So you want to be a... physician

[Gwsmyda]

the University of Pittsburgh has visitation dates all through the summer with some of them being specifically tailored to certain graduate schools, such as the school of medicine, which is the one that i went to (obviously) ... with over 100 students attending, they kept talking about how "pitt undergrad is so great and wait till you get accepted into our med school! its fantastic! no serously, or med school is amazing"

wait a minute
so out of the 128(?) students that eventually matriculate to their school of medicine, in years past, the norm has been about 7-15 of them coming from pitt undergrad

for a college visit, is this even close to normal practice, i.e., to talk about the med school, which there may be only a slim chance of attending, instead of the strength of the undergraduate program? i made the trip to see the college, not where i might be in 4+ years. what are your thoughts on this?

i know that you cannot offer medical advice, nor am i seeking it, but am i delusional?

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[Terpskins99]

for a college visit, is this even close to normal practice, i.e., to talk about the med school, which there may be only a slim chance of attending, instead of the strength of the undergraduate program?

Yep. Every college I visited had the same routine. They all boasted how > 85-95% of their pre-meds got into med school, and how they had strong connections to the local medical programs.

Its all baloney. You can get into just about any medical school from any undergraduate program with the proper grades/MCATs/extracurriculars/recommendation letters. At the same time, a guy that royally messes up at an Ivy league is not going to get accepted anywhere. The argument concerning equally strong students at both schools.... well, the reality is that both students are probably going to get in somewhere anyways.

Go where you think you'll be most comfortable and where you feel you'd do your best. IMO, thats the best way to ensure a successful road to medical school.

The only exception to this is the 6-8 year BA/MD track programs, which obviously guarantee you a medical degree upon completion of their requirements. Outside of them, I don't buy into the notion that certain colleges are feeder programs to any medical school.

 

[Depakote]

i know that you cannot offer medical advice, nor am i seeking it, but am i delusional?

I agree with everything Terpskins99 said, I just wanted to say that this made me lol.

 

[pingouin]

Yep. Every college I visited had the same routine. They all boasted how > 85-95% of their pre-meds got into med school, and how they had strong connections to the local medical programs.

lol I wonder how they're defining "pre-med". There was a huuuuuuuuuuuuge difference in the number of people who started as "pre-med" in my class, and we'd lost close to half of those by the end of our freshman year (yours truly included). I believe only 20-25% of our original "pre-meds" actually wound up applying in our senior year. Getting 85% of 25 people in is a heck of a lot easier than getting 85% of 100 in!!

 

[HumidBeing]

What penquinophile said has huge bearing on this, too. Some schools actively dissuade and come very close to refusing to assist any student that they don't think is a strong candidate when the time comes for committee letters and support. Boasting a strong acceptance rate of only those they support is very different than saying that 85% of the entering freshmen who desire to attend professional school make it.

 

[Terpskins99]

lol I wonder how they're defining "pre-med". There was a huuuuuuuuuuuuge difference in the number of people who started as "pre-med" in my class, and we'd lost close to half of those by the end of our freshman year (yours truly included). I believe only 20-25% of our original "pre-meds" actually wound up applying in our senior year. Getting 85% of 25 people in is a heck of a lot easier than getting 85% of 100 in!!

You hit the nail on the head. But good luck getting any school to admit this.

The bottom line is YOU make yourself a competitive candidate for medical school. No university is going to do this for you. This is not to say that ivy league schools have nothing to provide a pre-med student. Of course, any ivy league school will provide you with superior instruction and impressive extracurricular opportunities. Is that worth the extra tuition and living expenses? In general, I think so. I also believe early exposure to a highly competitive academic environment will definitely help with your transition to medical school (though year 1 of med school remains a rude awakening for just about everyone).