No point to go to a top college with competitive and grade deflation

[claus1225]

Hi, I applied for med schools over 10 years ago (2 cycles). I got a couple interviews and no acceptances and eventually just gave up.

I worked super hard postbacc GPA (4.0) and MCAT 32. Overall gpa was around 3.6 (rounded off). BCPM was over 3.7

My only problem was I went to one of the most competitve and grading deflating school (top 20). I have plenty of good things to say about this school but they do not care about students (no accomodations like late withdraws like I learnt from other schools)

I only came back here to realize the mistakes I made and really not understanding the whole gaming aspect of the whole system. It's not how much effort you put in, but you how and where you put it smartly.

In reality, I could have gone to a top 50 or even top 100 school (or get as many A's in community colleges then transfer), get my 3.8 overall GPA and I think I would have been accepted to at least one private school somewhere or a DO school. I was interested in internal medicine so it hardly matters which medical school I go to.

The fact of matter is, the name of game of applying to med school is just GPA, regardless where you got the As you need.

And Yes, I had alot of clinical and research experience. But, they are an afterthought, at least when I applied.

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[claus1225]

If your only goal is go to a medical school, going to a big name top school with grade deflation actually works against you. You can work twice as hard and get a B+ while others get A with less effort.

 

[Conjecture]

Hi, I applied for med schools over 10 years ago (2 cycles). I got a couple interviews and no acceptances and eventually just gave up.

I worked super hard postbacc GPA (4.0) and MCAT 32. Overall gpa was around 3.6 (rounded off). BCPM was over 3.7

My only problem was I went to one of the most competitve and grading deflating school (top 20). I have plenty of good things to say about this school but they do not care about students (no accomodations like late withdraws like I learnt from other schools)

I only came back here to realize the mistakes I made and really not understanding the whole gaming aspect of the whole system. It's not how much effort you put in, but you how and where you put it smartly.

In reality, I could have gone to a top 50 or even top 100 school (or get as many A's in community colleges then transfer), get my 3.8 overall GPA and I think I would have been accepted to at least one private school somewhere or a DO school. I was interested in internal medicine so it hardly matters which medical school I go to.

The fact of matter is, the name of game of applying to med school is just GPA, regardless where you got the As you need.

And Yes, I had alot of clinical and research experience. But, they are an afterthought, at least when I applied.

If you applied 10 years ago and this is your best attempt at root cause analysis over a failed application cycle, then maybe then what held you back is a lack of insight.

 

[Bwesternn]

Hey you're trolling right? There's no way that you've thought about this for 10 years only to come to this conclusion. Maybe it's time to let it go and not return to a premed forum posting nonsense.

 

[Goro]

If your only goal is go to a medical school, going to a big name top school with grade deflation actually works against you. You can work twice as hard and get a B+ while others get A with less effort.

If one's only goal is to go to medical school, one shouldn't go to medical school.

3/10

 

[LizzyM]

I hear you but also have had masters students who attended grade deflating top 20 schools as undergrads and they had to work twice as hard and twice as long to eventually get into medical school.

If you gave up after 2 cycles, put the blame where it belongs, on you. It is true that a grade deflating school will make it harder to get into medical school but some of those same schools make it easier to launch a career outside of medicine if you decide not to go on to medical school.

There doesn't seem to be much point in posting here.... this is a message that needs to be heard by college-bound HS students who are applying to colleges and considering options.

Peace out.

 

[efle]

Weird to post this a decade later but agree with the gist. Hundreds of premed students are weeded out every year at colleges like Hopkins, WashU, Cornell, Berkeley, UCLA etc.

Some of them might have been "not cut out for it" or realized it wasn't worth the grind. But most just get screwed by the curved coursework, it's a competition against a bunch of other premeds who took lots of AP classes and scored top 1-2% on their SATs.

I've been convinced of this ever since plotting the WashU vs National data for grades and scores. When your students with 3.1 GPAs are outscoring national 3.7 GPAs, you are clearly grading too harshly and weeding out people who would have been competitive candidates for medschool.

 

[claus1225]

I only post this cus no one mention this grade deflation 10 or 20 years ago. Might I ask what was the state of this website in 2010? or 2000? or late 90's. How was I supposed to know? The whole college ranking from 1 to 50 or 100 is pretty irrelevant compare to GPA when you just want to get into any med school.

 

[voxveritatisetlucis]

I would still go to Princeton or another top school known for grade deflation. Most people switch what they want to do and the opportunities that come from having simply gone to a top college can’t be overstated.

 

[efle]

I would still go to Princeton or another top school known for grade deflation. Most people switch what they want to do and the opportunities that come from having simply gone to a top college can’t be overstated.

Idk man, I think a lot of the hundreds of weeded-out premeds wish they'd taken a scholarship to their state college honors track instead.

And I'd certainly tell someone to go to Harvard or Stanford instead of Princeton or MIT because of the free half point to their GPA!

 

[claus1225]

I would still go to Princeton or another top school known for grade deflation. Most people switch what they want to do and the opportunities that come from having simply gone to a top college can’t be overstated.

Most top private schools arent known for grade deflation. I can tell you the grading difference between UCLA and USC is night and day despite similar caliber of students and USC isn't even that lenient.

 

[claus1225]

Idk man, I think a lot of the hundreds of weeded-out premeds wish they'd taken a scholarship to their state college honors track instead.

And I'd certainly tell someone to go to Harvard or Stanford instead of Princeton or MIT because of the free half point to their GPA!

3.8 and 3.3 decides a person's career and life.

 

[Proudfather94]

If your only goal is go to a medical school, going to a big name top school with grade deflation actually works against you. You can work twice as hard and get a B+ while others get A with less effort.

True plus all of the unnecessary weedouts to get the premeds to leave. Averages in the 60s with a big curve for everything but an A. And the rampant cheating and profs that purposely test on crap they didn't teach so they can tank the average without having to work to do so.

 

[Hzreio]

3.8 and 3.3 decides a person's career and life.

This is pretty toxic. Plenty of people with worse stats than you and worse than 3.3 have gotten in. Have some accountability

 

[efle]

This is pretty toxic. Plenty of people with worse stats than you and worse than 3.3 have gotten in. Have some accountability

But let's be real for an otherwise typical applicant a -0.6 to their GPA would tank their app. On the AAMC grid for 3.7 vs 3.1, it's 43% vs 16% admitted, and that's for all applicants. If someone is ORM or from a competitive state, a 3.1 would put them into single digit success rates.

 

[Goro]

But let's be real for an otherwise typical applicant a -0.6 to their GPA would tank their app. On the AAMC grid for 3.7 vs 3.1, it's 43% vs 16% admitted, and that's for all applicants. If someone is ORM or from a competitive state, a 3.1 would put them into single digit success rates.

But one can still get into a DO school and still be a doctor.