UPenn or MIT for Premed???

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yelogiffy

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MIT, and major in math.
 
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Originally posted by DW
go to your local air conditioning repair school
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:eek:

copycat!!!! :p
 
But why MIT? Isn't the workload crazy there? Do med school admissions officers look at where you got ur degree from so that even if the gpa is a little lower, they may be sympathetic to where you're coming from?
 
Originally posted by DW
go to your local air conditioning repair school
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emory wasnt an option

:p
 
Originally posted by yelogiffy
But why MIT? Isn't the workload crazy there? Do med school admissions officers look at where you got ur degree from so that even if the gpa is a little lower, they may be sympathetic to where you're coming from?
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because MIT pwns UPenn, that's why :)
 
Originally posted by Blitzkrieg
emory wasnt an option
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ahem, tell me your wonderful undergrad, blitz, and i'll make sure to mock it in kind. besides, everyone knows we're more known for our gun repair major than anything else ;)

Coke U class of 2001, and damn proud of it!! :p
 
i'd say mit too.
no affiliation whatsoever to either school..
 
MIT -- Run away. Terribly Fast.

"The best day of my life is any day that I am not at MIT"
-- Charles Bruen '92
 
Originally posted by DW
ahem, tell me your wonderful undergrad, blitz, and i'll make sure to mock it in kind. besides, everyone knows we're more known for our gun repair major than anything else ;)

Coke U class of 2001, and damn proud of it!! :p
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I like Emory, however since I am a major Pepsi owner, I have to hate on it.

Go ahead..try to hate on Oxford University in England..see what I care :cool:
 
i think undergrad rep does count for something. however, penn and MIT are similar enough in caliber that i dont think one would give you an advantage over the other.

you should go to the school that you feel most comfortable at. do you like philly or boston? do you want to be surrounded by science/math/engineering types or do you want a broad spectrum?

in terms of difficulty, both will be hard, so dont worry about it. youre gonna have to work your ass off no matter where you go.

FYI, my BCPM GPA at MIT is a 3.44 and i was able to get into several med schools. i think i would not have been as successful if i had that GPA coming from UCLA (based on the experiences of my friends there). good luck.
 
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Originally posted by zer0el
i think undergrad rep does count for something. however, penn and MIT are similar enough in caliber that i dont think one would give you an advantage over the other.

you should go to the school that you feel most comfortable at. do you like philly or boston? do you want to be surrounded by science/math/engineering types or do you want a broad spectrum?

in terms of difficulty, both will be hard, so dont worry about it. youre gonna have to work your ass off no matter where you go.

FYI, my BCPM GPA at MIT is a 3.44 and i was able to get into several med schools. i think i would not have been as successful if i had that GPA coming from UCLA (based on the experiences of my friends there). good luck.
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I would rank MIT a bit higher on the rep scale, but that is a matter of personal opinion.
 
Originally posted by zer0el
FYI, my BCPM GPA at MIT is a 3.44 and i was able to get into several med schools. i think i would not have been as successful if i had that GPA coming from UCLA (based on the experiences of my friends there). good luck.
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my BCPM at UCLA was a 3.42, and i got into several med schools.
 
enamine, you said PHilly sucks, I just wanna know where you're coming from? Do you live there or go to school there?? I am attracted to the Vagelos program because it sounds very organized, but do the students there hate it??
 
Originally posted by Blitzkrieg
I like Emory, however since I am a major Pepsi owner, I have to hate on it.
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do you own pepsi stock or something? :confused:

hopefully, you didnt apply to emory med, i'm sure you would have gotten rejected on that merit alone :laugh:

thats all irrelevant to me since i dont drink soda :cool:

but, aaaaaaaaanyways thread hijacking aside, to the OP both are excellent schools, cant go wrong either way :) is either option going to be cheaper than the other financial aid wise?
 
Originally posted by DW
do you own pepsi stock or something? :confused:

hopefully, you didnt apply to emory med, i'm sure you would have gotten rejected on that merit alone :laugh:

thats all irrelevant to me since i dont drink soda :cool:

but, aaaaaaaaanyways thread hijacking aside, to the OP both are excellent schools, cant go wrong either way :) is either option going to be cheaper than the other financial aid wise?
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haha..I bet they would reject me because of my pepsi status. Pepsi needs to have it's own uni too!

True; Both schools are great. However, I would pick MIT over UPenn. However, the OP needs to do some personal searching..compare locations, finances, etc etc etc.
 
i went to MIT and i loved the boston atmosphere, plus they gave me lots of grants..

but i think one thing is.. if you go to penn, you can CHOOSE to major in liberal arts if you so desire.. at MIT, there's really not much of a choice. i know of only one person who majored in literature alone. most people try to double major with liberal arts and science or engineering.. which can get crazy if you are pre-med.. (from personal experience, MIT pre-med classes are a bit competitive & you really gotta work for the A...i don't know anything about upenn)

so, if you are SURE you want to go into sciences, i say go for MIT.
if you don't know yet, go to upenn.

that's my 2 cents.
 
Originally posted by enamine
Philly sucks. Pre-med at Penn isn't likely to be any easier than at MIT just due to the large amounts of students at Penn who think they are premed and enroll in premed classes.
Also, don't be in the Vagelos program unless you like to study ALL the time and have your social life as your classes and study sessions. A lot of the people in Vagelos drop out after the first year. Also, you can't study abroad in it and you have to stay and research over the summers. Plus you have to take like 5 classes every semester, or something like that. And you have to take a seminar freshman year that is at 8am.
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While Vagelos is a lot of work, it is an amazing program. You have to do research for two summers and take five classes (most premeds take 4.5 or 5 anyway and do some research in the summer), yes. But there are some very smart people in the program and are more than able to balance social and academic things, ie. they have fun a lot. Some people drop out in the first year, but most everyone stays after that. And I had to take an 8am one day a week as a non-Vagelos pre-med.
I am not saying run out and try to get in to the program, but it is really great and looks great to med schools.
Oh, and Philly doesn't suck.
 
If you are not interested in applied sciences, my vote would be to go to Penn. I know that MIT is more than just engineering, and that it is an amazing school, but it doesn't excell in virtually every field. This opens up doors for personal interests and majors at Penn.
Also, Penn has one of the best hospitals and peds hospitals in the country right on campus and has tons more medical/biological research that is easy to get involved in. And they have a higher percentage of students going to med school.
 
Tough call.

MIT (Georgia Tech of the North):
+'s: Boston, engineering, basic sciences
-'s: difficult (although no one fails out, much to my dismay), depressing campus, and no variety in curriculum really, students are generally unhappy

Penn:
+'s: Philly? (personally not a big fan), all around great school, wide variety of people and excellent departments, happy students

-'s: No engineering (the only department that matters)


-SS

North Avenue Trade School (MIT of the South)
 
I'm an MIT grad and I would choose it again in a heartbeat. MIT is has an advantage for premeds since the first semester is pass/no record. This means you can load up on the difficult premed requirements and learn to study well by yourself and with groups and not worry about getting A's. The MIT name carries far and adcoms recognize that MIT is a difficult school that does not grade inflate. Yes, the workload is tough, but med school is as well, and after leaving MIT, most students transition very well. The humanities are definitely less prominent, but still very good. The music department is excellent and there are several prominent authors in the writing department (Alan Lightman, Anita Desai). If you can't find what you want, you can always take classes up the river at Harvard. Socially, MIT is better than everyone thinks. There are tons of parties and opportunities to do cultural things in Boston and Cambridge. I had reservations about going to MIT because I thought it would be too much work and that I would never have any fun, but I found that I absolutely loved it there! Having said all of this, I've heard that Penn is great too and both places are door-openers. I would go for pre-frosh weekends and check out both places and go with your gut! Good luck.
 
Originally posted by SunnyS81
Tough call.

MIT (Georgia Tech of the North):
+'s: Boston, engineering, basic sciences
-'s: difficult (although no one fails out, much to my dismay),
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Why would this "dismay" you that nobody failed out? I assume you mean 'nobody' relative to GT's graduation rate of 69% (shockingly low) :eek:

I did some websearching, and I found that MIT's rate was about 91%. I don't know if this is true or not, but this article says that GT's student-athlete graduation rate is 17th worst in the entire nation, at 38% (which undoubtedly brings the overall graduation rate down)

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/inside_game/mike_fish/news/2002/10/01/fish_graduation_rates/

I guess you could be proud of graduating from GT in a "Only the strong survive!" sort of way. Whatever floats your boat :rolleyes:

-ttac
 
I am partial to MIT due to the fact that my husband recieved his BS and MS in Mech Eng. from the Toot. I was across the river at BU majoring in Biomedical Eng. and probably spent more time at MIT than BU since that's where we would usually study together.

If you are interested in engineering by all means go to MIT. It is an amazing place and can offer so much. Yes, it is very difficult, but you were smart enough to be accepted and will do fine as long as you keep your priorities straight. My husband only knew one student who failed out during the 4 1/2 years he was there (The kid had a serious alcohol problem and basically never went to class. It was not a case of someone who partied just a little too much their freshman year.)

MIT is not all geeks and dweebs; although they certainly are represented. The students are a diverse international group and there are many clubs and organizations to become active in. The research opportunities are awesome and there is are excellent programs for work study at various companies.

Make some decisions about what areas of study interest you and talk to some professors in those departments at each school. Go and visit each school again and really get a feel for the day to day routine and atmosphere. Only you can make the decision as to where you will be most happy. They are both great schools and a successful academic career at either school will be looked upon favorably by medical schools.
 
MIT is hard. But it will make everything in your life post-MIT seem easier by comparison, whether that be medical school, job, etc. Since I don't know anything about Penn, I'd say visit both first and see what vibe you pick up from the students, especially pre-med ones.
 
MIT MIT MIT :clap: :clap: :clap:

without a doubt MIT :clap:

Think hard about an engr major, but even if you go another route, still go MIT
 
If all you positive people keep encouraging this poor person, they might actually choose to attend MIT.

The universal slogan at MIT is IHTFP (I Hate this Fu*king Place).
 
I am truly amazed so many people are taking favorably about MIT. I know it is a great school, but that fact that non-engineering nerds actually like it is...surprising.
 
Doesn't it seem that many premeds at MIT are NOT successful when applying to med schools? Aren't most MIT students unhappy? Aren't most Penn students very happy to be there? Penn gives you a nice liberal arts education, which med schools like.
 
Hey yelogiffy, I would have to say U Penn, because it just seems like it would be a better all around experience. College is more than academics and when you compare the two I think that U of Penn would have much more options and less stress! But IMO I think that you should just choose the school that will be the best and most comfortable fit for you!

Good luck with the decision!

CB
 
Originally posted by cabruen
If all you positive people keep encouraging this poor person, they might actually choose to attend MIT.

The universal slogan at MIT is IHTFP (I Hate this Fu*king Place).
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i'm sorry i have to disagree with you...
i really liked MIT.. sure it was tough.. and different people will have different experiences.. but as long as you are outgoing & friendly, you'll make good & diverse friends & have fun, while getting a kickass education.

and IHTFP also stands for "I Have Truly Found Paradise" although I wouldn't go that far.. haha
 
1. I don't know if you posted this, but are you male or female. The reason why I ask is that I know a ton of guys who love MIT. I know a corresponding number of girls who hate it. I have gathered that one reason for this is a combination of the dating/social scene for females. Furthermore, while statistics show that admissions standards (via SAT scores) are lower for females, females end up performing just as well in classes. Unfortunately, I have still heard that the attitude still exists that the girls aren't as qualified and that they have to work much harder (not sure if this is fact, but I have heard it).

2. It goes without question that you are going to be studying with an intelligent and talented group of people at either school (i.e. the competition is tough). At Penn, however, you will be studying with a more diversely talented group. This means that in your introductory chemistry class, you won't just be studying with scientists. It also means that at the dinner table you are more likely to find yourself talking to a history buff or a creative writer.

I personally chose the liberal arts option over MIT when I was choosing my undergrad. I think that for me, I made the right decision. I love the fact that my friends have such a diversity of interests. Furthermore, when I was in high school I really thought math was my thing. When I got to college, however, I realized that while I am good at math, I am nothing like the math majors at my school. There is simply a level of math beyond which I can't handle. I took our freshman non-math major sequence of multivariable calc and linear algebra and did well but realized that was as high as I could go. I don't know if this would have been a problem at MIT but I think it might have been and might have really messed with my confidnce.

Don't know if this helps at all. They are fantastic schools and congrats for getting accepted! I wish I knew something about penn but I don't :) As mentioned above though, remember with MIT if you don't find what you want, Harvard is a mile down the road and you also have the same opportunities to work at HMS (there is a shuttle that stops by MIT every 15-30 minutes on weekdays to take kids to the medical campus).
 
Originally posted by eunice
i'm sorry i have to disagree with you...
i really liked MIT.. sure it was tough.. and different people will have different experiences.. but as long as you are outgoing & friendly, you'll make good & diverse friends & have fun, while getting a kickass education.

and IHTFP also stands for "I Have Truly Found Paradise" although I wouldn't go that far.. haha
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:) My friend eunice (who I met at UT San Antonio interview) and I will to agree to disagree on this subject. I had a miserable four years at the Institute and hated every moment I was there. But obviously there are others who have enjoyed their time there. Make your decision carefully.

So eunice, where have you decied to go to medical school?
 
charles,

i actually really liked ut-san antonio & got in, but i told them no. I got into RWJ in NJ.. and i think it's a better school.. so i'm most likely going there.. but i'm still waiting on one more school.. so we'll see.

how about u?
 
That is great eunice. I am sure you will be very happy there. it has hard for those east coasters to come all the way to Texas.


I will be attending the University of Texas Southwestern Medical School at Dallas.
 
MIT is the greatest place of higher learning, but i would urge caution for the premed. the classes there are no joke, and you had better be pretty damn good to do really well over there in even the easiest classes, because you're not going to be helped by any grade inflation. if you are sure that you want to be a doctor, then the idea is to get the highest grades that you can in order to get into the best medical school possible. Penn is more conducive to that. on that matter there is no contest or argument.
 
...to all those MIT alums out there.

You're still going to have work fairly hard in med school. Although you might be slightly better-prepared than most of your classmates, you're not going to be able to cruise. Although I think the workload in med school (at least at MY medschool) is about the same as in undergrad days (and definitely less than the semester when I was in ROTC and taking 5 classes, one of which was graduate-level molecular spectroscopy, which required grad-level quantum mechanics as a corequisite :eek: ), it is still a fair amount of work.

I leave you with the immortal words of my ex-5.33 lab partner when I asked him about his time at UCLA med school (Keep in mind that he got a 38 on the MCAT (10V,13P,15B), had a 5.0 while double-majoring in Chem and Bio, and was Phi Beta Kappa while at MIT. FYI, he's now a first year rads resident).

"It's alot of work"

Of course, said lab partner was brilliant, and believe it or not, he hardly studied in college... he was too busy in his fraternity, or dying his hair colors alternating from red, orange, white, or blue.

Not to make this the 'recount random stories from your undergrad days' thread, but I remember my 5.33 TA telling me that the prof had asked who was doing the best in the class. The TA pointed out my lab partner, and the prof said (in his proper British accent) "Hmm... You don't usually expect that out of the ones with blue hair"

-ttac
 
1) Despite its high ranking by USNEWS, Penn is not in the same league as Stanford, Princeton, MIT, etc...

2) That said, MIT is not a lot of fun per se, other than Boston.

3) If you have spent a single day on Penn's campus, you will realize other than Wharton, nothing else is on people's mind including Vagelos Scholar program. That's rather unfortunate because the whole university is so Wharton-centered.

Therefore do you have choices other than these two??
 
Originally posted by Thewonderer
1) Despite its high ranking by USNEWS, Penn is not in the same league as Stanford, Princeton, MIT, etc...
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That is just rediculous. I thought it was a joke that MIT and CalTech were ever even in the top ten in rankings. They are great in specific areas and for grad programs, but being a good college is more than just being good in a few areas. The only reason those two schools made the top ten is the methodology. Namely, they have students with high SATs (this doesn't equate to selectivity since they don't have the highest GPAs, percent of students in the top 10% of class, and importantly acceptance rates) and have a high faculty to student ratio. Big deal.
These schools are not in the same league as the Harvards, Yales, Princetons and Penns (and Stanford). And out of the three schools ranked higher than Penn, Princeton is most similar to MIT. While Penn, Harvard and Yale excell in a wide range of field on both the undergrad and graduate levels, Princeton (while very strong in what it does have) is greatly lacking in many grad programs.
Don't make me laugh with this crap. I was waiting for people to say the opposite, that Penn is so much better than MIT, but students at Penn are more chill and too cool to hate. And at Penn, we prove that you can be a good school and be big into the Party scene (among the tons of activities Busta Rhymes just came last weekend and the Penn Relays are this weekend, basically meaning two straight weeks of just having fun).
 
I hate to correct you Bonds, but MIT is highly ranked because it leads the nation in alcohol-related student deaths. In fact, MIT is so wonderful that the vast majority of its students must spend at least part of every day intoxicated, otherwise, they might very well go insane upon realizing how awe-inspiringly wonderful their school is. If you want a truly well rounded education, enjoy being stuffed into lockers and given "swirlies" from students at lesser "universities" in Boston, and a top-ranked athletic program that routinely dominates local rivals Smith, Medford H.S., Wellesley (football only), and the American Institute for Deaf and Blind Amputees, then you'd be a fool to turn down MIT.

Plus, the chicks at MIT are so much more attractive than those at Penn. Hell, the thick lenses on my glasses are misting over right now just thinking about them.
 
Originally posted by jalfredprufrock
I hate to correct you Bonds, but MIT is highly ranked because it leads the nation in alcohol-related student deaths. In fact, MIT is so wonderful that the vast majority of its students must spend at least part of every day intoxicated, otherwise, they might very well go insane upon realizing how awe-inspiringly wonderful their school is. If you want a truly well rounded education, enjoy being stuffed into lockers and given "swirlies" from students at lesser "universities" in Boston, and a top-ranked athletic program that routinely dominates local rivals Smith, Medford H.S., Wellesley (football only), and the American Institute for Deaf and Blind Amputees, then you'd be a fool to turn down MIT.

Plus, the chicks at MIT are so much more attractive than those at Penn. Hell, the thick lenses on my glasses are misting over right now just thinking about them.
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:laugh: :laugh:

I learned something new- I didn't know that MIT even had an athletic program.
 
Last thing u want to do is try to compete with studets that are completely science/eng oriented. For your sake...Penn is a much better choice. Med schools apps are a numbers game; not so much a name game (not to imply that one school's rep is lower than the other).
 
in an effort to defend my soon-to-be alma mater, i'll pick apart your post, bonds. first of all, i have to say that you show an amazing amount of disdain for a school that you in all likelihood never visited, let alone took classes at. now, onto your post.

1. "being a good college is more than just being good in a few areas." so how many areas are sufficient for you? biology, political science, management science, economics, physics, chemistry, almost every engineering filed, mathematics, linguistics, architecture, materials science not enough for you? MIT doesn't have big departments in the humanities; that's just not their focus. but that doesn't mean they're not strong. i'd like to see Penn beat out MIT in even a quarter of the aforementioned fields.

2. "Namely, they have students with high SATs (this doesn't equate to selectivity since they don't have the highest GPAs, percent of students in the top 10% of class, and importantly acceptance rates)" where did you get this information that MIT and Caltech students didn't have the highest GPAs in HS? and acceptace rates? unlike Harvard, the applicant pools at MIT and Caltech are self-selective. that means only peple smart enough and interested enough in these schools would apply in the first place. not bashing Penn, but c'mon, we all know people apply there as a HYP backup (not including Wharton). the Ivy name is important to these folks afterall.

3. "These schools are not in the same league as the Harvards, Yales, Princetons and Penns (and Stanford)." You're telling me that if you go around asking the general public and also those in academia which are the top 5 institutions in the country, Penn would be mentioned more often than MIT? yeah, that's what i thought.

4. "that Penn is so much better than MIT, but students at Penn are more chill and too cool to hate." yeah you must be an expert here since you've met the MIT student body and aren't forming your opinion based on stereotypes.

5. "And at Penn, we prove that you can be a good school and be big into the Party scene." your last great nugget of wisdom. a lot of the collegiate parties in boston happen at MIT frats/dorms.

oh, and jalfredprufrock, thanks for letting us laugh at your inferiority complex. so which boston university do you go to anyway? and last time i checked, MIT was a DIII school. that means we don't recruit, get it? if we don't recruit, we're not gonna be nationally known for our athletics programs. if we do, then say something about it. the last alcohol-related death happened over four years ago. the last one before that? i don't even remember. can you name more than two in the past couple of decades?
 
before this degrades into something ugly...

to the OP...you know both of these schools are fantastic. if you are clever enough to be accepted to both of them, you are clever enough to attend the second look weekends at both and decide which one you feel better at.

they are extremely different schools and you will have extremely different experiences at either one. both, however, will offer you more opportunities than you could ever take advantage of.

and though it is completely ridiculous to argue about this, where I come from (new england) MIT is much more highly regarded. I'm sure in Pennsylvania the opposite is the case :)
 
Originally posted by zer0el

oh, and jalfredprufrock, thanks for letting us laugh at your inferiority complex. so which boston university do you go to anyway? and last time i checked, MIT was a DIII school. that means we don't recruit, get it? if we don't recruit, we're not gonna be nationally known for our athletics programs. if we do, then say something about it. the last alcohol-related death happened over four years ago. the last one before that? i don't even remember. can you name more than two in the past couple of decades?
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Proving once again that there's nothing funnier than a violently angry nerd.


P.S. I went to Starfleet Academy.
 
i was hoping for something more substantial than that jalfred, but at least you tried. the starfleet reference was original, as was the MIT-nerd line. why don't you to try to say something about yourself that would prove you don't have an inferiority complex when it comes to MIT students?

seriously though, no hard feelings. you live in boston and all, but i doubt you'd want to come to MIT and ball and actually see that you can't hang with us.
 
Thanks guys for arguing over my problem, but I have officially decided to choose MIT over Penn. I would like to take on a challenge, at least, if I don't make med school, mebbe I can go do research. :)
 
Sweet. You can't go wrong either way yelo, have fun up in Boston! :cool:
 
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