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This post may not be what you thought it was, I'm not going to rank colleges or input my arbitrary idea of the best university for this year's HS seniors. Instead I have a respite from the mainstream neuroticism which "pre pre med" high school students have.
So which college would be the best for high schoolers looking into medicine?
Disclaimer: if you get a scholarship to a college, take that, if it's substantial. And if you get an ivy acceptance, take it. Besides those rules, I believe this could be the new place for pre meds.
A strong argument can be made for not the large in-state university, nor the top 20 private school, or even the small private liberal arts colleges. I think the hidden gems are the small state schools with less than 3000 people. Often overlooked, and usually never heard of. They lack any prestige and may not have the research facilities you're interested in, but I believe there's a case to be made.
1) tuition and cost.
Assuming most college students amount some sort of debt, it's fair to say we need to cut corners wherever we can. A small state school would be profoundly less than most large universities, and especially a small private school.
2) big fish ... small pond
This might sound pretentious to you, but think about it. You're probably going to have one of the top high school ACT and GPA combo that small college has seen. Professors will hear about your work if you're smart. If you work your way up this could easily lead to positions of authority in clubs or extracurriculars and phenomenal one on one relationships with professors.
3) class size
Because you want a general biology class of 40 not 400.
4) a pre med advisor .... who knows your name
Wild. I know. This one could be the added bonus of small schools which again is forgotten. Pre med advisors who have a strong relationship with you to begin with could easily play to your advantage. With between 30-40% acceptance rate to a US MD school you may find that their insight is the greatest you can get. You'll need every trick in the book
6) prestigious schools = lower class rank = harder to get As
If you go to MIT everyone in your class is going to be very very smart. It would be very hard to stand out in courses where everyone is used to getting a 4.0. This would work to your disadvantage. You would be placed far behind in your school, but let's say you chose to go to unknown small public school you would be the top one. It's like being the best of the worst rather than the worst of the best. In this case, you absolutely want to be the best of the worst. You don't want to get mixed with the crowd if you're looking for strong LORs and a great GPA. Especially when curved courses/tests allot only a small percentage of students to receive A's.
5) med schools don't care where you graduate from
Well they do, but if you're normal then there's no difference. The difference comes when either you have: 1) huge scholarships or 2) Ivy League acceptances. Choosing between Iowa and Nebraska is not a big difference. So if med schools don't care where the majority of their pre med population goes.... then why are there still students who argue that the 40,000+ a year they spent to go to (insert small private school here) was worth it? If you would get into medical school either way, why not chose the path of least resistance in this parallel circuit.
My point is: there seems to be a very big push towards prestige and paying for the same which you can get elsewhere. This is a mentoring site. Accruing 100s of thousands of dollars of debt in medical school assuming you make it, can be worsened by an another throbbing debt to pay back for undergrad. I think the most fiscally responsible decision you can make as a high school student is choosing the undergrad which is cheapest, where you'll be happiest, and where you know you will get the greatest grades. Those are the fundamentals to a successful pre med career, and I think small state schools offer this better than most other schools.
So which college would be the best for high schoolers looking into medicine?
Disclaimer: if you get a scholarship to a college, take that, if it's substantial. And if you get an ivy acceptance, take it. Besides those rules, I believe this could be the new place for pre meds.
A strong argument can be made for not the large in-state university, nor the top 20 private school, or even the small private liberal arts colleges. I think the hidden gems are the small state schools with less than 3000 people. Often overlooked, and usually never heard of. They lack any prestige and may not have the research facilities you're interested in, but I believe there's a case to be made.
1) tuition and cost.
Assuming most college students amount some sort of debt, it's fair to say we need to cut corners wherever we can. A small state school would be profoundly less than most large universities, and especially a small private school.
2) big fish ... small pond
This might sound pretentious to you, but think about it. You're probably going to have one of the top high school ACT and GPA combo that small college has seen. Professors will hear about your work if you're smart. If you work your way up this could easily lead to positions of authority in clubs or extracurriculars and phenomenal one on one relationships with professors.
3) class size
Because you want a general biology class of 40 not 400.
4) a pre med advisor .... who knows your name
Wild. I know. This one could be the added bonus of small schools which again is forgotten. Pre med advisors who have a strong relationship with you to begin with could easily play to your advantage. With between 30-40% acceptance rate to a US MD school you may find that their insight is the greatest you can get. You'll need every trick in the book
6) prestigious schools = lower class rank = harder to get As
If you go to MIT everyone in your class is going to be very very smart. It would be very hard to stand out in courses where everyone is used to getting a 4.0. This would work to your disadvantage. You would be placed far behind in your school, but let's say you chose to go to unknown small public school you would be the top one. It's like being the best of the worst rather than the worst of the best. In this case, you absolutely want to be the best of the worst. You don't want to get mixed with the crowd if you're looking for strong LORs and a great GPA. Especially when curved courses/tests allot only a small percentage of students to receive A's.
5) med schools don't care where you graduate from
Well they do, but if you're normal then there's no difference. The difference comes when either you have: 1) huge scholarships or 2) Ivy League acceptances. Choosing between Iowa and Nebraska is not a big difference. So if med schools don't care where the majority of their pre med population goes.... then why are there still students who argue that the 40,000+ a year they spent to go to (insert small private school here) was worth it? If you would get into medical school either way, why not chose the path of least resistance in this parallel circuit.
My point is: there seems to be a very big push towards prestige and paying for the same which you can get elsewhere. This is a mentoring site. Accruing 100s of thousands of dollars of debt in medical school assuming you make it, can be worsened by an another throbbing debt to pay back for undergrad. I think the most fiscally responsible decision you can make as a high school student is choosing the undergrad which is cheapest, where you'll be happiest, and where you know you will get the greatest grades. Those are the fundamentals to a successful pre med career, and I think small state schools offer this better than most other schools.
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