<p>Reed is known for grade deflation. So a 3.1 at Reed is probably equivalent to at least a 3.5 at insert-average school.</p>
<p>Guys. Get a life and grow up.</p>
<p>I’m going to a community college and my goal is to become an obgyn. My cc has a great transfer program with the UC system, but I am unsure which classes I need to take in order to transfer to a school like UC Davis, UCSD, or USC. I’m prepared to take the basic biology, physics, chemistry, and physiology courses that I need. Any pre-med/ medical students start out this way or are currently doing this?</p>
<p>lol at all the posters going to ****ty schools and wanting to go to med school (not top ~20) trolol :)</p>
<p>I’m wondering if really doesn’t matter the college you attend as undergraduate much as the GPA you got at it, I mean, my son has 2 options one of them is SDSU (best for us as parents because we don’t have much money and he got a cal grant A), on the other hand he was accepted on UCI, my question is, Does really worth pay for UCI with loans in order to be successful and get into medical school? or we need to be more realistic going to SDSU even this school doesn’t have good prestige?</p>
<p>GPA definitely matters more than where you go to college. Plus, money is definitely a factor when you consider that a medical student graduates with, on average, >$150,000 debt (many over $200,000). If your son will be happy at SDSU and pulls off a good GPA (3.7+) and good MCAT (30+), then he will have a great shot at medical school. If it was SDSU vs. a school like, say, Harvard or Williams or CalTech, then it might be worth the debt. A key factor is happiness - if he won’t enjoy SDSU, he won’t do as well.</p>
<p>I would question whether a 3.7/30 from a Cal State would have much success with allo med schools, without a hook. Med admissions is even more brutal for California residents. Too many UC grads with a 3.7/30 from which to choose, and few med schools.</p>
<p>I would ask the SDSU premed advising office for a gpa-mcat matrix showing their acceptances to allo school, and point out which are hooked applicants (URM’s in particular). I’m guessing an unhooked Cal Stater needs a 3.9 or 32+ to effectively compete.</p>
<p>If finances are a serious consideration, I’d recommend a community college and transfer to a UC over a Cal State.</p>
<p>It also depends on the med school itself. A 3.7/30 won’t get you into Stanford, but can definitely still get you in somewhere (not guaranteed of course).</p>
<p>BB’s #827 is right except that he implies a UC grad with those stats is going to be fine, which they probably won’t. Those stats are fine except for Californians, who have a very competitive track for medical school. There’s almost no prestige gap between UCI and SDSU as far as medical schools are concerned – both candidates will have to use the MCAT to prove themselves against presumption.</p>
<p>That was not my planned implication bdm, it was just a point that a Cal Stater with a 3.7 is included in the pile with all the UC 3.7s, (which are a dime a dozen). Neither is in the category of ‘great shot’ or ‘will get in somewhere’.</p>
<p>For the 8 or so California medical schools, UC vs. Cal state may matter. For the rest of the country, there is essentially no difference.</p>
<p>Honestly, BDM, it seems you’re making the all-too-common error of exaggerating the competitiveness of the CA applicant pool. Yes, it IS competitive but the fact is there are a number of states that are actually MORE competitive. For CA residents, the average matriculant is a 32.3/3.64 and about 43.3% got in last year. That’s actually not far from the national average (31.1/3.67 at about 43.7%).</p>
<p>For instance, I recall hearing the CO actually has one of the poorest acceptance rates (despite having a well-respected med school…possibly because it ONLY has a well-known med school). For CO residents, the acceptance rate is 38.6% (nearly 5 points lower) w/ GPA 3.69 and MCAT 31.9.</p>
<p>By acceptance rate CA actually comes right in the middle of the pack at the 22nd spot for most competitive med school admissions!</p>
<p>With a bit of research, it turns out the worst state to be from (drum roll please)…is Hawaii! Of course, their scores are also pretty poor, so no surprise there. Avg matriculant from Hawaii is 30.5/3.63 with a 36.2%. Honorable mentions include Nevada (38.0% rate w/ 3.71/30 avg); Colorado; and Utah (38.8% rate w/ 3.73/31.5).</p>
<p>Of course, what future visitors to this thread will really want to know are the best states to apply from. Based on this analysis, Arkansas would be the place to go. Nearly 60% (57.3%) of their applicants got were accepted in 2010 with an avg matriculant having only 28.7/3.64. If you’d rather live closer to the ocean, try Pennsylvania (50.8% w/ avg 31.9/3.70).</p>
<p>The key statistic to keep track of is the average MCAT among matriculants. Assuming you’re referring to home state of applicant (rather than location of medical school), then the statistics you’ve just cited:</p>
<p>California: 32.5 (hardest)
Pennsylvania: 31.9
Colorado: 31.9
Utah: 31.5
Hawaii: 30.5
Nevada: 30
Arkansas: 28.7</p>
<hr>
<p>Anyway, I think it’s clear that an applicant from California with a 3.7/30 is going to have a (mildly) uphill battle in the admissions process.</p>
<p>For this data cited, are you just looking at residents of a particular state getting into ANY medical school? </p>
<p>If so, doesn’t this seem sort of pointless? Yes, medical schools want geographic diversity, but your GPA, MCAT, recs, ethnicity, extracurriculars, and even where you went to undergrad are all a heck of a lot more important than what state you count as your residence (at least for private schools). Sure, an Arkansas applicant to Mount Sinai is going to look more attractive than a New York applicant, but what if said Arkansas resident went to school at Columbia? What if the New York applicant went to SUNY Buffalo? University of Hawaii? There are way too many variables at play to look at what state someone is from and try to glean information from that.</p>
<p>You can look at that data another way - that Californian applicants are simply the strongest. That doesn’t mean that a given applicant will have a harder time getting in because they are competing with other Californians.</p>
<p>You might argue its easier to distinguish yourself from other residents of your state, but honestly, private med schools don’t really care what state you’re from, except coming from an Arkansas or a Montana might give you a slight boost.</p>
<p>I’m up for someone enlightening me if I’m mistaken, but this is what I’ve gleaned from looking at the data and going through the admission process myself.</p>
<p>The majority of applicants from any given state will go to their state medical school. Especially for otherwise-borderline candidates, having really selective state schools makes things very difficult. California’s state schools are (on average) much more selective than those of any other state.</p>
<p>Hence, California residents have a harder time getting into medical school.</p>
<p>Many private med schools do show a bias in admissions to their home state kids (according to the MSAR interviewed/accepted data). There are exceptions. Off the top of my head, I just can’t remember who those are and I have long since misplaced the books. lol. But I bet somebody has one handy.</p>
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<p>I think this is going to vary a lot, depending on the state. For states like California, Florida, and Texas, I’d say this is very true. For others, like Massachusetts, Colorado, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania, not so much, where there are very few public medical school seats for the given states’ population. Looking at MSAR data, though, private schools do seem to have a bias towards in-state residents (a plus for MA and PA, but CO and NJ lack a private med school…)</p>
<p>All in all, I agree with most of what’s been said, but there are multiple factors at play. Are some states harder because of stronger competition? More applicants? Fewer in-state options? Weaker students? A state being harder due to lack of seats is going to have different implications for a strong applicant than strong competition. Hawaii is “hard” but this is probably due to weaker applicants (i.e. low GPA/MCAT). Colorado is hard, but that’s probably due to lack of many in-state schools (both public and private).</p>
<p>I’ve also been told by multiple people (including my pre-med advisor) that the state in which you attend undergrad (if different than where one is a resident) can give you a semi-resident boost if that state’s public school(s) accept out-of-state applicants. Thoughts?</p>
<p>Goodness. I should have said “majority of matriculants, especially borderline ones.” The majority of APPLICANTS don’t get in anywhere at all.</p>
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<p>Good point!..</p>
<p>I’m sorry that this is sort of a tangent to the conversation going on in this thread, lol.</p>
<p>Anyways, I’m a freshman at a Liberal Arts College and I want to go to Baylor Med School or better. I’m also in the Honors Program, which means all the non-science classes are Honors classes</p>
<p>I have a 4.0 Science GPA so far but a 3.65 non-science GPA (bc of one dumb B+ in a history class)</p>
<p>Uhm, I’m taking physics and O.chem in my sophomore year, which means I’ll be ready to take the MCAT after sophomore year. I’m going to take this test super seriously, and if I don’t do good on it, I’ll think about doing it again (is that a good idea? when should I take the second one? can I fit it in that same summer or should I study more and take it the summer after junior year?)</p>
<p>this summer I’m planning on working a part-time job at Best Buy or something. Also I’m going to volunteer at a hospital where I volunteered 300 hours in the past. This time I want to shadow a doctor, too. i’ll do anything if its more than what i did before.</p>
<p>next summer I’ll finish up studying for the mcat. Next summer I was also thinking about doing a paid internship at a medical school (research I think?)</p>
<p>And that’s it. Does that sound good for Baylor? Should I do more?</p>
<p>I’d love any advice. I’ll be looking around the forums for answers in the meantime</p>