How competitive is JMU?

Will going to JMU, Vtech, VCU or really hurt my chances at getting into a top medical school?

• Like if I got a 3.8+ gpa and a 36+ on my MCAT with a lot of extra curricular experiences during college, would the fact that I went to a state school hurt me? I also got into Case Western which is a lot better of a school than all the others I listed but It'll leave with me $40,000 in debt. Would a candidate from JMU with a 3.85 and a 37 MCAT look worse than a candidate from UVA with a 3.6 and 37 on the MCAT? Some Med Schools I really want to go to are University of Chicago Columbia University Harvard Yale

• Answer:

  Medical schools won't penalize you for choosing to go to a state university. For medical schools, grades and scores are key, not whether you could afford a fancy private university. All things being equal, UVA will look better than somewhere like JMU, but all things won't be equal. UVA will be much more competitive, so your grades should be much higher at a place like JMU. Anyway, I'm assuming you didn't apply/get in there, so why worry about it? And while admittedly Case Western is much higher ranked, it's not like it's Harvard or anything. It's not a "you're crazy if you don't go there" school. Virginia Tech is pretty well ranked, nationally. Of the four, I would go there if I were you.