Undergrad college selection

[AMG]

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I am currently a high-school senior looking at different colleges and trying to make a decision on which one to attend. I know already that I want to go into medicine, and understand the college I choose could have an impact on me achieving my goal. I have narrowed my list down to three colleges, and I was wondering if anyone on this forum has anything to say about them:

University of Illinois-Urbana Chamaign

Benedictine University in Lisle, IL
(Very popular for pre-med, and they claim a 88% acceptance rate)

Illinois Wesleyan


Thanks, any advice or comments would be appreciated

 

[bw07]

UIUC obviously has much greater national reputation and will help you the most ASSUMING you perform at the same level at each school. I'd be wary of the Benedictine statistic. IF it is true, there may be other factors at play: Some schools boost their premed applicant admission rates by heavily discouraging any but the most qualified applicants (which really isn't fair), the total number of students applying may not be high, the schools they're getting into may be mostly "lower" tier (if you don't care, than don't worry).

On the other hand, consider this. UIUC is a huge school. Can you handle being part of such large group? UIUC will probably give you less guidance and support than the other two simply because of its size. If you don't have a problem looking for opportunities and pushing to get what you want, then you'll be fine there.

 

[Mutterkuchen]

Given the choice, I'd go to UIUC. It has a great reputation nationally, and has modest instate tuition. Yes it's large, but you'll only get lost if you let yourself get lost.

 

[Wrigleyville]

None of these schools would be wildly more impressive on a med school application than the others. You really ought to be basing your decision on the undergraduate experience you'd get at each school. U of I is huge school, the other two are much smaller.

Where would you be more comfortable or fit in best? This is a much more important question than trying to weigh the relative academic merits of schools... after all, if you enjoy your undergraduate experience, you're going to do better at your studies and get better grades. And this will improve your chance of getting into med school more than the reputation of your school.

 

[Mutterkuchen]

Originally posted by Wrigleyville
None of these schools would be wildly more impressive on a med school application than the others. You really ought to be basing your decision on the undergraduate experience you'd get at each school. U of I is huge school, the other two are much smaller.

Where would you be more comfortable or fit in best? This is a much more important question than trying to weigh the relative academic merits of schools... after all, if you enjoy your undergraduate experience, you're going to do better at your studies and get better grades. And this will improve your chance of getting into med school more than the reputation of your school.

There is truth to Wrigleyville is saying. However, do not ignore the money element. There are many SDNers here who have never had a real job and do not understand the implications of becoming burdened in debt. The cost of attendence should always be a major factor in your school choice.

 

[jwin]

Originally posted by AMG

Benedictine University in Lisle, IL
(Very popular for pre-med, and they claim a 88% acceptance rate)

I would not believe this statistic. No offense to the students there, but schools with much more qualified student bodies do not even boast these statistics. The national acceptance rate is ~1/3 (depending on the year); I see no reason for them to deviate from this statistic without fudging their numbers. Ask them for the actual number of applicants and the number of accepted students as well as a list of where these students were admitted.

 

[Wrigleyville]

Originally posted by jwin
I would not believe this statistic. No offense to the students there, but schools with much more qualified student bodies do not even boast these statistics. The national acceptance rate is ~1/3 (depending on the year); I see no reason for them to deviate from this statistic without fudging their numbers. Ask them for the actual number of applicants and the number of accepted students as well as a list of where these students were admitted.

The acceptance rate for ND grads is somewhere in the upper 80s. It wouldn't blow my mind for a small school to have such an acceptance rate as well, since the sample size is much smaller. That 88% could easily be 22 students out of 25 after all. But of course the smaller the sample size, the less reliable the statistic.

 

[siempre595]

The percentage acceptances do not mean a whole lot. This is highly dependent on how competitve of school students are applying to. I think this is similar to residency match numbers, where tons of med schools claim to match with top 3, but where people are matching is highly varied based on the quality of the med school.

 

[jwin]

Originally posted by Wrigleyville
The acceptance rate for ND grads is somewhere in the upper 80s. It wouldn't blow my mind for a small school to have such an acceptance rate as well, since the sample size is much smaller. That 88% could easily be 22 students out of 25 after all. But of course the smaller the sample size, the less reliable the statistic.

I am going to once again disagree with this statistic and all statistics like it. I visited a TON of schools similar in size and academic reputation to this school because I wanted to play soccer in college. ALL of these schools claimed to have acceptance rates greater than 80 or 90%. If the national acceptance ratre is around 1/3 and every school claims that nearly all their students are getting in, then I do not think that they are telling the truth. There are a lot of ways to fudge the numbers. I will tell you how one school does it: they group all students allopathic, osteopathic, and dental into the same statistic, then if someone applies to medical and it looks like they are not going to get in they might apply to graduate Ph.D. programs in biology or they might apply for Teach for America, they then remove them from the medical school statistic because they are going to grad school or some other program. There are many ways to make numbers look good.

When choosing schools I would ignore these statistics completely. I would choose based on where you think that you will be happy and the overall academic reputation of the institution.

 

[dr. deez]

my $0.02: unless you are chosing between an Ivy (or school with such a reputation) i doubt that the college you select will have an impact on getting into med school... in the end it is usually all "you". obviously maintain the highest gpa possible despite your degree (BS vs BA) or area of expertise (biology vs phys ed). good luck!