Does it matter what the college's reputation is when applying to medical school???

Question

I plan to apply to Harvard Medical School after graduating from college. But I don't know if Harvard or other elite medical schools will take into account the reputation of the undergraduate college I attend. What I mainly want to know is if I go to Princeton University and have a 2.5/3.0 average or if I go to a third tier school, thats not known and have a 4.0 GPA, which situation will medical schools take students.
Thanks!

Answer 1

Frankly, neither one would get you into Harvard. If you had a 3.7 at Princeton, as opposed to a 4.0 at an unknown third tier school, Princeton would serve you well, but Harvard has its pick of people from all over the world for a few slots. Why would they take anyone with only a poor GPA from any school? And why would they take someone from a poor school, even with good grades, unless there was a lot of other stuff to recommend them?

Answer 2

Your overall GPA, your GPA in the prereq courses and your MCAT score are the three critical factors to get by the first round with an admission committee. To answer your question, a 4.0 GPA from the University of Iowa will beat out a 3.9 GPA from Fordham. It's a numbers game for the first round.

Do more research, as I think you're making a common mistake of thinking about 'elite' medical schools. All US medical schools are accredited by the same authority and all US medical students have to take the same US Medical Licensing Exams. There isn't a statistically significant difference in the test scores between any US medical school. If there was, the schools with the lower scores would be at risk for losing their accreditation (which hasn't happened) and all of the schools would modify their curricula to match the schools with the higher scores (hasn't happened, either).

The reputations of the Harvards, Yales and Johns Hopkins arise from the residency programs, the medical research and the medical centers that share the name. These have nothing to do with the medical school.

But if you insist on brand names, go for it. But don't deceive yourself that you're getting a better education. You'll just be paying top dollar for what others got for half the cost.

The smart move is to attend your own state's university medical school. It's your best chance for being accepted due to the state university having to give admission preference to state residents. It's also the lowest tuition cost.

Once you have graduated from medical school, you'll want to apply to the residency program that is known as the best for the specialty you have chosen. I use the example of Emergency Medicine, as it's what I know best. I used to work at Johns Hopkins and Johns Hopkins does have a residency program in Emergency Medicine. But Johns Hopkins isn't known for its Emergency Medicine program. The two best programs are at UCLA and the University of Maryland. When you go looking for a job, having Johns Hopkins on your CV for Emergency Medicine isn't going to impress the ER director as much as having the University of Maryland.

Once you get into medicine nobody cares where you did your undergrad or what medical school you attended. All medical people want to know is where did you do your residency training. Maybe one of the 'name' programs is known as the best residency for the specialty you choose, but don't be surprised if a 'common' program is known as the best program for your specialty.

Best of luck to you.

Answer 3

There is always factors consider when applying to a graduate school like Harvard Med. They look at the strength of academics at the undergrad school, the degree, what your gpa was, and other factors.