Weight of Undergrad...

[Squiggy]

Hi all,

Sorry if my question is kinda redundant but I've read mixed responses on how heavily medical schools weigh an applicants undergrad institution. I know that top tier allopathic med schools like people from top tier undergrad schools.

Could someone tell me if osteopathic med schools care about which school I went to for undergrad and if so how much? As long as I get a high MCAT and gpa, would me having gone to a no name school significantly hurt me in the application process?

Thanks!

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[Dissected]

No affect. If they are accredited you will be looked at on an equal playing field as 95% of graduates out there. I would guess its kind of hard not to be impressed by a harvard/yale standout..but there's not many of those.

 

[scpod]

My school uses some kind of education journal that ranks all undergrad institutions into quartiles-- your GPA is measured against others in your quartile. I would be surprised if other institutions didn't do something similar. However, I don't know of anyone who actually advertises this. I didn't find it out until I'd been in med school for two years.

 

[Squiggy]

Let's say I bring my gap to like a 3.5 to 3.7, if I have 30+ MCATs to back up the gpa, would going to a no-name LAC hurt my application?

 

[Chocolate Bear]

Just do well. Your undergrad institution won't affect things much, if at all. My UG was nothing impressive, but I have a decent GPA. Nobody asked anything about where I went to school.

Though I'm sure what scpod said is correct. It's just that that policy probably won't affect you if you have a good GPA, like you're talking about.

 

[beachblonde]

My school uses some kind of education journal that ranks all undergrad institutions into quartiles-- your GPA is measured against others in your quartile. I would be surprised if other institutions didn't do something similar. However, I don't know of anyone who actually advertises this. I didn't find it out until I'd been in med school for two years.

I've seen the book. It does indeed rank the schools so that it's more of an "apples to apples" comparison as opposed to "apples to oranges".

That being said, coming from a top-ranked school won't get you automatically accepted, much like coming from no-name U won't get you automatically rejected. What a top school will do, however, is give you the benefit of the doubt with ADCOMs if you have a slightly lower GPA.

DO schools don't seem to be particularly pretentious (a good thing, in my mind) so I think they're less likely to heavily favor top-tier undergrads.

 

[rockdascrubs786]

If you didn't go to harvard, dont bother applying.

 

[JaggerPlate]

Hi all,

Sorry if my question is kinda redundant but I've read mixed responses on how heavily medical schools weigh an applicants undergrad institution. I know that top tier allopathic med schools like people from top tier undergrad schools.

Could someone tell me if osteopathic med schools care about which school I went to for undergrad and if so how much? As long as I get a high MCAT and gpa, would me having gone to a no name school significantly hurt me in the application process?

Thanks!

Here's why osteopathic AND allopathic schools don't give a crap where you went to undergrad ... the MCAT. the MCAT is the great equalizer. For example, you often see threads where people have like 3.9 har har this is so easy then get slammed with a 25 on the MCAT (I'm not bashing that score at all, just using it in my example) when they expected a 40. They bitch and moan, 'I don't understand etc,' and it turns out that a. this person is a smart individual, and b. they went to a school that was either easier than most (ie small, private etc) or known for grade inflation. It's also the same reason you occasionally see thread where people have 3.2 and a 38 coming out of schools that are top knotch, kill or be killed etc. The MCAT levels the playing field for all applicants ... so - and trust me I wish it were so - they really don't put much weight into where you went to undergrad.

 

[ILikeFood]

Let's say I bring my gap to like a 3.5 to 3.7, if I have 30+ MCATs to back up the gpa, would going to a no-name LAC hurt my application?

A non-URM classmate of mine - we're talking unranked Cal State school - received interviews at UCSF and UCDavis with a 3.99 and a 31. She was accepted at an out of state school a month ago.