Best School for Pre-Med in Oregon?

[Ophth_06]

Any thoughts on the best college for pre-med students in Oregon, preferably Portland? By best I mean, best preparation, best acceptance into med school record, best reputation, etc.

thanks for comments.

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[Wylde]

I don't know anything about OR schools, but it would be the school with the best reputation (maybe U of OR?).

Btw, you are not a "Resident" if you are currently worried about medical school admissions.

After medical school, students go into residency. It is a 3-7 year program (depending on specialty) in a specific specialty (ie anesthesiology, dermatology, etc.) where you basically have on-the-job-training and learn the actual specialty.

 

[Jacobian78]

Go to Oregon State. That's where its at. Plus there is a pretty wide variety of science majors if thats your thing, at least as opposed to U of O or U of P. Portland State is hands down complete garbage though. I only speak truth.

 

[kiganga]

As a premed from oregon state I think that the premedical advising here is fantastic and much better than at UofO or PSU based on my discussions with all the advisors (well I never talked to the one at PSU bc there was a three week wait for an appointment). I can't speak about the fancy private schools like Reed or Willamete, but they probably do very well with admissions.

I would choose a school based on other factors however.

 

[ZagDoc]

Doesn't matter. Got OSU, UO, UP, PSU, Willamette, Linfield, etc alums in my class at OHSU. I think we got the most students from UO and PSU, but I strongly doubt that it is the school and believe its more the individual applicants. Choose the school that fits your personality and goals for college best. As long as you do well in your classes, do well on the MCAt, and fill in the holes, you can get accepted from anywhere. But you won't be able to do that unless you are happy where you are at, so take care of yourself first.

Addendum: Every predmed advising staff at every school feeds their students to whole "we do it better than [x]" shtick. Some are a little better than others, but applying to medical school is very personally driven, so the differences are largely negligible (spoken as someone who is an alum of none of the oregon schools).

 

[silversurfer]

I agree, go to the school that fits you best. I started my college career at Linfield College because I always heard a private education was better than public. However, after my freshman year at Linfield I tranfered to U of O and found I was much happier and ultimately did better in school because of that.

 

[condoleezarice]

If you're into academic rigor, try Reed College. It's one of the best liberal arts colleges in the nation. Just beware that it has a reputation for being reeeally hard. In fact, they send this flyer to medical schools along with their premeds' applications. lol. http://web.reed.edu/registrar/forms/grades.pdf

 

[primadonna22274]

Interesting you asked. I just checked the US News 2009 rankings this morning. Couldn't believe my little podunk Western Oregon University was on the list--middle of the list even--for the West. Eastern Oregon was on there too. No mention of OSU or UO (although really, I have to claim Duck status, since I attended for 2 terms, and thus could never be a Beaver).
Concordia and University of Portland were way up there too.
Linfield always a solid education. Overpriced IMO and not a heckuva lot for a college student to do in McMinnville but since I lived there for a decade I'm loyal. I miss it.
Willamette...was admitted, turned it down for Western Oregon. Figured I didn't want to pay $20g/year tuition (this was quite a while ago...not sure what it is now). Also grew up in Salem so wanted to get out of Salem (if you've ever lived in Salem you understand this.)
I think PSU does a great job too. Of course as a Pacific grad (PA '00) I'm very loyal. My baby sis just graduated from Pacific and loved it there. Expensive but she owes less than her girlfriend does for UO because there's so much more private $$ for scholarships at the small schools.
YOu can't go wrong, really. Good luck.
Lisa

 

[olivesolivia]

If you're into academic rigor, try Reed College. It's one of the best liberal arts colleges in the nation. Just beware that it has a reputation for being reeeally hard. In fact, they send this flyer to medical schools along with their premeds' applications. lol. http://web.reed.edu/registrar/forms/grades.pdf

Agreed. However, I'm a Duck and it is awesome here. But I also agree to go where you feel most comfortable. I am a human physiology major here at the UO, and I love the classes. But, thats me. Premed advising here is NOT great, but admissions people from OHSU come down here frequently to chat with us and they have a great relationship with our advisor.

 

[amakhosidlo]

Gotta disagree with all of the above. Nobody gives a **** where you went to undergrad, so try to give yourself a bit a slack from the get-go.
My money's on Southern O; nice setting, smaller so it's easier to get to know people. Best of all, academics and relative competition are a little more...how to put it....relaxed? 😀

Just stay away from state, unless you enjoy going to school with a bunch of miscreants and...well...

http://www.fanblogs.com/oregon_state/004973.php

 

[mdmdt]

Agreed. However, I'm a Duck and it is awesome here. But I also agree to go where you feel most comfortable. I am a human physiology major here at the UO, and I love the classes. But, thats me. Premed advising here is NOT great, but admissions people from OHSU come down here frequently to chat with us and they have a great relationship with our advisor.

Another 👍 for UO. I love the environment and I find that (for the most part) the classes have a great blend of rigor and support. The pre-med advisor is very friendly and helpful if you can get a hold of her, but really as others have mentioned it's more about your own personal drive anyway. I think you can get as good if not better advice from current med students/residents/attendings here on SDN.

 

[Jacobian78]

Crazy, I had no idea there were so many oregonians on this site, or at least those attending college in Oregon. Very cool. Would be interesting to hear some crazy/horror stories from the Reedies.

 

[doubleE]

why no love for lewis & clark? it's just as academically challenging as reed, but without as many crazies. it's in portland (eugene is not nearly as fun, plus i would never recommend becoming a duck), it's small and you actually know your professors, and, probably most importantly to you, everyone i know that has gone there and applied to medical school has gotten into really top notch schools.

 

[169817]

I had a pretty good experience leaving oregon to go to school in california. I don't know if there's some personal reason for your desire to stay in OR, but if it's just for money, you might want to look into small private schools that give you a shot for a full ride.

 

[Obnoxious Dad]

Gotta disagree with all of the above. Nobody gives a **** where you went to undergrad, so try to give yourself a bit a slack from the get-go.
My money's on Southern O; nice setting, smaller so it's easier to get to know people. Best of all, academics and relative competition are a little more...how to put it....relaxed? 😀

Just stay away from state, unless you enjoy going to school with a bunch of miscreants and...well...

http://www.fanblogs.com/oregon_state/004973.php

You are absolutely wrong. Adcoms know that it's a great deal harder to get a 3.5 from Reed than a 3.9 from Southern Oregon. My kid goes to a meat grinder like Reed so I've asked several admissions offices if they handicap schools. I have been told by several schools that conversion factors are applied to GPA's so that people aren't punished for going to rigorous schools.

 

[169817]

You are absolutely wrong. Adcoms know that it's a great deal harder to get a 3.5 from Reed than a 3.9 from Southern Oregon. My kid goes to a meat grinder like Reed so I've asked several admissions offices if they handicap schools. I have been told by several schools that conversion factors are applied to GPA's so that people aren't punished for going to rigorous schools.

You talk to your kid's potentially future admission offices?

 

[chewsnuffles]

You talk to your kid's potentially future admission offices?

Agree 110%

As for Oregon, Willamette is an outstanding school with great financial aid and a rigorous science ciriculum that prepares students very well for med school.

With that said, there were NUMEROUS students who had 30+ MCATS and sub 3.2 GPA's...

Make of that what you will, but as one of them, you can always retake the MCAT but a bad GPA haunts you for life. Their class grading generally follows a curve, and in the science program (aka most of the people who got academic scholarships to go to Willamette), there are some bright people, and the level of competition ends up being quite high.