Anonymous
Post 05/18/2026 14:37     Subject: Ivies vs State schools

Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:My child will be going to UVA. Got rejected from Ivies. What are we missing by not going to Ivies for pre-med. Outside of pre-med, do Ivies and other top schools create employers and other schools create employees


Colleges ranked by percentage of undergraduates who go on to attend medical school:

2 Harvard
3 Yale
5 Brown
13 Penn
16 Princeton
23 Cornell
46 Columbia
84 UVA

https://public.tableau.com/app/profile/adam.hearn4686/viz/TopFeederstoMedicalSchool/TopFeeders-Med5


UVA has much bigger enrollment than any of these. Cream rises to the top.


True--but you're taking the chance that your state school kid will be the cream. It's not always the case. Big pond, lots of fish.


Yes but most of the student body isn’t as competitive/gunner-like as the student body at the above schools. Especially if the UVA student could have gone to some of the above schools but chose UVA for other reasons like cost, culture, etc. I know it’s hard to believe, but lots of kids just don’t want to go to tiny colleges in the freezing north with no sports.


There's plenty of smart students at state schools like UVA these days. That your kid will rise to the top is no guarantee, and being mediocre at a state school is far different than being mediocre at an Ivy.
Anonymous
Post 05/18/2026 14:31     Subject: Ivies vs State schools

Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:My child will be going to UVA. Got rejected from Ivies. What are we missing by not going to Ivies for pre-med. Outside of pre-med, do Ivies and other top schools create employers and other schools create employees


Colleges ranked by percentage of undergraduates who go on to attend medical school:

2 Harvard
3 Yale
5 Brown
13 Penn
16 Princeton
23 Cornell
46 Columbia
84 UVA

https://public.tableau.com/app/profile/adam.hearn4686/viz/TopFeederstoMedicalSchool/TopFeeders-Med5


UVA has much bigger enrollment than any of these. Cream rises to the top.


True--but you're taking the chance that your state school kid will be the cream. It's not always the case. Big pond, lots of fish.


Yes but most of the student body isn’t as competitive/gunner-like as the student body at the above schools. Especially if the UVA student could have gone to some of the above schools but chose UVA for other reasons like cost, culture, etc. I know it’s hard to believe, but lots of kids just don’t want to go to tiny colleges in the freezing north with no sports.
Anonymous
Post 05/18/2026 14:28     Subject: Ivies vs State schools

If a young woman, watch that she doesn't come out of UVA a math teacher. Nothing wrong with being a math teacher but I haven't every young woman, interested in STEM, coming out of TJ, fails to fulfill their dream of going to med school

Not sure what opportunities they are missing out on at UVA to knock them off-track.
Anonymous
Post 05/18/2026 14:27     Subject: Ivies vs State schools

Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:My child will be going to UVA. Got rejected from Ivies. What are we missing by not going to Ivies for pre-med. Outside of pre-med, do Ivies and other top schools create employers and other schools create employees


Colleges ranked by percentage of undergraduates who go on to attend medical school:

2 Harvard
3 Yale
5 Brown
13 Penn
16 Princeton
23 Cornell
46 Columbia
84 UVA

https://public.tableau.com/app/profile/adam.hearn4686/viz/TopFeederstoMedicalSchool/TopFeeders-Med5


UVA has much bigger enrollment than any of these. Cream rises to the top.


True--but you're taking the chance that your state school kid will be the cream. It's not always the case. Big pond, lots of fish.
Anonymous
Post 05/18/2026 14:26     Subject: Ivies vs State schools

Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:My child will be going to UVA. Got rejected from Ivies. What are we missing by not going to Ivies for pre-med. Outside of pre-med, do Ivies and other top schools create employers and other schools create employees


Colleges ranked by percentage of undergraduates who go on to attend medical school:

2 Harvard
3 Yale
5 Brown
13 Penn
16 Princeton
23 Cornell
46 Columbia
84 UVA

https://public.tableau.com/app/profile/adam.hearn4686/viz/TopFeederstoMedicalSchool/TopFeeders-Med5


If the denominator is the class size, this will penalize the large schools. Should be based on how many students declare themselves as premed and of these how many get into med school
Anonymous
Post 05/18/2026 14:23     Subject: Ivies vs State schools

Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:My child will be going to UVA. Got rejected from Ivies. What are we missing by not going to Ivies for pre-med. Outside of pre-med, do Ivies and other top schools create employers and other schools create employees


Colleges ranked by percentage of undergraduates who go on to attend medical school:

2 Harvard
3 Yale
5 Brown
13 Penn
16 Princeton
23 Cornell
46 Columbia
84 UVA

https://public.tableau.com/app/profile/adam.hearn4686/viz/TopFeederstoMedicalSchool/TopFeeders-Med5


UVA has much bigger enrollment than any of these. Cream rises to the top.
Anonymous
Post 05/18/2026 14:21     Subject: Ivies vs State schools

Anonymous wrote:My child will be going to UVA. Got rejected from Ivies. What are we missing by not going to Ivies for pre-med. Outside of pre-med, do Ivies and other top schools create employers and other schools create employees


Colleges ranked by percentage of undergraduates who go on to attend medical school:

2 Harvard
3 Yale
5 Brown
13 Penn
16 Princeton
23 Cornell
46 Columbia
84 UVA

https://public.tableau.com/app/profile/adam.hearn4686/viz/TopFeederstoMedicalSchool/TopFeeders-Med5
Anonymous
Post 05/18/2026 14:05     Subject: Ivies vs State schools

Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:You won't have grade inflation plus the automatic imprimatur that you are highly intelligent and motivated.



UVA has had significant grade inflation, just like the Ivies. It just doesn't have average grades quite as high as the others (except Cornell).

UVA will probably convey that you are pretty smart, but not the Harvard/Yale/Princeton/Wharton "imprimatur" as you say. But your kid should just get on with it. You aren't defined by college.


I don’t know about grade inflation at UVA. My kid’s there and reports that professors hold the line at A = 95 or above, are tough graders, and don’t give away good grades. The kids who do well there are working hard for the good grades.


You can see that UVA has significant grade inflation (increase of mean GPA over time) based on the data the institution provides.

https://ira.virginia.edu/university-data-home/undergraduate-gpa
Anonymous
Post 05/18/2026 14:01     Subject: Ivies vs State schools

Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:You won't have grade inflation plus the automatic imprimatur that you are highly intelligent and motivated.



UVA has had significant grade inflation, just like the Ivies. It just doesn't have average grades quite as high as the others (except Cornell).

UVA will probably convey that you are pretty smart, but not the Harvard/Yale/Princeton/Wharton "imprimatur" as you say. But your kid should just get on with it. You aren't defined by college.


I don’t know about grade inflation at UVA. My kid’s there and reports that professors hold the line at A = 95 or above, are tough graders, and don’t give away good grades. The kids who do well there are working hard for the good grades.
Anonymous
Post 05/18/2026 13:48     Subject: Ivies vs State schools

Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:UVA is ivy in others eyes, even though may not be in tier 1.



1. The Ivy League is an athletic conference, nothing more.
2. The top SLACs are better at undergraduate education than any Ivy for most subjects.
3. UVA is a top school but none of the Public schools are the equal to any of the top schools in either of the above categories.
4. You can get to any medical school from any of the above by working hard and taking advantage of what they offer.

Focus in where your kid is, not where they aren't. If they do the work they will be fine.


This post screams “my SLAC kid got turned down by Ivies.”
Anonymous
Post 05/18/2026 13:32     Subject: Re:Ivies vs State schools

I have a UVA student and an Ivy student. Main differences:

-Class size, especially freshman year. For example, UVA runs 2 college bio sections in the fall and they're 450 kids each. The Ivy bio sections were 40 kids. As such the UVA courses are graded on a curve. They can't have 900 kids getting an A cause they can't realistically get 900 kids into medical school (and many of those 900 simply aren't medical school material). So they curve the class to a manageable number of As. Ivy has no curve but not everyone gets As either.

-Student scene. Very smart kids at both. More geeks and grinders at the Ivy. UVA has these but also a large percentage of pretty average kids. Obviously they did well in high school but they are noticeably less scholarly and super bright as a cohort. But again, you can find real superstars at UVA.

Anonymous
Post 05/18/2026 13:22     Subject: Ivies vs State schools

Anonymous wrote:My child will be going to UVA. Got rejected from Ivies. What are we missing by not going to Ivies for pre-med. Outside of pre-med, do Ivies and other top schools create employers and other schools create employees


Insofar as there is accurate information on pre-med student admission to medical school, UVA does not have as high of an acceptance rate or as high of a percentage of students attending medical school as Ivy League schools. However, medical school admissions is largely stat based, and a significant part of the difference is that the Ivy League schools simply will have a higher percentage of pre-meds with high MCATs and GPAs. The school itself is not really providing an advantage.

I won't bother with the second part of your question.
Anonymous
Post 05/18/2026 13:05     Subject: Ivies vs State schools

Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:My child will be going to UVA. Got rejected from Ivies. What are we missing by not going to Ivies for pre-med. Outside of pre-med, do Ivies and other top schools create employers and other schools create employees


For pre med, your child is missing basically nothing.

Outside of pre med, ivies are feeders for certain elite companies in finance, consulting, and tech. Goldman Sachs, McKinsey, Google, etc. That is their main advantage. Ivies also attract type A personalities who go on to found companies, like Facebook and Microsoft. But they aren't magical founder factories - Gates and Zuckerberg notably dropped out. Your kid will get an amazing education and do great things in life from UVA.


lol both of these recruit heavily at your top Tech/Engineering schools


Yes, and UVA's undergraduate business program is a target for IB. Still easier to get recruited from an ivy for most of those fields.
Anonymous
Post 05/18/2026 13:02     Subject: Ivies vs State schools

Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:My child will be going to UVA. Got rejected from Ivies. What are we missing by not going to Ivies for pre-med. Outside of pre-med, do Ivies and other top schools create employers and other schools create employees


For pre med, your child is missing basically nothing.

Outside of pre med, ivies are feeders for certain elite companies in finance, consulting, and tech. Goldman Sachs, McKinsey, Google, etc. That is their main advantage. Ivies also attract type A personalities who go on to found companies, like Facebook and Microsoft. But they aren't magical founder factories - Gates and Zuckerberg notably dropped out. Your kid will get an amazing education and do great things in life from UVA.


lol both of these recruit heavily at your top Tech/Engineering schools
Anonymous
Post 05/18/2026 12:59     Subject: Ivies vs State schools

Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:UVA is ivy in others eyes, even though may not be in tier 1.



1. The Ivy League is an athletic conference, nothing more.
2. The top SLACs are better at undergraduate education than any Ivy for most subjects.
3. UVA is a top school but none of the Public schools are the equal to any of the top schools in either of the above categories.
4. You can get to any medical school from any of the above by working hard and taking advantage of what they offer.

Focus in where your kid is, not where they aren't. If they do the work they will be fine.


I'm sorry, what categories are you referring to?


Ivies and top SLAC’s is how I read it.