<p>I disagree with the statement that medical schools don’t care about those applicants from elite schools.</p>
<p>I think that the question should be based on whether the undergraduate “elite” school has grade inflation.</p>
<p>My daughter has just graduated from Williams College, which is a very elite school. It has a very fine reputation. This includes the fact that getting A is very hard. This is obviously going to affect the GPA.</p>
<p>The pre-medical program counsellor discussed chances if getting into medical schools with my daughter. She was told the following:</p>
<ol>
<li> If the GPA is around B+ (3.30 and higher) then there is a 80% chance of getting accepted by some medical school.</li>
<li> The average GPA for those accepted by any medical school is 3.49.</li>
</ol>
<p>My daughter finished with 3.45 GPA with an up trend. She spend 1 semester at the Autonomous University of Madrid, a very prestigious school, with classes in Spanish. She 2 A and 2 A-. Unfortunately, those courses aren’t included in GPA.</p>
<p>My daughter was told that the MCAT would be difference. If you have very high GPA then it is expected that the MCAT is correspondingly high. If the MCAT score is relatively low in relation to the GPA then the GPA is discounted.</p>
<p>The medical schools are going to look at the applicants and compare them to those who are applying. There is a comparison with those who apply from the same schools. The medical schools know the profile of applicants from undergraduate schools. Williams College has a very good reputation.</p>
<p>My daughter is taking a year off so she took the MCAT in April and got 32, which is not a bad score. She is going to retake next month in order to get at least 36, This is in line with those from her school.</p>
<p>Using LizziM spreadsheet she would have a good chance at many medical schools.</p>
<p>There is another consideration. Since there is grade inflation at many of the Ivies, there is a defacto penalty. This means that it is expected that applicants would have higher GPA/MCAT.</p>
<p>My daughter has friends who go to Brown University and they were told that unless students had at least 3.75 then forget about applying. The pre-med office will not process the paper work. It seems that it isn’t too hard to get A.</p>
<p>Those from schools with no grade inflation would be awarded extra points.</p>
<p>I wouldn’t want to blanket say that applicants “elite” schools have no advantage. It just depends on the school.</p>