Newly-opened medical schools - competition?

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PCxX

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By the time I graduate undergrad, several new schools will have opened.

As it stands, my GPA as of now is quite low, (3.2ish), but I hope to get it above a 3.50 by the time I graduate.

Are newer medical schools typically easier to matriculate into than more established ones? If so, by what margin typically?

If so, this is good news to me if I can't get into the 3.60+ range (will need to basically get non-stop As for the rest of my college career).
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PCxX said:
By the time I graduate undergrad, several new schools will have opened.

As it stands, my GPA as of now is quite low, (3.2ish), but I hope to get it above a 3.50 by the time I graduate.

Are newer medical schools typically easier to matriculate into than more established ones? If so, by what margin typically?

If so, this is good news to me if I can't get into the 3.60+ range (will need to basically get non-stop As for the rest of my college career).
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One would think so, huh?
But the schools typically beef up their sexiness by offering the initial class sensual scholarship packages to such a degree that it borders on... Well, you know.

In other words, they aren't necessarily "easy" to get into either.
 
Frazier said:
One would think so, huh?
But the schools typically beef up their sexiness by offering the initial class sensual scholarship packages to such a degree that it borders on... Well, you know.

In other words, they aren't necessarily "easy" to get into either.
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I'm certain that they are by no means "easy." But, given I'd much rather get an M.D. than a D.O. (though I'm not against a D.O. if an M.D. is out of the question), a less competitive allopathic school would certainly be nice.

How much easier are newer schools to get into relative to older more established schools on average?
 
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Well I know that one med-school opening in my area will probably be more competitive than other med-schools in my state just because of the scholarship deal they are offering students as well as the associated hospital being very well-established and the school being in a very upper-class suburb which features a lot of students who used to be forced to relocate for med-school, but now they will have the option to stay home.
 
It is highly variable, but for the most part, I would agree that most new med schools are a little easier to get into. For students with multiple acceptances, they don't want to risk poor board scores, etc. because of a new school. No one wants to be the guinea pig.

Still, there are enough applicants out there that the average scores are pretty close. If I had to guess, on average a lower gpa of .1 and a lower MCAT of 1 point. There are just too many qualified applicants for MD programs these days.
 
Due to the difficulty of getting loans for the first few classes, when the school is not yet fully accredited (Hasn't graduated their first class), many new schools offer full or near full scholarship. This make them awful appealling to many, even though it is an unproved school. The upside, even if the schools aren't "easier to get into" is that any new school increases the number of seats in the country, making it easier to get into any med school, on that level.

This does not neccessarily translate into lower GPA or MCAT average, but perhaps a universal lessening of MCAT and GPA "inflation" for that year.
 
VTCSOM's inaugural class was super competitive
 
How about the new UC med schools? Riverside: in 2012, and Merced in 2015
 
CaliGirl14 said:
How about the new UC med schools? Riverside: in 2012, and Merced in 2015
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Given that they're in CA and still won't make up for the net surplus of pre-med students in the state, they'll still be super competitive, but I would imagine significantly less so than UCLA/UCSF/UCSD.
 
CaliGirl14 said:
How about the new UC med schools? Riverside: in 2012, and Merced in 2015
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I knew about UCR, but Merced is opening a med school too? Four years ago they were opening their undergrad doors. Woah.
 
bookfreak89 said:
I knew about UCR, but Merced is opening a med school too? Four years ago they were opening their undergrad doors. Woah.
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That's true, but at least if you get in, they'll attract you with nice financial aid packages...hopefully :xf:
 
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What some people said: it more depends on the reputation of the previously established hospital system and possibly an established graduate school. In that case, really the only new thing would be the curriculum, which is really the case for many schools lately. I myself would be a little hesitant due to the residency directors opinions, but scholarships always turn heads.
 
Jrsharp70 said:
VTCSOM's inaugural class was super competitive
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:confused:

I don't think any statistics exist for VTC yet as the class isn't complete. Are you thinking of another school?
 
Oakland University (in Michigan) is taking applications this cycle. Nobody knows how competitive any of the schools will be until after at least one cycle.
 
Also King's College is opening a new Medschool in Tenn. It is really great to be a pre-med in Tennessee lol.
 
Great for premeds on the borderline. Bad for future doctors?
 
Brigade4Radiant said:
Residency spots haven't increased and wont increase for sometime so more like bad for Medstudents.
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Amount of residency spots has increased....just not as much as it needs to.
 
PCxX said:
By the time I graduate undergrad, several new schools will have opened.

As it stands, my GPA as of now is quite low, (3.2ish), but I hope to get it above a 3.50 by the time I graduate.

Are newer medical schools typically easier to matriculate into than more established ones? If so, by what margin typically?

If so, this is good news to me if I can't get into the 3.60+ range (will need to basically get non-stop As for the rest of my college career).
Click to expand...

Doubt it. They'll have the same number of applicants, even if fewer want to go there.
 
masturhu said:
Oakland University (in Michigan) is taking applications this cycle. Nobody knows how competitive any of the schools will be until after at least one cycle.
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I suspect Oakland's med-school to be pretty competitive, the only downside is the price, but there will be solid scholarships. OU gave out more money in scholarships than Harvard did four years ago.
 
Merced is actually opening their medical school in the Fall of 2013 NOT 2015.
I took some time to contact the schools, to get a direct answer to the question of what the stats of the inaugural classes to these two schools are anticipated to be. Both UCs gave me similar number (approx. 3.7 GPA, 32 MCAT), which is consistent with most of the other UCs. I think that might be on the low end since applicants with those stats are currently being forced out of state.

As those mentioned, while you would think that new M.D. programs would have weaker stats, they actually do not. UCF had very strong stats because they offered free tuition to their inaugural class. There are too many applicants with high stats being turned away that the averages of these new schools is still going to be around 30 MCAT, 3.5 GPA (higher for CA schools).


bookfreak89 said:
I knew about UCR, but Merced is opening a med school too? Four years ago they were opening their undergrad doors. Woah.
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sustentacular- some of the main points of the article relevant to this thread.

-During the past 4 years, 15 institutions have officially notified the LCME of their intent to start a new medical school. 6 have been granted preliminary accreditation, 2 have put their plans on indefinite hold.

-Commonwealth Medical College enrolled a charter class of 65 students in the summer of 2009. Despite having been awarded preliminary accreditation at a relatively late date, the school received more than 1500 applications. The school will increase its enrollment in the summer of 2011.

-VT-Carilion SOM plans maintain a class size of 40 students.
 
University of Central Florida after opening its doors was the most competitive med school in the nation because of the scholarship deal, i think it took around 45 out of 4500 applications... those are not good odds lol
 
alexandertg6 said:
University of Central Florida after opening its doors was the most competitive med school in the nation because of the scholarship deal, i think it took around 45 out of 4500 applications... those are not good odds lol
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They accepted only 45 people? So the class size is only 20ish maybe. No way every student that was accepted matriculated.
 
TexasPhysician said:
They accepted only 45 people? So the class size is only 20ish maybe. No way every student that was accepted matriculated.
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I'm pretty sure they accepted more. But since everyone was getting a full scholarship, they didn't have to accept too many. I've heard 42-43ish ended up being matriculated.

They don't have those scholarships this year though - and their class size has increased as well. Let's see how those admission stats change. When I applied this year, they told me "we will only interview approximately 325 of our 3,764 applicants for our 60 seat class"
 
strummin said:
I'm pretty sure they accepted more. But since everyone was getting a full scholarship, they didn't have to accept too many. I've heard 42-43ish ended up being matriculated.

They don't have those scholarships this year though - and their class size has increased as well. Let's see how those admission stats change. When I applied this year, they told me "we will only interview approximately 325 of our 3,764 applicants for our 60 seat class"
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Those stats are about right. If they have 60 seats, they will need to accept probably 120+. Many schools interview 3x what they plan to accept to be sure they are happy with the students they get + make sure they have plenty of students on the waitlist whom they would be happy with also.
 
Catalystik said:
University of Central Florida opened a new med school last fall. The premier class median stats were MCAT 32 and cGPA 3.78.
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They also have someone with a 45.

:O



strummin said:
I'm pretty sure they accepted more. But since everyone was getting a full scholarship, they didn't have to accept too many. I've heard 42-43ish ended up being matriculated.

They don't have those scholarships this year though - and their class size has increased as well. Let's see how those admission stats change. When I applied this year, they told me "we will only interview approximately 325 of our 3,764 applicants for our 60 seat class"
Click to expand...


They don't have the full-ride scholarships this year, but I recently received an e-mail from the director of admissions that says they will be able to offer some form of scholarship to every member of the incoming class.


The school itself is incredibly impressive, tuition isn't very high, they have a good track record for scholarships, and the small class sizes makes for a competitive program to get into.
 
Our charter class for UCF is 41. As for the competition it may not have been as high as the first class but it was still fierce. Some applicants begged for a seat but when they found out they was not getting a free ride they declined. Not everyone just wants the money some people want to be close to home or just like the idea of making their mark. Once we get a set of step 1 scores more people will want to come because I know the charter class will rock.
 
New schools are often just as competitive, although their admission stats wouldn't necessarily indicate such. When a school is created, they have an approved growth rate. It takes many years to get to max capacity. FSU graduated a few classes before they reached max capacity. 40 or so for a first class is a pretty standard number.

I personally rather go to a well established DO school than a brand new MD school. There are no indications of a school's age really hampering one's ability to match, but I just never liked the feeling of being the guinee pig.
 
MossPoh said:
I personally rather go to a well established DO school than a brand new MD school. There are no indications of a school's age really hampering one's ability to match, but I just never liked the feeling of being the guinee pig.
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Hmmm..... Not trying to start a flame here, but talking about guinea pigs, most people do not even know what a DO training is all about. Anyway, good for u.
 
MossPoh said:
New schools are often just as competitive, although their admission stats wouldn't necessarily indicate such. When a school is created, they have an approved growth rate. It takes many years to get to max capacity. FSU graduated a few classes before they reached max capacity. 40 or so for a first class is a pretty standard number.

I personally rather go to a well established DO school than a brand new MD school. There are no indications of a school's age really hampering one's ability to match, but I just never liked the feeling of being the guinee pig.
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the guinea pig aspect is true, however many times for these 2 years I felt like a guinea pig myself, and my school is among the oldest....
 
Most people that got accepted to UCF had other acceptances to MD schools. As for DO by my name it could have happened ONLY if I was rejected at all my MD choices.
 
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While there sounds to be many benefits to applying to a school with preliminary accreditation (aside from being the test group), but what are the risks? Do schools ever loose this preliminary accreditation? If so, what do the students do? I am interested in Oakland but am a little hesitant that they aren't fully accredited yet (this will be their first year). Is it possible I could do 3 years of school and then be SOL?
 
oaklandguy said:
Well I know that one med-school opening in my area will probably be more competitive than other med-schools in my state just because of the scholarship deal they are offering students as well as the associated hospital being very well-established and the school being in a very upper-class suburb which features a lot of students who used to be forced to relocate for med-school, but now they will have the option to stay home.
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I'm hearing OU will be a private institution too? Even though their undegrad is public. Is this true? Ha, sorry if it's a "stupid" question. Haven't really looked into this.
 
I'm sure this has been said, just because a school is new that doesn't mean that their standards will be low. Some will make them high right off the bat to establish themselves as a "top notch" school/program even if they don't have any prior things to show for it. UCI started a business school not to long ago, and every single person that was accepted into the program had a 4.0 GPA. :rolleyes:
 
oaklandguy said:
Well I know that one med-school opening in my area will probably be more competitive than other med-schools in my state just because of the scholarship deal they are offering students as well as the associated hospital being very well-established and the school being in a very upper-class suburb which features a lot of students who used to be forced to relocate for med-school, but now they will have the option to stay home.
Click to expand...

Do you think people would take a slot there over a slot at Wayne?
 
You need to remember that these new schools start off with small classes, generally about 40 seats and they add seats each year. I don't consider these newer schools any easier to get into because the limited spots allows them to be much more selective than a comparable school with 150 openings.
 
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