What are the "tiers" for undergrad schools?

[deleted1141182]

We have all heard that being from a top tier undergrad can help you in admissions. It's obvious that those from HYPSM are at the top, but what about beyond that? WARS has a tier list of schools but it's several years old now. Where would places like Duke, UCLA, UMich, and USC fall, and would people from these places get a boost too?

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[gyngyn]

There is an unrecognized "anti-boost" that can be associated with "top" schools as well.
Screeners may have the opinion that successful matriculation from some schools is much greater than others!

 

[GoSpursGo]

It doesn’t matter. All of those schools are “very good” and while they don’t have the sparkly sheen that ivies have they will open doors to you. Once you are at a very good school, all that really is going to differentiate you is your GPA and MCAT. With that in mind, you should attend the school that will allow you to do your best (ie enough financial aid that you don’t need a job, close to family/so/support system,etc).

 

[deleted1141182]

There is an unrecognized "anti-boost" that can be associated with "top" schools as well.
Screeners may have the opinion that successful matriculation from some schools is much greater than others!

Can you elaborate on this? I have never heard of an "anti-boost" for schools.

 

[gyngyn]

Merely attending a fancy school does not make a candidate more desirable.
Implicit bias cuts both ways.

Go to the school that wants you and supports you. If it is "fancy," so be it. If it is not, just as well.
This concept of a "dream school" is misplaced.

 

[lacrossegirl420]

From my friend’s experiences, I don’t think there’s a meaningful (or any) difference between how HYPSM and schools like Columbia, Penn, Duke, Brown, etc. are perceived by adcoms. Also it’s very hard to say if schools actually give a boost for school name, or if the candidates coming out of them are on average stronger (i.e., someone who was able to get into HYPSM in the first place is probably an excellent test taker/had strong EC’s)

 

[PuzzlesMD]

From my friend’s experiences, I don’t think there’s a meaningful (or any) difference between how HYPSM and schools like Columbia, Penn, Duke, Brown, etc. are perceived by adcoms. Also it’s very hard to say if schools actually give a boost for school name, or if the candidates coming out of them are on average stronger (i.e., someone who was able to get into HYPSM in the first place is probably an excellent test taker/had strong EC’s)

UMiami has a picture going around every year on the school-specific thread where it shows how many points different categories are worth and "Quality of Academic Institution" is worth 30 points while the MCAT is worth 45, for example. Not all schools will give boosts for prestige, but it wouldn't be surprising that many schools' internal formulas factor this to different extends.

 

[deleted1141182]

UMiami has a picture going around every year on the school-specific thread where it shows how many points different categories are worth and "Quality of Academic Institution" is worth 30 points while the MCAT is worth 45, for example. Not all schools will give boosts for prestige, but it wouldn't be surprising that many schools' internal formulas factor this to different extends.

Wow. That's a helluva weight to assign to something like school prestige.

 

[GoSpursGo]

UMiami has a picture going around every year on the school-specific thread where it shows how many points different categories are worth and "Quality of Academic Institution" is worth 30 points while the MCAT is worth 45, for example. Not all schools will give boosts for prestige, but it wouldn't be surprising that many schools' internal formulas factor this to different extends.

Ok, yes… but if Harvard is a 30, any of the other schools mentioned in the OP is presumably 20-25+. It’s not all or nothing.

 

[chilly_md]

UMiami has a picture going around every year on the school-specific thread where it shows how many points different categories are worth and "Quality of Academic Institution" is worth 30 points while the MCAT is worth 45, for example. Not all schools will give boosts for prestige, but it wouldn't be surprising that many schools' internal formulas factor this to different extends.

To follow up on this, going to Miami itself gets the most points from what I recall.

 

[obiwan]

Go to the college that you want to go and where you can succeed. If you are unable to get accepted to medical school from any of those colleges that you mentioned, it will not be an indictment on the school but on you