Choosing undergrad with med school in mind

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My DC is strongly considering a career in medicine. I'm wondering how much choice of undergrad impacts med school acceptance. I came across this for UVA:

https://www.scps.virginia.edu/post-baccalaureate-pre-medical-program/medical-school-acceptances

A 95% med school acceptance rate for grads is really impressive. I'm struggling to find stats like that for other schools. Does anyone know a good source where this information is shown? I can easily find med school acceptance rates, but I'm looking for outplacement (or whatever). It could be a distinguishing factor when choosing between options. It also makes me think about schools known for grade deflation (BU) and that maybe they shouldn't be considered.

This link was not for bachelors graduates. It does not apply to them. It was for the "Post Baccalaurate" program. It is really for kids who have already graduated from college with just missed medical school qualifications who want to give it another shot.

UVA used to provide some information on percentage of pre-med undergraduates who were accepted to at least one accredited medical school (2 years ago). The range at that time was a high of 60% to a low of 52% for a year. The national average is about 43%.

Always take medical school acceptance stats with a grain of salt. Schools are very protective of the data in general because they know it can be misapplied because most schools don't report it the same way. They will have caveats in it (GPA above X, getting a recommendation from committee, etc.)

[Anonymous]

An interesting read about how some UC schools let down pre-meds.

https://www.savvypremed.com/blog/3-reasons-many-uc-pre-meds-regret-their-college-choice

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Not guaranteed but strong undergrad program->strong medical school-> strong residency program of your choice->strong fellowship-> lucrative and elite career in sort after specialties.

For a mediocre student, just getting into any DO school and family medicine is good enough but probably not for a top student looking for exclusive opportunities.

Family medicine is a residency program. DO programs go on to send doctors to plastic surgery residency too. Any med school (MD/DO) is great. All med schools graduate students that move on to a variety of residency programs

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:For a strong student but not a genius go to a school where your kid is in the top 10%-25%.

My daughter wanted pre-med at UMD and was weeded out. If she had gone to a lower ranked school she would have had a much better shot at making it. The problem is the pre-med classes are graded on a curve and you need to be in the top 25%.

I was weeded out years ago in undergrad and hadn't immediately realized how important grades were. I'll share this advice with my own DC who is considering DVM/Med school.

[Anonymous]

For the vast majority of doctors, the med school doesn't matter. Find a direct admit program if you can and don't stress as much about undergrad

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:https://www.collegevine.com/schools/best-colleges-for-pre-med

https://www.collegetransitions.com/dataverse/top-feeders-medical-school

good list of top feeder colleges

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The link didn’t work for me. 95% of UVA grads get into medical school? That seems insanely high!

A lot of these schools inflate this number. As someone else said, by the point they get "in" to med school, many kids who started pre-med have been weeded out.

Also, many schools act as a gatekeeper of sorts for giving recs for med school. They only rec the top kids and so it's the percentage of those kids that they pass on through the formal recommendation process. Few schools give any kid that asks a recommendation.

That still doesn’t typically result in 95% of the remaining students getting in, though?

Not necessarily b/c of the second point. Many schools require a committee approval to recommend for med school, dental school, etc. It's 95% of THOSE kids that are getting in. I don't know whether UVA does this, fwiw, but many do.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:For a strong student but not a genius go to a school where your kid is in the top 10%-25%.

My daughter wanted pre-med at UMD and was weeded out. If she had gone to a lower ranked school she would have had a much better shot at making it. The problem is the pre-med classes are graded on a curve and you need to be in the top 25%.

+100
Go to a school where you are likely to be top 25%. For some that means anywhere in the country will work. For most it does not. The T10/ivy type schools do get their “average” or below gpa kids into med school, as long as Mcat is high(most of these kids can pull a high mcat with reasonable preparation) , but for most schools you need to be at least top quarter. Helps to have good premed advising, easy access (basic science) research available to undergraduates, med school on campus can help but not necessary.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Pick schools with low cost, no grade deflation, good pre med advising, high med school admission rate, located in medical districts to get year around internships, research, shadowing, volunteering, mentoring opportunities.

+1 FWIW, my good friend's husband is a doctor/Ivy grad. Two of their kids went to Ivies (finance and CS careers) but the one who wants to be a doctor (equally good student) is going to an excellent regional state U. The parents plan to pay for medical school and prioritized the things detailed above to set her up well for med school admissions.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The link didn’t work for me. 95% of UVA grads get into medical school? That seems insanely high!

A lot of these schools inflate this number. As someone else said, by the point they get "in" to med school, many kids who started pre-med have been weeded out.

Also, many schools act as a gatekeeper of sorts for giving recs for med school. They only rec the top kids and so it's the percentage of those kids that they pass on through the formal recommendation process. Few schools give any kid that asks a recommendation.

That still doesn’t typically result in 95% of the remaining students getting in, though?

Not necessarily b/c of the second point. Many schools require a committee approval to recommend for med school, dental school, etc. It's 95% of THOSE kids that are getting in. I don't know whether UVA does this, fwiw, but many do.

The 95% stat had nothing to do with UVA undergraduates. It had to do with a post baccalaureate (post BA/BS) program.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The link didn’t work for me. 95% of UVA grads get into medical school? That seems insanely high!

A lot of these schools inflate this number. As someone else said, by the point they get "in" to med school, many kids who started pre-med have been weeded out.

Also, many schools act as a gatekeeper of sorts for giving recs for med school. They only rec the top kids and so it's the percentage of those kids that they pass on through the formal recommendation process. Few schools give any kid that asks a recommendation.

That still doesn’t typically result in 95% of the remaining students getting in, though?

Not necessarily b/c of the second point. Many schools require a committee approval to recommend for med school, dental school, etc. It's 95% of THOSE kids that are getting in. I don't know whether UVA does this, fwiw, but many do.

The 95% stat had nothing to do with UVA undergraduates. It had to do with a post baccalaureate (post BA/BS) program.

I know. I saw that. I was responding more generally.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:https://www.collegevine.com/schools/best-colleges-for-pre-med

https://www.collegetransitions.com/dataverse/top-feeders-medical-school

good list of top feeder colleges

That is to top medical schools, not all accredited medical schools. Admission to any accredited medical school is an accomplishment, so I don't know that this tells you much other than students at those undergraduate schools probably came in with some pretty high stats. But the questions is if the Penn graduate who could also have gone to UMD Honors would have had a different outcome.

My view is you want a school where you will be comfortable and be supported (good teaching support, particularly in core pre-med courses, advising, ability to get mentored research that will lead to a reference, etc.). It is largely down to high GPA, high MCAT, etc.

[Anonymous]

My opinion as someone who works in education is that the student go to a place where they can stand out, get good grades, have strong relationships with professors (access), good research opportunities, and the school has a good track record for getting students into medical school.

Liberal arts colleges are very good at this. I have personally known people who went to Harvard for undergrad who barely got into med school and a very third tier one at that. Big state universities can work but they are so huge and the student might not be able to compete against their classmates and get enough extra help if needed. I have known doctors to do undergrad at private schools like GW where they can do reasonably well but not the top level college they would normally attend if not aiming for med school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Majority of premed students get on tge track due to parental pressure or peers influence or lack of knowledge of other careers but they change their minds in college so don't see undergrad as just a step to med school, pick strong and flexible undergraduate programs with good career advising.

+1000

[Anonymous]

Plenty of kids who start out at CC get into med school. I wouldn't obsess over this. She should pick the right school for her based on whatever else is important to her, and then get the highest grades possible, especially in the science pre-reqs. She should make sure to take the classes that will help her with the MCAT (people forget that physics in on there). And she will want to get experience that shows her interest in medicine -- whatever that might look like for her as far as her interests and what opportunities are available. That experience could be a fancy internship in a lab doing cutting edge research on cancer, it could be learning about compassion while working long shifts as a CNA in a nursing home, it could be assisting on investigations for a medical examiner's office, it could be working as an EMT when home from school during summers (if you are in a rural area, that's great, an urban area, great, a suburban one, great -- learning opportunities everywhere there). Or whatever.