Hello everyone, I am about to enter my senior year of high school and am getting ready to apply to college. I have heard a lot about pre-medicine at UT Austin, especially that it is difficult to find opportunities due to the overwhelming amount of pre-med students. I am a Texas resident graduating at the top of my class. Is pursuing medicine at UT a bad idea? Is it as bad as some people say? Thanks in advance for the advice!
Pre-Med at UT Austin
- Thread starter Ramo35
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You'll face many issues including the +/- grading. Have you considered a school like UTSA? Their undergrad is a lot "easier" and they have a lot of opportunities since they're attached to a med school.
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UT Austin isn't that premed-heavy, only about 7% apply to med school. It might take some more effort being such a huge school but you'd probably be just fine.
Should go Rice > UT if you can though, they're a major premed powerhouse (20% apply to med school) and as such have tons of opportunities.
source
Should go Rice > UT if you can though, they're a major premed powerhouse (20% apply to med school) and as such have tons of opportunities.
source
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When the enrolment is over 50,000 you are talking ~3500 pre-meds applying
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https://www.aamc.org/download/321458/data/factstable2-7.pdf
UT Austin had 733 applicants among 10k graduating
I mean the source was right there in my post
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I was talking through the entire school
That's a lot of competition for research, volunteering, etc...
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Right and I'm saying relative to many other universities churning out tons of successful premeds their density is very reasonable.
Private is def the way to go for most opportunities, hence Rice > Austin
UT austin is a good school, but you will face the same challenges as at any big state school:
1. huge classes, more difficult to get to know professors
2. more competition for research, volunteering, and other opportunities
1. huge classes, more difficult to get to know professors
2. more competition for research, volunteering, and other opportunities
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This is also b/c insane amounts of weed out occurs before actually getting to application season, I'm sure...
On the other hand top privates get to boast about 60% pre-med retention w/ little to no "failure" from the track.
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Do some top privates seriously have 60% retention?! We had about a 30% survival rate for my class just from the genchem -> bio -> ochem series, not even counting for MCAT and now biochem as additional hurdles
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Mine was 51%. UG Advising frequently told us that "very few students drop pre-medicine due to grades, most discover new interests in college."
WashU is known to be quite rigorous on the East Coast, so I suppose more attrition is in order.
I'm sure our friends at Brown are 60+...
But actually though...
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Well, people may not be failing in the literal D/F sense but I bet the majority of that 49% were getting B's and C's and left because of it. PSA to high school seniors, take all the info thrown at you by admissions/advising with a MASSIVE grain of salt.Mine was 51%. UG Advising frequently told us that "very few students drop pre-medicine due to grades, most discover new interests in college."
WashU is known to be quite rigorous on the East Coast, so I suppose more attrition is in order.
I'm sure our friends at Brown are 60+...
Those dang Brownies and their wonderful happy existence how dare they
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Actually anecdotally I knew a surprising number of people who stopped pre-med b/c they found other things. Econ, engineering, compsci, etc. If I were to guess I'd say at my school it was 50% survive 25% "fail out" 25% voluntary switch.
I am a firm believer that state flagships are the most cutthroat for pre-meds.
Brown is like the artsy little brother that marches to his own beat. No one understands Brown.
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No kidding, I don't think I know anybody that really fell in love with outside subjects enough to switch, though I do know a couple that changed to MD/PhD aspirations and several that studied stuff like anthro and philosophy instead of the usual STEM.
Yeah especially mad respect for UCLA and Cal premeds. Brown is like the school that wanted to be a weird little liberal arts college and was forced to be a legit famous university instead
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I wouldn't really give much consideration to the people on here who aren't Texas residents. No offense but a lot aren't familiar with the specifics on schools here. Example: Go to Rice over UT-Austin. The reason you probably shouldn't go that route is because the classes are significantly harder and you'll find yourself studying a lot more to get the same GPA as your friend would at UT-Austin. Not that it can't be done, but there's a lot of premeds that are struggling there because it's so rigorous. Not to mention, ridiculously expensive for just an undergrad degree for someone looking to go to med school. This defeats the purpose of your post in the first place.
You want to go to a school where you'll find good extracurricular opportunities. Pretty much every state school in Texas is like this. Texas state schools tend to be very large. You shouldn't be concerned with something like this because the fact is that successful premeds from UT-Austin have gone to medical school and you can do the same as well. Some people say going to UTSA over UT Austin would be a better choice because it's "easier" but that's because the school is lower ranked than UT Austin. But you'll probably still find yourself working pretty hard for grades at the top.
TL;DR: Go to the school that gives you the most money and stop worrying about finding opportunities. You will find them at every school. All state undergrad schools in TX have sufficient opportunities for you. I would, however, strongly advise you to join the honors colleges that these schools often have. You'll get the benefits of smaller classes and better networking to professors.
