What's the stance on attending small universities and applying for really good medical schools?

[alohasarang]

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I'm a junior in high school, from Illinois. I have great grades in AP & honors classes (All A's, only one B so far). I'm considering many colleges, but I plan on getting my gen-ed classes done at a community college and transferring to a small, but accredited university to get my upper level science courses. I can't afford to go to really nice universities like UofC, Loyola, or Northwestern, and I don't want to go to a UofI school. Despite this, I'm already looking towards some nice medical schools (Feinberg, Mayo, Pritzker) I just wanna know if these medical schools in particular look down on students who attend smaller universities. It would be really helpful if any graduates from these medical schools share their opinion ^_^ Sorry for the long paragraph, it's my first time posting!

 

[termitechips]

Feinberg* 😉

 

[Instatewaiter]

I'm a junior in high school, from Illinois. I have great grades in AP & honors classes (All A's, only one B so far). I'm considering many colleges, but I plan on getting my gen-ed classes done at a community college and transferring to a small, but accredited university to get my upper level science courses. I can't afford to go to really nice universities like UofC, Loyola, or Northwestern, and I don't want to go to a UofI school. Despite this, I'm already looking towards some nice medical schools (Feinberg, Mayo, Pritzker) I just wanna know if these medical schools in particular look down on students who attend smaller universities. It would be really helpful if any graduates from these medical schools share their opinion ^_^ Sorry for the long paragraph, it's my first time posting!

The better the university, the better the chances for med school. Even at "low tier" med schools most of the matriculants come from solid universities.

 

[Yazo]

The better the university, the better the chances for med school. Even at "low tier" med schools most of the matriculants come from solid universities.

For me I'm going to be attending a regional college (#31 in universities in the north) due to my financial situation. Do you think that if I keep my grades up and have a lot of volunteering under my belt throughout the four years my chances for medical school will be good? Or is it really that dependent on the reputation of the undergraduate school?

 

[Instatewaiter]

For me I'm going to be attending a regional college (#31 in universities in the north) due to my financial situation. Do you think that if I keep my grades up and have a lot of volunteering under my belt throughout the four years my chances for medical school will be good? Or is it really that dependent on the reputation of the undergraduate school?

Not everyone needs to go to Harvard. If your grades are solid, your MCAT is good and you have good ECs, you could likely get into many schools from essentially any 4 year university.

That said, it seems that the vast majority of students in medical schools come from good universities. This is likely from a varitey of reasons including the fact that stronger students go to stronger universities. If you are curious, you could always ask the school what number of students go to medical school each year and more importantly the success rate.

 

[Snoopy2006]

Like ISW said, if your pre-med application is strong enough, you can get into medical school from anywhere. That said, getting a high MCAT/GPA with strong ECs and LORs is no guarantee. Why not increase your chances by going to a better undergrad?

Finances can be a struggle, as the big Chicago places do have high tuitions. But if I were you, I'd re-evaluate why you want to pass up U of I - a relatively inexpensive education with a fairly strong name and abundant research opportunities - for a community college experience.

 

[mmmcdowe]

I went to Arizona State and got into great medical schools. Medicine is a meritocracy, what you might lack at a less 'top' school is advising and experience. I was one of only a few serious pre-meds at ASU. The advice I got was not very good in retrospect.

 

[Stagg737]

Keep in mind that big university =/= good university. I went to a small school in IL (~2500 people) and when I graduated we were considered a very good school for pre-med. We had more than 1 person in my class go to a top 10 school, and they weren't 4.0 students.

The big disadvantage of attending small schools is the name recognition. If you go to U Chicago or Northwestern, every med school in the country will know exactly what kind of education you got and what your GPA means. If you go to Small Liberal Arts U., regional schools may know how good your education was, but if you go 2 states over no one will know if your education was great or a joke. For example, the school I went to is pretty well-known in the IL/Iowa/Wisconsin/Missouri areas. When I applied to master's programs in Louisiana and Florida, everyone thought I just went to some small, easy college, when in reality Wash U considered our upper level bio classes to be equivalent to theirs (to give you an idea of my undergrad's standards). Attending a community college for 2 years and then transferring to a major university is also a great option, provided you do well in your upper level classes. This is probably the best way to prove you've got what it takes and save money at the same time. One other thing to consider is smaller schools probably won't have the research opportunities or resources that major universities have. However, neither of those are a requirement for med school acceptance.

Summary: Going to a small school isn't going to ruin your chances of getting into med school, but it will make you less competitive outside the general region.