Undergrad name

[NMH2001]

Just out of curiosity, does the name of your undergrad institution have any bearing with admission to DO schools. ie: if someone who went to "po-dunk" univerisity have to get better grades that someone who went to a well recognized school? What about if someone has taken about half of their pre-req's at a community college? Thanks for any imput!

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[Atlas]

Your college name doesn't really matter all that much at MD or DO schools. Now, I can't speak for the admissions folks at Harvard Med, but most MD and almost ALL DO schools don't place too much weight on where you went to school. Every school is different in their own respect and the MCAT is the leveled playing field. I know MANY doctors (MD&DO) that did some, most, or even all of their pre-reqs at a community college. The key is to do well and prove yourself on the MCAT.

 

[Hskermdic]

I think Admissions offices do look at the "selectivity" of your undergrad and how difficult it is. At least I know that is a stat that they look at and keep track of.

 

[Popoy]

Some, not all, take it into consideration.

 

[sean]

The fact that you took half of your credits at community college won't matter if you did well at the four year school you completed the other half. However, if your grades dropped dramatically and its only the good grades from community college that keep you competitive you might have a little explaining to do at an interview.

 

[Doctor Wyldstyle]

Some undergrad schools have better relations with medical schools and are consistent feeders to a school. For example, Jesuit undergrads usually have good ties with the 4 Jesuit medicals out there. You have to check with your university on how their reputation/record has been with the medical school.

 

[turtleboard]

As far as I know both MD and DO schools take your undergraduate school's name (correlating that with difficulty of the curriculum, etc.) into account in making admissions decisions. You can't possibly compare two applicants, one from Harvard the other from Podunk, and say they're the same.

 

[premedmijo]

That's what I always thought, but I have a friend from Harvard who has been struggling to maintain a 3.4 . His premed advisor told him that his GPA was too low and said that name doesn't matter b/c there will be grads from other ivies with better GPAs.

 

[nero]

From what I have heard, if you didn't go to an Ivy league school, then the name of your school doesn't really play that big of a factor. Usually the doubts with small schools are that the student's science foundation is not as good. However if the student pulls off a 32 then i'd say his/her science foundation is good enough for medical school, wouldn't you say so. Studnets from small schools that don't have great reputations, must go an extra mile to prove themselves with their MCATs.

nero

 

[turtleboard]

Originally posted by nero:
•From what I have heard, if you didn't go to an Ivy league school, then the name of your school doesn't really play that big of a factor. Usually the doubts with small schools are that the student's science foundation is not as good. However if the student pulls off a 32 then i'd say his/her science foundation is good enough for medical school, wouldn't you say so. Studnets from small schools that don't have great reputations, must go an extra mile to prove themselves with their MCATs.•

Agreed. However your statement that nothing other than an Ivy League name is worth something is a bit short-sighted, isn't it? There are plenty of spectacular schools out there, some of which are arguably better than the eight Ivy schools. Chicago? Stanford? Duke? MIT? Do any of these ring a bell?

Let's be honest. Neither Penn nor Cornell compare to Stanford or Chicago. I know I'm gonna get killed for that one.

 

[turtleboard]

Originally posted by premedmijo:
•That's what I always thought, but I have a friend from Harvard who has been struggling to maintain a 3.4 . His premed advisor told him that his GPA was too low and said that name doesn't matter b/c there will be grads from other ivies with better GPAs.•

I'd be willing to bet that if your Harvard friend with a 3.4 got a 30+ on the MCAT, he'd get in somewhere. In fact he'd only have particular trouble at the super-selective schools like Harvard Medical School.

Many of my friends who were premed at Harvard had 3.3s and got into schools like NYU without breaking a sweat. Me? Well, my 3.53 from NYU, and with buckets of sweat, didn't exactly get me there. Viva la SUNY!

 

[prolixless]

I know that my school, COMP, tends to take a lot of students from the UC schools here in California. I think TUCOM is similar. Part of the reason for this is that COMP and TUCOM are more familiar with the curriculum and difficulty level at the UC colleges, probably because of the proximity of these colleges. So, to answer your question, I think where you attend undergraduate college is often a factor in adcoms decisions.