If you want to get into medical school, go to the easiest undergrad possible!

[efle]

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My school also fell a rank slot and with it my self worth dropped 17%

 

[Nietzschelover]

My school also fell a rank slot and with it my self worth dropped 17%

Well, at least now you've experienced some adversity.

 

[ilovegrapesoda]

.

 

[Krupke]

My school also fell a rank slot and with it my self worth dropped 17%

See, I just wish US News used their power for good. Like substitute the alumni giving rate with a quality of financial aid component. My school spends a ton of money trying to get alumni to donate and they send mailings/phone calls where they say to just donate $1 because it will help rankings. That money could be put to such better use. And then schools like NYU would start getting serious about aid because they are afraid of sinking in the rankings

 

[Lucca]

See, I just wish US News used their power for good. Like substitute the alumni giving rate with a quality of financial aid component. My school spends a ton of money trying to get alumni to donate and they send mailings/phone calls where they say to just donate $1 because it will help rankings. That money could be put to such better use. And then schools like NYU would start getting serious about aid because they are afraid of sinking in the rankings

How about quality of career / professional advising resources. Something I didn't think about at all as a high schooler and luckily enough my school turned out to be very helpful in this area. Most people complain about pre-med advisors being useless but career advisors can be helpful with other things: informing you about other career paths, informing you about recruiting pathways for specific job types (engineering, biotech, consulting, finance, management, science industry, etc) or providing you with programs to gain some hard skills to complement your degree (the Health IT program here is all the rage right now for science students not looking to go into teaching / grad school / medicine and wanting to enter industry instead but lack a credible point of entry. Their employment rates are pretty great too; ditto for the business school's real estate and accounting certificates).

 

[WingedOx]

See, I just wish US News used their power for good. Like substitute the alumni giving rate with a quality of financial aid component. My school spends a ton of money trying to get alumni to donate and they send mailings/phone calls where they say to just donate $1 because it will help rankings. That money could be put to such better use. And then schools like NYU would start getting serious about aid because they are afraid of sinking in the rankings

My school (as well as a number of others...but we were the one on the front page of a national publication) manipulating their giving rates to rise in the rankings. For example at [WingedOx College] if you made a 5 dollar gift to the senior class gift, they'd calculate that as five $1 gifts over 5 years.

They eventually changed the policy and our ranking ended up dropping about 15 spots (and our president had to return a bonus he received for crossing the 50% threshold).

 

[Biofilm]

Going off this...

View attachment 199336

Major key

 

[efle]

My school (as well as a number of others...but we were the one on the front page of a national publication) manipulating their giving rates to rise in the rankings. For example at [WingedOx College] if you made a 5 dollar gift to the senior class gift, they'd calculate that as five $1 gifts over 5 years.

They eventually changed the policy and our ranking ended up dropping about 15 spots (and our president had to return a bonus he received for crossing the 50% threshold).

Hah, that's just plain clever. Hate the game not the players

 

[Hospitalized]

OP's friend went to carib. Only explanation for waived MCAT.

 

[Horse Apiece]

At almost any school you go to within the United States you will most likely be using textbooks of similar quality subject matter, and have a plethora of different professors who will make classes hard or easy depending on their preferences in making tests, and as someone who goes to some little no name state school, I have a bit of a revelation for you. Getting an Engineering or Chemistry (or similar difficulty) degree will be difficult no matter where you go, just at my school, you may not be able to get as many resources to help you succeed, so in some regards it could be argued that it is harder to succeed. An anecdote to support this would be, that I have a friend in a similar program at a larger prestigious school where they get multiple choice for most of their Bio and Chem classes, and were shocked to find out that in my "weed out" classes, the professor would write up a fresh written exam that challenged you to recall the material and apply it in novel ways. Instead of comparing, maybe you should own up to either your mistakes/capabilities, but then again I'm just some random premed dude on the internet (n=1 and all that).

 

[efle]

At almost any school you go to within the United States you will most likely be using textbooks of similar quality subject matter, and have a plethora of different professors who will make classes hard or easy depending on their preferences in making tests, and as someone who goes to some little no name state school, I have a bit of a revelation for you. Getting an Engineering or Chemistry (or similar difficulty) degree will be difficult no matter where you go, just at my school, you may not be able to get as many resources to help you succeed, so in some regards it could be argued that it is harder to succeed. An anecdote to support this would be, that I have a friend in a similar program at a larger prestigious school where they get multiple choice for most of their Bio and Chem classes, and were shocked to find out that in my "weed out" classes, the professor would write up a fresh written exam that challenged you to recall the material and apply it in novel ways. Instead of comparing, maybe you should own up to either your mistakes/capabilities, but then again I'm just some random premed dude on the internet (n=1 and all that).

Difficulty isn't from the material itself/text, but from curved exams against a student body full of valedictorians, national merits, top couple percent SATs etc. Multiple choice isn't inherently a cakewalk (eg MCAT). I once plotted the data from WashU against the AMCAS national data out of curiosity, and found that when you line up the MCATs there's a very large gap between GPAs. It's true that public system schools tend to be more deflated and you'll likely have to put in more effort to get informed about the premed process or find a lab to work in. But predictably, throwing a bunch of best and brightest against each other for limited A's does make for a tougher academic experience.

 

[WedgeDawg]

Difficulty isn't from the material itself/text, but from curved exams against a student body full of valedictorians, national merits, top couple percent SATs etc. Multiple choice isn't inherently a cakewalk (eg MCAT). I once plotted the data from WashU against the AMCAS national data out of curiosity, and found that when you line up the MCATs there's a very large gap between GPAs. It's true that public system schools tend to be more deflated and you'll likely have to put in more effort to get informed about the premed process or find a lab to work in. But predictably, throwing a bunch of best and brightest against each other for limited A's does make for a tougher academic experience.

I again reference my sig

 

[Goro]

To quote Sir Thomas Huxley, upon hearing of Darwin's theory of evolution:

"How stupid of me not to have thought of that!"

Good call, Hosp!

OP's friend went to carib. Only explanation for waived MCAT.

 

[Horse Apiece]

Difficulty isn't from the material itself/text, but from curved exams against a student body full of valedictorians, national merits, top couple percent SATs etc. Multiple choice isn't inherently a cakewalk (eg MCAT). I once plotted the data from WashU against the AMCAS national data out of curiosity, and found that when you line up the MCATs there's a very large gap between GPAs. It's true that public system schools tend to be more deflated and you'll likely have to put in more effort to get informed about the premed process or find a lab to work in. But predictably, throwing a bunch of best and brightest against each other for limited A's does make for a tougher academic experience.

It is interesting to see that data, yet I wonder about the significance of a comparison such as that, because there are other factors involved, like the prep recommendations/support at the school, that may help them achieve more? I could just be shooting in the dark here. I understand your point that the competition and curve may be involved, but with a such a large number of colleges, majors, major requirements and class structure, I do not know if we will be able to have a discussion with much merit, and I believe that is where people like OP's contempt arises from. It is easy to look from a narcissistic viewpoint that brings a personal achievement up, while giving no merit to others different yet similar achievements.

 

[Miss A]

To the person who wrote this advice, (I think he is now banned)

Yeah I agree with you. If I can change time, I would go back and go to Any "no name" school in my city instead of choosing the top university I'm in right now.

 

[efle]

To the person who wrote this advice, (I think he is now banned)

Yeah I agree with you. If I can change time, I would go back and go to Any "no name" school in my city instead of choosing the top university I'm in right now.

Would help to name the university if you want to help spread the wisdom for highschoolers' sake.