Nobody here said that ND was “overrated”; in fact, I personally know a bunch of ND graduates who are now MDs.
But the numbers given to you during that presentation have no basis in reality, and there’s not a single bit of independent evidence which supports the claim that 1% of all medical school admits are ND graduates. And there’s nothing to support the “per capita” claims either.
The world of medical school admissions is anything but transparent, as the medical schools keep a lot of information to themselves, and many undergraduate schools make pretty wild claims regarding medical school admissions. Because of this, lists such as those posted by merc81 are more or less baloney; they don’t tell you how many started as pre-meds at school X and how many finished. They also don’t indicate how much support is given to pre-meds; some schools offer application enhancing programs to only some pre-meds(e.g. summer internships/research activities, etc). And that’s not even addressing the committee letters. Let’s say a student doesn’t get a committee letter, but somehow gets admitted to medical school. I’d guess that UG would still take credit for that admission.
It seems pretty consistent that UGs offer percentages but not hard numbers regarding medical school, and never tell anyone who started freshman year and who actually applied in hard numbers.
The advice given here is that prospective pre-meds consider cost, and attend a school at which they are most comfortable, if possible. And it’s made clear that the process is then up to them, to get the GPA/MCAT and necessary activities for a successful application. It seems, frankly, that many UGs use hyperbole in describing that school’s success in placing medical school aspirants, so it’s better to rely on oneself than on unreliable statistics.