Considerations of Undergraduate Schools in Application Process

[PATSmedicalFAN]

I'm wondering how much Med schools look into the rigorousness of our undergraduate schools. I'm asking this because I believe my school (UNC Chapel Hill) is more demanding compared to the average (not trying to sound cocky.) And I'm aware of this because I'm a transfer student. I transferred from a college that wasn't as hard and not biology focused either. (Basically trying to say I could have had a better GPA if I stayed. I chose to leave because I wanted to be in a more challenging environment. I had a 4.0 at my old school and now have 3.7)

I understand that MCAT scores will level the playing field a little bit but the GPA is still a major part of the application.

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[Espressso]

From what I understand, UG universities play a very minor role.

 

[Espressso]

You're not going to get accepted simply because you transferred to a "harder" school, if that's what you're secretly wondering.

 

[LizzyM]

It does play a minor role in decisions regarding interviews and admission.

 

[Mansamusa]

Coming from a good school is going to get you some positive looks, especially if you do well coming from that school. A 3.7 is good. Just don't let it keep going down

 

[efle]

According to the AAMC survey of Adcoms:

Source for the screengrab here.

Hopefully this thread doesn't have to devolve into arguments about whether students in one place have it easier/harder than another.

 

[Lucca]

According to the AAMC survey of Adcoms:

Source for the screengrab here.

Hopefully this thread doesn't have to devolve into arguments about whether students in one place have it easier/harder than another.

How dare you, I'll have you know my 5 year old grandmother graduated from a public community college and attended HMS and is now a particle physicist..

 

[Bethany555]

One of my friends from undergrad took two gap years and went to Yale Second Look this year. They gave out a booklet of students attending second look. Here is the breakdown by undergrad institution:

Harvard: 18
Yale: 19
Princeton/Stanford/MIT: 10
Columbia/Penn/Dartmouth/Brown/Cornell: 18
Chicago/Duke/Caltech/Hopkins/Northwestern/Vanderbilt/WashU: 17
USNEWS Rank 15-25: 15
USNEWS Rank 26-40: 7
USNEWS Top 15 liberal arts: 5
International (Cambridge): 1
Other: 14

 

[WedgeDawg]

One of my friends from undergrad took two gap years and went to Yale Second Look this year. They gave out a booklet of students attending second look. Here is the breakdown by undergrad institution:

Harvard: 18
Yale: 19
Princeton/Stanford/MIT: 10
Columbia/Penn/Dartmouth/Brown/Cornell: 18
Chicago/Duke/Caltech/Hopkins/Northwestern/Vanderbilt/WashU: 17
USNEWS Rank 15-25: 15
USNEWS Rank 26-40: 7
USNEWS Top 15 liberal arts: 5
International (Cambridge): 1
Other: 14

I also created a breakdown of this (Yale too, because they're so transparent about it) last year. If you go through my search history, you'll be able to find it pretty easily, but it's pretty similar to this one.

But listen to @efle's objective evidence.

Also a 3.7 is fine for essentially any school regardless of where you are. Focus on your MCAT.

 

[The Broccoli Industry]

Lol...undergrad selectivity is more important than research experience...wow.


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[efle]

Lol...undergrad selectivity is more important than research experience...wow.

And secondaries! Though I'm sure there are outliers and a big overall range. Yale and SLU are both private, but aren't going to look at research the same way; some public schools like UCSF and Michigan probably behave more like you'd expect from top private schools; some schools have very lengthy secondaries and screen heavily for them while others have none at all, and so on.

I'd also guess that the schools don't favor selective colleges for the prestige, but rather because it makes high grades or standout recommendations even more impressive. At least, that's how it makes sense to me - more like wow, top of their class at MIT! rather than wow, another chance to stuff ourselves with HYPSM pedigrees.

I also created a breakdown of this (Yale too, because they're so transparent about it) last year.

I've done this too, for those curious this was the breakdown in 2014-15:

Yale 13%
Harvard 12%
MIT 5%
Brown, Cornell, Dartmouth 4% (each)
Hopkins, Penn, Stanford, WUSTL 3%
Columbia, Emory, Rice, UC Berkeley, UCLA, USC, Wellesley, Williams 2%
~30 places sending only 1 person, including names like Duke, Northwestern, Bowdoin, Amherst, Vanderbilt, Middlebury, Swarthmore, Vassar, along with state schools and a few foreign universities. Nobody from Princeton or U Chicago.

Hard to tell favoritism from selection bias though, since the kind of person that can get into Yale Med was probably also an impressive highschooler that got into fancy colleges. If you took any of those people and put them at their state school instead their odds might have stayed just as great.

 

[darkjedi]

It definitely matters, however realistically only for the really big name schools (i.e. HYSPM). Unfortunately, while UNC is a great school, it is not nearly on par with those schools. In my class there were several kids from big name public schools like UVA, UMich and UNC, but definitely not on the level as HYSPM+Ivies, which I think I counted at almost 50% of my class.

 

[The Broccoli Industry]

Lol at all the people on here who say prestige doesn't matter. Looks like it clearly does.


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