<p>I was having a conversation with one of my friends and he was telling me that public universities are at a slight disadvantage when it comes to applying to medical schools. He basically stated that a 4.0 in a public university means less when compared to a private school. Even though most applicants have less than a 4.0, would a 3.7 at a public school like UCLA, UVA, etc be the same as a 3.7 at a private. I’m going to the University of Michigan Ann Arbor. Since this university has one of the best medical schools in terms of research and primary care in the nation, wouldn’t its pre-med programs be on par with the ivy league or schools like stanford, northwestern and MIT.</p>
<p>Your friend is not very bright. Assuming that you apply yourself, any good public college or university will provide you with more than adequate preparation for medical school. The vast majority of practicing physicians did not graduate from the Ivy League.</p>
<p>That is true, but are people from the ivy league or prestigious private schools given some advantage when it comes to medical school admissions?</p>
<p>the #1 primary care program in the country is at the University of Washington, I believe. It’s not just about the school itself and its individual prestige, but the quality of that respective program the school offers in comparison with others of its type.</p>
<p>
The OP was referring to undergrad. Talking about med school ranking (which I believe is worse than undergrad ranking because you can’t honestly ranking med schools accurately) won’t help here for med school admissions. </p>
<p>
Depends, I would have to say that there are some schools that have more intensive courses than UM. Like JHU and Duke has a much more rigorous BME. Stanford, Caltech and Harvard has a more rigorous Bio (in my opinion). Berkeley and Caltech are more rigorous at Chem. However, I would say that UM is that worse really. If you do great in UM, you would always beat some at Caltech or Stanford. So really it is how hard you work and how rigorous your courses are.</p>
<p>UM has the most undergrads going into med schools of all the colleges in the US (by sheer numbers). This is based off of MSAR data, and the director of admissions to the med school here directly stated this too. You are at NO disadvantage by going to UofM considering that we consistently place many premeds each year into top medical schools. You just need a great gpa/mcat and the drive to be a doctor.</p>
<p>So, to answer your original question, yes the premed curriculum is on par with other schools, though certain programs are better at other schools (like BME at JHU). We have a 60% admit rate into med school of all premeds applying, while the national average is around 50%, and we don’t have a premed committee to screen out unqualified applicants.</p>
<p>Thanks for the information. I have the drive to become a doctor, but I was just wondering if Michigan’s program was at a disadvantage, but you cleared that up. It seems public universities like Michigan are strong enough academically to produce talented and gifted students upon graduation.</p>
<p>Ehhh FordGT, you kinda stretched that fact a little too much. UM has a 52% acceptance rate. That’s only 6.4% above the national average (45.6%) according to UM itself. </p>
<p>[U-M</a> :: The Career Center :: For Students :: Med School Application](<a href=“Site Not Found | Student Life”>Site Not Found | Student Life)</p>
<p>Oh I didn’t notice this. I was referring to the one from a few years ago from that same link that had the stats that I mentioned.</p>
<p>Medical school looks purely at GPA and MCAT scores, along with essays and interviews. Where one went to college does not matter. A 4.0 student with a 13 MCAT average from Western Michigan University will most likely beat out a 3.5 student with an 11 MCAT average from Stanford.</p>
<p>Obviously, if two students have identical scores and GPAs, and both do a great job of articulating their reasons for wanting to be doctors and have great interviews, the applicant’s undergraduate institution could serve as a tie-breaker, in which case, the student attending the “better” university could be given the nod. But that does not mean the public institution will always lose. Some public universities (like Cal, Michigan and UVa) are as highly regarded as all but 5 or so private universites. An applicant attending a university like Cornell or Penn will not be chosen over an applicant with equally good credentials and intangibles attending a public university such as Cal or Michigan simply because the latter two schools are public. In the eyes of the academic world, Cal and Michigan are equal to Cornell and Penn, so students from Cal and Michigan will be given the same consideration as students from any top private university if their credentials are comparable.</p>
<p>That’s nice to know.</p>
<p>Also, another thing if you want to apply to U of M Medical School in particular.<br>
I’ve heard Michigan accepts a lot more people from out-of-state simply due to higher tuition costs.</p>
<p>That’s not true Heplayer. Don’t listen to what people say since they have no clue about the facts most of the time. </p>
<p>Annually, roughly 25% - 30% of the University of Medical students earn their undergraduate degrees at the University of Michigan. Michigan medical school openly prefers Michigan undergraduates. Most medical schools tend to favor their own undergraduates. And another 20% or so of Michigan Medical school students earned their undergraduate degrees at other Michigan universities. Altogether, 45%-50% of Michigan medical school students are residents of the state of Michigan. So as you can see, 50% of the students at the University of Michigan are residents from a state that makes up 3% of the population of the entire nation. Clearly, the University prefers its own residents.</p>
<p>[University</a> of Michigan Medical School :: Admissions :: Interview Day](<a href=“http://www.med.umich.edu/medschool/admissions/apply/profiles.html]University”>http://www.med.umich.edu/medschool/admissions/apply/profiles.html)</p>
<p>Thanks for clearing that up for me Alexandre. </p>
<p>Greatly appreciated =)
Lets just hope that doesn’t change when I apply in 4 years =)</p>
<p>It won’t change Heplayer. Ever since I can remember (since 2000 basically), Michigan undergrads have made up 25%-30% of Michigan Medical school classes and Michigan residents have made up 50% of Michigan Medical school classes.</p>
<p>Mainly because medical schools wants to keep their doctors instate. Plus they are kind of required to accept more instate students than out of state students.</p>