfive]

Go to the school where you are able to get the best possible GPA. That's all that matters. Undergrad prestige has minimal importance.

That will probably become less true once step 1 goes pass/fail. A survey of residency program directors showed more than half of them will consider medical school prestige more important with a pass/fail step, which means the undergrad you go to will de facto become more important since more prestigious undergrads feed into more prestigious med schools.

But GPA/MCAT will still be more important I think.

 

[hopefuldawkter]

That will probably become less true once step 1 goes pass/fail. A survey of residency program directors showed more than half of them will consider medical school prestige more important with a pass/fail step, which means the undergrad you go to will de facto become more important since more prestigious undergrads feed into more prestigious med schools.

But GPA/MCAT will still be more important I think.

That's interesting. What defines "prestige," though? T5, T10, T20?

 

[Matthew9Thirtyfive]

That's interesting. What defines "prestige," though? T5, T10, T20?

@efle has good data on this topic iirc

 

[M&L]

Prestige matters and it doesn’t . Sort of . I am sure ppl will give you advice. All I wanted to say is that there is a lot that goes into medical school application.... one of my friends went to literally one of the best science colleges in the WORLD and had crazy high Mcat ..... I went to cheapest state school (transfer from community college), my Mcat and grades are average at best .. I had 4 acceptances , he had one . He is by any standsrd brilliant ... but medical school application has a lot of factors .

that being said ... if I had a chance to go to Hopkins or NYU , or some place like that - I would in a heartbeat .Places like this have a lot of research opportunities, powerful alumni networks . And now with pass fail step things like this will matter a lot .

but whatever you have to do - make the best of it ,keep pushing , and never look back .

 

[efle]

I don't know of any public schools in NY that I'd call prestigious

Go to the better fit

 

[deleted1027026]

There was a chart I read somewhere that for private medical schools undergrad prestige is of "moderate importance" and for public medical schools it is of "little importance." Not sure how true this is, so take it for what you will.

 

[Angus Avagadro]

That will probably become less true once step 1 goes pass/fail. A survey of residency program directors showed more than half of them will consider medical school prestige more important with a pass/fail step, which means the undergrad you go to will de facto become more important since more prestigious undergrads feed into more prestigious med schools.

But GPA/MCAT will still be more important I think.

Nice to see you back!

 

[Matthew9Thirtyfive]

Nice to see you back!

I’ve been in the MD forum haha.