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Hey folks,
I'm in a bit of an odd situation. I'm currently participating in the post-bacc pre-med program at NYU. I've been doing quite well (I have one semester of orgo and physics left and I have a gpa of 3.96, my original undergrad gpa was an unremarkable 3.35) , and I've been offered the opportunity to apply to a school through a linkage program, thus avoiding the need for a lag year.
The schools that are available are Mt. Sinai, Stony Brook, UNDNJ-New Jersey and UNDNJ- Robert Wood Johnson.
The problem is that because I didn't think I was doing so well this semester, I didn't think linkage would be a real option so I spent all of my time working on my classes and didn't research the schools at all. Now I'm supposed to pick one before January 31st and I really don't even know how to begin. I've looked at the web sites and they all seem like very good schools but I just don't know what criteria I should be looking for to discriminate between them.
Should I pick one that I think I have a good chance of getting into? I'm not taking the MCATs until April so GPA is the only real criteria at this point. Pediatrics is the field that I'm most interested in now, but I don't know how that inclination will change as my experience increases. I'm a resident of New Jersey so the price of the UNDNJ schools are certainly more appealing, but if "you get what you pay for" is a private school worth it? Should I rent a car to go visit these schools? Robert Wood Johnson had an open house a month ago but I couldn't attend because it conflicted with an orgo mid-term!
I feel woefully underprepared for this decision at this point. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Any other residents in the area faced with a similar situation? How did you pick?
I'm in a bit of an odd situation. I'm currently participating in the post-bacc pre-med program at NYU. I've been doing quite well (I have one semester of orgo and physics left and I have a gpa of 3.96, my original undergrad gpa was an unremarkable 3.35) , and I've been offered the opportunity to apply to a school through a linkage program, thus avoiding the need for a lag year.
The schools that are available are Mt. Sinai, Stony Brook, UNDNJ-New Jersey and UNDNJ- Robert Wood Johnson.
The problem is that because I didn't think I was doing so well this semester, I didn't think linkage would be a real option so I spent all of my time working on my classes and didn't research the schools at all. Now I'm supposed to pick one before January 31st and I really don't even know how to begin. I've looked at the web sites and they all seem like very good schools but I just don't know what criteria I should be looking for to discriminate between them.
Should I pick one that I think I have a good chance of getting into? I'm not taking the MCATs until April so GPA is the only real criteria at this point. Pediatrics is the field that I'm most interested in now, but I don't know how that inclination will change as my experience increases. I'm a resident of New Jersey so the price of the UNDNJ schools are certainly more appealing, but if "you get what you pay for" is a private school worth it? Should I rent a car to go visit these schools? Robert Wood Johnson had an open house a month ago but I couldn't attend because it conflicted with an orgo mid-term!
I feel woefully underprepared for this decision at this point. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Any other residents in the area faced with a similar situation? How did you pick?
