You can still go to medical or law school if your undergrad was not highly ranked

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:There are books written about this, there are many threads on this forum about this as well. They all tell you the same thing. The ranking of your undergrad school is not important for med or law school admissions

+1000

Med schools care about GPA/MCAT, reference letters and what you do in undergrad to show you want to be a doctor (research/volunteering/working as a CNA, etc) A 3.98 from a small lesser known/not "elite" university gets the same chance as someone from Wash U. I'd argue that it might be easier to keep/get a high GPA while at a school where your kid is the big fish in a little pond and at a school where everyone did not get a 1580+ on their SATs. Attend a school where the basic science/premed courses are not typically weed out courses and your kid might actually have a better chance at Med school

[Anonymous]

I went to a middling college in the midwest. I had a group of friends that were brilliant. They were all at the school on full academic rides and in the school's honor program. They all hung out together and our sophomore year, I happened to end up living next door to one of them and that's when I became friends with this group. Fast forward to graduation, two ended up at Harvard Law school. One went to get his PhD at U of Michigan and another got his PhD at Stanford.

I think the primary motivation for going to our not highly ranked undergrad was the free tuition and the honors program.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There are books written about this, there are many threads on this forum about this as well. They all tell you the same thing. The ranking of your undergrad school is not important for med or law school admissions

+1000

Med schools care about GPA/MCAT, reference letters and what you do in undergrad to show you want to be a doctor (research/volunteering/working as a CNA, etc) A 3.98 from a small lesser known/not "elite" university gets the same chance as someone from Wash U. I'd argue that it might be easier to keep/get a high GPA while at a school where your kid is the big fish in a little pond and at a school where everyone did not get a 1580+ on their SATs. Attend a school where the basic science/premed courses are not typically weed out courses and your kid might actually have a better chance at Med school

This with the only caveat being that there is a level of school they probably shouldn't drop below, but I think that tier is probably pretty low- I think a kid coming out of the vast majority of public universities in Virginia would be fine.

[Anonymous]

No , never.

[Anonymous]

Just kidding about the above. Even for residencies, if you score very high on your boards some top programs will open up to you. I had a relative attend American University of the Caribbean. She matched with the Cleveland Clinic after getting a ridiculously high STEP II score.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I would guess it's more likely for med school because pre-reqs and MCATS are very objective data on which they can determine likely success in medical school. Law school is probably much more subjective and very much driven by prestige.

It is very driven by LSAT score.

Why is this so hard for people?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:PP, you just pointed out inadvertently that to get into a T14 you had to be the very top of your class from a lower ranked school. There are maybe 5 kids at one of those schools who will even be considered by a T14 for admission. But all A- students from Princeton will be given a break and let in so long as they have a decent LSAT score. If you want to go to law school and not kill yourself during undergrad to get into a T14, go to a top undergrad.

yeah, cause nailing A- @ Princeton is a breeze.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Yes. They point to the extremely rare individual from a random low ranked college and jump to the conclusion that one's ability to get into medical or law school from that school is the same as it would be from a top ranked college.

Are you really this clueless? You sound like a club teammate of DC. She whined at a recruitment event that her GPA should be worth more because she attended a more rigorous HS. The coach, without missing a best, replied, "we look for A grades regardless of the institution." That teammate is now playing college soccer, but not at a T50 school.

Top GPA + top test score > undergrad ranking

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:PP, you just pointed out inadvertently that to get into a T14 you had to be the very top of your class from a lower ranked school. There are maybe 5 kids at one of those schools who will even be considered by a T14 for admission. But all A- students from Princeton will be given a break and let in so long as they have a decent LSAT score. If you want to go to law school and not kill yourself during undergrad to get into a T14, go to a top undergrad.

yeah, cause nailing A- @ Princeton is a breeze.

Uhhh, yeah it apparently is. A 3.7 is about the average GPA at the Ivies. Being top half is not exactly killing yourself.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:PP, you just pointed out inadvertently that to get into a T14 you had to be the very top of your class from a lower ranked school. There are maybe 5 kids at one of those schools who will even be considered by a T14 for admission. But all A- students from Princeton will be given a break and let in so long as they have a decent LSAT score. If you want to go to law school and not kill yourself during undergrad to get into a T14, go to a top undergrad.

yeah, cause nailing A- @ Princeton is a breeze.

Uhhh, yeah it apparently is. A 3.7 is about the average GPA at the Ivies. Being top half is not exactly killing yourself.

Brown is going to need a grade higher than 4.0 to keep its GPA rise going up and up.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:PP, you just pointed out inadvertently that to get into a T14 you had to be the very top of your class from a lower ranked school. There are maybe 5 kids at one of those schools who will even be considered by a T14 for admission. But all A- students from Princeton will be given a break and let in so long as they have a decent LSAT score. If you want to go to law school and not kill yourself during undergrad to get into a T14, go to a top undergrad.

yeah, cause nailing A- @ Princeton is a breeze.

Uhhh, yeah it apparently is. A 3.7 is about the average GPA at the Ivies. Being top half is not exactly killing yourself.

Princeton is known for its grade deflation

[Anonymous]

My son is pre-med. Both his primary care doctor and his orthopedic surgeon said undergrad school does not matter. It’s test scores. That’s why we opted for the free in-state tuition at Florida. I’m not paying for an undergrad degree. I have two other kids with masters. Their undergrad school didn’t matter at all. Test scores and grades did.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I went to a middling college in the midwest. I had a group of friends that were brilliant. They were all at the school on full academic rides and in the school's honor program. They all hung out together and our sophomore year, I happened to end up living next door to one of them and that's when I became friends with this group. Fast forward to graduation, two ended up at Harvard Law school. One went to get his PhD at U of Michigan and another got his PhD at Stanford.

I think the primary motivation for going to our not highly ranked undergrad was the free tuition and the honors program.

Krueger-Dale affirmed again. Only quibble is the intervention in the form of the honors program, but it's a very minor one. If you're competitive for admission to Ivies, it doesn't matter whether you go or not.