Undergrad Schools

[collegefreak12]

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I know I asked a similar question once in the pre- med forum, but I thought people would know a little better here.

Do med schools take your undergrad school into consideration? I mean, a 3.5 GPA in MechE from, lets say, Carnegie Mellon is NOT the same thing as a 3.5 GPA in MechE from UConn (just examples). Carnegie Mellon is much harder (one of the hardest for engineering)...So I was wondering if they take the school of undergrad into consideration. If not, wouldn't it be wise for people set on medical school to go to a slightly easier undergrad school?

 

[armybound]

I think it's been established that they do consider these things, yes.

 

[NCF145]

I know I asked a similar question once in the pre- med forum, but I thought people would know a little better here.

I'm pretty sure this still is the pre-med forum.

 

[Robizzle]

They do consider major and undergrad school. However, most likely only gonna take 1 kid over the other based on school&major if 2 people are exactly the same stats-wise. Also, coming from a good school is not good enough to pass screening processes if your numbers don't reach that screen.

Go where you want to go, and major what you want to major in. That's the right answer.

 

[collegefreak12]

Wow, I am dumb..I will repost it. Thanks!

 

[Disinence2]

Go where you want to go, and major what you want to major in. That's the right answer.

That should be stickyed to the top of the forum

 

[NervousNed]

Hey,

I'm an engineer from one of the top ten programs and have applied this cycle, and I will tell you what happened for me.

My having a 3.5 in engineering hurt me tremendously, and just because it was engineering and from a goodschool wasnt enough to make up for it when applying to the top schools. Its sad that it turned out that way, because i had a great MCAT to prove that my gpa was only low because i did engineering, but the REALITY is, your goin to really have to STRETCH for top schools with a 3.5. You can get into a medschool no problem, but no you going to carnegie mellon and and doing engineering isnt going to tremendously make those top schools say, oh i get it, he only got the 3.5 because he took hard classes. Your GPA is gion to hurt you, some schools may not say it publicly, but they have a cut off range using a mathematical formula, and it wont have a variable for engineering, or the school you went to....

 

[turkleton]

Agreed with the last post. I don't think admission committes really appreciate the rigor of an engineering degree unless its from MIT- the rankings of engineering programs aren't as publicized as medicine and law and so unless its the truly famous ones with a penchant for drawing the brains of the country, it's just kind of lumped into the pile of the common. I was interested in engineering in UG, decided not to pursue it and obviously wound up in med school. I know my high GPA would have suffered if I had done engineering- I don't care what anyone says, its definitely a harder major- and that definitely would have hurt my application. When schools advertise to new premeds and brag against their competition, they want to boast about their 3.7 average GPA of matriculated students, irrespective of what they studied.

 

[psipsina]

Isn't this the point of the MCAT, to standardize all the applicants on some scale so we can see past the differences in undergraduate schools and programs? If your program was truely more rigorus you should have a higher MCAT than someone else at a less extreme programs with the same GPA as you. I'm sure there are some programs known for their difficulty, but beyond that I doubt that this is a really important determinant of acceptance.

 

[BigRedPremed]

In my opinion, med schools do give slight allowances for more rigorous majors and/or undergrad schools but probably no more than 0.1-0.2 or so.

 

[awk]

A report came out of the AAMC saying that Med schools are putting more emphasis on MCAT scores because of this.

 

[turkleton]

Isn't this the point of the MCAT, to standardize all the applicants on some scale so we can see past the differences in undergraduate schools and programs? If your program was truely more rigorus you should have a higher MCAT than someone else at a less extreme programs with the same GPA as you. I'm sure there are some programs known for their difficulty, but beyond that I doubt that this is a really important determinant of acceptance.

You're right to an extent. The MCAT is a measure of how successful you would be in handling the medical school curriculum- one reason they place more emphasis on the verbal. So its a nice number to summarize "intelligence" and more importantly potential. However, GPA to a med school measures drive and work ethic. There are plenty of intelligent people who would do miserably at medical school because they can't hack the work load. A solid GPA with a good MCAT tells them that they got the brain and the b*lls to get through med school, land a good residency, and make that school look gooooooood.