Should I transfer to a T20 from my small state school where I already excel?

[benji07]

This is going to be a long post, I’d really appreciate honest feedback on my situation. TL;DR: Should I leave my small state school where I already excel to go to a more prestigious university?

I currently go to a small state school, ranked around 200th in the nation to give an idea.

I am well connected with the school because it’s so close to my high school and I’m from the city, which has given me a lot of connections early on either through my brother who went here and then to med school here, or through friends I know.

I want to go to a prestigious medical school, preferably in a major city near me (NYC/Chicago).

Here is a little background on my experiences with the university and pre med preparation:

In terms of academics, I will have around 76 hours of course work done by the end of freshman year because this school accepted so many AP and ACT credits. I have also taken 19 credits my first semester and will take 23 the next. I have a 4.0 and the classes aren’t horrible. My gen eds are out of the way and I have plenty of people to guide me on what courses/instructors to take or who have access to past class resources. In high school, I had >3.9 gpa and a 34 on the ACT and some standard EC. I would replace most my high school EC with colleges ones besides 2 national competitions. I am aware that my progress academically wouldn’t shift over in a nice way, especially when transferring to a top university.

I have gotten pretty involved on campus, with the help of friends I already know in those clubs I’ve been able to get lots of exposure. I’ve changed the names, but here is what I’m involved in on campus:
- Currently organizing an Arabic cultural fair, it’s in the works but should take place at the start of Ramadan. I hope to make it an annual show
- Org promoting diversity in pre health fields, I’m on the executive board as the outreach chair and also serve on the research committee
- Undergraduate led research journal, focusing on getting the novel perspective of undergraduate research and making publishing more accessible for undergraduate students, I’m in the design cohort
- elementary school mentor program, general manager. I basically look over a group of 10 child/mentor pairs and direct them in activity
- Medical art club, new club on campus and I’m an artist for it submitting medical art work
- Spanish healthcare club, focused on removing language barriers in medicine
- PhiDE, script director for fashion show
I know this is a lot, and I’m not going to stay in all of it. I was hoping to drop out of clubs that aren’t of major interest to me after my first year, and I also want to get involved in clubs related to rock climbing and art.

Although it is a small school, I have managed to get into a very good lab that my brother told me about. This lab publishes a lot and the work is not terrible. In the coming few weeks, I’m expecting to publish a paper as a 3rd author, and will possibly do presentations on this research at state/regional conferences.

I also have 2 professors who I have gotten to know quite well and they gladly are writing letters of rec for study abroad scholarship opportunities over the coming summer. I’m sure they would also be open to writing transfer letters. One of them is my biology teacher who is also the advisor for a lot of the clubs I’m in on campus.

I have connections to the hospital on campus and my family has close connections with the doctor in the area I volunteer. Beyond volunteering in the hospital, I also volunteer in a free food pantry on campus and an elementary school mentor program. I’m going to start shadowing different departments to see what I like sometime second semester. I’m also looking into scribing after I get some experience in the clinical setting.

So, given all of my background at this school, I feel like I’m throwing away a perfect opportunity that’s been handed to me if I transfer. I want to transfer because:
- Prestige, I know private med schools prefer prestigious undergrads and the connections you form can make it easier to get into med school at the respective university
- Student life, my university is a “suitcase school,” where everyone goes home on the weekends and most of the students commute on the weekdays. This leaves the university life very dead.
- There isn’t a lot on or near campus, especially food.
- I excelled in high school, and I feel like I am throwing it away by going to this school even if I do have full tuition. There is a part of me feeling like I could push myself.

Please let me know what you would do. I have so much here but I have been here my whole life, and I want to get the true college experience. I feel like the best way to justify transferring for me is to go to a top university. I was thinking Columbia, Northwestern, and Vanderbilt as they are all excelled premed schools and in good areas.

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[LizzyM]

The top two things that matter to the top schools are going to be your GPA and your MCAT. Neither of those is dependent on where you go to school but are very much up to you.

If you are at a small school where you are getting to know faculty members quite well, it is likely that you are going to get good letters of recommendation from them. It is hard to get that kind of letter in a big school, particularly as a transfer.

It sounds like you are having good opportunities for leadership, non-clinical volunteering and clinical exposure. All are important when you make your application.

Having undergrad debt weighs heavily on many applicants to medical school so applying without debt from undergrad is huge and another reason to stay where you are given that you have a free ride (or free tuition).

 

[eigen]

I can't see any positives to transferring in your situation.

You have access to research, leadership opportunities, and clinical experience.

From what I infer, your school has a medical school attached- so even more resources there.

You're not going to incur any debt, and are able to be academically successful.

In my experience, the opportunities for learning are not much different between a 200-ranked and 20-ranked school. Both will have excellent faculty, and most coursework is pretty standard.

Can you elaborate on why you want to go to a prestigious medical school? I ask because this is something I hear a lot from younger students, but there's often not a well-articulated reason, and "because it's prestigious" really isn't one.

 

[benji07]

I can't see any positives to transferring in your situation.

You have access to research, leadership opportunities, and clinical experience.

From what I infer, your school has a medical school attached- so even more resources there.

You're not going to incur any debt, and are able to be academically successful.

In my experience, the opportunities for learning are not much different between a 200-ranked and 20-ranked school. Both will have excellent faculty, and most coursework is pretty standard.

Can you elaborate on why you want to go to a prestigious medical school? I ask because this is something I hear a lot from younger students, but there's often not a well-articulated reason, and "because it's prestigious" really isn't one.

The main reason is I’ve been in this city my whole life, and it’s feeling stagnant. A goal in my life is to see the world and I would love to get to live in a major city for undergrad. The student life here is dead and there’s not much to do on weekends. I also do feel like there is a factor that I want a prestigious name attached to my resume and may be ashamed of my current institution, but may not want to admit that part.

 

[grilledcheese]

OP,
I had a similar story where I went to a school where I've lived most of my life. It was in a small, overwhelmingly white school and I was having a hard time meeting POC and others like me there. I transferred to a much larger, much higher ranked school and don't regret it one bit. However, this is for social reasons, and not for pre-med reasons.

Take into account your family's financial situation as well. Tuition, along with living away from home, has proven more expensive.

There's also the facet of if somewhere along the line you realize being a physician is not for you, the types of non-physician jobs you can get from T20s are in a different league from those in other schools. Having connections and building that network can be invaluable. However, from a pure med school admissions standpoint, don't delude yourself into thinking that school name alone will make, break, or change your chances for med school. I won't go into detail here as many adcoms have posted about this above.

Finally, even if you apply to transfer there's no guarantee you will get in! My one tip is that in your transfer essays, make sure not to come off as talking bad about your old school (I didn't mention mine at all).

Good luck!

 

[LizzyM]

The only thing that really matters is the last place you went to school so if you can springboard into a top name medical school (or a top name residency from a state med school) no one will even care where you did undergrad.

 

[eigen]

Take my advice with a grain of salt, but I also went to a "dead" commuter school for undergrad: I chose it because it was something I could afford with scholarships and working.

I may have taken a hit in "the traditional student life", but that's also not why I was going to college: I wanted a quality education, and I didn't want to have an anchor of student debt weighing me down. Watching the trajectory my life was able to take vs. friends with $$ in undergrad debt, I'm super glad for the choices I made. It's given me a ton of freedom to take on opportunities that I couldn't have if I had loan repayments to make.

My school was far less prestigious than yours (no graduate programs, regional "compass point" state university) and it did not give me any issues in getting into grad school, finding jobs, or anything else. As mentioned, for most science fields the only thing that matters is the prestige of your "last" institution- and even then, being successful (publications, grants, etc.) will make up for a lot of loss of perceived prestige.

Networking can matter in some fields for finding jobs, but in my experience that mostly matters in a few areas (business / finance being one of the most prominent).

The desire to get out an explore is a good one: but I would also consider other opportunities for that that might be significantly cheaper than taking on student loan debt. Consider options like studying abroad, traveling over the summers, and doing things like REUs that will let you live in different parts of the country (or world). It's also worth remembering that you're going to (likely) be moving around a lot in the career you've chosen: somewhere new for medical school, somewhere new for residency, and potentially moving around for fellowships/other positions after that. It's worth considering whether or not having extra financial freedom post-graduation is more beneficial than moving away from home now as you're weighing that.

I've also had a number of students who've transferred from my current (not hugely dead) school to one that they perceived would be more social, and.... they found it was not. The "grass is greener" bit can be a real challenge.

 

[lacrossegirl420]

I think the reason you see more top undergrad representation at top med schools is because their applicants are on average much stronger. If you’re a great applicant from a unknown school I doubt any school will hold it against you

 

[Mr.Smile12]

Good admissions recruiters and professionals can find diamonds anywhere, including schools where one least expects them. Admissions teams are evaluated on the diversity of institutions represented in their classes, as well as the states of legal residency and other diversity metrics. Go to recruitment events hosted by the programs on your wishlist (virtual or in-person). See if you can participate in any summer programs at their universities.

I do not see any advantage in transferring "up" to a brand university. This isn't college athletics and the transfer portal. Get your networking going; present at regional or national meetings when you have research to show. Show you can navigate an academic environment well.

There are so many strong candidates from small liberal arts colleges who excel at the brand medical schools... check your prehealth advising office or your biology/college of science office if they keep track where alumni have gone for medical school.

 

[Hollow Knight]

I want to go to a prestigious medical school, preferably in a major city near me (NYC/Chicago).

Why?

- Student life, my university is a “suitcase school,” where everyone goes home on the weekends and most of the students commute on the weekdays. This leaves the university life very dead.
- There isn’t a lot on or near campus, especially food.

So, this isn't a career question, it's a "I want to have fun in college" question. My experience was similar to @eigen in that I went to a dumpy school that I could afford. I'm in the same MD school as my classmates from Hopkins. There's nothing wrong with wanting to enjoy college, but we're all here to give you career advice. If I was your older brother, I'd tell you not to pay an extra dime to improve "the college experience" (whatever that means anyway), but that's just my useless opinion. If you come from wealth, this isn't a huge deal. If you're like most Americans, borrowing extra money for better student life is almost certainly a bad idea.

- I excelled in high school, and I feel like I am throwing it away by going to this school even if I do have full tuition. There is a part of me feeling like I could push myself.

Why is this degree wasted? Plenty of college degrees aren't marketable. It's not a question of "Is this hard/prestigious?" it's a question of "Will this major at this school get me hired?" A biology degree from Vanderbilt is no more employable than my biology degree from my undergrad (at least that's my understanding anyways)

Now of course if you're at an ivy undergrad you can get a business degree and then start consulting. But I'm not sure if the schools you mentioned are that fancy.

Please let me know what you would do. I have so much here but I have been here my whole life, and I want to get the true college experience. I feel like the best way to justify transferring for me is to go to a top university. I was thinking Columbia, Northwestern, and Vanderbilt as they are all excelled premed schools and in good areas.

Don't transfer. I can almost guarantee you that you'll be in significantly more debt for basically no benefit.

Now, if you have infinite funds, that's different, but even then, med schools aren't going to care about your school name, they care about your grades/MCAT. The only way this would help you slightly is if you got into a more productive lab at one of these schools.

Now, if you want to transfer just to have more fun, that's your call. My parents couldn't help pay for school, so for me that was out of the question.

 

[Mr.Smile12]

I will mention:

1) You will need transcripts from both schools.

2) Schools attended are generally blinded during file review (albeit nor perfectly if you wound up doing a lot of activities where school name is used)

 

[candbgirl]

Did you apply to some of these big name schools when you were initially applying to college? Where you accepted? Why did you decide on your current school? Do your parents support this move? Will they be helping with the costs which be significantly higher. Chicago (Evanston) and New York are expensive places to live and learn. Have you visited these campuses? And I don’t mean walking around. Have you talked to current students about their experiences?
None of us can talk you out of transferring especially since the only reason you seem to want to transfer is to have a “true college” experience(whatever that is). And why on earth would you be ashamed of your current school? They are paying your tuition and you seem to have found plenty of opportunities to expand your application. Stay put, be out of debt when you start med school.

 

[pazzer2]

Going to a higher ranked undergraduate institution won't necessarily help your pre-med application. I agree with the others. If you want a better social experience, consider studying abroad. Lots of med schools will want someone like you, as long as you continue to get good grades and MCAT.

The only fields where undergrad prestige matters a lot are consulting and finance. In medicine, it matters very little.