how Undergraduate school affect your admission ?

[swaglhighlevel]

I want to become a doctor, i know it depends about your GPA ,MCAT activities and community services
.
I want to ask how people choose their undergraduate on which base you choose at the end of your high school year to attend school A instead of school B. (no one of my family graduate from high school, or attend a college) that's why i don't know how to choose one. I'm actually religious and i want to go to a christian school, it's my dream since junior high but because the cost of education. it's almost impossible

I live in CA, my question now "How undergraduate school help you to attend a dental school?". I don't have much money, so right now i have two choice:

Choice A:

I'm leaning towards doing my first two years of my pre-med at a community college and then transferring over to a public university in CA to finish things up.
Would starting out at a community college really come to bite me in the back later when I'm applying for dental schools though? especially i might take 1 year bio, 1 year organic and inorganic chem at CC

Choice B
is to attend a local school, it's actually a CSU, (this not a comparison btw CSU or UC ) it cost only 7,625 for the year, but can i know that this school have a big pre-medical community or the adviser are professional and would help
i check their website and it's from 2011, and the links are old and they doesn't give any information about there organization or if anyone attend a dental school from this school, and the adviser told me when you become a freshman and got admitted we will assist you, but you're not a student so we will not be able to guide you.

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[MalibuPreMD]

Option A: it does not look bad on your application to go to a JC or cc and then transfer over to public university.

 

[Afford]

Have you asked about financial aid? Do you qualify for a Pell Grant? For my undergraduate college, over half the people got some grant money from the school to cover the cost of tuition. It was actually cheaper for me to go to my private undergraduate college than it was to go to my state school. Also, you can get SAT/ACT vouchers and vouchers to cover college applications. Don't let a lack of money hinder you from applying to better schools. The people who are screwed over are actually the middle class.

No one cares if you went to a community college. You can get grades there and transfer.

 

[swaglhighlevel]

i qualify for grant but it wouldn't cover the cost of UC or Biola if i live on housing

Have you asked about financial aid? Do you qualify for a Pell Grant? For my undergraduate college, over half the people got some grant money from the school to cover the cost of tuition. It was actually cheaper for me to go to my private undergraduate college than it was to go to my state school. Also, you can get SAT/ACT vouchers and vouchers to cover college applications. Don't let a lack of money hinder you from applying to better schools. The people who are screwed over are actually the middle class.

No one cares if you went to a community college. You can get grades there and transfer.

 

[swaglhighlevel]

Option A: it does not look bad on your application to go to a JC or cc and then transfer over to public university.

as a medical student what do you think about the second choice ?
can you advice me

 

[Afford]

i qualify for grant but it wouldn't cover the cost of UC or Biola if i live on housing

Did you already get accepted to these schools? Also, does that mean they covered the full tuition? You don't have to live on campus.

 

[Mx300]

I would also agree with the idea that your undergrad does matter. But I dont agree with prestige being the deciding factor. I think you should attend a school that has a good premed department and that has a high difficulty rating. I forgot what this was called its some rating that goes up to 5. I know this because an Adcom member at TCOM mentioned this to me, and remarked about how my undergrad was a 4 and this was good because it gave my gpa more weight. Also I know that having a good pre-med department that has an HPAC service will save you alot of trouble and headache, its also very useful.

 

[Strudel19]

I second the notion of checking with your financial aid advisor. It was also cheaper for me to go to my private institution than my public university.

 

[swaglhighlevel]

i visited 6 UC campus, and Biola my first choice
i think i have a high chance get accepted at UCI UCD UCR UCSD and Biola as 4.0 GPA and 2100 SAT are good enough to get in
but the grants wouldn't cove the cost of UC 33.320 or Biola

on the other hand i have a good shoot to get into the honors program at my local college and wouldn't worry about the tuition and be one the highest people in my class rank

 

[Afford]

i visited 6 UC campus, and Biola my first choice
i think i have a high chance get accepted at UCI UCD UCR UCSD and Biola as 4.0 GPA and 2100 SAT are good enough to get in
but the grants wouldn't cove the cost of UC 33.320 or Biola

on the other hand i have a good shoot to get into the honors program at my local college and wouldn't worry about the tuition and be one the highest people in my class rank

You don't have to limit yourself to a religious college if you're interested in hanging out with religious people. I went to a non-religious college and we had like twenty or thirty religious student-run groups.
You're aiming for the wrong schools. Aim for top 50 private schools. For my senior year, I received $50,000+ worth of need-based aid to cover tuition+room/board.

 

[Shirafune]

You may refer to this useful PDF for understanding medical school admissions:
https://www.aamc.org/students/download/267622/data/mcatstudentselectionguide.pdf

The relevant table is on pg 12 of the PDF or pg 7 of the actual guide.

In short, if you want to get into a private medical school, then aim high for your undergraduate institution. If your only goal is to get into a California medical school, then go where you want, though you should know beforehand that Californian schools are very competitive.

 

[Osteoth]

Honestly, prestige of your undergraduate institution is a positive thing for medical school, but it will neither get you in or keep you out in the grand scheme of things.

Compared to MCAT/GPA/ECs it is insignificant. Go to the school that leaves you with the least debt, because God knows you'll be swimming in it in due time. Get good grades, get a good MCAT, do the typical ECs, and you will be fine.