Applying to Med school

[Guest Alastriss]

When applying to a med school, do they take into consideration the university you went to or are they only concerned with your GPA? Are you given a handicap if the university you graduated from is difficult and competitive?

 

Suppose 2 people applying to the same med school. the first person has graduated from x university and has a GPA of 3.7. Another has graduated from y university and has a GPA of 3.8. However x university is very competitive and getting a 3.7 is difficult. Getting a 3.8 in Y university is much easier.

 

So who would have the upper hand?

[Guest UWOMED2005]

Probably the person with 3.8. Med Schools don't know how difficult each program is!

 

But if you're character is such that you're the kind of person who always takes the easy way out of things. . . that could show up in your premed activities and/or interview.

[Guest TheDDSDude]

you just gotta be "smart" about what to say in your interview and how to really sell yourself. To be honest 3.7 and 3.8 it is all more or less cool if you can get an Interview at either. There are more factors than just grades alone to get into any professional school. Most people are under the misconception that marks are everything. Marks mean a lot but once you get an interview, it is the interview that seperates you versus someone else.

[Guest Steve U of T]

I think there may possibly be a difference if you're applying to American ivy league schools. I have no evidence the med schools do this, but I have a friend who applied to law schools in the US, and some of the schools like Harvard and Yale boosted his U of T gpa by about 0.2. I don't have first hand knowledge of this, although it's possible the medical schools there may do something similar.

[Guest Jixe]

The person with the 3.8 would have the upper hand. I can imagine how difficult it would be for the admissions reps to discern the difficulty level between two programs at two different schools.

[Guest aneliz]

I agree with the others... the person with the 3.8 would have the advantage. There is NO WAY that a med school could even attempt to rate the 'difficulty' of a program (there are an almost infinite combination of majors and minors at each of the schools...) so they don't try. They attempt to standardise the marking schemes at the various schools by converting to a 4.00 GPA scale...rather than comparing a 7 to an 80% to an A as would be the case otherwise. Beyond that, your choice of school and program has no effect on your chances.