UCLA undergrad for elite medical school

[ucla_mimg_2019]

Hello everyone, I am currently a sophomore at UCLA studying MIMG. I've been having a crisis recently, as I've come to doubt the prestige of UCLA (being the reject of ivies and other top 10 colleges). I want more than anything to attend an elite medical school, but the prospect of doing so from UCLA seems slim to none. I know top 10 medical schools vastly prefer grads of top 10 colleges, which is why I'm so incredibly worried that my hope to attend a top-notch medical school will be lessened by the name on my diploma. Do any of you out there have advice pertaining to how to stand out in a applicant pool having come from a huge university without much pull in the prestige department? And how to go from a school like UCLA to an ivy/elite medical school. Thank you so, so much. Any and all input would be appreciated!

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[ZedsDed]

Do any of you out there have advice pertaining to how to stand out in a applicant pool having come from a huge university without much pull in the prestige department? And how to go from a school like UCLA to an ivy/elite medical school. Thank you so, so much. Any and all input would be appreciated!

"Slim-to-none" is extremely hyperbolic.

It's pretty simple:
1) Get a high GPA (easier said than done for most.)
2) Get a high MCAT score (easier said than done for most.)
3) Don't drink and drive/do drugs in public/murder prostitutes.
4) Volunteer.
5) Do meaningful research.
6) Be unique and interesting!

 

[socalrulez]

why'd you choose mimg, that's shooting yourself in the foot gpa wise. MCAT gotta be even higher to make up for it if you want a shot at the "elite" med schools

 

[ucla_mimg_2019]

why'd you choose mimg, that's shooting yourself in the foot gpa wise. MCAT gotta be even higher to make up for it if you want a shot at the "elite" med schools

Because it is what genuinely interests me! What major do you suggest?

 

[Doudline]

 

[socalrulez]

psychobio. Also, why the fascination with an "elite" med school. Unless you're going academic medicine, it's not going to change that much. Chasing prestige is a slippery slope.

 

[ZedsDed]

why'd you choose mimg, that's shooting yourself in the foot gpa wise. MCAT gotta be even higher to make up for it if you want a shot at the "elite" med schools

Relative to Ivy League schools, there is no such thing as a non-deflating hard-science major at UCLA. That being said, MIMG isn't as notoriously destructive vis-a-vis GPA as, say, chemical engineering is.

 

[ZedsDed]

psychobio. Also, why the fascination with an "elite" med school. Unless you're going academic medicine, it's not going to change that much. Chasing prestige is a slippery slope.

There are obvious benefits to going to a top school, but having an unhealthy obsession is never a good thing. @ucla_mimg_2019 just do the best you can.

 

[socalrulez]

Looking at mdapps profiles, you'll see plenty of people from lower UC's and USC who have ~4.0 and 38+ mcat who have gotten tons of invites from hopkins, chicago, harvard, etc. Obviously the name of the school hasn't deterred them from reaching their goals. Note the caveat, that they have stellar grades and mcats

 

[Doremonster]

And so the new generation of neurotic pre-meds have set foot on thee SDN boards

 

[ucla_mimg_2019]

Thank you all for your replies

 

[ZedsDed]

And so the new generation of neurotic pre-meds have set foot on thee SDN boards

This is nothing. Wait until he comes back three years from now: "omfg I only have a 3.9/40! Am I completely ****ed?! Which low-tier schools should I apply to?!"

 

[ucla_mimg_2019]

This is nothing. Wait until he comes back three years from now: "omfg I only have a 3.9/40! Am I completely ****ed?! Which low-tier schools should I apply to?!"

I would kill to be in that position

 

[ZedsDed]

I would kill to be in that position

As a fellow bruin let me give you some advice:

Respect your competition. I took most of my core courses at UCB, but I hear the premeds in intro bio at UCLA are absolutely ruthless. Look at what the "A" students are doing, and go a step beyond that. I've seen many smart but lazy/inefficient premeds get weeded out sophomore year.

 

[swollcat]

Hello everyone, I am currently a sophomore at UCLA studying MIMG. I've been having a crisis recently, as I've come to doubt the prestige of UCLA (being the reject of ivies and other top 10 colleges). I want more than anything to attend an elite medical school, but the prospect of doing so from UCLA seems slim to none. I know top 10 medical schools vastly prefer grads of top 10 colleges, which is why I'm so incredibly worried that my hope to attend a top-notch medical school will be lessened by the name on my diploma. Do any of you out there have advice pertaining to how to stand out in a applicant pool having come from a huge university without much pull in the prestige department? And how to go from a school like UCLA to an ivy/elite medical school. Thank you so, so much. Any and all input would be appreciated!

I'm sorry to say this, but you'd be extremely asinine to think that UCLA won't be able to get you into the school of your dreams. The reason why you're not getting in is on you, and only you. Go to UCLA, get a killer GPA, get real with your service, and knock the MCAT out of the park and you're a viable candidate at any ELITE school. I have two friends, one from UCSD and the other from UCLA that got into Stanford and Harvard SOM.

 

[getdown]

Hello everyone, I am currently a sophomore at UCLA studying MIMG. I've been having a crisis recently, as I've come to doubt the prestige of UCLA (being the reject of ivies and other top 10 colleges). I want more than anything to attend an elite medical school, but the prospect of doing so from UCLA seems slim to none. I know top 10 medical schools vastly prefer grads of top 10 colleges, which is why I'm so incredibly worried that my hope to attend a top-notch medical school will be lessened by the name on my diploma. Do any of you out there have advice pertaining to how to stand out in a applicant pool having come from a huge university without much pull in the prestige department? And how to go from a school like UCLA to an ivy/elite medical school. Thank you so, so much. Any and all input would be appreciated!

My questions are:
1. What is it you're trying to gain by going to an "elite" medical school?
2. What exactly makes them "elite" in your opinion besides just the name recognition.
3. How does going to an "elite" medical school tangibly effect your career as a physician? Besides of course being able to stroke your ego by saying you graduated from "insert elite med school name here"

 

[neekzg]

UCLA is a great school; whether you get into a great medical school will completely depend on you. There are plenty UCLA alums at top programs, but there are also many others as programs all across the board and many more who do not get in anywhere.

 

[doctorleospaceman]

The school doesn't matter. Your personality and attitude on the other hand....

 

[NotASerialKiller]

When you go to Harvard they teach you the real medicine

 

[getdown]

When you go to Harvard they teach you the real medicine

yes, which is get your MBA and get an admin position in the hospital. Don't use any of your medical knowledge but cut services across the board so you can earn your millions on the backs of patients and your colleagues.

 

[md-2020]

As a freshman who has been on campus for less than a month, OP should not be worrying about "elite medical schools" right now. Or medical schools in general, really.


To be honest this thread indicates "I'm wildly insecure about my UG institution, how can I compensate."

 

[WedgeDawg]

You can go wherever you want from UCLA provided you have a high GPA and stellar MCAT with ECs to match. This is true for basically any school. Good luck.

 

[claduva94]

Furthermore, the elite med school or bust mentality screams inflated ego to me (which is quite common among premeds who are used o being the smartest and brightest). From what I have seen, those sort of people have a higher likelihood of being disillusioned and applying to a poor list of schools. Is there any harm in aspiring for an elite school? No. But limiting your sights is only doing yourself a disservice.

 

[Psai]

It's much harder to make it into an elite medical school than it is an elite undergraduate. If you want to be an academic physician, I understand. Going to the best place that you can makes sense. But wanting to go to an prestigious school just to have prestige is a little immature.

 

[Claussen]

To be honest, you sound like you're in the field for all the wrong reasons. That's like taking the fast-track to burnout.

 

[efle]

This thread is ridiculous. UCLA is an extremely well known and well regarded institution. No medical school is going to think "oh he's only from UCLA no shot for us"

 

[md-2020]

Chances are OP won't even be a pre-med this time next year, once that Bruin blitz grading curve catches up to him @ZedsDed 😛

 

[mrspecialist]

Get a 38 MCAT, it's pretty common at UCLA.

 

[ZedsDed]

Chances are OP won't even be a pre-med this time next year, once that Bruin blitz grading curve catches up to him @ZedsDed 😛

Oh stop it 😛, I'm sure op will be fine. You guys are going to give the poor kid a heart attack lol

Here OP, I'll take the mystery out of it for you:
http://www.career.ucla.edu/Students/Resources-Reports-and-Media/Med-School-Stats
Disclaimer: it's a tiny sample size

 

[getdown]

Chances are OP won't even be a pre-med this time next year, once that Bruin blitz grading curve catches up to him @ZedsDed 😛

I also think it's funny that OP assumes he'll just waltz into UCLA and just bulldoze every other premed who happens to be the best from their school. But I agree, OP for in a rude awakening.

 

[md-2020]

Oh stop it 😛, I'm sure op will be fine. You guys are going to give the poor kid a heart attack lol

Well to be fair what I said is statistically true. Given a generic pre-med, I can hypothesize with high confidence that they will not matriculate to medical school. 😀 Especially at a deflationary large public like UCLA. Props to all of ya'll succeeding at places like that, I have no doubt I'd be among the drop-outs.

 

[Pusheen]

threads like this make me facepalm. Go look at the UG alma mater lists of good medical schools. Plenty of them have matriculants from random unknown colleges and state schools. And I don't believe that those people had to cure cancer or get a 4.0 GPA to get an interview there.

Also, major eyeroll at UCLA not being a prestigious enough school

 

[Cyberdyne 101]

When you go to Harvard they teach you the real medicine

Nah, the real medicine is taught at Mayo.

 

[after_the_flood]

I feel like this is not worth gracing with a response, but for what its worth I've been to several interviews this season and UCLA has been very, very heavily represented at some great schools.

 

[efle]

UCLA churns out an insane number of premeds. 13% of their graduating class applies to med school (more than any other public university) which is over 900 people each year. Considering the high quality of the UCLA student body I'd be shocked to hear of any Top 20 MD that did not interview UCLA students each cycle.

 

[Cyberdyne 101]

I'm not really one to comment on pre-med neuroticism, but this is easily one of the most ridiculous threads I've seen on SDN. This ivy league tunnel vision really gets out of hand sometimes. I mean, does the OP realize that UCLA has a top ranked med school and hospital? In addition, the med school gives out free rides to at least 30 students every year!

I am utterly baffled...

 

[C02232934]

UCLA churns out an insane number of premeds. 13% of their graduating class applies to med school (more than any other public university) which is over 900 people each year. Considering the high quality of the UCLA student body I'd be shocked to hear of any Top 20 MD that did not interview UCLA students each cycle.

The fact is that none of the public schools (even Berkeley) carry the prestige factor that the Ivy League schools do. Which is why we don't see the same level of tolerance for low GPAs from Berkeley that we would for applicants from certain Ivy League schools (despite the added advantage of grade inflation...)

 

[tortelliniboy]

What about getting into any Med school

 

[Lawpy]

What about getting into any Med school

The elites are the main guys to overcome before challenging the champion.

 

[Pusheen]

What about getting into any Med school

Only losers go to those pleb schools

 

[efle]

The fact is that none of the public schools (even Berkeley) carry the prestige factor that the Ivy League schools do. Which is why we don't see the same level of tolerance for low GPAs from Berkeley that we would for applicants from certain Ivy League schools (despite the added advantage of grade inflation...)

Agree to disagree, Berkeley easily has more name recognition than non-HYP ivies do. I'd need to see some data to believe the GPA bar is set any differently for someone from Cornell vs Berkeley

 

[WingedOx]

What kind of screwed up worldview does someone have to have where they can be attending a school like UCLA and complaining that it isn't prestigious enough for them?

 

[efle]

What kind of screwed up worldview does someone have to have where they can be attending a school like UCLA and complaining that it isn't prestigious enough for them?

I knew a couple people in high school that were pissed they were going to Duke and Cornell instead of Harvard. Its cray

 

[Goro]

Yup! You can fill every seat in every medical school in CA with UCLA grads alone.

UCLA churns out an insane number of premeds. 13% of their graduating class applies to med school (more than any other public university) which is over 900 people each year. Considering the high quality of the UCLA student body I'd be shocked to hear of any Top 20 MD that did not interview UCLA students each cycle.

 

[GrapesofRath]

Completely random question that will probably make the OP more paranoid if anything but screw it; Good lord how the hell did 120 UCLA applicants apply to Stanford last cycle and not one of them get accepted, particularly when more than half of Stanford is CA students?

Sometimes you just forget how absurd and insane the competition in this game of top school admission is

 

[efle]

Completely random question that will probably make the OP more paranoid if anything but screw it; Good lord how the hell did 120 UCLA applicants apply to Stanford last cycle and not one of them get accepted, particularly when more than half of Stanford is CA students?

Sometimes you just forget how absurd and insane the competition in this game of top school admission is

Stanford (and UCSF) is the dream for most Cali people, so A LOT of people slap it on their list as a crazy reach. When you think of it more like 30 Top 5-qualified people, half get interviewed, a third of that gets in, and then that handful of a half dozen just happened to all take other acceptances instead, not as crazy

 

[Cyberdyne 101]

Completely random question that will probably make the OP more paranoid if anything but screw it; Good lord how the hell did 120 UCLA applicants apply to Stanford last cycle and not one of them get accepted, particularly when more than half of Stanford is CA students?

Sometimes you just forget how absurd and insane the competition in this game of top school admission is

Were these traditional applicants? Stanford is on another level when it comes to admissions standards. I'd imagine that a sizable proportion of the students they interview have at least 1 year of post-undergrad research.

 

[piii]

for God's sake man, get tf off SDN for a few years and go have fun!

 

[ucla_mimg_2019]

I really appreciate the responses from everyone, my main concern is that med schools will not realize that the curve set here is ridiculous and favor others who went to schools with rampant grade inflation. Nonetheless, I agree that the post was premature, but I was hoping to pick the brains of others who went to schools like UCLA and their success stories.

 

[ZedsDed]

I really appreciate the responses from everyone, my main concern is that med schools will not realize that the curve set here is ridiculous and favor others who went to schools with rampant grade inflation. Nonetheless, I agree that the post was premature, but I was hoping to pick the brains of others who went to schools like UCLA and their success stories.

Alas, life is unfair. The best you can do is all that you can do. Others are right though. Stay focused on getting A's, not on applying to med school.