A few days ago
rocker.

How important is the “graduate paths” of a college/ university.?

As of now, I am making a possible list of colleges for application in the fall. I was surprised that more well known schools, such as Swarthmore and Haverford, had a 3-4% of it’s graduates go to medical school. Lesser known schools, such as Ursinus and Franklin and Marshall, had 8-10% of their graduates go to med school. If one is planning to go into college on the pre-med track, should the graduate paths statistics matter? What could this possibly tell us about the different colleges? It is surprising because we’re often taught/reminded to respect reputation of the schools over everything else. But is that right?

Top 2 Answers
A few days ago
Thomas M

Favorite Answer

The fraction of their students that go to medical school doesn’t tell you much. The fraction of their students who applied to medical school who were accepted would be much more meaningful. It is most likely the case that more of the students from Swarthmore and Haverford simply wanted to do something besides go to med school. On the other hand, Ursinus and F&M are really well-respected, even if they are perceived as being a notch below Swarthmore and Haverford.
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A few days ago
J
Graduate paths indicate the interests of the matriculants and shouldn’t influence much of your decision process. You should check out the Association of American Medical Colleges. They have facts and statistics that ought to help you in your research. The link I’m posting is to the tables for the undergrad institutions that produce the most medical school applicants: http://www.aamc.org/data/facts/2006/race.htm
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