Is JHU Medical School more likely to accept UVA undergrad students than VCU honors students?

[Sunflower069]

Hi guys,

I'm new to SDN, and I had a question about JHU medical school and the students they tend to accept. I know there are many things that are taken into consideration when accepting students (such as MCAT scores, GPA, extracurriculars/volunteering, etc.), but I also wanted to know whether the school you graduated from makes a difference in medical school applications. JHU medical school is one of the top medical schools I would like to go to, and I wanted to know if it is more likely to accept students who have completed their undergrad from UVA than students who have completed their undergrad from VCU's honors college.

I appreciate all the help and advice I can get

Thanks so much for your time!

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[Lawpy]

I thought you were @sunflower18 for a moment there.

In all seriousness, school name does matter for assessing chances to top tier medical schools (or any medical school for the matter). While UVa is certainly a great school and better than VCU (honors college is irrelevant for the most part), the difference probably isn't big enough to be significant (as opposed to say, Harvard vs VCU).

 

[qkhb]

Hi guys,

I'm new to SDN, and I had a question about JHU medical school and the students they tend to accept. I know there are many things that are taken into consideration when accepting students (such as MCAT scores, GPA, extracurriculars/volunteering, etc.), but I also wanted to know whether the school you graduated from makes a difference in medical school applications. JHU medical school is one of the top medical schools I would like to go to, and I wanted to know if it is more likely to accept students who have completed their undergrad from UVA than students who have completed their undergrad from VCU's honors college.

I appreciate all the help and advice I can get

Thanks so much for your time!

I think undergrad only matters to some degree if it's an Ivy, since they often like their own (with an aspect of self-selection at play). Despite UVA being "ranked" much, much more highly, I don't think the difference between the two schools will matter a lot, and I also don't think the "Honors" distinction is very significant. Are you deciding between the two schools? At UVA if you didn't get into the Echols program coming in, you can apply during your first year.

 

[WedgeDawg]

UVA doesn't have too many students going to top med schools (some, yes, but not a huge amount). VCU probably has 1-2 per year maximum. I have a lot of friends at UVA (being from Virginia), and when my friend got into [x top 10 med school] and the premed advising office asked where they were going, the office was shocked because no one had gotten into that school in over 5 years according to them.

VCU probably sends most of its successful med school applicants to VCU, EVMS, and VT. All comparable applicants at UVA will get into UVA med (80% in state acceptance rate if you get an interview).

If these are your options, take UVA if you're aiming for a top school, but be warned - UVA undergrad is incredibly rigorous and if you're not one of the best, you'll get weeded out fairly quickly. Of all my friends (who were top 10% in a fairly good high school) who went to UVA for premed, only one made it out successfully.

Are you up to the challenge?

 

[jyates1134]

LOL, I don't think JHU cares about the discrepancy to be honest. I'm totally serious. Who poisoned your mind with this? Get your numbers right, show them you have experience in health environments, don't be awkward in an interview, and don't sound fake in your personal statement and you'll be good. With a school like JHU, there's always some random luck involved in getting offered an interviewed or accepted, but that's the game when you want to apply to a hotshot school.

 

[Microglia]

LOL, I don't think JHU cares about the discrepancy to be honest. I'm totally serious. Who poisoned your mind with this? Get your numbers right, show them you have experience in health environments, don't be awkward in an interview, and don't sound fake in your personal statement and you'll be good. With a school like JHU, there's always some random luck involved in getting offered an interviewed or accepted, but that's the game when you want to apply to a hotshot school.

I second this for the most part. School name is largely overblown. The only time it matters is if you went to Yale, Harvard, Stanford and maybe a couple others so that schools can brag about the top students they admit. After that, it's a pretty even playing field.

Now, opportunities like research- those matter a lot.

 

[WedgeDawg]

I second this for the most part. School name is largely overblown. The only time it matters is if you went to Yale, Harvard, Stanford and maybe a couple others so that schools can brag about the top students they admit. After that, it's a pretty even playing field.

Disagree. If you look in my post history, I went through a recent Yale graduating class and looked at the % of med students that came from Ivies, Duke, MIT, Stanford.

http://forums.studentdoctor.net/thr...dical-school-admission.1132275/#post-16424231

^^^ if you're curious

There's clearly some sort of effect.

 

[Microglia]

Disagree. If you look in my post history, I went through a recent Yale graduating class and looked at the % of med students that came from Ivies, Duke, MIT, Stanford.

http://forums.studentdoctor.net/thr...dical-school-admission.1132275/#post-16424231

^^^ if you're curious

There's clearly some sort of effect.

Will give this a read post-work tomorrow, thanks for linking. I can tell you (anecdotally- so take with a grain of salt) that the admissions at the top 10 school I attend doesn't seem to care much where you went, though I haven't crunched the numbers for statistical significance.

 

[WedgeDawg]

Will give this a read post-work tomorrow, thanks for linking. I can tell you (anecdotally- so take with a grain of salt) that the admissions at the top 10 school I attend doesn't seem to care much where you went, though I haven't crunched the numbers for statistical significance.

From purely anecdotal evidence (so take with many grains of salt), at all of my top 15 interviews (only 4), 75%+ of students were from Ivies, Duke, Stanford, MIT, WashU, Hopkins (we had to go around and say where we went to school.. lol). Of course this is a small sample size, and anecdotal evidence means nothing, but I have a hard time believing that where you went to undergrad means nothing. Definitely could vary based on the medical school though, so our experiences may very well be completely different.

 

[justadream]

Scoring 1-2 points higher on the MCAT would probably make up any difference.

 

[jyates1134]

Also, double post. I don't they care about any honors anything.

 

[WedgeDawg]

Scoring 1-2 points higher on the MCAT would probably make up any difference.

I don't understand what you're trying to say here. There's no logical reason why we would assume that OP would go to VCU honors and score a (say) 37 but only score a (again, say) 35 at UVA.

Why not just go to UVA and get a 37 there, if we're assuming OP can get a 37 at VCU?

 

[justadream]

From purely anecdotal evidence (so take with many grains of salt), at all of my top 15 interviews (only 4), 75%+ of students were from Ivies, Duke, Stanford, MIT, WashU, Hopkins (we had to go around and say where we went to school.. lol). Of course this is a small sample size, and anecdotal evidence means nothing, but I have a hard time believing that where you went to undergrad means nothing. Definitely could vary based on the medical school though, so our experiences may very well be completely different.

Well the fact that a seemingly disproportionate amount come from top schools is not that surprising (even if schools gave 0.00 boost to people from top schools).

The top schools tend to have a disproportionate amount of students who are going to be successful (namely, high intelligence and/or strong work ethic and/or whatever other traits you think are part of being successful).

Admission to top schools is based on HS performance. HS performance is not a perfect predictor (what is?), but the valedictorian with 2400/2400 on the SAT (these type of people tend to go to top 10 schools) likely has the intelligence/work ethic that "predisposes" this person to being a competitive applicant for top schools. This type of person would likely be competitive for top schools no matter what ugrad s/he went to.

All of this being said, yes I do believe the "prestige" of a top school helps you (everything else being equal). I'm just trying to explain other reasons that likely also play a huge factor for the effect you described.

I don't understand what you're trying to say here. There's no logical reason why we would assume that OP would go to VCU honors and score a (say) 37 but only score a (again, say) 35 at UVA.

Why not just go to UVA and get a 37 there, if we're assuming OP can get a 37 at VCU?

Like you mentioned, getting the 37 from UVA would be better than 37 from VCU. I don't deny that. My point is that the prestige difference exists but probably doesn't mean much compared to, say, a few points on the MCAT. If everything else is equal, then yes going to UVA is better. I just don't think it is an absolutely huge difference.

 

[Copernicium]

From purely anecdotal evidence (so take with many grains of salt), at all of my top 15 interviews (only 4), 75%+ of students were from Ivies, Duke, Stanford, MIT, WashU, Hopkins (we had to go around and say where we went to school.. lol). Of course this is a small sample size, and anecdotal evidence means nothing, but I have a hard time believing that where you went to undergrad means nothing. Definitely could vary based on the medical school though, so our experiences may very well be completely different.

Had similar experiences...e.g., when I interviewed at UChicago, IIRC around 9 students (out of ~15) were from Harvard/Yale

 

[WedgeDawg]

@justadream

I think we agree with each other - I just wanted clarification on your post. Your second one has the details that the first left out, which now will allow OP to make a more informed decision.

The 4.0/40 student will do well wherever they go, but they're also the type of person who will be able to take full advantage of all of the resources that, say, MIT offers that VCU might not, making them even more competitive coming from MIT than from VCU. Additionally, I would say that a 4.0 at MIT (when you convert it from their weird 5 point scale, but that's beside the point) is infinitely more impressive than a 4.0 at VCU (which is comparatively a lot easier).

People use your school's name as a proxy for a lot of things. It's not always accurate, nor the right metric to use, but it's what happens.

Had similar experiences...e.g., when I interviewed at UChicago, IIRC around 9 students (out of ~15) were from Harvard/Yale

Nice signature

 

[WingedOx]

perspective: If you haven't even picked out a college it's WAY too early to be talking about Hopkins or any specific medical school. Dream or no dream.

 

[The Real SVB]

Isn't VCU undergrad like a **** school where anyone with a walking brain in VA would get in? That's my impression growing up with VA kids all the time. Their average GPA is a 2.5 or something and gradeinflation.com cites them as a deflating school but it's like uh when the average it's that low your students are probably crap

 

[WedgeDawg]

Isn't VCU undergrad like a **** school where anyone with a walking brain in VA would get in? That's my impression growing up with VA kids all the time. Their average GPA is a 2.5 or something and gradeinflation.com cites them as a deflating school but it's like uh when the average it's that low your students are probably crap

It's a very average state school. Definitely not the worst in Virginia, but not the best either.

 

[WingedOx]

Isn't VCU undergrad like a **** school where anyone with a walking brain in VA would get in? That's my impression growing up with VA kids all the time. Their average GPA is a 2.5 or something and gradeinflation.com cites them as a deflating school but it's like uh when the average it's that low your students are probably crap

Someone's jealous he didn't get to go to a Final Four...

 

[The Real SVB]

Someone's jealous he didn't get to go to a Final Four...

Nah, I gave up on college sports when I turned down a full ride + stipend a at UConn and attended somewhere in a conference of 8 schools often known for other reasons..

 

[WedgeDawg]

Nah, I gave up on college sports when I turned down a full ride + stipend a at UConn and attended somewhere in a conference of 8 schools often known for other reasons..

So you don't like Rugby, Hockey, Skiing, Rowing, Track & Field, or Squash?

 

[The Real SVB]

So you don't like Rugby, Hockey, Skiing, Rowing, Track & Field, or Squash?

Skiing? Do you even D1 bro

I'm Asian and those ain't my jam. I could count on two hands the number of Asians involved in all those sports at school.

 

[WedgeDawg]

Skiing? Do you even D1 bro

actually yeah

 

[The Real SVB]

actually yeah

Then you should know there are only 2 real sports: football and basketball

 

[WingedOx]

Nah, I gave up on college sports when I turned down a full ride + stipend a at UConn and attended somewhere in a conference of 8 schools often known for other reasons..

Jesus dude...

Penn students really all have their own ways of dealing with the neuroticism of not getting into HYP, don't they? Yours is apparently repeatedly making toolish postings on SDN about peoples' undergrad prestige, which means jack all once you take the next step (unless of course you want to have a reputation as being "that guy" in every residency).

Shame about college sports though, the Palestra is one of the cathedrals of college basketball.

 

[The Real SVB]

Jesus dude...

Penn students really all have their own ways of dealing with the neuroticism of not getting into HYP, don't they? Yours is apparently repeatedly making toolish postings on SDN about peoples' undergrad prestige, which means jack all once you take the next step (unless of course you want to have a reputation as being "that guy" in every residency).

Shame about college sports though, the Palestra is one of the cathedrals of college basketball.

Wait the only college I talked down was VCU and I clearly said it was based on other people's perspectives. I don't think UConn's a bad school. If I did I wouldn't have applied and definitely not seriously considered it. I was just making a joke about turning down a school with great sports to go to a relatively crap sports conference. That doesn't stroke my ego because, well, our sports do suck overall.

 

[Sunflower069]

Thanks for all the advice guys; this thread will help me make a more informed decision on what school to choose. Thanks so much!