<p>3-4 points on the MCAT or 0.3 on the GPA are HUGE differences so it’s unfair to expect a school name to override those factors.</p>
<p>Here’s where I think going to a top university helps the most:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>For the students who are aiming to get into top med schools. Sure, they may have a 4.0 if they had gone to their state school and instead they have a 3.8 because they chose Harvard or Cornell. That’s okay because at the top of the GPA spectrum 0.1-0.2 on the GPA has little effect on admissions PLUS you get the added bonus of the school name. Let’s face it, many top med schools are rather snobby. Of course, if you have a 4.0/40 from LSU, you’ll get the interview/acceptance regardless. Where it starts to matter is when you have a 3.8/35 from LSU and you have to battle all those 3.7/35’s from top 20 universities (and there are A LOT OF THEM; Cornell alone generated ninety 35+ scorers from solely its senior applicants, not even including its alumni applicants) for an acceptance to a top med school.</p></li>
<li><p>If you end up with a high MCAT/low grades, which happens quite often for students at top universities. High MCAT, lowish grades (3.4-3.5 range), with a good school name tends to do decent actually from what I’ve seen. The students who struggle the most in getting acceptances are actually the high GPA (3.9), low MCAT (below 29) people, which happens far too often at students who went to less rigorous schools. Often those people tend to end up at their state schools while the 3.5/36 people end up at mid-tier med schools (and I even saw a few Top 20 acceptances with those stats).</p></li>
</ol>
<p>The kinds of students who are hurt the most by going to a top university are usually the borderline applicants. They would’ve had a 3.6/30 if they had gone to their local state school and would’ve at the very least qualified for their state med school. But, now, they have a 3.4/30 from a top 20 university and they’re in danger of not getting in anywhere at all.</p>