Hello?
I’m curious as to whether or not where one does undergrad factors into their chances of med school admission. Assuming this person achieves at least the average med school GPA, MCAT score and EC activeness ( 3.7, 30, and research, shadowing, volunteering etc).@
Background info: this is just for general info but if you need to know about me personally then… I’m an international student, a rising freshman at Howard University on a prestigious merit scholarship. I am currently passing up a full ride to my local medical school to do undergrad at HU simply because I want to do more research and of course, I want to develop more as a person before committing to a medical degree. I want to go into genetic research, etc if I don’t do medicine. Still I love the medical sciences, hence why I’ll be structuring my undergraduate degree to enable me to qualify for medical school. I am well aware of the struggles int’ls face so don’t worry, I’m not putting my heart into it blindly.
If you were a US citizen, it would matter very little. As an international with guaranteed admission to your local medical school, you may be giving up your opportunity to study medicine by going to Howard. There are very, very few spots available for international students in US medical schools. Many state medical schools will not even admit US students who are not residents of their state. Among the private medical schools, international admits are still very rare - you can check the statistics by looking up the admissions stats for each school. It is much more common for graduates of foreign medical schools to apply for residency in the US once they have completed their training.
I would also add that if you are attending Howard on a merit scholarship, I assume if means your family is not wealthy. Medical school is very expensive in the US and you would need to take out major loans, even if you could get in. There is no merit aid based on financial need for medical school. (Although there are a few programs for US citizens with the military or public health service that will cover costs in exchange for service commitments.)
@N’s Mom If I hadn’t gotten the scholarship I could have still gone as outside my parents’ ability, my family is very well off with majority of them being US citizens in high paying jobs, no kids and second parents to me in every respect. I do have a list of medical schools that accept int’l s and the requirements each have. I understand the chances are slim and I argue that to get residency in the US is equally slim, the difference being that more persons opt for that so it seems less daunting. I’m not necessarily an aspirant us medic as my current plan is to return and do medicine but as I’ll be doing courses to maintain a prep for a medical/research career I am curious and piqued about taking up the challenge of admission to a US med program.
Also, I’m just not ready to commit to med. I need some time to broaden my horizon and make certain I don’t prefer a straight medical research route.
I’m just curious as to whether or not one undergraduate may seem less competitive in the pool simply because of where they are matriculating from.
Admissions to US med schools for US citizens is primarily a matter of grades and test scores, although other factors matter. If you have the grades and test scores, and have otherwise checked the necessary boxes (good letters of rec, related volunteering, etc…) where you go to school as an undergrad will not matter greatly. Howard is fine. Yes, there’s a bump for a ‘prestige’ undergrad, but not a lot. The data you want is here:
https://www.aamc.org/data/facts/applicantmatriculant/157998/mcat-gpa-grid-by-selected-race-ethnicity.html
Just to give you a sense of the cost, a state school is around $160,000 for 4 years. A private is around $240,000. Good that you have family members who are willing to pay. One less hurdle on a long a difficult road.
GPA = 3. 7 is OK but it is NOT average, it is bare minimum. I am not sure about MCAT=30 being average either, it may be actually below the line.
I also am not sure how it works for international students.
However, I know that going to Ivy / Elite college is NOT necessary. D. just mentioned at her Med. School graduation yesterday that some of her classmates regret attending Ivy / Elite as it gave them no advantage in acceptance to Med. School, no advantage at Med. School academics and they are stuck with higher students loans.
The mean GPA/MCAT for the 20,343 first year US medical students in 2014 was 3.69/31.4 https://www.aamc.org/download/321494/data/factstable17.pdf
@MiamiDAP I was quoting figures I got off a website. My apologies for not sourcing my figures. Still thank you for that. I don’t plan on getting the average scores either but I feel like it’s good to have a benchmark to reference how on track to being an application worth reading if not accepted.
I see what you’re saying in regards to elite colleges. Interesting.
best wishes, shoot for the stars!