Does your undergraduate reputation matter for medical school admissions?
It’s a bit complicated.
The answer is both yes and no.
Stick around to find out why.
What’s going on guys, Dr. Jubbal, MedSchoolInsiders.com.
There have been a handful of interesting recent economic studies examining the effect of university
prestige in long term success.
A recent study by Ge and colleagues found that there was no relationship between college
selectivity and long-term earnings.
However, for women, there was a significant correlation between attending a college with
a higher average SAT score for matriculants, and increased earnings and reduced rates of
marriage.
It’s important to note, however, that these women aren’t earning higher per-hour wages,
but rather, they’re working more hours per day.
On average, these women delay marriage, delay having kids, and stay in the workforce longer
than similar women who graduate from less selective schools.
In short, they are more career-focused.
Chetty et al in 2017 found that lower-income students at elite schools had a higher chance
of reaching the top 1% in earnings compared to those at public universities.
In a broader sense, these data suggest that if you’re affluent, Caucasian, and male,
the effect of college prestige is minimal.
After all, you’re likely to be more connected than a less affluent minority student, which
is exactly why elite colleges have a larger effect on those who are not rich, not white,
and are not men.
Rather than relying on connections through family, elite colleges provide the connections
and credibility that connect these graduates to higher paying jobs.
Now this all makes sense for students in general, but what about students specifically pursuing
a career in medicine?
Blue and colleagues studied whether there was merit to undergrad university selectivity
in predicting medical school performance.
They found that the student’s GPA and MCAT were much more effective predictors of medical
school performance than the school from which they graduated.
Unfortunately, there is a paucity of literature examining undergrad school selection and success
in medical school and beyond.
But luckily, at Med School Insiders, our combined dozens of years of medical school admissions
experience provides us with a vantage point to tell you what it’s like from the perspective
of medical school admissions committees.
In short, we’ve found that when medical schools look at your application, the reputation
of your undergraduate institution is not high on the list in terms of importance.
If a student’s GPA, MCAT, extracurriculars, personal statement, secondary essays, and
letters of recommendation are all strong, then this is simply a strong applicant, regardless
of the school that they attended.
Now let's illustrate this with an example.
Johnny goes to a state school that is not highly ranked.
Rather, his school is known for being “fun”, if you know what I mean.
But he was able to avoid the allure of the frat parties, and by the time he’s ready
to apply, he has a 4.0 GPA, an MCAT score of 520, two publications, leadership experience
in a couple organizations, and excellent letters of recommendation.
Sally, on the other hand, attends Harvard, and by the time she’s ready to apply, she has a 3.5 GPA, an MCAT
of 508, and while she has letters of recommendation from some of the most world renowned Alzheimer
disease researchers in the world, she wasn’t able to create as strong of a personal connection,
so those letters are somewhat generic.
Between Sally and Johnny, who do you think is going to be the more competitive applicant?
Despite going to a top university, I would put my money on Johnny.
But that isn’t always the case.
There are some advantages to going to a more prestigious university.
Allow me to explain.
If you take two students who have identical scores and extracurriculars, the student coming
from the more prestigious university will be viewed more favorably, all other factors
being equal.
This is even more so if they attend a highly competitive school with grade deflation, like
MIT or Caltech.
Getting a 3.7 GPA at one of these institutions is much more impressive than getting a 3.7
GPA at your local community college.
But the main reason your university matters is less because of the direct effect of reputation,
and more because of the indirect effects - notably the program’s resources and opportunities
for pre-meds.
If you want to go to a top ranked medical school, research is an important part of that
equation.
You’re much more likely to have significant research experience with abstracts or publications
at a school like UC Berkeley than you are at a community college.
Similarly, hospital volunteer and clinical opportunities are going to be easier to find
at an institution of this caliber that caters to a significant number of pre-meds.
Now I’ll start by sharing what I did when it came to applying to college.
I scored in the 99th percentile on my SAT and had a strong application, but I didn’t
apply to Ivy league schools.
I was born and raised in California, and I really like it here.
So I decided to apply to California schools.
When deciding between UC Berkeley and UCLA, I chose the latter, because I was keen on
exploring a new region of California, and I loved the campus.
I knew that either program would provide me with a solid education.
I believed that the driver of my success was based on me, not my school, so I didn’t really
sweat it too much.
My college career was a great success, and I was a strong medical school applicant, interviewing
and getting acceptance offers at multiple top 5 medical schools.
Again, I chose UC San Diego, a top 15 program, over some more prestigious or elite programs,
because I knew I would get a solid education, and it’s still a terrifically strong program,
even if it’s not a Harvard, Penn, or Wash U.
So choose a strong program where you believe you’ll get a strong education and have the
resources and opportunities available to you.
If a private school is too expensive, don’t be afraid to go public, like I did.
I went public my entire life and still got top numbers and matched into one of the most
competitive specialties.
In short, I went to great programs, but I didn’t sweat the prestige or rankings when
making my decisions.
I knew that after a certain point, program quality is strong, and the rest is going to
be on me.
The key point is this: the talent and merits of each individual student are worth far more
than the resources and prestige of elite schools. Ultimately, it’s more important to worry
about the systems you implement in your life - the habits that you create and that ultimately
dictate your trajectory, rather than the school you go to.
Systems produce results.
And this is our philosophy at Med School Insiders.
Each individual is unique, and it’s a matter of maximizing your systems and habits to grow,
learn, and become the best version of yourself.
It’s more than just checking in the boxes.
While research, top scores, and strong extracurriculars are key, the foundational principles that
facilitate those aspects of your application are just as, if not more, important and it
is these same principles that will help you generate compounding success into your future.
Our mission is to create a generation of happier, healthier, and more effective doctors.
And the best way to do that is with a personal and individualized plan to maximize a student’s
potential – not just checking in all the boxes.
To learn more and see how we help students maximize their potential, visit MedSchoolInsiders.com.
The first 30 customers will receive $30 off their purchase of $100 or more using the coupon
code SYSTEMS30.
Link in the description below.
Thank you all so much for watching.
Let me know where you are going to college, and where you hope to go for medical school.
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