Wanting to transfer to a top 20

[premedquickscope69]

I have around a 3.9 GPA, but I have two W's.

One in Calc 3, and One in honors organic chem I.

I go to a top 20 public school

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[TheBiologist]

wait, you go to a top 20? why are you trying to transfer to another one?

 

[premedquickscope69]

wait, you go to a top 20? why are you trying to transfer to another one?

top 20 overall, not top 20 public lol

 

[efle]

So...why transfer? The best public schools are all high quality colleges that will have plenty of research and other EC opportunities. The top private schools are going to cost you a ton without offering much that you don't already have access to.

 

[TheBiologist]

the marginal benefit of going to a "top" private school over a top public school is almost nothing, and certainly doesn't outweigh the cost

 

[Danny L]

If you want to put in the effort and are strongly interested in a t20 medical school, I'd give it a shot. But you can't assume you can transfer until you actually have the acceptance

If you're going to transfer, apply to schools with a t20 medical school. Acceptance rate from my school to my school's med school is like 30+% which is like IS odds. That's certainly not a marginal benefit. The concept of feeder school is not 100% clear, but it's generally accepted that schools at least favor students from their own school. Also, prestige is considered based on the survey pinned at the top of this sub-forum, but it's not clear to what extents a school is considered prestigious.

In terms of opportunities, the difference between a top end state flagship and a t20 is probably pretty marginal.

The one catch is that academics can definitely be tougher at a t20. If you think you can pull off a 3.8+ and like 3.7+sGPA it's worth it.

 

[getdown]

Not worth it. Those loans crush you when you're out as an attending and have to pay back hundreds of thousands of dollars.

 

[zero0]

Rookie mistake. Go to the worst cheapest school possible, get an easy 4.0. Apply. Most med schools won't care where you went....

Wtf am I doing in pre-allo, man I must be really bored

 

[Goro]

Rookie mistake. Go to the worst cheapest school possible, get an easy 4.0. Apply. Most med schools won't care where you went....

Wtf am I doing in pre-allo, man I must be really bored

Bored or not....it's excellent advice!

 

[Lucca]

Sleep on it. Chances are, the desire will go away in a week.

trying to move up us news ranks is not a good reason for transferring, definitely don't do it.

 

[Danny L]

So you think that someone who is a 3.9 at Top Public school but then drops to a 3.7 GPA upon transfer to a T20 Private school, wont look like a downward grade trend at a "tougher" school in upper level classes to an adcom? What happens with the new environment, with increased competition, that the OP drops to a 3.6? Medical school admissions is as much as it is about reducing risk as it is in achievement. There is marginal increase in somehow improving chances transferring to a Top 20 Private but there is increased negative risk. Why on earth someone who is doing so well at a top school now would take on increased debt and risk is beyond me.

I was being more liberal with the numbers, and I didn't say 3.7cGPA I said 3.7sGPA which is usually given more leeway. Personally, I would say 3.85+ cGPA and 3.8 sGPA but the 3.7sGPA figure is what I've seen as acceptable around here.

Anyway, it is risk v reward but if you think you can do it (and you need to be honest with yourself) it's absolutely worth it. Obviously the assumption is that $ is unimportant to OP because they're already considering transferring to a t20

What you're doing is being risk averse. You're willing to take on 0 risk regardless of benefit. If OP is a talented student, they can get a 3.85+ cGPA at a t20 no problem, and they will get the admissions boost for at least their new school's t20. FWIW it's not a "marginal" boost when the acceptance rate for my school's kids is 20-30%+ at my schools' med school whereas it's like <1% for all applicants. Even if it's 10%, that's significant for something as competitive as t20 med school admissions.

It's up to OP to determine if the benefit is worth the risk. I wasn't telling OP to transfer to a t20, I was giving him the information so he can figure out whether it's worth it or not

 

[efle]

FWIW it's not a "marginal" boost when the acceptance rate for my school's kids is 20-30%+ at my schools' med school whereas it's like <1% for all applicants. Even if it's 10%, that's significant for something as competitive as t20 med school admissions.

there's no way your numbers check out. There are no med schools with sub-1% admit rates. There are also no top programs that admit ~25% of their own undergrads - there are some where the class composition is drawn ~20% from the attached undergrad, but that's a very different thing.

 

[Danny L]

there's no way your numbers check out. There are no med schools with sub-1% admit rates. There are also no top programs that admit ~25% of their own undergrads - there are some where the class composition is drawn ~20% from the attached undergrad, but that's a very different thing.

At my school in 2016 (latest data I have), 180 kids applied and 30 were enrolled. That probably doesn't include the kids that got in and chose to go to another school. I remembered the numbers wrong but it's still >15% acceptance which is great for a t20

I thought I saw numbers of like 6000 applicants and 100 enrolled which is ~1% acceptance. 6000 is a little low and schools admit more than enrolled so the numbers even out a bit

So 15% odds up from 1%. I think it's well worth it but fwiw I'm also biased because I'm doing well at my school

 

[efle]

PM me your source, none of those numbers are in keeping with MSAR/US News data. Admit rates for t20 med schools are usually more like 4-8%, nearly all t20 undergrads with an associated t20 MD program have a lot more than 180 internal applicants per year, and having 30% of the class from their own undergrad is higher than I recall any of the t20 med schools reporting in the 2016 MSAR.

And I'd add that even if those numbers are accurate, it doesn't make sense to tell someone to attend a school because ~15% of students remain there. If you want to compare internal accept rate to external accept rate, you'd need to control for MCAT which is likely a lot higher for students at your undergrad than it is for applicants to your school overall. It might be that your school has an average MCAT of 95th percentile, and applicants from state flagships with 95th percentile scores may also be getting in at a 15%+ rate.

 

[Geo16]

I go to top 20 public uni too. Trust me, cheap $$$ education beats it all