Columbia or Penn Pre-med

[notetote1111]

Hi, I'm a high school senior.


For an engineering pre-med, which do you suggest: Columbia or Penn?

Are there any particular things to consider? Any pre-med students from there want to comment on their experience/recommendations?


Thanks.

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[Kiroro]

Columbia... if your financial situation allows for it...

Maybe you could consider about changing your engineering major to Biochem or something. Engineering + pre-med is not fun. You'll know what I mean later. With Columbia's degree, you'll probably be looked up regardless of the toughness of your major anyways.

 

[threemusketeers]

Columbia... if your financial situation allows for it...

Maybe you could consider about changing your engineering major to Biochem or something. Engineering + pre-med is not fun. You'll know what I mean later. With Columbia's degree, you'll probably be looked up regardless of the toughness of your major anyways.

last time I checked, penn engineering is ranked ahead of columbia's.

I'm in Penn's chemical and biomolecular engineering dept and considering medical school. Many premeds here are in bioengineering, which not only gives you an engineering degree but also has most med prereqs as major requirements. I'm not familiar with Columbia's program but i think it would be just as intense as penn, they are basically in the same tier. Both are also major biomedical research centres, so it would be easy for you to find projects that interests you at either place, if you happen to want to do biomedical research. For me, I would say the decision is primarily a matter of location. I personally would prefer new york to philadelphia.

engineering as premed is very doable. For me, all premed prereqs except 2 semesters of biology are already included in my major. All majors are difficult in one way or another. If you are truly interested in engineering, it should be no problem at all. It is only hard if you are doing it for ulterior motives.

 

[Kiroro]

last time I checked, penn engineering is ranked ahead of columbia's.

I'm in Penn's chemical and biomolecular engineering dept and considering medical school. Many premeds here are in bioengineering, which not only gives you an engineering degree but also has most med prereqs as major requirements. I'm not familiar with Columbia's program but i think it would be just as intense as penn, they are basically in the same tier. Both are also major biomedical research centres, so it would be easy for you to find projects that interests you at either place, if you happen to want to do biomedical research. For me, I would say the decision is primarily a matter of location. I personally would prefer new york to philadelphia.

engineering as premed is very doable. For me, all premed prereqs except 2 semesters of biology are already included in my major. All majors are difficult in one way or another. If you are truly interested in engineering, it should be no problem at all. It is only hard if you are doing it for ulterior motives.

Do you really think med schools would even care about what is your engineering program ranked in the nation? No they don't. All they care is the name of the university you went, not the ranking of a specific major.

The fact is that if he can afford Columbia's tuition and life in NY city, going to Columbia would probably give him more advantage in getting into med school. Penn state is a state school with great value and good engineering program, this is true. I go to UF, which is ranked at #50 in nation, same with Penn State, so I have nothing against Penn State.

I'm just trying to give an honest advice. When you apply to med school, big state university just doesn't look as good as highly selective top privates ...even you may have studied the same thing.

And regardless of your motive, majoring in engineering and trying to do pre-med at the same time is tough. You may not realize this because you are probably still in sophmore (considering about med school--- QUOTE) and haven't taken the upper level engineering classes or because biomolecular engineering is more like a science major where it is much less demading than many other engineering dicipline.

 

[favorite]

FYI -

Penn is University of Pennsylvania not Penn State! Penn is as "ivy" as Columbia.

 

[alhkim]

FYI -

Penn is University of Pennsylvania not Penn State! Penn is as "ivy" as Columbia.

To clarify, Penn IS Ivy. Funny that this continuously happens--there is a T-shirt that has the UPenn emblem in front with "Not Penn State" around it, and on the back a picture of the T-shirt being given to Joe Pa.

Back to notetote1111's original question, I did go to Penn for ugrad (not an engineer), but most of my friends were bioengineers and all of them ended up in medical school. But it is very hard to choose between these two institutions, and what your choice should be is do I want to be in NYC or Philly. I know it seems a bit of a trivial criterion for selecting something like a school (versus quality of teaching, number of premeds that go to med school, research opportunities, etc.) but in all honesty, there are such minute differences between all of the Ivies and other top public/private schools, you just need to be comfortable with where you would want to be for your undergrad years. I just went through the residency match process and my match list ended up being based mostly on location, which shocked me.

 

[medstyle]

just go to columbia. Cooler location, no non ivy confusion.

 

[CMul13]

As a senior pre-med in Bioengineering at Penn, I am somewhat biased, but I would encourage you to come to Penn. Both Penn and Columbia are very good schools, but I would say that Penn's BE program is older and more developed than Columbia's, and a lot of your fellow students will also be premed. As for location issues, Philadelphia is a nice, manageable city. It may not be NYC, but I have found it a nice place to live. But I would say one of the biggest advantages of a pre-med student at Penn is that the med school campus is right next to the undergrad campus, which makes volunteering/working at the Hospital or Medical School easy and very common. Columbia'd med school is about 40+ blocks uptown of the undergrad campus. Ultimately both are great schools, and I don't think you can make a wrong decision here. Good Luck!

 

[doc05]

they're pretty much the same. If you end up in med school, there's definitely no difference. FYI, if you end up going with engineering as a career (whether as your backup or change your mind), neither school has a top-notch engineering program. Cornell, MIT, Stanford, are better for that.

 

[16hoursleeper]

From my experience mingling with other interviewees, it seems that Penn students are somewhat better received than Columbia students and present in greater numbers. This could be a result of the type of students each school attracts rather than their success in the med school application process, though. I'm sure you can (and will) be successful at either one, but I would pick Penn.

 

[dgf32]

I'd go with Columbia for sure. It's a great school. However, I don't know why you'd want to do engineering if you're going to be premed. That's way too much work and allows you virtually no latitude in choosing any of your courses beyond those of your major in SEAS (The Fu Foundation School of Engineering and Applied Sciences) plus the premed courses. But that's just my opinion.

But if you're a senior you've already been accepted by now. Go to Columbia.

 

[TigerLilies]

Have you been accepted to Columbia College or SEAS? If you have been accepted to SEAS and an engineering major, then I recommend going to Penn.

 

[notetote1111]

I have been accepted to Columbia SEAS and Penn SEAS.

 

[alhkim]

I'd go with Columbia for sure. It's a great school. However, I don't know why you'd want to do engineering if you're going to be premed. That's way too much work and allows you virtually no latitude in choosing any of your courses beyond those of your major in SEAS (The Fu Foundation School of Engineering and Applied Sciences) plus the premed courses. But that's just my opinion.

But if you're a senior you've already been accepted by now. Go to Columbia.

While there aren't many med students with an engineering background, I think people should choose to take whatever path they want to take to med school, whether it's engineering or music or biology. This diversity is exactly what our field needs.

 

[notetote1111]

So which one is better for a pre-med: Columbia SEAS or Penn SEAS?

 

[notetote1111]

bump

 

[rhinosp_33]

havent been in the premed forums for a long time..

but i went to penn and my sister went to columbia. so heres my observation. both of us agreed penn would be better suited for getting into medical school. the reasons for this is several fold... columbia's curriculum is alot more rigid and requires extensive humanities/etc requirements. penn's general curriculum is more flexiable. columbia medical school/hospitals are like 15 minutes away from college... thus itd be a headache to subway there in the afternoons for your research. penn's med school is right on campus, easy to drop by lab to finish your project inbetween noon classes. penn was generally very helpful in advising and the sorts. columbia was helpful too.
both programs are very well recieved by med school admissions committees. to the poster who thought it was pennstate, thats your ignorance.

anywyas, my bias is for penn. my sister loved columbia but she is in agreement on the points listed above. nyc vs philly will be of your own preference... however, i'd say Penn has its own college atmosphere feel... whereas columbia being in such a metropolitation loses that touch. also Penn is big in wharton and you'll learn some finance or at least have some friends in finance to help watch out for your money when u finally get outta medschool.

 

[Code Brown]

So which one is better for a pre-med: Columbia SEAS or Penn SEAS?

No difference between them. Go visit both campuses and go where you feel more at home.

 

[notetote1111]

bump

 

[sockandmittens]

i don't attend either school or don't know anyone who is premed at either. however, i would say penn because columbia with it's core + pre-med + a major is NEAR impossible. the entire reason columbia lets people graduate with a concentration in premed (or did four years ago when i looked at it) and no major is because in addition to the core it's difficult to fulfill an entire major. best of luck and congrat on your decisions.

 

[notetote1111]

I'm leaning towards Penn right now.

Anyone here a pre-med at Penn or Columbia?

 

[notetote1111]

bump