Is Utah anything more than a commuter school w/ a good med school?

[ERCougar]

I'm a Utah med school grad and I'd completely agree with Cardiac--average medical school that's a better-than-average deal.

That said, I chose it over Cardiac's school.

[CardiacCoug]

Scroll through those US News medical school rankings and try finding a school with a lower MCAT composite score than the U's of 9.5.

There are almost NO schools with dumber medical students than the U. (objectively, based on MCAT score).

The only two schools I could see with dumber students (out of 91 schools!!) are Arkansas (9.4) and South Carolina (9.1).

EDIT: Sorry, looks like New Mexico is also worse at 9.0.

[ERCougar]

Scroll through those US News medical school rankings and try finding a school with a lower MCAT composite score than the U's of 9.5.

There are almost NO schools with dumber medical students than the U. (objectively, based on MCAT score).

The only two schools I could see with dumber students (out of 91 schools!!) are Arkansas (9.4) and South Carolina (9.1).

The U has a really unusual admission criteria in that they reject a lot of applicants with really high MCATs and accept some with lower ones. They put a high priority on clinical experience, too high in my opinion. It hurts their averages.

Your point overall, I agree with.

[Slim]

My MCAT was higher than that average but I couldn't get enough letters of recommendation to even apply to the U. They would have rejected me anyway.

[Jeff Lebowski]

When my son was going through the application process he researched this stuff fairly thoroughly. The Utah med school ranks about 52 for research (out of ~150) and around 25 for primary care. That's not bad.

He would have been very happy at the U. But he had the fortunate opportunity to turn them down for a better offer.

[Clark Addison]

Both my parents graduated from the U. I have no problems with it.

[CardiacCoug]

The U has a really unusual admission criteria in that they reject a lot of applicants with really high MCATs and accept some with lower ones. They put a high priority on clinical experience, too high in my opinion. It hurts their averages.

Right. They really like to take a lot of non-traditional students with lower scores and grades than kids they reject.

I think that policy at Utah is actually really good for BYU because it forces a lot of the top BYU students to go elsewhere where they impress people and set a precedent that helps future BYU kids.

If Utah accepted all those kids than other schools wouldn't know about BYU students. I'm working with a resident who went to Ohio State right now and he said there were 20 BYU grads in his medical school class.

[Jeff Lebowski]

Scroll through those US News medical school rankings and try finding a school with a lower MCAT composite score than the U's of 9.5.

There are almost NO schools with dumber medical students than the U. (objectively, based on MCAT score).

The only two schools I could see with dumber students (out of 91 schools!!) are Arkansas (9.4) and South Carolina (9.1).

EDIT: Sorry, looks like New Mexico is also worse at 9.0.

UNM is a special case. They won't even give you a sniff unless you live in New Mexico or can somehow convince them that you will stay there. They have a shortage of doctors in New Mexico so they give all the slots to natives. There is some pressure to change this as it drags down their ratings and results in a pool of students with lower scores/quality.

[Jeff Lebowski]

Right. They really like to take a lot of non-traditional students with lower scores and grades than kids they reject.

I think that policy at Utah is actually really good for BYU because it forces a lot of the top BYU students to go elsewhere where they impress people and set a precedent that helps future BYU kids.

If Utah accepted all those kids than other schools wouldn't know about BYU students. I'm working with a resident who went to Ohio State right now and he said there were 20 BYU grads in his medical school class.

BYU is in the top five in the nation each year in terms of the number of grads that go on to med school. Utah couldn't possibly take all of BYU students that apply without severely impacting their demographics. I can't really fault the way they do admissions. And like you say, it is good to have them fan out around the country anyway.

[ERCougar]

Right. They really like to take a lot of non-traditional students with lower scores and grades than kids they reject.

I think that policy at Utah is actually really good for BYU because it forces a lot of the top BYU students to go elsewhere where they impress people and set a precedent that helps future BYU kids.

If Utah accepted all those kids than other schools wouldn't know about BYU students. I'm working with a resident who went to Ohio State right now and he said there were 20 BYU grads in his medical school class.

Yeah, isn't that strange? I've seen the Ohio State phenomenon as well. Columbia is another school with a collection of BYU guys. It seems like there are a few schools who have discovered BYU grads, who are often married, hard working, and more responsible than their peers, and they have a special door in. It seems like your school even had more than its share, although to a lesser extent, IIRC.

EDIT: By the way, I'm not implying that you weren't qualified to get in otherwise. It just seems like they had an unusual number of BYU guys.

[pelagius]

Yeah, isn't that strange? I've seen the Ohio State phenomenon as well. Columbia is another school with a collection of BYU guys. It seems like there are a few schools who have discovered BYU grads, who are often married, hard working, and more responsible than their peers, and they have a special door in. It seems like your school even had more than its share, although to a lesser extent, IIRC.

It's similar at Dartmouth too; not 20 per class, but Mormons are well represented.

[oxcoug]

Good. So far the thread has established that the U has a average-to-above-average med school.

What else?

[CardiacCoug]

BYU is in the top five in the nation each year in terms of the number of grads that go on to med school. Utah couldn't possibly take all of BYU students that apply without severely impacting their demographics. I can't really fault the way they do admissions. And like you say, it is good to have them fan out around the country anyway.

I don't have a problem with them wanting to have some diversity and working toward that -- that's fine. The only thing I would fault about it is that even among the white male BYU grads everybody knows that they accept a lot of dummies and then reject a huge percentage of the top students.

I mean 9.5 MCAT composite is pretty terrible -- BYU must have at least 60 students every year with an MCAT composite over 12.

[Jeff Lebowski]

Good. So far the thread has established that the U has a average-to-above-average med school.

What else?

They have a terrific computer science department, especially in the area of computer graphics and visualization. Very solid in all areas of engineering.

[CardiacCoug]

Good. So far the thread has established that the U has a average-to-above-average med school.

What else?

Sorry for the threadjack.

US News puts it #129 for undergraduate national universities and BYU is #75.

Yeah, I think it's a commuter school.