How important is the school you attended?

[Khoury]

Please post the undergrads you attended and if it makes a difference. I currently go to a small school in IL. Does that weaken my chances against someone who say goes to UIC?
Thanks

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[NickNaylor]

Please see a jillion other threads on this topic.

 

[willen101383]

Please see a jillion other threads on this topic.

Cole....its okay...you can let him know there is no way he will possibly get in to med school coming from a school with less than 15,000 undergrads. Sorry to break it to you buddy...but its true.

 

[PreMedder]

Please post the undergrads you attended and if it makes a difference. I currently go to a small school in IL. Does that weaken my chances against someone who say goes to UIC?
Thanks

Pretty much if you don't go to an ivy, you're SOL.

 

[McBatCommander]

Pretty much if you don't go to an ivy, you're SOL.

Or have xray vision.

 

[Dannyw]

Umass, and I don't really care what adcoms think about my school.

 

[HealthHare]

Please post the undergrads you attended and if it makes a difference. I currently go to a small school in IL. Does that weaken my chances against someone who say goes to UIC?
Thanks

I think I read somewhere that Illinois private universities, beside U Chicago and Northwestern have some of the lowest med school acceptance rates in the country. Happy Cycle!

 

[orthomyxo]

umass, and i don't really care what adcoms think about my school.

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[NickNaylor]

Cole....its okay...you can let him know there is no way he will possibly get in to med school coming from a school with less than 15,000 undergrads. Sorry to break it to you buddy...but its true.

Sorry, I'm still working on that...

 

[latrala2300]

OP, i think this is what youre looking for:
http://forums.studentdoctor.net/archive/index.php/t-118199.html

the search bar is in the upper right corner.

 

[TooMuchResearch]

Undergrad reputation is much less important than GPA and MCAT. If your school is small enough that the faculty care enough about teaching to not use a standard curve, expect some questions about your "unconventional" grading system from interviewers who have only experienced life in major research institutions.

 

[somepremedkid]

Undergrad reputation is much less important than GPA and MCAT. If your school is small enough that the faculty care enough about teaching to not use a standard curve, expect some questions about your "unconventional" grading system from interviewers who have only experienced life in major research institutions.

+1 No. Your undergrad reputation won't hinder your chances of acceptance to medical school. Also, please use the search function. Just as Cole said, there are a ton of topics like this. If you don't, you'll get several mean replies. Good luck

 

[Web MD]

Your undergrad reputation won't hinder your chances of acceptance to medical school.

But starting this thread will, OP

 

[Khoury]

Thanks for the meaningful contributions. Good luck to all on the cycle regardless of your level of douchebaggery.

 

[barcoderider]

As far as I understand it, coming from a known school might help you a little bit (adcoms might bump up the gpa .1 or.2 if it's known to be a hard place to be a premed). But I don't think coming from a lesser known school will hurt you.

 

[gatoradedrinker]

name recognition DOES carry weight. how much? well, that depends on the adcom member, some value it more than others. comparatively though, it's one of the least important things on your app.

what's important for you to know, is that MANY MANY MANY people are successful from lesser known schools.

 

[Cleavername]

Undergrad reputation is much less important than GPA and MCAT. If your school is small enough that the faculty care enough about teaching to not use a standard curve, expect some questions about your "unconventional" grading system from interviewers who have only experienced life in major research institutions.

curve makes it challenging, to come out with an A in a well rep school in a curved class is saying i can do better than 90% of the students in this class.

for my school, gen bio 2 to get an A u needed to be top 7%.

 

[Ask]

you basically need to do undergrad at a Tier 1 college/university

 

[Ischemic]

Umass, and I don't really care what adcoms think about my school.

that's good cause I think they really could care less of what you think they think about your school ... too bad only that they're the opinion that matters.

 

[Numba1Plumma]

There is not a definite answer to this question but for the sake of simplicity the answer is no. The gpa, activities, MCAT, etc. have a far greater bearing than name recognition. Regardless of where you go, if any one of these three are not up to par then you're done for. On the other hand, if you get some famous professor from a prestigious school to write you an amazing lor then that'll take you places as well. That being said, the chances of that happening are slim. It will never come down to two applicants with identical stats and traits that are only different because of the undergrad they attended. The interview and how you present yourself are much more important.

There's no point in stressing about this issue. Not only does the undergrad institution not matter a whole lot, but you're already there anyway so unless you decide to transfer there's nothing you can do about it now. Just focus on what you can change, i.e. gpa, mcat, activities, etc. Take care yung $$

 

[organdonor]

I would say it matters less than the color of the shirt you wear at your interview. I go to a small state undergrad that noone has ever hear of (I promise you), yet I was accepted just fine. So were 7-8 of my classmates. And you know what? I am going to the same school as that guy from Harvard, or Notre Dame, or whatever, and I don't have a penny of debt thanks to my ridiculously low tuition.