Med students please help!

[aragorn200]

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I dont want to waste your valuable time ,so I'll go straight to the point.

Everyone knows that in order to go to med school, in addition to decent MCAT and etc,
you pretty much need to be the top of your class in college.

So the question is, if that's true, is going to the best (in terms of academic rigorousness) college
that one is accepted a bad idea?

For instance, say I'm accepted both from Johns Hopkins and Boston College.
Sure JHU is much more competitive school than BC, so by that logic,
it's harder to be the top and thus harder to go to Med school from.

Some people say Med school admission do consider the names, and some don't
which is true?

 

[thlaxer]

I dont want to waste your valuable time ,so I'll go straight to the point.

Everyone knows that in order to go to med school, in addition to decent MCAT and etc,
you pretty much need to be the top of your class in college.

So the question is, if that's true, is going to the best (in terms of academic rigorousness) college
that one is accepted a bad idea?

For instance, say I'm accepted both from Johns Hopkins and Boston College.
Sure JHU is much more competitive school than BC, so by that logic,
it's harder to be the top and thus harder to go to Med school from.

Some people say Med school admission do consider the names, and some don't
which is true?

I do think that name/program rigor matters to some extent. At most of my interviews, a lot of the interviewees came from well known institutions (this was more apparent at the 'top schools'). I found out on the interview trial that my school has a reputation of academic rigor/grade deflation, so my A- GPA got a few "wow that must've been so hard!" remarks from interviewers. I doubt they would've reacted as positively if I had gotten the same GPA at a relatively unknown school. So in that sense it helps a bit if you have a competitive GPA. If your GPA isn't competitive though, the name of your school isn't going to help much in my opinion.

Go to somewhere where you know you can succeed academically. Even at the 'top-ranked' medical schools you'll see people from many different backgrounds (i.e. not having gone to top X undergrad schools, etc.). You'll likely need to do more at the lesser known colleges though imo in order to stand out from the crowd..

Other things to consider: what resources does Boston College have for premed students (e.g. in terms of volunteering, research and shadowing opportunities, etc.)? How do Boston College's premeds do in medical school admissions?

 

[JRWPREMED]

I don't think it matters all that much to be honest. Adcoms know that schools are different, professors are different, and grading is different. This is why we have the MCAT. With all of the variables in medical schools admissions, the MCAT is the only one that remains constant through and through. It is an easy way for adcoms to compare students from different universities using a set scale.

 

[iforget2]

Undergraduate school doesn't matter too much as long as it's not a community college. And there's no top of your class or bottom of your class in college. It's all just GPA. So when you get to college don't worry about other people's gpa's but yours.

 

[Brachyury]

I dont want to waste your valuable time ,so I'll go straight to the point.

Everyone knows that in order to go to med school, in addition to decent MCAT and etc,
you pretty much need to be the top of your class in college.

So the question is, if that's true, is going to the best (in terms of academic rigorousness) college
that one is accepted a bad idea?

For instance, say I'm accepted both from Johns Hopkins and Boston College.
Sure JHU is much more competitive school than BC, so by that logic,
it's harder to be the top and thus harder to go to Med school from.

Some people say Med school admission do consider the names, and some don't
which is true?

Think of it this way: if the quality of your UG school matters even a little, then yes, it does matter. I graduated from a top LAC, and on my interviews, the quality of my instiution was brought up over-and-over again. At my LAC--and at peer instiutions--the rule of thumb is that as long as you can earn a 3.3 GPA, you should have no problem getting into med school.

Finally, don't write off LACs: you'll get a better education at Washington and Lee than at Hopkins

Good luck!

 

[mmmcdowe]

Think of it this way: if the quality of your UG school matters even a little, then yes, it does matter. I graduated from a top LAC, and on my interviews, the quality of my instiution was brought up over-and-over again. At my LAC--and at peer instiutions--the rule of thumb is that as long as you can earn a 3.3 GPA, you should have no problem getting into med school.

Finally, don't write off LACs: you'll get a better education at Washington and Lee than at Hopkins

Good luck!

I think that high quality LACs are a great option, so long as they aren't isolated in the middle of nowhere and that they have a robust research scene. Having no volunteering or research options is a problem.

 

[Brachyury]

I think that high quality LACs are a great option, so long as they aren't isolated in the middle of nowhere and that they have a robust research scene. Having no volunteering or research options is a problem.

With a few exception, the top LACs are in the middle of nowhere. Besides, it's not like there are any hospitals or doctors you can shadow in rural areas. I mean c'mon, we all know there are no physicians in any rural area of America

The top LACs have the financial resources and small student-to-faculty ratios to allow students to get involved with research

 

[Lil Mick]

I do think that there are advantages to being at an academically-rigorous school with a strong track-record of students getting into medical programs. For instance, I went to a pretty good undergraduate school--but not a top 20 school--and wound up wanting to apply to MD/PhD programs. My advisor had no idea what the application process entailed, how competitive I was, what interviews would be like (usually 2+ days instead of half a day)... When I interviewed, most students were from schools with a long history of sending students to MD/PhD programs and hadn't had to research everything themselves.

Unless you're in this sort of situation, going to the school at which you would be most comfortable academically and as a person is probably more important than the name. However, if it is an extremely small school with few students being accepted to medical school, you may want to go elsewhere.

 

[mmmcdowe]

With a few exception, the top LACs are in the middle of nowhere. Besides, it's not like there are any hospitals or doctors you can shadow in rural areas. I mean c'mon, we all know there are no physicians in any rural area of America

The top LACs have the financial resources and small student-to-faculty ratios to allow students to get involved with research

A small student clinic with a hospital 45+ minutes away is not ideal IMO. Plus, there is something to be said for diversity of options for medical and non-medical volunteering.

 

[mcworbust]

I don't think it matters all that much to be honest. Adcoms know that schools are different, professors are different, and grading is different. This is why we have the MCAT. With all of the variables in medical schools admissions, the MCAT is the only one that remains constant through and through. It is an easy way for adcoms to compare students from different universities using a set scale.

Truth. Either one is a great school, although I'm sure more research opportunities at JHU. Just go wherever you are most happy, do decent in your classes but really try and understand what you are learning - do this and all your classes will be easier and it'll help you crush the MCAT (and take a lighter load Junior spring so you can study for the MCAT!).