Choosing the right pre-med college

[javapoet55]

Deciding between UMIAMI Pre-Med (PRISM Honors in Biology) Vs Baylor Pre-Med (Biology Major). My end goal is to go to MD after 4 years.

1. Cost - I got a 50% scholarship and remaining will be paid by my parents. I’m mostly worried about other areas than the cost for now,

2. GPA - Which is the best university for scoring better grades. Grade inflation vs deflation?

3. Since MD admission is also required student involvement in Research, Clinical Shadowing, hospital volunteering, which one will be best for this?

4. Which college is sending more students to medical college? I see in ADCOMS data that both are sending around 330 students YoY but I am not sure what is the total avg. a number of people from these universities apply.

5). Professors - Which one can really add value and prepare the student to handle MCAT and easy to approach with.
I really appreciate your comments since that will help me to choose the right one to accomplish my dream of becoming a physician.

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[DarklingThrush]

Which school do you like better?

 

[KnightDoc]

Deciding between UMIAMI Pre-Med (PRISM Honors in Biology) Vs Baylor Pre-Med (Biology Major). My end goal is to go to MD after 4 years.

1. Cost - I got a 50% scholarship and remaining will be paid by my parents. I’m mostly worried about other areas than the cost for now,

2. GPA - Which is the best university for scoring better grades. Grade inflation vs deflation?

3. Since MD admission is also required student involvement in Research, Clinical Shadowing, hospital volunteering, which one will be best for this?

4. Which college is sending more students to medical college? I see in ADCOMS data that both are sending around 330 students YoY but I am not sure what is the total avg. a number of people from these universities apply.

5). Professors - Which one can really add value and prepare the student to handle MCAT and easy to approach with.
I really appreciate your comments since that will help me to choose the right one to accomplish my dream of becoming a physician.

You really need to go where you will be happiest. That alone will be huge in helping you do well. Any decent school will provide you with more opportunities than you will know what to do with in terms of doing all the things you will need to do to be a successful candidate.

Both of the schools you mentioned would be great choices. No school will prepare you for the MCAT -- you will do that on your own, or by taking a stand alone prep course when the time comes.

Finally, the number of med school applicants from a particular school is a totally meaningless number. Some of it is due to the size of the school, and, all things being equal, more doesn't necessarily mean better. You could also argue that more means more competition!

 

[javapoet55]

You really need to go where you will be happiest. That alone will be huge in helping you do well. Any decent school will provide you with more opportunities than you will know what to do with in terms of doing all the things you will need to do to be a successful candidate.

Both of the schools you mentioned would be great choices. No school will prepare you for the MCAT -- you will do that on your own, or by taking a stand alone prep course when the time comes.

Finally, the number of med school applicants from a particular school is a totally meaningless number. Some of it is due to the size of the school, and, all things being equal, more doesn't necessarily mean better. You could also argue that more means more competition!

Thanks much for your quick response. I am more concerned about the additional requirements such as Research, Clinical opportunities etc.,

 

[KnightDoc]

Thanks much for your quick response. I am more concerned about the additional requirements such as Research, Clinical opportunities etc.,

No problem! Again, all good schools, certainly Miami and Baylor, have decent pre-med advising offices where they can help point you to resources as well as guide you towards what you need to do to be competitive.

Remember, everyone has to meet the same requirements. As you know, a ton of people are successful every year, at a wide variety of schools -- public and private, big and small, prestigious and not-so-prestigious. The differentiating factor is the applicant, not so much the school, although some people will say there is a T20 bias towards top UGs. I'm personally not so sure that's true -- I think that top UGs just happen to have a disproportionate number top applicants rather than there being a bias towards them, but what do I know? -- I'm just a pre-med a few years ahead of you! In any event, plenty of people do well at all kinds of UGs and are accepted into all tiers of medical schools each year.

What's important is to do well (contrary to what you might have heard, it really doesn't matter what you major in, as long as you meet the prerequisites), then do well on the MCAT, and then have meaningful ECs and an interesting story to tell regarding why medicine.

 

[Blueprint Med School]

The only things you should be thinking about when deciding where to go for undergrad are cost, location, and happiness. Unless you're talking about a disparity like Harvard vs Rutgers, then there's no real difference in quality of education between two similarly "ranked" schools. A driven student will do well at both schools, find the research and volunteering activities required, and do well on the MCAT. Your mental state will really affect that. Personally, I'd choose UMiami, just because I think Miami is a more fun city than Waco.

Kevin W, MCAT Tutor
Med School Tutors

 

[MyOdyssey]

Deciding between UMIAMI Pre-Med (PRISM Honors in Biology) Vs Baylor Pre-Med (Biology Major). My end goal is to go to MD after 4 years.

1. Cost - I got a 50% scholarship and remaining will be paid by my parents. I’m mostly worried about other areas than the cost for now,

2. GPA - Which is the best university for scoring better grades. Grade inflation vs deflation?

3. Since MD admission is also required student involvement in Research, Clinical Shadowing, hospital volunteering, which one will be best for this?

4. Which college is sending more students to medical college? I see in ADCOMS data that both are sending around 330 students YoY but I am not sure what is the total avg. a number of people from these universities apply.

5). Professors - Which one can really add value and prepare the student to handle MCAT and easy to approach with.
I really appreciate your comments since that will help me to choose the right one to accomplish my dream of becoming a physician.

Baylor U is located in Waco, Texas, which is not one of the larger cities in Texas. It is also not terribly close to any large Texas city. Larger cities will present you with more opportunities for health related volunteering, shadowing, and research. They tend to have a much more built out health care infrastructure. On this score, Miami has the edge.

In terms of research and other opportunities, does being a scholarship recipient give you a leg up. Oftentimes, schools will give their incoming scholars special opportunities to work with professors.

Do you want to live in a larger, more diverse city away from home with lots to do off campus? Or will that distract you from your studies?

 

[hang50]

You probably know this but note that Baylor U does not have a medical school, and the Baylor Medical School (completely independent) is located in Houston, not Waco. Ultimately both schools will offer a solid undergraduate experience, but are in vastly different locations. Which school did you like better on your visit? I would probably recommend Miami because of the added bonus of living in a much larger and diverse city than Waco. I think there would likely be more opportunities in terms of both clinical and non-clinical volunteering...and I think you would have a lot more fun in Miami. But I know people that loved their time in Waco at BU. Obviously there will be more distractions in Miami than Waco.

But congratulations on the scholarships, you will likely be successful and happy at either school.

 

[Office Visit]

I will offer a slightly different perspective on this conversation from my personal experience. It might not be as applicable between Baylor and Miami, but you need to go to whatever school where you can perform the best and stand out from the rest of your classmates. I chose to go to a competitive private university and had several friends who also went to university with my from my high school friend group with aspirations of going to medical school. Several of them had to transfer to our state university (a much less competitive and smaller college) due to not being able to perform at this hyper-competitive private school with the grades necessary to get accepted to medical school. They have all been accepted to MD schools and had great GPAs. I am applying this cycle with some of those friends who stayed at my competitive university and we are all waiting on an acceptance. As has been said previously, you prepare yourself for the MCAT. I was banking on some amount of UG prestige or MCAT benefit to help bolster my application, but I haven't seen that to be the case at all in my experience.

My recommendation now for anyone who asks for advice on this topic is: Go to the school where you can succeed and get the grades you need to get in, prepare yourself for the MCAT to score well, and get involved in anyway (research, volunteering, research) you can wherever you decide to go. BUT it will always be easier to get into medical school with a 3.9 GPA from Joe Schmoe University (assuming you can perform well enough on the MCAT) than to graduate with a 3.5 from a "Rigorous Academic University" (excluding some exceptions AdComs may make for Ivy league schools and schools known for grade deflation) with that same MCAT score.

 

[javapoet55]

Great. Thank you so much for everyone's response. Really appreciate the time you took to share your experience. It helps us to get more insight into making our decision.

 

[jhmmd]

I would go w/Baylor
It may be easier to get good grades if you don't take honors classes
Simple & honest answer

 

[Hope143]

Go to the school where it would be the easiest for you to get good grades! good luck!

 

[RIBR]

If med schools only chose undergrads from Harvard/Stanford/Caltech etc, we'd have not doctors in this country at all. And it turns out these schools don't have magic textbooks. Which is to say that med schools - even the really good ones - are full of students from universities that don't have top 5% reputations. Ultimately, it comes down to YOU and what you do with the opportunities you are given.

Importantly, that's also true for students who do get in to Harvard/Stanford/Caltech etc. Your effort and passion is the true equalizer and the ultimate determinant in your success.