Small school for undergrad

[dubya]

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Is there any disadvantage in going to a small college for undergrad when it comes time to apply to med school? I'm a high school junior and trying to compare all the pros and cons of small school (e.g. St. Olaf) versus large state school.

😎

 

[armybound]

no, as long as your numbers and ECs look good.

 

[154241]

Small schools may offer less guidance for premeds...that was my experience at my first college. Also, depending on the school, there may be fewer research opportunities, or if it's out in the boondocks, you may not have good access to clinical experience.

 

[searun]

Is there any disadvantage in going to a small college for undergrad when it comes time to apply to med school? I'm a high school junior and trying to compare all the pros and cons of small school (e.g. St. Olaf) versus large state school.

😎

A small school like St. Olaf can be an advantage. Your professors will know you well because your class size is small and can write great letters of recommendation. St Olaf is a great school, the music program is superb, and the overall education is first rate. I almost went to Carleton, across the road. I did go to a small liberal arts school and got accepted to 6 med schools this year including a top 10 school. St. Olaf's is great.

 

[Dookter]

Someone in my class here at Duke is from St. Olaf. I think it really comes down to personal preference. Some people love small schools. Some people would go nuts [like me]. I wanted to go to football games with 100K people on saturdays...not watch women's soccer with 40 fans. But if you like the small school atmosphere, go for it.

 

[Davjc2009]

Pros:
-Smaller class size (30-40 instead of 300 for pre-reqs)
-Opportunities to get to know professors because of said class size, makes it easier to get LORs and research jobs and published papers


Cons:
-Research facilities generally not as great
-Harder to get classes because a lot of liberal arts colleges cap the number of students per class
-Not as many available classes (i.e. there might only be 1 Molecular Bio class and it happens to conflict with the only calc II class) 🙁 this is the biggest pain in the ass ever


As for pros/cons for prestige and all that jazz... that's a completely different animal which if you search the FAQs you're bound to find 1 x 10^12345678 threads on that.


Hope that's helpful.

 

[Davjc2009]

Someone in my class here at Duke is from St. Olaf. I think it really comes down to personal preference. Some people love small schools. Some people would go nuts [like me]. I wanted to go to football games with 100K people on saturdays...not watch women's soccer with 40 fans. But if you like the small school atmosphere, go for it.

100k people at a duke football game? maybe cumulative throughout the season...

40 people at a women's soccer game? only if you include the players 😉

 

[Dookter]

100k people at a duke football game? maybe cumulative throughout the season...

40 people at a women's soccer game? only if you include the players 😉

Um, did I go to undergrad at Duke? No. 😉

EDIT: And thank goodness. It looks boring....but maybe I just don't see enough of the undergrad stuff...

 

[Davjc2009]

Um, did I go to undergrad at Duke? No. 😉

Good point. Where did you go to UG?

 

[Dookter]

Good point. Where did you go to UG?

UT knoxville

 

[Davjc2009]

UT knoxville

Ewww. I have hated that color of orange for my entire life. Born in Memphis. Grew up a Michigan fan though due to family ties... That's why I asked there's only a handful of those 100k stadiums.

 

[Dookter]

Ewww. I have hated that color of orange for my entire life. Born in Memphis. Grew up a Michigan fan though due to family ties... That's why I asked there's only a handful of those 100k stadiums.

I grew up in Memphis. Coolness.

 

[MahlerROCKS]

Its not an issue of small school versus large school per se, its more of a good school vs. crap school argument. I attend a small Midwest LAC, and for me, it was the best decision I ever made. If you have any questions PM me. Oh, and btw, Carleton>St Olaf

 

[Jew Alcindor]

First post:

I go to St. Olaf (gonna be a Sophmore next year). It's pretty good I think. Challenging though. As far as Med school, I know a decent number go to Mayo. I don't think it'd hurt you as long as all your other stuff was where it needed to be. It's not a place a lot of people outside of the Midwest have heard of though.

 

[shantster]

Pros:
-Smaller class size (30-40 instead of 300 for pre-reqs)
-Opportunities to get to know professors because of said class size, makes it easier to get LORs and research jobs and published papers


Cons:
-Research facilities generally not as great
-Harder to get classes because a lot of liberal arts colleges cap the number of students per class
-Not as many available classes (i.e. there might only be 1 Molecular Bio class and it happens to conflict with the only calc II class) 🙁 this is the biggest pain in the ass ever


As for pros/cons for prestige and all that jazz... that's a completely different animal which if you search the FAQs you're bound to find 1 x 10^12345678 threads on that.


Hope that's helpful.

This is exactly what I was going to post. My biggest pro for the small school is the small class sizes and the fact that besides my first semester bio lab, all my labs were taught by the same person that taught the class so you really got to know the professors.

 

[searun]

Small schools may offer less guidance for premeds...that was my experience at my first college. Also, depending on the school, there may be fewer research opportunities, or if it's out in the boondocks, you may not have good access to clinical experience.

Almost all premed advising is crap anyway...You can spend 3 months on SDN, read MSAR, and know alot more than 98 percent of premed advisors. Don't ever select a school based on premed advising. Oh, many many Ivy league professors send their kids to small colleges like Williams and Amherst instead of Yale and Harvard... the big name schools are better for grad school not undergraduate.

 

[maestro1625]

Almost all premed advising is crap anyway...You can spend 3 months on SDN, read MSAR, and know alot more than 98 percent of premed advisors. Don't ever select a school based on premed advising. Oh, many many Ivy league professors send their kids to small colleges like Williams and Amherst instead of Yale and Harvard... the big name schools are better for grad school not undergraduate.

St. Olaf = great school. simple as that.

 

[anybutpretty]

I go to a very small liberal arts college (330 people) and I love it there, but there are definitely reasons to do pre-med elsewhere. For instance, there is no specific pre-med advisor or committee, and when I talked to the bio and biochem professors about medicine, I learned that only one student every couple (~5) years goes to med school. So if you want to find clinical experiences and volunteer opportunities, you're kind of on your own. I'm a little lonely being the only pre-med around and I end up scouring sdn and wishing a little I had someone local to help me out with the process.

On the other hand, the education is first-rate. 3 of my classes last semester were just me one-on-one with the professor and it was fabulous. The type of research done at my college can be good or bad, depending on how you look at it. Students all do a 2-year research (or theatre, or whatever) project under the guidance of 1 or 2 professors. We design all our own projects and carry them out. This is a great learning exprerience (I love what I am doing). However, it doesn't allow us to get published with a professor already doing his or her own research, (The school is extremely student-centered and when professors want time off to write books or do their own things they just take sabbatticals) or to work in a "real" lab with PhD students and such.

So...it depends. You can defnitely make "pre-med" work out at a small school, and most are probably bigger than mine. But if you want a certain "pre-med experience" it might be better to go to a place that already had a program or something set up for pre-meds to begin with.

Anyway, I decided I wanted to "experience" the liberal arts more than I wanted to try to put together pre-med stuff at my college, and I've decided to do a 1-year post-bacc when I'm finished with my BA next year. It's because, while I'm confident that my actual pre-med coursework would be excellent, I'm not confident that I would be getting the research/hospital experience med schools are looking for, at least not easily.

PM me if you have any other questions about being at a small school. 🙂
Good luck!

 

[Jew Alcindor]

330 people? Wow. I think St. Olaf is pretty big as far as small colleges go because it's like 9x that size.

 

[MahlerROCKS]

I go to a very small liberal arts college (330 people)

Marlboro?

 

[IWant2BeADoctor]

No because generally you don't have a Pre-Med advisor or Committee.

 

[MahlerROCKS]

No because generally you don't have a Pre-Med advisor or Committee.

I'd disagree, and I'll re-post what I said earlier: its not an issue of big school vs. small schools, its an issue of whether or not you will be attending a good school. If you attend a semi-decent LAC, you'll will have a pre-med committee, as well as other personalized services and options available to you

 

[Dookter]

I'd disagree, and I'll re-post what I said earlier: its not an issue of big school vs. small schools, its an issue of whether or not you will be attending a good school. If you attend a semi-decent LAC, you'll will have a pre-med committee, as well as other personalized services and options available to you

There are differences between small and large schools. And there are also differences between good and bad schools. For some people, there will be issues with attending either a big or a small school.

 

[anybutpretty]

I go to a very small liberal arts college (330 people)

Marlboro?

You got it.

And I wouldn't say it's a bad school just because it doesn't have a pre-med committee. There just aren't any other pre-meds except for me (and I'm the first in 5 years), so it wouldn't make a lot of sense to have one. There are resources in the area, but it takes more independent effort to dig them up.

 

[maestro1625]

No because generally you don't have a Pre-Med advisor or Committee.

you're far more likely to have one at a small school than at a large state school... and the people on the committee actually knew me.

 

[jochi1543]

Cons:

-Harder to get classes because a lot of liberal arts colleges cap the number of students per class

I agree with the rest, but not so sure about this one. I had the exact opposite experience - though the quotas at small schools are lower, profs tend to be a lot more open towards letting you in if the class is full, and they seem to fill up at the same rate as at bigger schools - there are waitlists either way. But I think there's a lot more bureaucratic BS at large schools, at least in my experience. I remember trying to take biochem at the large state school here, and they would NOT let me take it because I was not in the biochem program. So the only way for me to take the class was to apply for admission to the biochemistry program...for ONE class!

 

[wisguy]

Small schools may offer less guidance for premeds...that was my experience at my first college. Also, depending on the school, there may be fewer research opportunities, or if it's out in the boondocks, you may not have good access to clinical experience.

Olaf has a premed committee and a health professions adviser. They are both pretty well informed and helpful. They also do a good job of helping you find research if what you're looking for isn't available in MN.