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BROWN and other ivy students - how was/is pre-med?
- Thread starter Stewie
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Well I can only speak to Brown here, but I had an amazing time at Brown. I was able to get a BA in Religious Studies, a BS in Neuroscience and study abroad in Tibet/Nepal. Not many school allow for that kind of flexibility. Brown has a very very high success rate in getting students into excellent medical schools. I definetly wasnt the best pre-med Brown put out my year and I got into a ton of schools including Pitt (where I'm going), Yale, UVA and UCLA.
That being said though, it really depends on your own performance. many of the pre-med classes are very competitive at Brown and you must do well to suceed in the game. Some of the classes, particularly chemistry I felt could have been taught better, but i bet that across the board at different schools, people will b*tch and moan about the teaching of some of their classes.
As to medically related extracurriculars, Brown EMS is top notch and was one of the first university run EMS services in the country. There is excellent research going on in many areas at Brown Med as well as in the Biology and Neuroscience departments.
All of this being said. GO WHERE YOU THINK YOU WILL BE THE HAPPIEST. This more than any other factor will determine who you are at the end of school and how you do in the game. best of luck.
That being said though, it really depends on your own performance. many of the pre-med classes are very competitive at Brown and you must do well to suceed in the game. Some of the classes, particularly chemistry I felt could have been taught better, but i bet that across the board at different schools, people will b*tch and moan about the teaching of some of their classes.
As to medically related extracurriculars, Brown EMS is top notch and was one of the first university run EMS services in the country. There is excellent research going on in many areas at Brown Med as well as in the Biology and Neuroscience departments.
All of this being said. GO WHERE YOU THINK YOU WILL BE THE HAPPIEST. This more than any other factor will determine who you are at the end of school and how you do in the game. best of luck.
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I can only speak about Brown also - the premed program was good, i got everything i wanted out of it. classes are taught well except for general chem. i was also a neuroscience major, and that program was awesome. i didn't do research, but i knew a lot of people who did and they were happy doing it. studying abroad is easy to do - most of my friends went somewhere, and if you plan it right you can do it even with premed reqs. I went to egypt and had a blast. no required general ed courses makes it easy.
for me i was able to get into a couple of schools - BU, OSU, waitlist at Case - even though i had almost no extracurriculars and no research.
dean ripley (the premed dean) is cool, although i don't know how much longer he'll be there.
socially, providence sucks and a lot of the people at brown are happy-go-lucky tools. get a fake id or there won't be anything to do. but maybe that was just my experience. 😉
for me i was able to get into a couple of schools - BU, OSU, waitlist at Case - even though i had almost no extracurriculars and no research.
dean ripley (the premed dean) is cool, although i don't know how much longer he'll be there.
socially, providence sucks and a lot of the people at brown are happy-go-lucky tools. get a fake id or there won't be anything to do. but maybe that was just my experience. 😉
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I also can only speak for Brown. My educational experience there was excellent. At no other institution will you be able to have the academic flexibility to pursue a variety of interests AND be premed at the same time. You name the class, and I took it: philosophy, literature, art, archeology, religious studies, judaic studies, classics, etc. etc.
Pre-med, in my opinion was great. Orgo, physics, and bio are very very well taught. Orgo and physics especially teach to the MCATs in many ways. Gen Chem was okay, but the labs were horrendous.
Dean Ripley - once you get on his good side - is a very big asset. He's known among all the big names in med school admission committees. However, I did hear that he plans on retiring soon.
As for extracurriculars, there's so much to do. You should have no problem filling up that resume.
Last I heard, the med school acceptance rate for Brown students is always between the upper eighties to lower ninety percent. I got into Einstein, Tufts, Jefferson, Temple, and UPenn, and was placed on a lot of waitlists. Upon my acceptance to Penn, I withdrew from all my waitlists so I can't tell you how I did on the waitlists.
Overall, Brown is a great place. There is a significant emphasis on teaching and students get very chummy with their professors. For example, I've had friends who would have dinners at professor's homes. So there is a very friendly atmosphere, even though the premed classes can get pretty competitive (despite the rumors that Brown isn't a very "gunner" type school). Hope this helps!
Pre-med, in my opinion was great. Orgo, physics, and bio are very very well taught. Orgo and physics especially teach to the MCATs in many ways. Gen Chem was okay, but the labs were horrendous.
Dean Ripley - once you get on his good side - is a very big asset. He's known among all the big names in med school admission committees. However, I did hear that he plans on retiring soon.
As for extracurriculars, there's so much to do. You should have no problem filling up that resume.
Last I heard, the med school acceptance rate for Brown students is always between the upper eighties to lower ninety percent. I got into Einstein, Tufts, Jefferson, Temple, and UPenn, and was placed on a lot of waitlists. Upon my acceptance to Penn, I withdrew from all my waitlists so I can't tell you how I did on the waitlists.
Overall, Brown is a great place. There is a significant emphasis on teaching and students get very chummy with their professors. For example, I've had friends who would have dinners at professor's homes. So there is a very friendly atmosphere, even though the premed classes can get pretty competitive (despite the rumors that Brown isn't a very "gunner" type school). Hope this helps!
Well, speaking for Brown only...
I agree very much with the above posts.
Some of my friends used to say that Brown is the kind of school that when you get accepted they mail you your diploma.
And it?s quite a party school.
You must feel naturally attracted to the place when deciding to go there. I agree that there is a friendly atmosphere, but the professors expect results too. The campus is esthetically pleasing and it has a sense of place and identity.
I think that the the pre-med courses were quite difficult, especially orgo and physics, although they were taught well. Inorganic chemistry just kills me so what can I say. The labs were too much and in the old Metcalf building, but now there is a new chemistry edifice so lab time may be a more 'interesting' experience.
There are many opportunities to get extra help and study though and I would advise not postponing studying for exams. Also, I found that the pre-med classes were quite large; therefore to obtain a recommendation you need to do well and get to know your teacher early. There was endless discussion about grades and some students felt that they were entitled to receive more points and I thought that this was a negative aspect. Overall it?s a weeding out process.
It truly is a very flexible curriculum and you take responsibility for planning/taking each course except the required pre-med courses and those for your major. I also went abroad for a semester to Prague and had no problems with credit transfer.
Dean Ripley is awesome and he will tell you the whole truth. However, he does advise people not to double major (though I don?t buy some of his arguments like this one).
As far as medical school, it seems to me that where you went as an undergraduate shouldn?t pre-determine your life and chances of admission. (In reality though, I would suppose that being a Brown student will be of some help.)
Let me also just highlight medical opportunities or work outside the classroom and the university. Providence has some excellent facilities. I really loved Hasbro Children?s Hospital and I was impressed by the PICU. At Women and Infant?s Hospital, I found the NICU fascinating. Rhode Island Hospital itself is quite large with many different clinical departments. If I can name one one person whom I admired at WIH, it?s Dr. Cashore. If you ever visit, try to observe what he does and what he says to gain an insight into being an amazing physician.
Anyways, Brown is an excellent place to begin your journey.
I agree very much with the above posts.
Some of my friends used to say that Brown is the kind of school that when you get accepted they mail you your diploma.
And it?s quite a party school.
You must feel naturally attracted to the place when deciding to go there. I agree that there is a friendly atmosphere, but the professors expect results too. The campus is esthetically pleasing and it has a sense of place and identity.
I think that the the pre-med courses were quite difficult, especially orgo and physics, although they were taught well. Inorganic chemistry just kills me so what can I say. The labs were too much and in the old Metcalf building, but now there is a new chemistry edifice so lab time may be a more 'interesting' experience.
There are many opportunities to get extra help and study though and I would advise not postponing studying for exams. Also, I found that the pre-med classes were quite large; therefore to obtain a recommendation you need to do well and get to know your teacher early. There was endless discussion about grades and some students felt that they were entitled to receive more points and I thought that this was a negative aspect. Overall it?s a weeding out process.
It truly is a very flexible curriculum and you take responsibility for planning/taking each course except the required pre-med courses and those for your major. I also went abroad for a semester to Prague and had no problems with credit transfer.
Dean Ripley is awesome and he will tell you the whole truth. However, he does advise people not to double major (though I don?t buy some of his arguments like this one).
As far as medical school, it seems to me that where you went as an undergraduate shouldn?t pre-determine your life and chances of admission. (In reality though, I would suppose that being a Brown student will be of some help.)
Let me also just highlight medical opportunities or work outside the classroom and the university. Providence has some excellent facilities. I really loved Hasbro Children?s Hospital and I was impressed by the PICU. At Women and Infant?s Hospital, I found the NICU fascinating. Rhode Island Hospital itself is quite large with many different clinical departments. If I can name one one person whom I admired at WIH, it?s Dr. Cashore. If you ever visit, try to observe what he does and what he says to gain an insight into being an amazing physician.
Anyways, Brown is an excellent place to begin your journey.
I went to Cornell University, which is infamous for having a cutt-throat premed environment. The majority of your classmates freshman are pre-med, whether they're engineering, bio/chem, humanties, or a Human Ecology major such as Nutrition or Human Development. It's obvious when you see that you're General Chemistry class is over 800 students. Around 300 end up actually applying to medical school
If you decide to be a biological science major, you have to take the same requirments whether you're from the endowed College of Arts or the statutory College of Agricultural and Life Sciences. The requirements are pretty tough, with Genetics 281 being a killer, where you spend at least 6 hours a day counting Drosophila flies and the mean in the exams are less than 50%. During my time, the professor of Organic Chemistry 357 was quite demanding, where means on pre-lim exams would be as low as 29 out of 100....but the second semester 358 taught by another professor was more reasonable. Autotutorial Physics 101 and 102 for premed, however, was a great class where if you put in the work, you should pull at least an A- ...
there's an year long EMT class available to gain clinical experience and there's also plenty of undergrad research opportunities and you're eligible to present your research for honors if you pull a 3.0 GPA.
although the pre-med and bio classes are really tough, they really prepared me well for the MCAT....also med ad coms know the rigor of the Cornell science classes and they know that our grades are curved to a 2.3/2.7 mean (we by no means benefit from grade inflation).....so you find lots of pre-meds with not so great GPA's still getting in at least one MD school in the states.
the HCEC pre-med committee has a good program, where in addition to getting your LORs and your essay, they also interview you so they can stress the positive aspects on their letter...Anyone who completed the premed requirements regardless of GPA are allowed to apply and the acceptance rate is well above the national rate.....like most premed advisors, you take their discouragements with a grain of salt......they told me to do a masters or post-bacc....i applied with just my undergrad GPA, lots of EC's, research experience (w/o honors), and substantial clinical experience and still got accepted to a top 10 MD US med school
the following link shows the actual acceptance rates for Cornell non-URM premeds by MCAT and GPA:
http://www.career.cornell.edu/students/grad/health/humanmedicine/applied.html
i think regardless of where you go, you'll always find competition among pre-meds...it's just a matter of focussing what you need to get done and try not to worry too much about everyone else (i didn't even bother to tell my classmates i was pre-med and just kept a "come what may" laid-back, cool demeanor my whole time in college)
hope this helps and good luck!
If you decide to be a biological science major, you have to take the same requirments whether you're from the endowed College of Arts or the statutory College of Agricultural and Life Sciences. The requirements are pretty tough, with Genetics 281 being a killer, where you spend at least 6 hours a day counting Drosophila flies and the mean in the exams are less than 50%. During my time, the professor of Organic Chemistry 357 was quite demanding, where means on pre-lim exams would be as low as 29 out of 100....but the second semester 358 taught by another professor was more reasonable. Autotutorial Physics 101 and 102 for premed, however, was a great class where if you put in the work, you should pull at least an A- ...
there's an year long EMT class available to gain clinical experience and there's also plenty of undergrad research opportunities and you're eligible to present your research for honors if you pull a 3.0 GPA.
although the pre-med and bio classes are really tough, they really prepared me well for the MCAT....also med ad coms know the rigor of the Cornell science classes and they know that our grades are curved to a 2.3/2.7 mean (we by no means benefit from grade inflation).....so you find lots of pre-meds with not so great GPA's still getting in at least one MD school in the states.
the HCEC pre-med committee has a good program, where in addition to getting your LORs and your essay, they also interview you so they can stress the positive aspects on their letter...Anyone who completed the premed requirements regardless of GPA are allowed to apply and the acceptance rate is well above the national rate.....like most premed advisors, you take their discouragements with a grain of salt......they told me to do a masters or post-bacc....i applied with just my undergrad GPA, lots of EC's, research experience (w/o honors), and substantial clinical experience and still got accepted to a top 10 MD US med school
the following link shows the actual acceptance rates for Cornell non-URM premeds by MCAT and GPA:
http://www.career.cornell.edu/students/grad/health/humanmedicine/applied.html
i think regardless of where you go, you'll always find competition among pre-meds...it's just a matter of focussing what you need to get done and try not to worry too much about everyone else (i didn't even bother to tell my classmates i was pre-med and just kept a "come what may" laid-back, cool demeanor my whole time in college)
hope this helps and good luck!
