The best Pre-Med

[Turkish1]

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I am a high school student and I am having a hard time deciding where I should go to college. I want to major in medical anthorpology or biology or psychology and currently the colleges that I have a good chance at getting into and attending are:

Case Western Reserve University
Boston University
Bates College
Colby College
Colgate University
Washington & Lee University
Trinity College (CT)
Brandeis University
Oberlin College
Grinnell College
Rutgers University- NB
Rhodes College
The college of New Jersey

Out of these colleges, which college would best improve my chance of getting into medical school? I like all of them, but I know some are better at sending students onto medical school than others. Such an example is Case Western Which sends 80% of students who apply to medical school to at least 1 medical school. Can you guys please rank these schools for me? I know that I should have other options and everything in case I decide to drop out of pre-med, but I really really really need you rank these schools from best to worst ion your opinion please.........

 

[Robizzle]

the school i attend, boston university, sends 70% of applicants with 3.4+ to atleast 1 med school.

i say do NOT ATTEND COLLEGE just based on what schools get high acceptances because THESE NUMBERS DONT MATTER.
no matter where u go, as long as u do well, you'll be fine.

go where YOU WANNA GO. i can't stress this enough.

i'll say it again

GO WHERE YOU WANNA GO.

 

[Schaden Freud]

Chill!!!! Your alma mater has little to do with your ultimate pre-med success. Pick a school with the hottest chicks, nicest weather, and funnest parties. Enjoy.

By the way, my vote is for Oberlin.

I am a high school student and I am having a hard time deciding where I should go to college. I want to major in medical anthorpology or biology or psychology and currently the colleges that I have a good chance at getting into and attending are:

Case Western Reserve University
Boston University
Bates College
Colby College
Colgate University
Washington & Lee University
Trinity College (CT)
Brandeis University
Oberlin College
Whitman College
Grinnell College
Rutgers University- NB
Rhodes College
The college of New Jersey

Out of these colleges, which college would best improve my chance of getting into medical school? I like all of them, but I know some are better at sending students onto medical school than others. Such an example is Case Western Which sends 80% of students who apply to medical school to at least 1 medical school. Can you guys please rank these schools for me? I know that I should have other options and everything in case I decide to drop out of pre-med, but I really really really need you rank these schools from best to worst ion your opinion please.........

 

[ADeadLois]

This might seem tacky, but someone posed nearly the exact same question about a week ago, so I'm going to paste my response.

Picking a college is one of the biggest decisions you will ever make. Who do you want making this choice, you or a prospective admissions committee?

Also, by my estimation, nearly half of the people who enter college as a pre-med will not end up applying to medical school, even those who are super gung-ho about it. This happens for a variety of reasons. So if you pick a college based purely on its adcom reputation and end up pursuing another career, you'll be stuck in a place you didn't want to be in the first place.

And you know what? Where you go to college doesn't really matter all that much in the application process, or in life in genearl. If you do well on your MCAT and have a wide variety of experiences, you'll be fine. Medical schools want you to have a life more than they want you to go to a "top" school


If there's one thing that's nearly unanimous on these forums, it's that picking an undergrad school based on its "reputation" to med school adcoms is a huge mistake.

 

[kevster2001]

Assuimg you get the same grade at every school (which is an erroneous assumption) you should go to the best school possible. But look int othe city around the school to see if there are large hospitals near by for you to volunteer, if the profs are all doing reserach so you can have good research opportunities. Ideally you want a good sized school in a large city thats ranked as high as possible

 

[coco11]

I go to Case. It blows, but if you want to do research there are like a bazillion opportunities. The premed prereqs are tough here though, and the classes are huge (300+) despite the fact that the school is not that large.

 

[TauPathology]

I want to advise you to not make the decision to go to a college solely on the basis of whether it is statistically favorable to med school admissions. I would choose the school with the best medical anthropology program, or the best psychology program. A lot of people view undergrad basically as purgatory before getting into medical school. Treat it as an entirely seperate experience, pursue your passions, get involved, and the medical school requirements and ECs will fall in place if you stay focused. You will get a lot more out of undergrad that way, and probably have more fun as well.

 

[DoctorPardi]

I am a high school student and I am having a hard time deciding where I should go to college. I want to major in medical anthorpology or biology or psychology and currently the colleges that I have a good chance at getting into and attending are:

Case Western Reserve University
Boston University
Bates College
Colby College
Colgate University
Washington & Lee University
Trinity College (CT)
Brandeis University
Oberlin College
Whitman College
Grinnell College
Rutgers University- NB
Rhodes College
The college of New Jersey

Out of these colleges, which college would best improve my chance of getting into medical school? I like all of them, but I know some are better at sending students onto medical school than others. Such an example is Case Western Which sends 80% of students who apply to medical school to at least 1 medical school. Can you guys please rank these schools for me? I know that I should have other options and everything in case I decide to drop out of pre-med, but I really really really need you rank these schools from best to worst ion your opinion please.........

Some schools get more people accepted to medical schools than others because they have systems that weed out bad applicants, and some schools do not. If someone from Case Western has a 3.0 and 25 mcat he doesn't have an 80% chance of getting into med school. Many schools convince people who are bad applicants not to apply or tell them they will not get in with those grades, while other schools don't.

Your school really isn't very important, go to the school you like the most and the one that has given you the best financial aid.

 

[Dr. Pepper]

I go to Case. It blows,

I know an old friend who went to Case and had the exact same words when he visited me after finals.

Nothing against Case....it is a great college.

But man, if you could see the look on his face when he said that.
-Dr. P.

 

[coco11]

I know an old friend who went to Case and had the exact same words when he visited me after finals.

Nothing against Case....it is a great college.

But man, if you could see the look on his face when he said that.
-Dr. P.

exactly.

to the OP:

here's the deal with case. it's a great, sciency-environment to be in. i thought it would be great for my pre-medical studies. it has been.

when i said case blows - it's because if you come here you will work your ass off. it sucks not going to a top 10 school but feeling like you're suffering under the workload of one. no grade inflation here.

pros:
- more research opportunities for undergrads than you can count
- you can walk/take a quick bus ride to any of 4 different hospitals to do research/volunteer/shadow at, one of them being the world-renowned Cleveland Clinic
- we do send a ton of folks to med school - and we don't have a premedical committee so it's not like being are being convinced not to apply - i know a ton of people who have never even met with our premedical advisor

cons:
- it's in east cleveland..enough said
- people study their brains out
- people are competitive - a lot of ivy league rejects
- a lot of people went to prep schools, and are snobby
- our school is d@mn hard, and most fear that it isn't recognized how tough our curriculum is. many people i know have low gpas.
- there's a lot of engineers = no social atmosphere

HOWEVER
In the end I chose Case, and despite the fact that it isn't the biggest party school, I feel that I would not be as well prepared for med school (both academically and EC-wise) had I not gone to Case. Looking at the other schools on your list, Case will offer you many more opps than most of those schools, maybe with the exception of BU.

It gets a bad rap for the social life- but if you want to have fun, you will. You have to make your own fun. Most people here that are interested in being half social go greek - we're big into greek life. It's not like state-school drunken fratboy craziness, but it is an outlet to have fun and meet people.

So although I didn't get to go to big 10 football games or 10 different house parties every weekend, I would go to Case again if I had the chance. You'll find your niche here.

And they just built awesome new apartment-style dorms on campus which rival those of any other college for being the coolest dorms ever 😉 Flat screen TVs in the lobbies, full kitchens, single bedrooms with double beds, breakfast bars/barstools..etc

with whatever you choose!

 

[coco11]

oh...and i don't know if this matters, but i chose Case over Duke, Johns Hopkins and Ohio State. I don't know if that means anything to you. I don't regret my decision after hearing people's experiences at those other schools.

 

[Robizzle]

- there's a lot of engineers = no social atmosphere

🙁

 

[coco11]

🙁

true story. hate to break it to you. 😉

at my school, the typical engineer's idea of fun is some DDR or having a LAN party. i am almost embarrassed that i learned what these things were by going to school here. 😱

 

[Veshy]

Ha, while there are a ton of things more fun than DDR or LAN parties, I gotta admit to partaking in and enjoying both. All about the people you're with.

 

[DoctorPardi]

pros:
- more research opportunities for undergrads than you can count
- you can walk/take a quick bus ride to any of 4 different hospitals to do research/volunteer/shadow at, one of them being the world-renowned Cleveland Clinic
- we do send a ton of folks to med school - and we don't have a premedical committee so it's not like being are being convinced not to apply - i know a ton of people who have never even met with our premedical advisor

Well another thing is that schools can be very difficult and in that way they weed out applicants. I mean if you fail gen chem and never make it to organic you can't apply to medical school. So Case may have a good acceptance rate because the people who make it to be pre-meds as juniors and seniors are really pretty smart and dedicated.

So again, my point is, is that it isn't like adcoms go "OHHH CASE what a GREEEAT school, we'll take this person over the guy from Public State University" (Not to discount Case, being a good school, I am just making an example) Adcoms look at applicants and say hey look these guys have good MCAT scores and GPAs and accept them, but I think most people would say they don't go "oh wow they are from school X which is better than school Y".

So go to any of the schools on your list, hopefully choose the one that you like the most, the one that is either cheapest or gave you the most financial aid and the one that seems like it will prepare you the best. Don't feel like you have to go to a top 10 undergrad to get in, because it probably doesn't matter.

 

[coco11]

Well another thing is that schools can be very difficult and in that way they weed out applicants. I mean if you fail gen chem and never make it to organic you can't apply to medical school. So Case may have a good acceptance rate because the people who make it to be pre-meds as juniors and seniors are really pretty smart and dedicated.

So again, my point is, is that it isn't like adcoms go "OHHH CASE what a GREEEAT school, we'll take this person over the guy from Public State University" (Not to discount Case, being a good school, I am just making an example) Adcoms look at applicants and say hey look these guys have good MCAT scores and GPAs and accept them, but I think most people would say they don't go "oh wow they are from school X which is better than school Y".

So go to any of the schools on your list, hopefully choose the one that you like the most, the one that is either cheapest or gave you the most financial aid and the one that seems like it will prepare you the best. Don't feel like you have to go to a top 10 undergrad to get in, because it probably doesn't matter.

again, this is entirely subjective bc we don't know what adcoms think. sure, some people are weeded out. but also we have many many students with lots of research/publications and more than avg hospital experience - this may attribute to our 80% acceptance rate.

also, Case has a ton of premeds, and our intro courses are basically taught with the MCAT in mind. in most prereqs i took, my profs gave practice MCAT questions, etc. i think our curriculum is responsible for our high mcat averages. so it's not a high rate of acceptance here just bc people are being weeded out.

BUT, i agree the OP should pick the school he/she will do best at and enjoy the most. i just don't feel that you (or I) am qualified to comment on whether the "prestige" of an undergrad school matters, bc neither of us are on adcoms and really no one knows how an individual school will view your school. so OP, pick a school where you will be happy, but will also help you accomplish your future goals.

 

[DrBowtie]

If you're into a really small school, W & L might be up your alley. It's definitely a preppy upper class school but you'll get a good education.

In these times for med school though, more and more people are having research so BU or Case might be your best bet.

 

[snobored18]

Go small...it worked for me...i'll toss this out there, my class at Mayo has about equal representation between small LACs and large research universities...thing is there were probably double the number of kids that applied from those large schools. Also make sure you go somewhere you fit in, not just because of rep. ie don't go to Grinnell if you don't want to live in the middle of nowhere or to Oberlin if you aren't somewhat interested in music. If you are looking at schools on par with those check out Macalester, St. Olaf and Lawrence...all three have a pretty good pre-med track record and great advisors.

 

[QuantumMechanic]

I am a high school student and I am having a hard time deciding where I should go to college. I want to major in medical anthorpology or biology or psychology and currently the colleges that I have a good chance at getting into and attending are:

Case Western Reserve University
Boston University
Bates College
Colby College
Colgate University
Washington & Lee University
Trinity College (CT)
Brandeis University
Oberlin College
Grinnell College
Rutgers University- NB
Rhodes College
The college of New Jersey

Out of these colleges, which college would best improve my chance of getting into medical school? I like all of them, but I know some are better at sending students onto medical school than others. Such an example is Case Western Which sends 80% of students who apply to medical school to at least 1 medical school. Can you guys please rank these schools for me? I know that I should have other options and everything in case I decide to drop out of pre-med, but I really really really need you rank these schools from best to worst ion your opinion please.........

chipping away at some of the "anonymity" I might have on sdn:


Rhodes is an excellent school for a premed. I'm heading up the Health Professions Society there this coming year, so I guess I can comment on Rhodes better than anyone else here. First, don't look at the percentage of students who "get into med school" We claim to have a 95% acceptance rate, which is true in the sense that if you are that committed to doing well and if you don't turn back on your decision to be a physician, then you'll likely get in somewhere for med school. This decision to apply is of course made after you know your gpa and mcat scores. Lots of Rhodes students come in as premeds, lots decide not to apply for a myriad of reasons.

That being said, Rhodes is excellent for premeds for several reasons. The classes are small and you get infinite attention from your professors (I house sat this weekend for one prof. who left beer in the fridge for me 😍 ) This is good because you can always goto the profs for help, its easy to get to know profs well which means that you'll get excellent and amazing recommendations from them, and also you can easily become involved in their research. You can do these things at larger schools, but Rhodes basically makes it easy to do such things unless you are completely against being involved (if thats the case, premed might not be a good path anyway).

Ever heard of St. Jude Children's Research Hospital? Well its right down the street from Rhodes and it provides excellent research opportunities for Rhodes students. We have a program with them that gives selected students a year and a half research project. I'm not in that program, but I am doing work there this summer anyway, and if I weren't at Rhodes I would never have found out about this opportunity. Working at a renowned cancer research institute can only improve your med school application.

Clinical opportunities are plentiful. Memphis has a large indigent population serviced by a hospital called The MED. Many Rhodes students volunteer there and gain great patient care experiences. They often help residents with minor patient care (not quite kosher, but it happens). There are plenty of other hosptials in the medical district near Rhodes which makes getting these critical patient exposure opportunities really easy. Furthermore, we have many community service groups which can actually take action, since we are in a city that has a need for such volunteer work.

Bottom line: probably what separates Rhodes from most of those other schools is the fact that its a liberal arts school in an urban environment. This gives you the best of both worlds as a premed. You have the small, individual student centered nature of a liberal arts school combined with the resources of a major city.

Plus the winters are much milder in Memphis than in Maine or wherever else those schools are. On occaison, I've worn shorts in February. PM if you got any questions about Rhodes.

 

[dr.z]

Pick a school that you feel comfortable at. It's really up to you to goto medical school and not which school you went to.

 

[johnny pollen]

As a sociology major who graduated Grinnell [cough cough half a decade ago], and as someone who's friends with a classmate who started a "career" in medical anthropology, I heartily recommend it. Not to say it wasn't frustrating, or isolated, or difficult -- but I would choose it again if I had the chance.

You're right, of course: you have to be happy with your choice, 'cause otherwise college is 4 years of total hell. And right now, you're convinced that you want to go straight from college to med school -- and that's admirable, to be that convinced. But what if you change your mind? Or what if you want to pursue other interests before hopping on the 5:15 express train to MDville? Hell, even if you do zoom on to become Dr. Awesome, liberal arts schools are great places to explore the parts of yourself that will become neglected and dusty during med shcool.

And Grinnell's a great, challenging place to grow as a scholar and an individual. It's in the middle of nowhere -- no doubt! -- but it's a helluva school, and it's an impressively well-set-up community for a school so far off the beaten track. And it's well-respected enough (and the post-graduation social network is broad enough) to open a hallway of doors for you later on in life. Anyway, Grinnell's cheap, thanks to the ungodly large endowment.

One warning, though: if you don't cleave to the lefter wings of ideologies, you're going to feel (perhaps much more than) a little out of place at GC.

That's my $0.02. You'll find folks from each one of these schools who are passionate defenders -- and a few who disappointed condemners. They're fun to listen to and all, but you'll never know until you visit and get a feel for the campus, and imagine yourself living with your choice for four years.

 

[ShyRem]

Choose a school that has an environment conducive to making you study and do well. The name doesn't matter a whit.

 

[xanthomondo]

everytime i read this thread i think "premedmachine is the best premed, of course"

 

[Jacks Mannequin]

Dude, take my word, anything less than Yale is horrible and will give you no chance to get into any med school.

 

[BlazerMed]

Oberlin, cause that's where Chuck went.

 

[Dookter]

Chill!!!! Your alma mater has little to do with your ultimate pre-med success. Pick a school with the hottest chicks, nicest weather, and funnest parties.

I absolutely agree with this. As long as it is a good school [and by good I don't mean Harvard....just a solid school]. The newsflash on these forums needs to be that if you do well in school and on the MCAT, you WILL get into med school. So go someplace where you enjoy yourself and your hobbies, whether that be a school with a top notch Classics department or a school close to a beach....just enjoy it while it lasts.

 

[Army_Doc]

I am a high school student and I am having a hard time deciding where I should go to college. I want to major in medical anthorpology or biology or psychology and currently the colleges that I have a good chance at getting into and attending are:

Case Western Reserve University
Boston University
Bates College
Colby College
Colgate University
Washington & Lee University
Trinity College (CT)
Brandeis University
Oberlin College
Grinnell College
Rutgers University- NB
Rhodes College
The college of New Jersey

Go to rutgers, or your equivalent state school. Its got a good reputation, and if you're instate NJ, its CHEAP...especially if you get a scholarship. I had the decision of Rutgers for almost free or NYU for 40,000 a year. I picked NYU because i was concerned about reputation. WRONG. I'm very much in debt, even with tons of scholarsips, the classes were larger and harder (partly because they were larger), and New York was expensive as hell. Did i get a better education at NYU? NOPE. I don't give a crap if a professor is a noble prize winner...i only see them twice a week at a distance of 200 feet, and I only got to talk the TA anyway (who grades my papers too). I have many friends who went to Rutgers and other state schools, and they got an education just as good as mine, or any other "Good" school. I'm kicking myself for not going to Rutgers. Students have a much better connection with the school (they actually have a campus and decent sports programs, unlike a lot of more expensive places with better reps), and have more school spirit...not to mention a beer isn't $6/pint in New Brunswick, as opposed to large cities, where some of these other schools are.

 

[Turkish1]

I like all of these schools, but I need help choosing the differences between them and to add pros and cons to them. I just needed opinions to help seperate them. Also, some schools are better at sending pre-meds to medical school. I am talking about ones that don't weed them out, but simply have a higher success rate. One example is Rutgers, which sends about 1/2 of all pre-meds who apply to medical school to at least one medical school. Usually New Jersey Medical School or Robert Wood Johnson. On the other hand Bates College sends about 78% of students who apply to medical school to at least one medical school and mostly elite top 50 med schools and even some at Harvard and Hopkins. What I am trying to say is even if the student at Bates and rutgers have same GPA and MCAT scores or better yet similar, the top top or good med schools will probably take the student from Bates. This is not true if the student from rutgers had a higher MCAT/GPA , but if they are at similar levels in MCAT/GPA/EC's then med schools tend to favor certain colleges. Also, if an applicant is favored by top medical schools, don't you think they will probably be even more favored by average schools. I know it depends on the student, but some colleges do give you an advantage to get ahead and I just wanted to know what the diffeernece would be.

 

[QuantumMechanic]

I like all of these schools, but I need help choosing the differences between them and to add pros and cons to them. I just needed opinions to help seperate them. Also, some schools are better at sending pre-meds to medical school. I am talking about ones that don't weed them out, but simply have a higher success rate. One example is Rutgers, which sends about 1/2 of all pre-meds who apply to medical school to at least one medical school. Usually New Jersey Medical School or Robert Wood Johnson. On the other hand Bates College sends about 78% of students who apply to medical school to at least one medical school and mostly elite top 50 med schools and even some at Harvard and Hopkins. What I am trying to say is even if the student at Bates and rutgers have same GPA and MCAT scores or better yet similar, the top top or good med schools will probably take the student from Bates. This is not true if the student from rutgers had a higher MCAT/GPA , but if they are at similar levels in MCAT/GPA/EC's then med schools tend to favor certain colleges. Also, if an applicant is favored by top medical schools, don't you think they will probably be even more favored by average schools. I know it depends on the student, but some colleges do give you an advantage to get ahead and I just wanted to know what the diffeernece would be.

There's no way to know if an individual school is doing better than others at sending all the students who enter wanting to be doctors to a med school. I had that mentality in high school while looking at colleges, but at this juncture as I am applying, I realize that its the individual that matters. Sure, a Rutgers grad ceteris peribus might be less favorable than a Harvard grad, however, there's never a situation where two applicants are exactly equal except for their ugrad institution.

Also, a place like Bates or Rhodes has mostly talented students to begin with coming in so of course they have better acceptance rates to med schools than Rutgers would. Talented students at Rutgers have the same opportunities to succeed as talented students at C of NJ.

The point is that you should goto ugrad at a place where you're comfortable socially and academically. There are opportunities everywhere and people from lowly state colleges get into big name med schools. Keep in mind that med schools could really care less about where you went for undergrad. The important thing is to be well-rounded in your college activities (i.e. clinical work, research, hobbies youre passionate about, etc.) while having a good gpa and mcat. It is impossible to "rank" a list of undergrad schools in terms of preparing students for applying to med school.

Hope that helps!

 

[ZacharyMD]

Chill!!!! Your alma mater has little to do with your ultimate pre-med success. Pick a school with the hottest chicks, nicest weather, and funnest parties. Enjoy.

By the way, my vote is for Oberlin.

Thank you for that enlightenment! 🙂

 

[plainolerichie]

Case would be best I think. At least pick a school with a medical school attached or that has a strong science program.

 

[AnotherDork]

On the other hand Bates College sends about 78% of students who...

A word of warning when you use these statistics schools quote to you: I went to one of the colleges on that list (you can probably figure it out if you do a search of my posts) and my girlfriend went to another one. When they say $hit like "78% of our undergrads got into med school," what they aren't telling you is, "78% of the people we ALLOWED to apply to medical school got in."

At my school, while they wouldn't prohibit you from applying, they'd VERY STRONGLY suggest that you wait a few years before applying, saying it would do you well, blah blah. And then they don't include you in the stats if you've already graduated, i.e., not part of the current senior class.

Example: say 100 people want to go to med school at Undergrad X (ah, F- anonymity, I went to Brandeis). They'll encourage, say 50 (arbitrary number) to apply and tell the other 50 they'd be better off doing something else and strengthening their application. Then say 60 people actually apply (40 took the advice not to apply) and 50/60 get in, and viola, "83% of our senior class got in!" Except that in actual numbers, only 50% of those who wanted to go got in.

Now, realize, if you're good you'll most likely be fine no matter what, but I just wanted to point out that schools play games with statistics, so definitely don't use that particular stat when picking a school. Even though, as other people have said, you should just pick a school on other factors (not based on medicine), and the med school thing will just fall into place.

Sorry for rambling, but I feel it's my duty to get the word out about those games.

 

[Army_Doc]

A word of warning when you use these statistics schools quote to you: I went to one of the colleges on that list (you can probably figure it out if you do a search of my posts) and my girlfriend went to another one. When they say $hit like "78% of our undergrads got into med school," what they aren't telling you is, "78% of the people we ALLOWED to apply to medical school got in."
.

NYU does the same exact thing.