I am currently attending a very small liberal arts college that is basically unknown. Without transferring, by the time I apply for medical schools next year I will have almost 2 years of clinical experience as medical scribe, 3 years of research experience on the same project, a research internship at a top orthopedic surgery hospital, and multiple volunteer positions and extracurriculars that I genuinely passionate about, etc. As horrible as this sounds, my worry is that my credentials will not be enough simply because of the undergrad institution that I attended. I want to go to Vanderbilt or Emory because of the educational opportunities and the experience, however my end goal is medical school. Junior year is important to me since I don’t plan on taking a gap year. Will the school name really make a difference?
No.
My sister went to an unknown low tier cat state and got a Harvard med acceptance because of her research and experience. Keep up what you’re doing—at Emory or wherever else you’ll have to start over.