high school seniorr....any advice ?

[rpatel]

hey, I'm a high school senior
I am positive I want to go into the medical field so I applied to various BA/MD programs. I got into one with Union College and Albany Medical School and one with Drexel and Drexel Medical School.

I just wanted to know how you would rate these two medical schools and which one is better?

Also, do you think it's worth it to go to a direct program. Drexel is 7 yrs and Albany is 8 yrs, with an MBA. I am positive I want to go into medicine and I think that getting the stress of the MCATs and applying to medical school off my shoulders will help me. Is it better to settle for these schools, or should I maybe go for the traditional route? How have your guys' experiences been? Any advice would be appreciated, thanks!

Also, as for traditional schools, I was upset with the outcome. I got rejected from Brown and Cornell. Waitlisted at Columbia and accepted to Johns Hopkins. Would either of these schools be better than the medical programs?...I also got waitlisted at the 7 yr GWU medical program...soo, I'm waiting on that too...thanks!

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[getcloned]

Look at the Allopathic board, there is a thread started by someone like you asking the same question.

The thread is called "Harvard vs. Straight Med..."

Good luck and HAVE FUN.

 

[rewindthemovie]

Originally posted by rpatel
hey, I'm a high school senior
I am positive I want to go into the medical field so I applied to various BA/MD programs. I got into one with Union College and Albany Medical School and one with Drexel and Drexel Medical School.

I just wanted to know how you would rate these two medical schools and which one is better?

Also, do you think it's worth it to go to a direct program. Drexel is 7 yrs and Albany is 8 yrs, with an MBA. I am positive I want to go into medicine and I think that getting the stress of the MCATs and applying to medical school off my shoulders will help me. Is it better to settle for these schools, or should I maybe go for the traditional route? How have your guys' experiences been? Any advice would be appreciated, thanks!

Also, as for traditional schools, I was upset with the outcome. I got rejected from Brown and Cornell. Waitlisted at Columbia and accepted to Johns Hopkins. Would either of these schools be better than the medical programs?...I also got waitlisted at the 7 yr GWU medical program...soo, I'm waiting on that too...thanks!

yeah, i got rejected from the GWU 7 yr. i'm just going to go the traditional route and come back to GWU for med school hopefully

 

[BerkeleyPremed]

If I were you, I would just go the traditional route before settling for Drexel or Albany. These schools can give you an AMA accredited medical education, but you can probably get into much better schools coming out of a top undergrad. Where else did you apply besides Cornell, Brown, Columbia, and JHU? The premed competition at JHU is going to be cutthroat and is probably more fierce than at other schools...but if you feel you can handle it, go for it.

 

[Fritz]

If I were you I would just go to the 8 year program. Why bother with MCAT, and the application (which besides being stressful is very expensive too)? In the end you will be a doctor anyway.
If you do undergrad at Johns Hopkins you are going to compete for an A in each class, and sometimes this type of competition can be stressful.
Plus you don't know what can happen 3 years down the line...one bad semester (because of illness or other personal stuff) can considerably decrease your chances of admission to medical school.
As I said before, if I were you I would go into the 8 year program right away.

I hope this helps.

Good luck!

Fritz.

 

[mellantro]

How do you look at things? (a) Do you want your MD from a "name" brand school, with increased chances for competitive residency? (b) Or are you OK with getting your MD anywhere (which ,most people are)?

If you go the traditional route, I think you'll be stronger for it (not in terms of where you end up, but more in terms of going through the ringer of applying to med school and coming out really focused on medicine, which is representative of most of us on this board). Someone said it best on another thread, don't be scared of what you have to do in the future. Getting used to the rigor of premed classes, the MCATs, really exploring the true reasons behind why you wanna go into medicine (I have to say in high school I knew I wanted to be a doc, but only going through college and having the experiences associated with me seeking healthcare related issues/ experiences/ items out do i understand WHY it's for me).

As you can see I'm not a big fan of the combined programs In high school I got into a few and turned them down, went to a traditional school a la JHU, and now am happy and ready to go to a medical school I am happy with (I'm not gonna be PC here, I'm not sure the price associated with GW or Drexel make it most people's "first/top" choice). I'd pick my state school over those schools. But $ is an issue for me.

good luck