What are the Top Feeder Schools for Medical School?

You can get a great undergraduate education and preparation for medical school at many colleges. The top medical schools are incredibly competitive for admissions however, and have high standards for applicants. Some colleges, it turns out, send a disproportionately high number of students to top medical schools. 

In this article, we’re going to look at who these schools are. First we’ll cover what a feeder school is, then we’ll give you a list of the top feeder schools for top medical programs. Finally, we’ll analyze what these programs have in common, and how they help students prepare for medical school. Let’s get started!

What is a Feeder School?

Traditionally, feeder school was a term used for high schools, where certain high tier private and boarding schools in New England had longstanding partnerships with elite liberal arts and Ivy League schools, and sent disproportionately high numbers of students to these schools. We’ve written about this before, and why we’ve seen a decline in their popularity for high school. 

While this is where the term originates, it is a useful concept; a feeder school or program is one that specifically prepares graduates to go on to a highly selective follow up. Certain undergraduate programs are commonly seen as feeders for various other programs, often very niche.

Each field of graduate study has its own top schools and feeder programs, these are incredibly discipline specific, especially in small and insular fields. Many corporate positions have feeder schools as well. Even clerkships at the Supreme Court feed from a select number of law schools. 

It is not surprising that these exist for medical schools as well. Unlike the days of yore, these are not under the table deals or understandings, but instead an observation of trends. Certain undergraduate programs send a lot of graduates to top medical schools, and have a higher success rate for applications generally. After all, approximately 40% of all medical school applicants get in anywhere in a given year. If an undergrad program has an 80% placement rate, then you know they must be doing something right. 

The Top Feeder Schools

Here is a list of the top feeder schools. This is data based on current medical school students at top 25 programs, and where they went to undergrad. We list the undergrad school, the number of alumni they currently have at a top program, the school a plurality of their graduates attend, and their overall medical school placement rate. 

Note that the national acceptance rate for medical schools is 43%. Schools marked with an * did not publish or release data on their premed placement rate. 

So what does all of this data tell us? First, that larger schools are able to send more graduates to top medical school programs. This is not surprising; the more pre med students who graduate from a program, the more of them who will end up at top schools. It is therefore unsurprising that great liberal arts colleges did not end up on this list. We’ve discussed how liberal arts colleges can prepare you for medical school before, and don’t want this article to convince you otherwise.

While not all schools publish their overall acceptance rate, and many of them don’t update it regularly, it is still an interesting data point to consider. Notre Dame and UChicago, for instance, don’t send nearly as many students to top medical schools as UCLA or UC Berkeley. However, pre med students at both schools have much higher overall acceptance rates. 

This doesn’t mean UChicago or Notre Dame necessarily provide a better program; UC Berkeley and UCLA are both clearly capable of helping students become excellent physicians. Instead, there are two explanations. First is that the average applicant from one of the smaller schools is better prepared. The second is that because these are smaller schools, students have better access to support resources, which advantage them when it comes time to apply. 

Is There a Benefit Applying to an Attached Medical School?

One thing you may notice on this list is that the most popular medical school, for most colleges, is the one attached to the parent institution. While this is not universally true, the pattern is clear. So is there a benefit to applying to an attached medical school, or do students just not want to move very far?

For many medical schools, even private ones, in-state students are accepted at a higher rate. Of course, this doesn’t answer whether or not students from the same college are accepted at a higher rate, and most medical schools do not release that information. 

That said, we believe that it can be advantageous to apply to an attached medical school for some students. Medical admissions are decided by instructors at the school, and at many institutions, you can start taking classes or working in labs with these faculty members already. Of course, this depends entirely on what impression you make while doing so, but this is a clear advantage for applying if your professors have a high opinion of you.

Final Thoughts

While there are countless undergraduate schools which can give you a great grounding for medical school, some seem to have more success with their graduates than others. We hope this article has shown you some great options for undergraduate schools which funnel a high number of graduates to top medical school programs. 

Of course, the school you go to is just one part of what goes into your medical school applications. If you are just now looking at colleges, and want help picking the right one to support your journey to medicine, schedule a free consultation with us today. We understand exactly what medical schools are looking for, and can give you the insight you need to master the process.