Think differently. Like Xavier or Howard's 6-year BS/MD

Anonymous wrote:Most medical schools won't care about undergrad prestige but ironically most prestigious medical schools mostly admit students from prestigious undergrad schools.

That’s not ironic. It’s predictable.

Anonymous wrote:Premed is not a “program”. It is a set of classes someone gets As in at any college or university, a range of extracurricular activities that someone chooses to engage in, and an MCAT that someone studies for and gets a high score on. There’s truly no particular school that can guarantee any of those things.

Sure, no one is talking about guarantees. But some schools have premed coordinators that are helpful at supporting students through this process and have a strong track record in admissions given the relative quality of their candidates, other schools are more 'fend for yourself' and others are elite, highly competitive cut-throat programs. In addition, some schools have locations near hospitals, public health organizations and companies that are easy to access for extracurricular opportunities and others don't so the internships have to only be scheduled in the summer and it's harder to rack up the same extensive ongoing experiences. It's really wise to be asking--where can I as a student get the highest grades and get the most experience, and have time to study for my MCAT. Organic chemistry content is going to be equally hard pretty much wherever you go, but some schools have tutors, study groups, generous withdrawal processes that prevent a low grade from going on your transcript etc. At some schools you will be more of a top student so your LoRs will be glowing and you will get more of the research/internship opportunities, whereas at others you might be more in the middle of the pack.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You need very good grades and MCAT scores to get into medical school. Where you do undergrad is not that important.

Also it doesn't matter how great of a student you are. People retake classes to improve GPA, get post Baccalaureate or masters and prepare/repeat MCAT. You don't have to be top student to get into random MD, DO, DDS schools. One of my DD's roommate was a very average student but kept retaking and adding things for 4 years after undergrad and finally made it into some random medical school in a rural area.

This would be a long slog and unpredictable... I think it's wrong to imply that it doesn't matter how great of a student you are--if the alternative is taking multiple years post undergrad retaking courses and retaking the MCAT to possibly get into some random rural med school. The fact is the reputation of the undergrad institution doesn't matter more than GPA--though it's not like it doesn't matter. But GPA matters.

*applicants

With AI and other technologies, role of physicians is getting limited and in a decade, medical schools won't have as many appliy due to decrease in physician income.

If you instead do CS then you get a six figure entry job and by the time your pediatrician classmate starts getting his attending check, you are already have higher earnings, higher saving/investment and no debt than him.

Only thing is the cost, extra years mean paying for more classes, housing, living etc and lost wages and opportunity of experience/advancement of career.

Anonymous wrote:You need very good grades and MCAT scores to get into medical school. Where you do undergrad is not that important.

Also it doesn't matter how great of a student you are. People retake classes to improve GPA, get post Baccalaureate or masters and prepare/repeat MCAT. You don't have to be top student to get into random MD, DO, DDS schools. One of my DD's roommate was a very average student but kept retaking and adding things for 4 years after undergrad and finally made it into some random medical school in a rural area.

Anonymous wrote:Check out this list of top feeders to medical schools: https://www.collegetransitions.com/dataverse/top-feeders-medical-school

Its crazy how some smaller schools send twice as many students than huge public schools with quadruple or larger enrollment size.

Anonymous wrote:I met a recent graduate who did the Georgetown pre-med program, took a year off for MCATs and medical experience, and then placed into NO med schools. I wish this person the best but be aware of how things turn out…::

Took a year off for medical experience? What was he doing for the past for years for medical experience?? What was his GPA? What was his MCAT?

Premed is not a “program”. It is a set of classes someone gets As in at any college or university, a range of extracurricular activities that someone chooses to engage in, and an MCAT that someone studies for and gets a high score on. There’s truly no particular school that can guarantee any of those things.

Check out this list of top feeders to medical schools: https://www.collegetransitions.com/dataverse/top-feeders-medical-school

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Not a safety- but agree with Case Western. They have a med school.

+1
They also have an excellent BS-MD program although it is extremely selective.
With the Cleveland Clinic and UH Hospital system across the street from campus the availability of shadowing and research options is significant.

+2

Anonymous wrote:Most medical schools won't care about undergrad prestige but ironically most prestigious medical schools mostly admit students from prestigious undergrad schools.

Largely because those schools enroll good students who tend to do great on standardized tests.