Pre-med in chicago: UIC, Loyola, or Depaul?

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hindumuslim

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Which has the best opportunities for pre meds?

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Which has the best opportunities for pre meds?

I would assume that UIC would have better opportunities for research and things of that nature, but this is just speculation. Undergrad choice should be made based on where you will enjoy your time the most and be the most successful. If it were UIC, Depaul, or U of Chicago I'd tell you UChicago, but the schools you mentioned are all relatively equal (good schools but not UChicago). Visit them and see how well you would fit! I have friends here at Vanderbilt that were accepted to Brown, Cornell, Wash U, Duke, Yale, etc. They felt that Vanderbilt was a better fit (I probably would've taken those acceptances, but that's just me). So just look at the overall experience (and perhaps cost-you don't want 100k in undergrad debt + 200k in med school debt), and most med schools won't care as long as you show you know your stuff/are a good fit for medicine.
 
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Which has the best opportunities for pre meds?

I can't speak on Loyola, but I've taken (summer) pre med classes at both UIC and Depaul. I have never seen so much blatant cheating as I did at UIC. It was absolutely insane and I've written feedback to the profs and TAs about it. They reuse old quizzes, don't change the questions or answers, and students get old copies from their friends and openly copy from the old quiz to the new quiz during quizzes, while the TA watches youtube and doesn't care. Same goes for labs, where some students walk out of a four hour lab after 30 minutes, turning in a full lab writeup. Again, the TA is too busy on youtube...

Apart from that, a con I noticed with UIC is classes can be huge (mine was capped at 72, whereas Depaul was 40 or so), and professors can be hit or miss (my brother dropped a class as one professor's accent was so thick he couldn't understand him, but my prof was nice), though it is much cheaper and there are a fair amount more research opportunities. I also assume you have a certain leg up at getting into UIC's med school, but I have no data to back that up.

As for Depaul, it was more expensive, class sizes were smaller, I didn't notice any cheating, but the student body seemed a lot less motivated. I was in a class with quite a few students who just wanted a C for the degree, whereas at UIC I was with a bunch of pre meds who wanted an A for upping the GPA. There are plenty of research opportunities at Depaul as well, just not as many as at UIC.

I didn't think any school was particularly harder, though I believe UIC doesn't give pluses or minuses, which helped me as I tend to fall just short of A's and get A-s. UIC is also on a semester system, whereas Depaul is quarters, at least during summers.

For me, I liked Depaul as it seemed to have a more cooperative and less competitive atmosphere, but I believe UIC is better for most people.

edit: One more thing... grading. Both have sort of a curve, but Depaul was more percent based (if you get above this score, you get an A, this, an A-, this, a B+, etc.) whereas UIC was a weird bell curve normalized for all tests. Our wonderful </sarcasm> TA sent everyone everyone's lab grades in an excel file (privacy much?), and a list of names of who got an incomplete, that also had the grading criterion for last semester's class, and an A was based on having sqrt(2) times the average score. A C was sqrt(2)/2 times the average score, and a B was somewhere in between.
 
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so uic is that bad? I was leaning towards it, b/c its the cheapest, and I'am not getting much financial aid at depaul. Anyone else have some insight?
 
I attended DePaul for my freshman year as a pre-med. To be honest, I thought that their science programs were not as good as they could've been, and I oftentimes wondered if I would've been better of at Loyola or UIC. From what I've heard from friends who attended Loyola or UIC, they both have great science programs and much more guidance for pre-meds than DePaul did for me.

However, just remember, you can do well ANYWHERE if you have the motivation and put in the right amount of effort. I have heard from people who both love and hate all three schools, so it just depends. Students complain about having bad teachers, but you can still do well if you apply yourself. I transferred to a different school after my freshman year, but for reasons other than I was unsatisfied with DePaul's program. If I had stayed, I think I still would've been OK. So, what I'm trying to say is, if you're self-motivated enough, it does not necessarily matter where you attend your undergrad. I'm just assuming from what I've heard that Loyola and UIC probably have better advising for their pre-med students, but it's nothing that you can't look up on your own.

If I could do it over again, I would've attended UIC. But that's only because it would've saved me a ton of money. :) The most important thing is that you attend a school where you will be happy.
 
I can't speak on Loyola, but I've taken (summer) pre med classes at both UIC and Depaul. I have never seen so much blatant cheating as I did at UIC. It was absolutely insane and I've written feedback to the profs and TAs about it. They reuse old quizzes, don't change the questions or answers, and students get old copies from their friends and openly copy from the old quiz to the new quiz during quizzes, while the TA watches youtube and doesn't care. Same goes for labs, where some students walk out of a four hour lab after 30 minutes, turning in a full lab writeup. Again, the TA is too busy on youtube...

Apart from that, a con I noticed with UIC is classes can be huge (mine was capped at 72, whereas Depaul was 40 or so), and professors can be hit or miss (my brother dropped a class as one professor's accent was so thick he couldn't understand him, but my prof was nice), though it is much cheaper and there are a fair amount more research opportunities. I also assume you have a certain leg up at getting into UIC's med school, but I have no data to back that up.

As for Depaul, it was more expensive, class sizes were smaller, I didn't notice any cheating, but the student body seemed a lot less motivated. I was in a class with quite a few students who just wanted a C for the degree, whereas at UIC I was with a bunch of pre meds who wanted an A for upping the GPA. There are plenty of research opportunities at Depaul as well, just not as many as at UIC.

I didn't think any school was particularly harder, though I believe UIC doesn't give pluses or minuses, which helped me as I tend to fall just short of A's and get A-s. UIC is also on a semester system, whereas Depaul is quarters, at least during summers.

For me, I liked Depaul as it seemed to have a more cooperative and less competitive atmosphere, but I believe UIC is better for most people.

edit: One more thing... grading. Both have sort of a curve, but Depaul was more percent based (if you get above this score, you get an A, this, an A-, this, a B+, etc.) whereas UIC was a weird bell curve normalized for all tests. Our wonderful </sarcasm> TA sent everyone everyone's lab grades in an excel file (privacy much?), and a list of names of who got an incomplete, that also had the grading criterion for last semester's class, and an A was based on having sqrt(2) times the average score. A C was sqrt(2)/2 times the average score, and a B was somewhere in between.

Interesting. I went to UIC, and didn't notice a vast amount of cheating going on. There was certainly some cheating - I found it amusing when "pre meds" who were set on neurosurgery had to cheat their way through bio 101. I would be pretty surprised if they are in medical school now.

Re grading, UIC doesn't have plus or minus grades. As far as I know, the various departments don't have a consistent grading policy, let alone the school as a whole. Each course/professor will have their own policies about grading, curving, etc. The system you're describing sounds pretty odd. Are you talking about Landrie's organic chem classes, by any chance? He was only teaching organic lab, not lecture when I was there, and his grading scheme was kind of complicated.

Overall I was happy with UIC. Most importantly, it's quite cheap. There was a large selection of courses you could take, it was usually pretty easy to schedule things, professors and TA's were accessible, and there were research opportunities if you wanted that.

One drawback is that there's no pre-med committee so you'll have to get LOR's from individual professors, which can be sent through the school or directly to an electronic letter-forwarding service.
 
probably none of them
 
As a soph pre-med at loyola, im pretty happy with the school. Its big on the sciences, we have a great nursing program and premed track. Its really about how much work u put in though, so just go wherever you feel most comfortable. Oh, and Loyola hands out scholarship dough like its monopoly money, which certainly helped my decision
 
depaul prepared me really well and i loved my time there. the classes are really small once you get past intro classes (which are still half the size of UIC's) and you get to know your professors really well. I was able to do research in 3 labs, get published twice and get AWESOME rec letters. The chem and upper level bio labs are more challenging than at other schools because they are preparing people who want to get phd's in the future (depaul graduates more future phd's than md's), so by the time you are a senior you are writing publication quality papers. for what its worth, we had someone from loyola take the last part of her physics sequence at depaul because she thought it would be easier. she was way behind us, didnt know how to write a proper lab report and eventually dropped out. before she did she mentioned that she never had to write lab reports like that..ever. some of my later orgo and biochem lab reports took 6 hours to write. it sucked then, but my research and writing skills got me an awesome research job at northwestern, and i have already published a paper here with two more that have been submitted for publication.

i also loved the other bio and chem students there. we became a big family, and would all study together and help each other out in any way that we could. immunology take home test? ya totally a group effort, but we would all have our own answers and stuff. we would get pizzas delivered to the bio building and sit in the atrium until 2 am studying for biochem. i think depaul is as uncompetitive as it gets! our professors would even stop by our study groups on their way out and ask if we had questions, etc.

one thing that is not good at depaul is the advising. they dont have a pre-med committee, and the phd's that are the "pre-med advisers" are usually too busy with their research and teaching to be of very much help. there are many things that i wish i knew before i started this process that i had to figure out on my own, and i totally lucked out by getting to know members of northwestern's ad com who really helped me put my apps together. but at depaul they know how to write rec letters at and have them in by your deadlines, and you can learn most of what you need to know by reading books, google searching and here on SDN.

good luck!
 
Are you a dirty hipster? Go to Loyola

Do you look like an extra from that irritating Tommy Hillfiger commercial? Go to DePaul

Are you indian and/or Chinese? Go to UIC

THIS^^^^^ lol! although there are a lot of dirty hipsters at ANY chicago school... including depaul. the standard uniform for non-science majors at depaul is either hipster or north face-ugg boots combo. for science majors? sweat pants, dirty tee that has been stained by iodine/bromblue/crystal violet and has holes from chemical/bunsen burns. at least that was me..
 
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THIS^^^^^ lol! although there are a lot of dirty hipsters at ANY chicago school... including depaul. the standard uniform for non-science majors at depaul is either hipster or north face-ugg boots combo. for science majors? sweat pants, dirty tee that has been stained by iodine/bromblue/crystal violet and has holes from chemical/bunsen burns. at least that was me..

LOL ^. The North Face-Boots or North Face-Obnoxious neon old-school high-tops is a classic frat boy outfit at Vanderbilt.

I would go to Depaul if I were you, and only had those choices. If I were in-state I would go to UI Champaigne-Urbana, and if you like liberal arts atmosphere I'd go to Carleton/Grinnell (obviously not in Illinois). If I really had the choice I'd go to Northwestern.

I hear Depaul isn't too competitive. Some of my friends at school from Chicago took summer classes and said they were a breeze. This obviously won't apply to all classes though. Orgo is hard wherever you go.
 
don't forget $$$. (of course students considering northwestern and depaul aren't the type to be concerned about the cost of school).
 
don't forget $$$. (of course students considering northwestern and depaul aren't the type to be concerned about the cost of school).

I wouldn't be too judgmental. I go to Vanderbilt (one of the most expensive in the nation) but I grew up just above poverty level. Of course that is still rare, and usually less than 15% of students at such schools qualify for any Pell Grant money.
 
Depends on what are your preferences:

Public: UIC: (+)Cost, Potential Research (-)Class size

Private (my alma mater): Benedictine University in Lisle,IL
(+)Class size 1:28, Faculty office hrs, Suburban Community, Grading Scale, Cost (cheap for private school ~$23k a year), If you get a Summer research internship they PAY You!, Alot of T.A. Opportunites (I am a Anatomy T.A.), Great Faculty

(-) Research opportunity is selective, they give preference in the following order of Majors (Math>Biochem>Chem>Biology>Health Science)
 
As an addition to this, UIC and Loyola offer no courses in the evenings or on the weekends, which is a joke.

Northwestern Continuing School of Studies and DePaul seem to be the only places that do. It's sad how few schools offer the sciences at a manageable time for working professionals.
 
Are you an Illinois resident?

yes -> be a shining star at UIC
no - > Loyola. Better yet, U of C.
 
I'm currently a freshman at Loyola and I could not be happier. The premed and sciences are overflowing here and there are a lot of opportunities even for freshman. I highly recommended it and they usually give out great finical aid if you need it!
 
Since you're not comparing with any top-tier schools, definitely go public! UIC has a good reputation, and undergrad matters very little for med school admissions except for the top schools.

Why not UIUC, btw? It's better than the rest of those schools.
 
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Go to UIC.

Pros:
Cost, research, lots of classes.

A lot of people listed class size as a con, which is true in BIO 100 and the first ever CHEM class you take, but when you start taking upper levels classes become smaller and you will be familiar with most of the people in your classes. Then again, I don't find large class sizes a problem. A lot of lazy people won't even bother showing up to lecture or office hours, so again large class size does not mean you are sitting in a large lecture full of people...

A lot of people here at Pre-med/dent/pharm. Some people are competitive, but don't go gloating your GPA all over campus and that's only a few people. Make some friends in classes and it is easy to cooperate/share notes/study/etc. The campus is obviously very diverse, and since you are pre-med and surrounded by people from all over, it should not be hard to find people with similar interests as you.


I know people from Loyola and I don't think they like it there that much. They always complain that their courses are eh and that Loyola only wants their money.

Depaul = expensive. Only know like 2 people that went there for a science major. Everyone else I know goes their for english or business. Can't comment on depaul.
 
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