undergrad reputation (+ specifically, McGill)

[cvspopcorn]

Hi guys! Apologies in advance if this comes across as neurotic, because I don't intend for it to at all; I'm only asking because I had a conversation recently that got me second guessing this. For some context, I'm a US citizen who went to McGill (in Canada) for undergrad (for a variety of reasons, and I've really enjoyed the experience). I'm applying this cycle to US MD schools, as I've realized I'd like to stay and practice in the US.

I was wondering generally what adcoms thought of McGill, as I tried to look online and couldn't find much. My general understanding was that barring the top top top schools (Harvard, Stanford, etc.) reputation didn't matter much, and it's a question of how you've done in your school with the opportunities you've had, but I was talking to someone who said that the t20s really seem to care about reputation, which got me a bit nervous.

Any insight is really appreciated. 🙂

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[TragicalDrFaust]

I view it equivalently to a US flagship state university. Fine for a T20 school. But everyone should be "nervous" about getting accepted to a T20 - it's not easy no matter your background.

 

[voxveritatisetlucis]

I would say that it does matter for T20s to the same extent that med school matters for getting a top tier residency.

When I interviewed in person a few years ago at T20s (since sharing schools is much more common when everybody is in person), it seemed like most people were from Ivy League schools or other top schools. Keep in mind these were early interview days, so maybe it’s different as the cycle progresses.

Of course, one can get into a top med school from any tier UG school, but going to a top UG makes it much easier. McGill is a great school but wouldn’t fall into this category. I think that the only international schools that may fall into this category would be Oxford, Cambridge (Tsinghua maybe but I’m not sure how many people apply from there)

The way I see it—there are only so many seats. Admissions are becoming more competitive every year, with less differentiation between candidates. If an adcom is picking between two similar candidates, one of whom went to Harvard and the other to BU, they will pick the one who went to Harvard.

 

[Mr.Smile12]

McGill's fine. BTW, some of my committees will blind the names of universities and other reputational-biasing information as much as we can from the faculty when doing file reviews. It's not perfect (can't really do that with LOR's), but we do what we can. So if you went to BU, you have a good shot.