Pre-Med/Biology programs in New England??

[Raphael123]

I live in Maine and I want to go somewhere in New England. I would like to go somewhere in/near Boston. I am currently a Junior in high school. I get mostly A's and some B's. I haven't taken the SAT's yet but we have taken practice tests and I am above the average range every time. I take honors and AP classes for math and science. So where should i apply? What schools have good programs? What are my chances of getting into the schools in the north east? Anything would help, Thanks.

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[Tangeriine]

It seems like you are not shooting for tier 1 schools, so some options in Boston would be Northeastern, BC, BU, and Tufts. Tufts and BU have their own medical school, so pre-med is probably popular and well resourced. Northeastern has the popular year of life experience, which could be pretty valuable on your med school app if you make it a productive year. The only appeal of BC that comes to mind is that it is more prestigious than Northeastern and BU if you couldn't get into Tufts. There are of course MANY other schools in the greater Boston area, but you probably only need to look at these four. And obviously also look outside of Boston as well.

 

[Raphael123]

It seems like you are not shooting for tier 1 schools, so some options in Boston would be Northeastern, BC, BU, and Tufts. Tufts and BU have their own medical school, so pre-med is probably popular and well resourced. Northeastern has the popular year of life experience, which could be pretty valuable on your med school app if you make it a productive year. The only appeal of BC that comes to mind is that it is more prestigious than Northeastern and BU if you couldn't get into Tufts. There are of course MANY other schools in the greater Boston area, but you probably only need to look at these four. And obviously also look outside of Boston as well.

What would the top tier schools be? And would I even be able to go to them? I was thinking i could go to a more prestigious one for Med-School

 

[Tangeriine]

What would the top tier schools be? And would I even be able to go to them? I was thinking i could go to a more prestigious one for Med-School

The only other schools in the greater boston area that are better are Harvard and MIT, but i'm not even sure you would get into Tufts or BC. In all of New England there is also Dartmouth, Brown, etc..

Don't worry about going to a prestigious med-school yet, the undergrad you are at won't really affect that drastically.

 

[Raphael123]

The only other schools in the greater boston area that are better are Harvard and MIT, but i'm not even sure you would get into Tufts or BC. In all of New England there is also Dartmouth, Brown, etc..

Don't worry about going to a prestigious med-school yet, the undergrad you are at won't really affect that drastically.

I don't know if this helps at all but I calculated my GPA out and right now its a 3.7, but it should go up a little later in the year

 

[Tangeriine]

I don't know if this helps at all but I calculated my GPA out and right now its a 3.7, but it should go up a little later in the year

I would say Northeastern and BU are reasonable goals, and Tufts and BC are fine to apply to as reach schools. Since you are looking more for what schools you can get into at this point you should go to a forum more geared toward undergraduate applications. But yeah, I would say Tufts or BU would be the two best schools in Boston for you and your pre-med goals.

 

[edgerock24]

Word of advice: attend the cheapest school that you will do best at. A school like BU is quite frankly a waste of money. It is full of premed gunners (seriously) and you will not get to know professors too well in huge lecture halls full of 100+ students.

Go to a cheap school where the professors grade fairly.

 

[Raphael123]

Word of advice: attend the cheapest school that you will do best at. A school like BU is quite frankly a waste of money. It is full of premed gunners (seriously) and you will not get to know professors too well in huge lecture halls full of 100+ students.

Go to a cheap school where the professors grade fairly.

My brother is going to UMO right now for Biology, and then he wants to go to a year for graduate school. Do you think that would be a good option? Is it better to do that or to try to go to med school right out of Undergrad?

 

[Porkloins]

UMaine Orono is a fine option, especially if it's cheap for you. Maine has a surprisingly vibrant biomedical research culture involving labs like Mount Desert Island and schools like UMO honors college, Bowdoin, Colby, Bates etc.

 

[edgerock24]

My brother is going to UMO right now for Biology, and then he wants to go to a year for graduate school. Do you think that would be a good option? Is it better to do that or to try to go to med school right out of Undergrad?

Totally up to you. People taking a year (or more) off before applying to med school is becoming more and more common so that individuals can apply with their most competitive application. In other words, apply when you're ready.

But for now, just make sure you want to be a bio major because you really enjoy all of biology to an extent. Don't do it just to knock out the premed prereq's along the way, as you can do that with any major.

 

[darkjedi]

Don't go to BU, they have an awful premed program.

I honestly don't know how competitive you are, but consider liberal arts colleges like Williams as well.