Getting in- Good Stats but Low-Tier Undergrad

[Lulu8]

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My brother is pre-med at Marshall University in WV (yes, it really is my brother, not myself 😉 ) Anyway, he's got a great gpa, summa cum laude, hopefully will have a decent MCAT and not very exciting extra cur's.

My questions is - does anyone know how much harder it is to get into medical school coming from an unknown/lower-tier undergrad like Marshall? I'm trying to advise him on his chances and schools to apply to based on my experience, but I don't know what it'll be like coming from his undergrad. I did a search on MDApplicants but only found 2 or 3 people from Marshall who had profiles.

 

[karmega5]

Doesn't everyone know Marshall after the movie? 😉

It may or may not matter for the top tier medical schools, I don't know- but probably not too much. It won't keep him out of medical school- the reason for the MCAT is that it is standardized across all schools- so make sure he did well on that. Sometimes I think smaller schools might have an advantage in that smaller classes let you get to know profs better=better letters.

 

[MonkeyNuts!]

Some schools don't care that much. Others go as far as factoring in some sort of numerical value based on where you went for undergrad. Tell your brother to check with his premed advisors as to how his desired medical schools treat the undergrad institution.

 

[RokChalkJayhawk]

Marshall is a good school. I don't think there's any reason to worry.

 

[Meltyman]

It is much easier to do "well" at small, unknown schools; admission committees know this. Doing well on the MCAT will be especially important.