Undergrad School

[Firebird]

I know we've talked about this before, but I can't remember if recently we've had a thread devoted to this discussion...

Anyway, how much bearing does your undergrad school have on GPA consideration. A med student told me last weekend that ADCOMS would take a 3.5 from Duke way before they would take a 4.0 from a more community-based school.

I go to Marshall University, a school of nearly 20,000 students; it's not extremely research oriented, but every degree program has some type of research going. I know it's not a higher tier school or ivy-league quality education, but where do you think that a good GPA would be.

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[lilycat]

There have been LOTS of threads dealing with this question -- if you do a search, you are bound to find them. My best advice to applicants -- get the best GPA you can get, no matter where you are going. If you've looked at the averages published in the MSAR, you will know that to be competitive GPA-wise for all the top schools in the country, you should be shooting for a 3.7+. This is not to say you couldn't get in with a lower GPA -- I'm just saying what would be competitive for the top schools. On these boards you will find a lot of disagreement over how much undergrad prestige (for lack of a better word) matters, and my guess is that this is just a reflection of the real case with med schools -- some may have a formula that inflates GPAs from certain schools, some may only pay attention to it if all other factors are equal between applicants, some may pay no attention to it at all.

Bottom line -- do your best to build a competitive application to medical school, and you should be fine.

 

[Firebird]

Thanks for the info...I got a little discouraged this weekend, but I feel a little better now.

Nobody else has to reply to this (unless you just want to)...I'll just try my hand at a search and see what comes up.

Thanks again for all the info!!!

 

[deleted4401]

Firebird,

I think it doesn't hurt to go to a less prestigious (for lack of a better word) school, but it definitely helps to go to a more prestigious. I got a 3.0 from a well known school and I got into a couple schools. I'm not sure if that would have happened going to Podunk State. But I'm sure everyone has a different idea on this.

Simul

 

[Nanon]

Here's an interesting question along these lines that I've been wondering about. I'm at UC Berkeley now, and I'm finding it to be EASIER than my community college. As a result, my Berkeley GPA is likely to end up being much higher than my community college gpa (hell, it already is). Now, I know that both gpa's end up undifferentiated on the application, but here's the deal. At Berkeley, they don't include your community college gpa - as a transfer student, you start as a junior with a 0.0 gpa. So, the result will most likely be that I graduate with honors from Berkeley, but with a 3.0 according to the med school application.

I doubt anyone here has any more insight than I do, but I wonder how the adcoms are going to evaluate that.

By the by, my experience is not unique... a lot of people who transfered from my CC to Berkeley have significantly better gpa's at Berkeley (can you say GRADE INFLATION, anybody? ).

 

[Mikado]

To all of you.

Do your damndest and don't even consider the odds.

Good luck.

 

[lilycat]

Nanon, you're right, no one can give you concrete info. on your situation except the AdComms themselves. However, my guess is that they will just view your increasing GPA as a sign that you learned how to become a better student, were more diligent and dedicated, etc. Even though your GPA may only be in the low 3's when you graduate, if there is a significant upward trend of improvement through the four years (which it sounds like it is), that is definitely looked upon very favorably. This was the case with my GPA and it was commented on by all the schools at which I interviewed.

 

[Nanon]

Lily, the irony here is that, while my grades are MUCH better than they were, I'm not working any harder than I did at my CC. Not that I'm going to let the adcoms know that, hehehe.

Actually, I'm sure that part of my success right now is due to the fact that I've gotten the "hang" of being a student, and I'm more comfortable with the academic lifestyle.

As to scrutinizing the odds, Mikado, I can't help myself, although I really try not to. I think part of the reason a lot of us choose medicine is because we're control freaks. ('Fess up, my fellow pre-meds - there's nary a "laid back" one of us in the group... for proof, look up the Obsessive Compulsive thread again). The struggle isn't just getting good grades for me. It's also learning to accept that there is a lot to the process that I have ABSOLUTELY no control over. Obsessing allows us to live in denial about that fact, and sometimes, denial is a nice place to live.


Nanon

 

[puffy1]

I guess you could look at it in this way:

Maybe this person from Duke got a 3.0 in the sciences (prerecs) and a 4.0 in everything else, which isn't as impressive as the person who got the 4.0 in everything he/she took at the CC and Marshall U. There are so many ways of looking at grades, coursework and all of the rest of it.

So I guess what I'm trying to say is don't worry about what everyone else is doing and focus on what you're doing. You'll go nuts trying to compare yourself to the many thousand of applicants out there.

And on a side note, I don't think I'm obsessive compulsive...actually, I'm pretty laid back .

 

[relentless11]

Just wanted to give my 2 cents into this. I recently had a chance to talk to a 2nd year med student from UCSF. Well he is or was on the adcom, and he says that UCSF actually gives points for what school you went to. For lack of a good example.....in my opinion using the UC system as a scale; i would rank UC Berkeley highest and all the way down to UC Riverside. Hope that doesn't piss anyone off. By the way nothing wrong with UCR, my cousin went there and got into UCLA SoM.

But thats what i know. And I too am a transfer student, and also i'm doing WAY better than i ever did at the JC. Haha....sure wish this is what my overal GPA looks like