By: Savvy Pre-Med Staff
HYP. Harvard, Yale, Princeton. “The Big Three.” Some people believe that if you don’t attend one of these three schools—or any Ivy League school for that matter—your chances of being accepted to medical school are negatively affected.
But the reputation of a school doesn’t matter as much as one might think. In fact, in 2015, when AAMC polled 130 admissions officers on the use and importance of data in admissions decision-making (see Table 1), the selectivity of an undergraduate institution fell into the “lowest importance ratings” category.
What is important to consider, however, is that prestigious schools like the Ivy League colleges are usually better equipped to offer more resources and opportunities for pre-meds. Yet, since seats at elite colleges are limited, thousands of pre-meds must opt to attend elsewhere. And despite not going to an Ivy League school, many pre-meds are successfully admitted to medical school every year.
With that being said, we thought it would be useful to assemble a list of the best non-Ivy-League colleges for pre-meds.
Just like our previous posts, we’ll be referencing our Best Colleges For Pre-Meds Search Tool, which allows you to filter your search by several criteria.
Read more about how we gathered our data for these rankings and our search tool.
1. Johns Hopkins University (overall rank: #1)
2. Stanford University (overall rank: #2)
3. Bowdoin College (overall rank: #5)
4. Vanderbilt University (overall rank: #6)
5. Northwestern University (overall rank: #7)
6. University of Chicago (overall rank: #8)
7. Bryn Mawr College (overall rank: #9)
8. Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) (overall rank: #10)
9. Carleton College (overall rank: #12)
10. Rice University (overall rank: #13)
So, how did your college(s) rank?
Have any questions about the best non-Ivy-League schools for pre-meds? Let us know in the comments below, and we’ll respond to you personally!
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