H.S. to Med. School Guides

BERN1943
Tue, 28 Jul 2009 15:27:43 +0000

In johnstoops reply; {As for “most programs are tougher to get into than Ivies”…some programs are tougher to get into many Ivies…some aren’t. Getting into Harvard is harder than getting into Drexel bs/md but getting into Northwestern’s HPME is much harder than getting into Cornell.}

So true John. The Ivies vs. combo BS/MD programs is a choice that can get somewhat complicated. Which Ivy vs. which combo is one big factor. Knowing yourself is another. I personally know of people who went to an Ivy and got GPAs in the 3.3 range and didn’t get into med school (some of them went to the effort of improving their resumes, reapplying a year or more later and getting in while others went into something else). Perhaps those getting a 3.3 would have gotten a 3.5 or 3.6 in a less competive school and gotten in? I do know at least one person who got into an Ivy and a good combo program and chose the combo program. This person did great in undergrad school [better than they did in HS], aced the MCAT and applied out to top tier med schools. So I think that which combo you select could be important and to be allowed to apply out without losing your combo program med school seat is a really big plus.

Getting back to my statement about knowing yourself. Getting into an Ivy by the skin of your teeth so to speak could be risky to eventually doing well enough to get into med school. In that case choosing to go into a combo program could be a great idea. On the other hand there are those who are high enough up academically that they could both go to an Ivy [if that’s what they really want] and be reasonably assured that they’ll also make it into med school.