advise for pre-med school

[kosmarciukas]

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Hi,

I'm taking a year off and recommitting to studying neuroscience (pre-med). I am 100% confident in this choice, but I am having trouble narrowing down schools to transfer to. Would you be able to give me any advice on the following universities?

Columbia, Standford, Yale, U Chicago, Duke - reaches
Boston U, JHU, GWU, NYU, Northeastern, UT Austin - other possibilities

I am trying to figure out which school would make me a better applicant for a medical school. I know that the school name doesn't matter and what matters is how you can excell at your chosen school, but I keep thinking that the big name schools (Columbia vs UT Austin, for ex), would simply prepare me better, or is that not true?

Any suggestions are appreciated! Thank you.

 

[Gallix23]

Hi,

I'm taking a year off and recommitting to studying neuroscience (pre-med). I am 100% confident in this choice, but I am having trouble narrowing down schools to transfer to. Would you be able to give me any advice on the following universities?

Columbia, Standford, Yale, U Chicago, Duke - reaches
Boston U, JHU, GWU, NYU, Northeastern, UT Austin - other possibilities

I am trying to figure out which school would make me a better applicant for a medical school. I know that the school name doesn't matter and what matters is how you can excell at your chosen school, but I keep thinking that the big name schools (Columbia vs UT Austin, for ex), would simply prepare me better, or is that not true?

Any suggestions are appreciated! Thank you.

I can speak for the Boston schools: I go to Northeastern (or, I will, I start in January but I work full time there now and have worked research jobs there in the past). I think it's an amazing school, I have a friend doing behavioral neuroscience and he absolutely loves it. The co-ops are phenomenal, and they have a ton of connections with other medical schools and hospitals in order to do research and other things. They are also affiliated with Tufts medical school, and you can apple for "early assurance" which requires no MCAT if you are accepted.

As for BU, I personally wasn't that impressed. I have friends that go there and like it, but they say the premed program is EXTREMELY hard and meant to weed out those that don't take it seriously. I think they may have co-ops, but it's not integrated like NU's are. BU is also spread around the city, where NU has an enclosed campus.

 

[kosmarciukas]

Thanks a lot for this tidbit of info. Reading a personal testimony like yours definitely moved Northeastern up on my list 🙂

 

[Gallix23]

Yeah definitely check it out and see if it suits your interests (or take a tour if it isn't really far away from where you live). If you have any other questions you can feel free to PM me 😀

 

[eklip53]

As an accepted medical school student, I would suggest looking at a school based upon it's undergraduate potential rather than if it is a good "pre-medical" school. Pick the school that you feel you will succeed at, and that is the best one for medical school.

 

[sgtbrushes]

I would suggest looking at a school based upon it's undergraduate potential rather than if it is a good "pre-medical" school.

The difference between "preparation for medical school" in most universities is negligible. While a biology major from MIT may be better prepared for med school than a sociology major from the worst state university in the country (whatever that is), everything that is needed to be a doctor is taught in med school.

 

[trep14]

For the most part, where you go to undergrad is not going to determine whether you get into medical school. Sure, name recognition may be a factor if all things being equal on an application. But if you go to any college in the country and ace your classes and MCAT and do all the things outside of the classroom that are unwritten requirements for admission into medical school (i.e. community involvement, research, etc.), you will get into medical school.

And "premed" programs tend to be pretty uniform between colleges. Don't make this a major factor when choosing your undergrad. Go where you feel the most comfortable.

 

[c5212]

Jumping on the bandwagon with everybody else, go to undegrad where you want to. Throw pre-med statistics out the window and visit as many as you can. Then choose based where you think you'll fit in best.

It's not the prestige of the college's pre-med program that will get you accepted to med school, rather what YOU put into that particular college's pre-med program . If you go to a school just b/c of their pre-med program (and don't forget that they all have the SAME courses) but you are miserable in the atmosphere, you'll probably want to

 

[trep14]

And definitely don't listen to the college when they say things like "95% of the pre med students that attend here get into medical school". That is the most flawed statistic IMO. Don't get me wrong, at the college I currently attend, I asked that question when I was touring because I thought it mattered, but now that I've been through college and have been through the application process, its pretty clear that most kids that start premed at any given school change their major at some point in time and even then, only the kids that have a realistic shot at medical school are encouraged to apply. Thus, it should be that "95% of the students that completed our premed program and were allowed to apply got in".

 

[MilkmanAl]

And definitely don't listen to the college when they say things like "95% of the pre med students that attend here get into medical school"... it should be that "95% of the students that completed our premed program and were allowed to apply got in".

Absolutely. These schools often/usually prevent many applicants from applying by not granting them a committee letter. I, for one, would never have made it to med school (on my first try, no less) if I'd attended such a school. It's a bum deal through and through.

 

[FutureCTDoc]

Here is my biased ranking of these schools:

U Chicago: Great school, cold winters, intellectual hotbed.
Stanford: Great school, So Cal
Boston U: Good school, lower powered, great BS/MD
UT Austin: Texas school, Good State school
Columbia: Good Ivy, NYC Location
JHU: Baltimore can be a plus or minus, great academics pressure cooker
Duke: I personally am not a huge Duke fan, Location is non-urban every other one is)
GWU: Good school, Expensive BS/MD
Yale: Underwhelming for an Ivy, New Haven (Living in CT, I know NH, it's a crime ridden ghetto, I am not a big fan), Faculty is really research focused
NYU: Expensive, poor value, uneven teaching
Northeastern: Worst out of the group academically,

 

[mathlegend]

Stanford is in NorCal!!!

 

[FutureCTDoc]

Stanford is in NorCal!!!

I was tired and thinking USC.

 

[mathlegend]

Hah no problem.

 

[sumstorm]

Pick the school that is the best match for you. Your success in undergrad is more important than the name...or even how fancy the equipment is. If they have every toy available but every class is huge and you don't learn in huge classes, then you are less likely to learn the material or earn the grades to get into med school.

 

[Veyron]

i am going to second the post above me. i went to a large state school that is not a "name" school. many of my buddies graduated from small schools you've never even heard of. we all got in to the schools that we wanted to. in the end, it comes down to your grades and your MCAT. research is a bonus and extracurriculars are way overrated. enjoy college for what it is and enjoy med school even more.

cheers