Stanford UG's! Where did you end up at medical school?

[gurt567]

Stanford is my top choice as of now, still waiting for results from certain BSMD programs and Harvard, and would love to learn about your undergraduate experience at Stanford.

So I have a few questions:

What med school did you matriculate at and if you were trad or nontrad (how many years gap)?

What did you think of the overall culture of Stanford premed, cut throat/grade inflation/etc, and how many opportunities did you receive for clinical experience, research, leadership, etc?

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[Lucca]

Im sure Stanford undergrads do very well for themselves in admissions.

I know you didn’t ask, but don’t pick your UG based on premed. I also personally think BS/MD programs are a waste of time as students capable of getting into them will do fine in their cycle and the BS/MD usually forces them to move through coursework at an accelerated work and ends up subordinating the entire UG experience into med school prep. It’s really lame. Get a well rounded education somewhere you are excited to attend instead.

 

[deleted962973]

Im sure Stanford undergrads do very well for themselves in admissions.

I know you didn’t ask, but don’t pick your UG based on premed. I also personally think BS/MD programs are a waste of time as students capable of getting into them will do fine in their cycle and the BS/MD usually forces them to move through coursework at an accelerated work and ends up subordinating the entire UG experience into med school prep. It’s really lame. Get a well rounded education somewhere you are excited to attend instead.

Good answer. The school name will do great things for your app, sure, but where premeds end up is often a function of the individual person- how hard they worked, where in the country they’d like to live, whether they value wallet friendly schools such as state schools or prestigious expensive schools like Harvard, etc.

 

[Gilakend]

I agree. Go where you’ll be happiest, the impact UG has on med admissions is overrated in my opinion (but definitely plays a role).

 

[Isoval]

A name like Stanford is nothing to sneeze at for medical admissions.

At the same time, if you think you're going to pull a 3.2 because you ended up hating it there and weren't set up for success, choose elsewhere. School name has nowhere near as much impact as other factors of your application which are going to, for sure, be influenced by how much you like where you are.

 

[WedgeDawg]

Moving to hSDN

 

[gurt567]

Thank you everyone for your answers!

I'm primarily wondering about the number of unique opportunities that'll become available to me at Stanford to work with underprivileged populations and get some valuable volunteer experiences. I also hope to work apply by end of junior year, but I see that becoming more and more difficult as gap years are becoming the more popular option.

I wanted to get a sense of schoolwork/EC/freetime balance at Stanford vs other comparable institutions.

 

[mmmcdowe]

Best place to find out is whatever club fair day equivalent that Stanford will host at the beginning of the year. I have no doubt there will be plenty of opportunities that you seek.