Quester Posted November 4, 2009 Report Share Posted November 4, 2009 Hey guys, I have a quick question to those of you who've applied in past/this cycle(s) and have gotten at least the interviews. Have any of the interviewers commented on the institution you've attended? i.e. maybe you went to a less internationally-known university, yet, you still received interviews? I'm just trying to see if the institution matters at all for US med schools. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
moo Posted November 4, 2009 Report Share Posted November 4, 2009 Usually not. When I went to school at Northwestern, we had lots of people from Ivys but also lots from small liberal arts colleges. The MCAT is the great equalizer in med school admissions. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
c17h Posted November 4, 2009 Report Share Posted November 4, 2009 Hey guys, I have a quick question to those of you who've applied in past/this cycle(s) and have gotten at least the interviews. Have any of the interviewers commented on the institution you've attended? i.e. maybe you went to a less internationally-known university, yet, you still received interviews? I'm just trying to see if the institution matters at all for US med schools. For the most part, interviewers have no preference for the institution you attended. Like moo said, the MCAT neutralizes this. This can be argued against, but I'm sure that some schools take undergraduate institution into consideration when reviewing applications. If all other things equal (including grades, MCAT score, ECs, LORs), a school might prefer a student from a higher-ranked institution. For most of my interviews, there were a wide range of students from a wide range of backgrounds. When I interviewed at Boston U, however, I did not find a single person from a small college (in a crowd of 30 or so people)...most people were from larger universities (Duke, Vandy, John Hopkins, McGill, UT, etc.)... I'm not sure if this was by fluke or because they take undergrad into consideration...but this was simply my observation! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Typical Premed Posted November 4, 2009 Report Share Posted November 4, 2009 I was accepted to Northwestern last year and I did my undergrad at UWO, which probably isn't too well known in the US. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
trymeover Posted November 4, 2009 Report Share Posted November 4, 2009 I was accepted to Northwestern last year and I did my undergrad at UWO, which probably isn't too well known in the US. UWO is not 'lesser known' university. I think the OP might be referring to schools like University of Guelph, Laurentian or University of Windsor etc.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Madz25 Posted November 4, 2009 Report Share Posted November 4, 2009 Hey guys, I have a quick question to those of you who've applied in past/this cycle(s) and have gotten at least the interviews. Have any of the interviewers commented on the institution you've attended? i.e. maybe you went to a less internationally-known university, yet, you still received interviews? I'm just trying to see if the institution matters at all for US med schools. i met someone who interviewed in the US and did her undergrad at university of PEI - guaranteed to be not known lol. i think where institution pays a role is looking at GPA...for instance, GPA of 3.6 from MIT may be considered as good as 3.9 from a smaller/"easier" school. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wrighm6 Posted November 5, 2009 Report Share Posted November 5, 2009 I'm not sure if this matters, but at a couple of my interviews the interviewers seemed excited and interested that I was from Mac. Maybe because they don't interview many Mac students? Actually during one of the interviews the dean asked who the student from Mac was because he had been there before and was impressed, so we had a discussion Nothing important, but fun I guess. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Quester Posted November 5, 2009 Author Report Share Posted November 5, 2009 I'm not sure if this matters, but at a couple of my interviews the interviewers seemed excited and interested that I was from Mac. Maybe because they don't interview many Mac students? Actually during one of the interviews the dean asked who the student from Mac was because he had been there before and was impressed, so we had a discussion Nothing important, but fun I guess. Really? Was this Cornell? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Quester Posted November 5, 2009 Author Report Share Posted November 5, 2009 Thanks for your replies guys. I'm actually from Mac but I've been getting the impression that this school isn't as well-known as I had thought before. I guess I shouldn't worry too much about it since the institution plays a minor role. It' just that some of those top tier schools in the US seem to show interest of your undergrad. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
premed007 Posted November 6, 2009 Report Share Posted November 6, 2009 hey im from mac too, if you don't mind can you tell me what English courses you took to satisfy the requirements. and i think mac is somewhat well known, because of their PBL approach and all...i dont know, could be wrong Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
silvermen85 Posted November 7, 2009 Report Share Posted November 7, 2009 looking at every school's admission site will tell you that undergrad institution doesn't matter, but if you actually talk to people once you got in you'll realize that's just not true. From what I have observed so far is that the top schools basically cycle's their students around. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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