Preferential treatment

[404]

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I know med schools say they dont give preferential treatment when considering undergrads from their own university over undergrads from else where. Do they actually follow through with that or are they just saying it?

I looked through some acceptance statistics of med schools, none of them were specific about which schools applicants where from...

 

[little_late_MD]

Pssst....no matter what they tell you, they give their own alumni a few extra points in the admission calculus.

The reason is very simple: graduate schools do anything they can within their power to improve their US News ranking. What is a big part of that ranking? That's right, the number of undergrads who continue on to the graduate school.

Schools will usually deny it until they're blue in the face, but my working in a graduate school's admission office has opened my eyes to many things.

 

[404]

bah, im in canada, but i suppose it going to be the same...
since my university (u of waterloo) doenst have a faculty of med, should I transfer to another one after one year of undergrad, like u of toronto for a better shot?

 

[StritchMD2011]

It's not true, some schools even admit it. My school, Creighton, used to hype up the "Creighton Advantage," which was the claim that they gave some advantage to their undergraduates when considering them for their numerous graduate schools. It definitely holds true for our Law, Physical Therapy, Occupational Therapy, and Pharmacy schools, and even for the Medical School to some extent. I know the typical first year med school class at Creighton has between 15 and 40 students who went to Creighton for undergrad.

 

[CaramelDlite]

There's definitely preferential treatment for undergrads. Maybe its favoritism, but the admissions committees also have the best knowledge about what their own undergrad students are doing academically, and can give these students the benefit of the doubt.

 

[404]

What's the magnitude of the 'advantage' though? just slightly or is it significant enough that I might have to consider transferring to a school that has a med faculty?