my husband went to medical school at Hopkins from Delaware. Out of 100 kids in his class, there were about 80 undergrad institutions represented. His best friends went to Princeton, U of Oklahoma and St. Mary's College of Maryland.
In the end, they all got the same MD.
I was pre-med at a small no name liberal arts college. The school placed 90% of pre-meds into medical school.
The MCAT and doing very well wherever you are are what matters.

I went to a tiny regional college because it was what we could afford. Scored 99th percentile on LSAT, admitted to T20 law school and was editor the Law Review.

Anonymous wrote:OP’s question was whether it possible (which I read as “likely”) to go to law/med school from a university that is not highly ranked. Yes, yes, it is not only possible, it is likely. My law class had 275 or so in it. A majority were from non-Top 25 universities and non-top SLACs. Yes, the ones from lower ranked schools may have had to have a little higher GPA than one who went to top colleges, but at some point you have to bet on yourself and actually perform. So if you really want to to go the professional school, I repeat myself that it is MUCH more important HOW you do in college than WHERE you go to college. A 3.3 from Duke will not get you into more law schools than a 3.8 from CNU (assuming same LSAT).

+1

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think people often confuse "possible" and "likelihood" confused when talking about this topic. Yes, anything is possible I suppose.

It is likely. If you do well on the MCAT or LSAT, your undergrad doesn’t really matter at all.

Agreed. I went to Iowa State (first year at OSU --that's Oklahoma State), but was accepted to Penn Law, waitlisted at Harvard law, and attended UVA law. Tons of Duke, Harvard and Notre Dame undergrads right there with me at UVA law. They paid a lot more to get to the same place.

My sister also graduated from ISU for undergrad. Went to Cornell for PhD.

Sure, you need good grades in undergrad, but LSAT or MCAT matter a lot.

Anonymous wrote:I think people often confuse "possible" and "likelihood" confused when talking about this topic. Yes, anything is possible I suppose.

It is highly likely that no matter where you go to undergrad, you will get into grad, law, or medical school if you do well on the entrance exam and did well in your non-name college. This is a fact, not a mere possibility.

OP’s question was whether it possible (which I read as “likely”) to go to law/med school from a university that is not highly ranked. Yes, yes, it is not only possible, it is likely. My law class had 275 or so in it. A majority were from non-Top 25 universities and non-top SLACs. Yes, the ones from lower ranked schools may have had to have a little higher GPA than one who went to top colleges, but at some point you have to bet on yourself and actually perform. So if you really want to to go the professional school, I repeat myself that it is MUCH more important HOW you do in college than WHERE you go to college. A 3.3 from Duke will not get you into more law schools than a 3.8 from CNU (assuming same LSAT).

Anonymous wrote:

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.

I worked in law school ad missions for a while for a top fourteen. It’s driven by the LSAT, the GPA, but also the prestige level of the school. You absolutely need a higher gpa if you are coming from East boonf*$k State than you do if you are coming from, say, Amherst, Williams, Yale, Wesleyan, Vassar, etc.

Right, but those things are generally inversely related. I had an almost 4.0 at my dumbed down undergrad. And 176 on the LSAT. If my GPA had been lower but from UVA, the same schools would have admitted me.

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.

No. It truly doesn’t matter. If you went to increase your chances of getting in to a top law school, hope you are really good at logic games, or hope there is a way to really increase your score do that. A 178 will get you in to Harvard Las whether you went to Yale or Bob’s College of Knowledge for undergrad.

Anonymous wrote:

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.

I worked in law school ad missions for a while for a top fourteen. It’s driven by the LSAT, the GPA, but also the prestige level of the school. You absolutely need a higher gpa if you are coming from East boonf*$k State than you do if you are coming from, say, Amherst, Williams, Yale, Wesleyan, Vassar, etc.

Yes, but not that much higher. And it's a LOT harder to get to get the high GPA at the harder schools.

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.

I worked in law school ad missions for a while for a top fourteen. It’s driven by the LSAT, the GPA, but also the prestige level of the school. You absolutely need a higher gpa if you are coming from East boonf*$k State than you do if you are coming from, say, Amherst, Williams, Yale, Wesleyan, Vassar, etc.

I went to a HSYP college. I don't know of a single person who applied to either med or law school and didn't get in. Not everybody got into the top 20 med or law schools, although many certainly did, including many who did not have perfect MCATs and GPAs. Meanwhile, over at UMBC or CNU that is not the case.

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.

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.

The thing is, it’s not at all rare. I went to Law School (T14). There were plenty from schools most of you think as safeties or open enrollment. Schools like Elmira, UMass, SUNY, Arizona State, Mary Baldwin, St Olaf. But those came in with high GPAs (usually summa) and LSATs. We also people from Princeton, Yale, McGill, Bowdoin, Williams, Tufts, Tulane and Vandy, and those had a bit more leeway in their GPAs. LSAT range was probably pretty narrow. I was on Law Review and it wasn’t dominated by Top 25 universities or top SLACs. It was a mix. I came from a top 30. That was basically the beginning of my evolution that the name of the school matters very little if you plan on professional school (business, law or medicine). It might still matter more if someone wanted to go to consulting or we’ll street without getting an MBA.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think people often confuse "possible" and "likelihood" confused when talking about this topic. Yes, anything is possible I suppose.

It is likely. If you do well on the MCAT or LSAT, your undergrad doesn’t really matter at all.

Correct. I went to a third tier liberal arts college in Iowa and then med school at Hopkins.
My brother went to the same undergrad and the medical school at Northwestern.
My cousin went to a complete no-name regional liberal arts college in Indiana and then on to medical school at Temple.

Similar path. They key is outstanding mcats.

Anonymous wrote:

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.

Yes - speaking as a lawyer, the irony of law school admissions is that it’s so incredibly and objectively stats-based with the combo of GPA and LSAT score. This is much more so than undergrad admissions. The most subjective schools beyond GPA/LSAT are the very top ones (Harvard, Yale, Stanford), but it’s otherwise a pretty direct line between stats and admissions virtually everywhere else.

To the extent that grads from top undergrad schools are overrepresented in top law schools, it’s really more that those people are overrepresented among top standardized test takers in general (including the LSAT and MCAT) as opposed to the fact that they attended those particular undergrad schools themselves.

I do not buy that for one second. Could it be that more applications come out of those schools? Maybe? But no, those students are not overrepresented over large state universities.