Got the acceptance call yesterday! Super pumped. Interviewed the beginning of February.
Hopkins & Goucher, although still waiting to hear from Goucher.
Each program has its own unique strengths and weaknesses, but they all seem to balance each other out. I think it comes down to which particular strengths/weaknesses are important to you, given your priorities and circumstances. Aspects of each program I'm considering are class size, quality of instruction, quality of advising, med school admission statistics, research/shadowing/volunteering opportunities, and barriers to social life. I'd love to hear what everyone else is considering, too.
LIke a lot of other people here, I'm debating between BM and another awesome program (Goucher in my case). I frankly think both Bryn Mawr and Goucher are fantastic, and are pretty similar in most ways. They both seem to have awesome advising, great camaraderie among the post bacc class, really engaging lectures, and tons of clinical opportunities. Additionally, it seems like grads from both programs can pretty much go wherever they want for med school.
I think the differences between the two programs really come down to size. Goucher is right around 30, while BM is more than twice as large at 80 ish. The small class size at Goucher means that things are more intimate, and the whole class is super super close. Definitely got a feel for that at interview day. On the other hand, there seemed to be a great amount of class cohesion at BM too, and a little more variety and diversity among the post baccs. Additionally, because of the larger class size, it seems that there's more stuff going on outside the classroom at BM. I really liked the idea of the focus groups, and all the extra events that seemed to be going on. (To be fair, we'll be so busy who knows how much we'll be able to take advantage of it...)
There are a few minor things, like location (I think the Bryn Mawr/Philly area slightly wins out over the Towson/Baltimore area), but overall I'll be picking nits to see where I end up.
I'm trying to decide how I personally would rank and decide between (in alphabetical order) Bryn Mawr, Hopkins and Scripps. I really enjoyed the class I attended at Bryn Mawr, and I think the big pluses there are the size of the classes and the ease of interacting with the professors. I think I might learn best in that environment (which may result in a higher GPA). On the other hand, the clinical experiences at Hopkins are stronger, and if anything that's where my med school application is currently weak. To pick Scripps would be a decision (most likely) not to use a med school linkage... but which would just keep me in CA through the post-bac year and glide year (and maybe into med school), and less cross-country moves is good.
So, that's why I'm torn.
Congrats Green Med! Definitely agree, the orgo lecture on our interview day was fantastic. I definitely see where you're coming from about clinical experience, but it seemed like Bryn Mawr had a plethora of opportunities available to the post bacc class. Not as familiar with Hopkins' program, but I feel like you certainly wouldn't be lacking for volunteer opps at Bryn Mawr.
Would those of you that were accepted mind posting your stats--including whether you had previously taken any science courses? Thanks.
Stats:
1470 SAT/35 ACT
3.93 GPA
A year of volunteering in a medical setting (mental health)
Research experience with clinical populations in psychiatry and neurology (part time for three years, including an honors senior thesis)
A bit of shadowing
For people who are attending (or at least strongly considering it), will you guys be summer or fall starters? I'm leaning towards the fall, but we'll see.
