Anonymous
02/18/2026 01:02
Subject: Medical School
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Above poster seems to imply that students take gap year if GPA is lower. That is not true for many students. Many with top GPA and MCAT are taking gap years to further strengthen their apps as the process has become ultra competitive.
Not at our two kid's different schools, both schools in the top-6 (ivy+) med school feeder list. Gap years are not as common at these schools as nationally and they are usually used for GPA issues. Not always: some top students have a funded 5th year somewhere and do it for the prestige. There are many current seniors at both schools that are already admitted to top-5 programs this year, no gap, as well as some superstars who had funded gap years who are also in top-5 programs. Most gap students are not the top-25% at these schools. Some are. Almost all Top-5 admits are non-gap year students, and the gapped ones who are into T-5 are doing extraordinary, funded, "known" fellowship type experiences with their gap.
From TOP SCHOOLS gaps are absolutely not needed to get into top-5 med schools, and not needed for "average" elite school students to get into T-25 med schools.
This isn't true. Harvard themselves say that 75-80% of their graduates take a gap year. The same 75%+ holds for the Ivies in general. Almost all T5 admits do take a gap year. It isn't helpful when people post made up numbers like the PP.
Anonymous
02/18/2026 01:00
Subject: Medical School
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Highest med school placements
1. Harvard
2. Johns Hopkins
3. Duke
4. UPenn
5. Stanford
6. WashU
7. Rice
8. Northwestern
9. Brown
10. UNC Chapel Hill
So many of these schools weed out all but 10% of the "pre meds."
It'd not like you matriculate there and go to medical school 4 yrs later.
False. I do not know about Rice and UNC, but all of the rest do not have weed-outs or barriers to med-admissions committee letters. Truly banning one from applying did not even happen at most of these 30 years ago, today it happens at almost none.
The committees advise to take a gap year or two and spread out courses if the GPA is under a certain level, but there are no bans.
Read the premed advising sections of these schools. We have premeds at two of the ones in the top 6 and many family and friends at the rest of this list and other schools(CLemson, Emory). None of them have gatekeeping for letters. For all but UNC, the GPAs are inflated to the extent that the median is 3.75-3.9 for overall undergrads as well as premeds. These schools have tables on GPA vs MCAT and acceptance to MD programs. On average at the 1-9 schools, a below-average GPA of 3.5 leads to med school acceptance 60% of the time. 3.7 and above is 90-95% depending on the school. We did our homework and got data from every parent who had a kid there. Weedouts do not happen. Cs are given only rarely, even intro courses have B+ averages. It is not the same as it used to be.
I don’t think you understand weed out correctly. Getting a C in or go is a weed out. Having a science gpa under 3.3 is a weed out. It doesn’t refer to committee letter.
When fewer than 10% get Cs and 3.3 is well below the bottom quartile, there are very few indeed being weeded out from med school at elites due to grade inflation. One C does not weed you out, if you figure out the issue you can have a 3.8 by senior year, take the gaps as recommended and get into an MD program in the USA.
If you cannot get above 3.3 at an elite you did not belong there in the first place. 30 years ago, below the average GPA at an elite was enough to weed you out. Now only 10% are "weeded out" to use your definition. They can and do apply with 3.3 or a couple of Cs: if they want to get in they listen to the committee, do a post-bacc at GTown or other top ones, and because they came from an elite with highly competitive peers, they almost always can finish top-half there and go to med school with 2-3 gap years.
Not the case at JHU or Cornell.
Anonymous
02/18/2026 00:51
Subject: Medical School
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Highest med school placements
1. Harvard
2. Johns Hopkins
3. Duke
4. UPenn
5. Stanford
6. WashU
7. Rice
8. Northwestern
9. Brown
10. UNC Chapel Hill
So many of these schools weed out all but 10% of the "pre meds."
It'd not like you matriculate there and go to medical school 4 yrs later.
False. I do not know about Rice and UNC, but all of the rest do not have weed-outs or barriers to med-admissions committee letters. Truly banning one from applying did not even happen at most of these 30 years ago, today it happens at almost none.
The committees advise to take a gap year or two and spread out courses if the GPA is under a certain level, but there are no bans.
Read the premed advising sections of these schools. We have premeds at two of the ones in the top 6 and many family and friends at the rest of this list and other schools(CLemson, Emory). None of them have gatekeeping for letters. For all but UNC, the GPAs are inflated to the extent that the median is 3.75-3.9 for overall undergrads as well as premeds. These schools have tables on GPA vs MCAT and acceptance to MD programs. On average at the 1-9 schools, a below-average GPA of 3.5 leads to med school acceptance 60% of the time. 3.7 and above is 90-95% depending on the school. We did our homework and got data from every parent who had a kid there. Weedouts do not happen. Cs are given only rarely, even intro courses have B+ averages. It is not the same as it used to be.
I don’t think you understand weed out correctly. Getting a C in or go is a weed out. Having a science gpa under 3.3 is a weed out. It doesn’t refer to committee letter.
When fewer than 10% get Cs and 3.3 is well below the bottom quartile, there are very few indeed being weeded out from med school at elites due to grade inflation. One C does not weed you out, if you figure out the issue you can have a 3.8 by senior year, take the gaps as recommended and get into an MD program in the USA.
If you cannot get above 3.3 at an elite you did not belong there in the first place. 30 years ago, below the average GPA at an elite was enough to weed you out. Now only 10% are "weeded out" to use your definition. They can and do apply with 3.3 or a couple of Cs: if they want to get in they listen to the committee, do a post-bacc at GTown or other top ones, and because they came from an elite with highly competitive peers, they almost always can finish top-half there and go to med school with 2-3 gap years.
Anonymous
02/18/2026 00:46
Subject: Medical School
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Highest med school placements
1. Harvard
2. Johns Hopkins
3. Duke
4. UPenn
5. Stanford
6. WashU
7. Rice
8. Northwestern
9. Brown
10. UNC Chapel Hill
So many of these schools weed out all but 10% of the "pre meds."
It'd not like you matriculate there and go to medical school 4 yrs later.
I assume all the state schools and all ivies weed out, but how does one know if a liberal arts school weeds out or not?
I think Ivies do comparatively little to weed out. They have among the highest average GPAs.
Good luck attending Cornell with that mindset.
Some folks here don’t accept that Cornell is part of Ivy League.
Cornell has more kids going on to medical school than any other university. No other school is even close.
Not even close to correct. https://www.aamc.org/media/9636/download
It's all about size.
The AAMC list is applicants, not acceptances.
Anonymous
02/18/2026 00:42
Subject: Medical School
Anonymous wrote:Above poster seems to imply that students take gap year if GPA is lower. That is not true for many students. Many with top GPA and MCAT are taking gap years to further strengthen their apps as the process has become ultra competitive.
Not at our two kid's different schools, both schools in the top-6 (ivy+) med school feeder list. Gap years are not as common at these schools as nationally and they are usually used for GPA issues. Not always: some top students have a funded 5th year somewhere and do it for the prestige. There are many current seniors at both schools that are already admitted to top-5 programs this year, no gap, as well as some superstars who had funded gap years who are also in top-5 programs. Most gap students are not the top-25% at these schools. Some are. Almost all Top-5 admits are non-gap year students, and the gapped ones who are into T-5 are doing extraordinary, funded, "known" fellowship type experiences with their gap.
From TOP SCHOOLS gaps are absolutely not needed to get into top-5 med schools, and not needed for "average" elite school students to get into T-25 med schools.
Anonymous
02/18/2026 00:41
Subject: Medical School
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Highest med school placements
1. Harvard
2. Johns Hopkins
3. Duke
4. UPenn
5. Stanford
6. WashU
7. Rice
8. Northwestern
9. Brown
10. UNC Chapel Hill
So many of these schools weed out all but 10% of the "pre meds."
It'd not like you matriculate there and go to medical school 4 yrs later.
False. I do not know about Rice and UNC, but all of the rest do not have weed-outs or barriers to med-admissions committee letters. Truly banning one from applying did not even happen at most of these 30 years ago, today it happens at almost none.
The committees advise to take a gap year or two and spread out courses if the GPA is under a certain level, but there are no bans.
Read the premed advising sections of these schools. We have premeds at two of the ones in the top 6 and many family and friends at the rest of this list and other schools(CLemson, Emory). None of them have gatekeeping for letters. For all but UNC, the GPAs are inflated to the extent that the median is 3.75-3.9 for overall undergrads as well as premeds. These schools have tables on GPA vs MCAT and acceptance to MD programs. On average at the 1-9 schools, a below-average GPA of 3.5 leads to med school acceptance 60% of the time. 3.7 and above is 90-95% depending on the school. We did our homework and got data from every parent who had a kid there. Weedouts do not happen. Cs are given only rarely, even intro courses have B+ averages. It is not the same as it used to be.
I don’t think you understand weed out correctly. Getting a C in or go is a weed out. Having a science gpa under 3.3 is a weed out. It doesn’t refer to committee letter.
Anonymous
02/18/2026 00:35
Subject: Medical School
Above poster seems to imply that students take gap year if GPA is lower. That is not true for many students. Many with top GPA and MCAT are taking gap years to further strengthen their apps as the process has become ultra competitive.
Anonymous
02/18/2026 00:27
Subject: Medical School
false. the more elite the less or no weed-out. Top LACs also do not weed out.Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Highest med school placements
1. Harvard
2. Johns Hopkins
3. Duke
4. UPenn
5. Stanford
6. WashU
7. Rice
8. Northwestern
9. Brown
10. UNC Chapel Hill
So many of these schools weed out all but 10% of the "pre meds."
It'd not like you matriculate there and go to medical school 4 yrs later.
I assume all the state schools and all ivies weed out, but how does one know if a liberal arts school weeds out or not?
Anonymous
02/18/2026 00:25
Subject: Medical School
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Highest med school placements
1. Harvard
2. Johns Hopkins
3. Duke
4. UPenn
5. Stanford
6. WashU
7. Rice
8. Northwestern
9. Brown
10. UNC Chapel Hill
So many of these schools weed out all but 10% of the "pre meds."
It'd not like you matriculate there and go to medical school 4 yrs later.
False. I do not know about Rice and UNC, but all of the rest do not have weed-outs or barriers to med-admissions committee letters. Truly banning one from applying did not even happen at most of these 30 years ago, today it happens at almost none.
The committees advise to take a gap year or two and spread out courses if the GPA is under a certain level, but there are no bans.
Read the premed advising sections of these schools. We have premeds at two of the ones in the top 6 and many family and friends at the rest of this list and other schools(CLemson, Emory). None of them have gatekeeping for letters. For all but UNC, the GPAs are inflated to the extent that the median is 3.75-3.9 for overall undergrads as well as premeds. These schools have tables on GPA vs MCAT and acceptance to MD programs. On average at the 1-9 schools, a below-average GPA of 3.5 leads to med school acceptance 60% of the time. 3.7 and above is 90-95% depending on the school. We did our homework and got data from every parent who had a kid there. Weedouts do not happen. Cs are given only rarely, even intro courses have B+ averages. It is not the same as it used to be.
Anonymous
02/18/2026 00:14
Subject: Re:Medical School
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:One thing frequently parroted is wherever you can get the highest gpa and costs the least. Solid advice. However, everyone seems to ignore that fact that while gpa is very important, there is a huge disparity between average MCAT at an Ivy/elite and other schools. So, the 4.0 or 3.9 may also coincide with a 522 and a 502.
Students admitted to elite schools are more likely to have a demonstrated ability to score high on standardized tests than those at less elite schools, and the MCAT is a standardized test. If the student admitted to the elite school attended a less elite college, it probably would not alter their MCAT score.
Talk to professors. The course content is taught at a much higher level at elites, at or above difficulty of the MCAT tests. Plus, having a large cohort of similar level peers can push you to study hard and put the work in outside of class on research and clinicals. At many good but not great undergrads, "no one gets into medical school it is so hard" is repeated all the time, sewing seeds of doubt in the fully capable. At ivy+ levels, almost everyone gets in somewhere, it is not considered rare or terribly difficult, and the school cultures center around studying and maximizing the resume. That environment cannot be duplicated and accounts for a portion of the success.
Anonymous
02/17/2026 21:49
Subject: Medical School
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Per latest AAMC stats for US MD accepted students:
Breakdown of Gap Year Usage (Recent Data Trends):
Gap Years (One or More): ~74% of matriculants.
No Gap Year (Straight Through): ~26-29% of matriculants.
Common Lengths: Many students take 1–2 years (often for work or research), but others take 3–4 (13.4%) or 5+ years (7.9%).
https://www.emorywheel.com/article/2024/02/medical-school-gap-year-rates-continue-to-rise-at-emory-nationally
One thing people don't talk about is maturity of 22 yr old MS1 (no gap) vs 24 yr old MS1 (one or two gaps).
In most other countries, medical school is an undergraduate course of study entered into after high school. Are you saying doctors
in other countries are less mature because they went straight into their course? The maturing process happens DURING medical school and residency training. Like being forged into a new person by fire. completely different from the sweet, idealistic undergrad that entered.
Anonymous
02/17/2026 21:15
Subject: Medical School
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Highest med school placements
1. Harvard
2. Johns Hopkins
3. Duke
4. UPenn
5. Stanford
6. WashU
7. Rice
8. Northwestern
9. Brown
10. UNC Chapel Hill
So many of these schools weed out all but 10% of the "pre meds."
It'd not like you matriculate there and go to medical school 4 yrs later.
I assume all the state schools and all ivies weed out, but how does one know if a liberal arts school weeds out or not?
I think Ivies do comparatively little to weed out. They have among the highest average GPAs.
Good luck attending Cornell with that mindset.
Some folks here don’t accept that Cornell is part of Ivy League.
Cornell has more kids going on to medical school than any other university. No other school is even close.
Not even close to correct. https://www.aamc.org/media/9636/download
It's all about size.
lol
People just make up whatever that fits their narratives.
Anonymous
02/17/2026 21:05
Subject: Medical School
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Highest med school placements
1. Harvard
2. Johns Hopkins
3. Duke
4. UPenn
5. Stanford
6. WashU
7. Rice
8. Northwestern
9. Brown
10. UNC Chapel Hill
So many of these schools weed out all but 10% of the "pre meds."
It'd not like you matriculate there and go to medical school 4 yrs later.
I assume all the state schools and all ivies weed out, but how does one know if a liberal arts school weeds out or not?
I think Ivies do comparatively little to weed out. They have among the highest average GPAs.
Good luck attending Cornell with that mindset.
Some folks here don’t accept that Cornell is part of Ivy League.
Cornell has more kids going on to medical school than any other university. No other school is even close.
Not even close to correct. https://www.aamc.org/media/9636/download
It's all about size.
Anonymous
02/17/2026 21:00
Subject: Medical School
Anonymous wrote:Per latest AAMC stats for US MD accepted students:
Breakdown of Gap Year Usage (Recent Data Trends):
Gap Years (One or More): ~74% of matriculants.
No Gap Year (Straight Through): ~26-29% of matriculants.
Common Lengths: Many students take 1–2 years (often for work or research), but others take 3–4 (13.4%) or 5+ years (7.9%).
https://www.emorywheel.com/article/2024/02/medical-school-gap-year-rates-continue-to-rise-at-emory-nationally
One thing people don't talk about is maturity of 22 yr old MS1 (no gap) vs 24 yr old MS1 (one or two gaps).
Anonymous
02/17/2026 20:59
Subject: Medical School
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Highest med school placements
1. Harvard
2. Johns Hopkins
3. Duke
4. UPenn
5. Stanford
6. WashU
7. Rice
8. Northwestern
9. Brown
10. UNC Chapel Hill
So many of these schools weed out all but 10% of the "pre meds."
It'd not like you matriculate there and go to medical school 4 yrs later.
I assume all the state schools and all ivies weed out, but how does one know if a liberal arts school weeds out or not?
I think Ivies do comparatively little to weed out. They have among the highest average GPAs.
Good luck attending Cornell with that mindset.
Some folks here don’t accept that Cornell is part of Ivy League.
Cornell has more kids going on to medical school than any other university. No other school is even close.