- Joined
- Nov 5, 2017
- Messages
- 3
- Reaction score
- 0
Where is good to go to school for pre med???
Good schools for pre med
- Joined
- Apr 1, 2016
- Messages
- 625
- Reaction score
- 557
I am assuming you are from the USA. If this is not true, please tell me where you are from.
There are many premed schools that are good. Yours should be
1. In the USA (or whichever country you want to be a doctor in)
2. Accredited and a non-profit
3. A school that fits your style (I like large schools, some like small schools. You need to decide what kind of school you would like)
4. A school that makes sense for your situation (If you want to stay near family or save money, which school you pick can make that easier).
Other things to consider
1. Do they have a prehealth/premedical advising center? That would be useful.
2. Is it near a hospital or clinic so you can volunteer more easily?
3. Do they often send students to medical school?
For the future, your questions should go in the "hSDN" forum if you are not yet in undergrad.
There are many premed schools that are good. Yours should be
1. In the USA (or whichever country you want to be a doctor in)
2. Accredited and a non-profit
3. A school that fits your style (I like large schools, some like small schools. You need to decide what kind of school you would like)
4. A school that makes sense for your situation (If you want to stay near family or save money, which school you pick can make that easier).
Other things to consider
1. Do they have a prehealth/premedical advising center? That would be useful.
2. Is it near a hospital or clinic so you can volunteer more easily?
3. Do they often send students to medical school?
For the future, your questions should go in the "hSDN" forum if you are not yet in undergrad.
- Joined
- Aug 29, 2016
- Messages
- 233
- Reaction score
- 1,062
The school where you can do your best academically while getting involved in meaningful extracurriculars.
- Joined
- May 26, 2016
- Messages
- 1,388
- Reaction score
- 3,474
Where you can easily get a 4.0 with fantastic opportunities for extracurriculars.
- Joined
- Apr 6, 2014
- Messages
- 14,146
- Reaction score
- 22,779
high proportion of people applying MD doesn't mean people should go to that school for premed
hell washu and jhu have a reputation of weeding out kids, and they're in the top 5
- Joined
- Sep 4, 2006
- Messages
- 35,437
- Reaction score
- 15,402
What is your home state? Which public university there requires the highest ACT/SAT/GPA for consideration?
- Joined
- Apr 6, 2014
- Messages
- 14,146
- Reaction score
- 22,779
Harsh but for a lot of people very true
- Joined
- Jun 27, 2016
- Messages
- 431
- Reaction score
- 540
A good balance between highest rank and easy courses . Coupled with all personal factors (such as location etc.).
D
DJ Khaled's Pet Tiger
Baylor rice Stanford Hopkins UT Dallas
8
814965
A school that doesn't have a pre-med committee. Bonus points if only a small percentage of the student body is pre-med.
D
DJ Khaled's Pet Tiger
Why...? My pre-Med committee was extremely helpful...
8
814965
You won't have to deal with any of the horse **** that can come with getting a committee letter.
D
DJ Khaled's Pet Tiger
Haha you seem like you may have had a bad experience? I've been told by many admissions members that they value pre health committee letters and packets
8
814965
Nope, my school didn't have one. And from all the stories I've read about them on here I'm glad it didn't.
- Joined
- Jun 27, 2016
- Messages
- 431
- Reaction score
- 540
+1
I think it depends on the school. At my school, getting a committee letter is a really long process. This is not a fault of the department; there is only one person and they writes all the letters for EVERY pre-health profession. To his credit, he is a great advisor and great letter writer. I doubt the department has the funds to hire one more person. But because of this, people wait 3+ months for one committee letter. Our committee letter requires an interview (along with your letters of rec and mcat score). I know people who had their interview in late may/early June and they don't get the letter in until October...
I doubt you'll have this problem if you go to a private school (and even other public schools).
8
814965
I never really saw the point of those letters anyway. Like how the hell is some rando on the committee that I might have met once or twice going to tell schools more about me than the PI I did research with for two years or the prof I taught a class with for three years? It seems like schools just want to take work off of themselves by putting up more hoops for the applicants to jump through. But I digress... My other point may be more useful. If pre-meds (let's classify them as bio/biochem/chem majors) only comprise a small percentage of the student body at a school, it means less competition for opportunities like clinical stuff, research, teaching, etc. If I went to a larger state school instead of the smaller commuter school that I did, I probably wouldn't have had all the great experiences in said opportunities that I did.
Last edited by a moderator:
- Joined
- Jun 27, 2016
- Messages
- 431
- Reaction score
- 540
Committee letter writers tend to be really good at synthesizing info about you. Having access to your whole academic record, personal statement, letters of rec, and asking you questions, I think they know what they are doing especially since they do it for so many people but this could be debatable I guess. It could also limit bias in a way, since they don't know you as much. I know some PIs that would write amazing letters because they are those kind of people but other PIs would write trash letters and since you sign the nondisclosure there is no way to know.
- Joined
- Feb 29, 2016
- Messages
- 384
- Reaction score
- 601
A small private university with no pre-med committee in a city/area with nothing to distract you
- Joined
- Apr 1, 2016
- Messages
- 625
- Reaction score
- 557
Our committee is good--the have good advising (where normal advisors keep screwing up) and we only take a semester of bio lab, so the committee letter explains why that should count for the whole year of bio lab we're supposed to take and no med school has cared. Without it, I'd have to find another semester of bio lab that doesn't really exist.
It can, at certain schools, serve a purpose.
It can, at certain schools, serve a purpose.
- Joined
- Oct 31, 2017
- Messages
- 40
- Reaction score
- 132
Hmm if I had to choose again now, I'd go with anywhere in a city with a good food and beer scene! Bonus points if the yearly average temp is above 65F.
If u get into Harvard go there tho.
If u get into Harvard go there tho.
In fairness to Wash U, I don't have any complaints about the pre-med advising I received. They were very good about working with me to put together my application even though I had graduated, and getting a cover letter for my letter packet was simple enough. The grade deflation was absurd thought, and if I could do it again, 10/10 times I'd go to some big state school for free and get a 3.9 with half the effort I put in for classes at Wash U.
8
814965
What is it about Wash U that's so bad?
See my above post. I have some other bones to pick with the school but those are more personal issues that many others might not run into.
- Joined
- Jun 24, 2017
- Messages
- 108
- Reaction score
- 158
Easiness of school>all. A 3.8 from your state school trumps a 3.3 from a top school. Don't get tricked by people saying that top schools have better research opportunities or connections. All of that is completely USELESS if you have a low GPA. In other words, DO NOT go to WUSTL, Vandy, Cornell, Chicago, Princeton or any other school that has known grade deflation if you want to do premed.
- Joined
- Apr 22, 2014
- Messages
- 98
- Reaction score
- 160
I went to Hopkins, and although the grading was somewhat tough, it was clear that medical schools were somewhat accommodating for it. Our school's premed committee stated that the average GPA for matriculating allopathic students from Hopkins was a 3.55 and average MCAT was 509.5. ~66 LM
In my opinion, the overall premed experience was nothing short of excellent. There were so much resources provided by the school, abundant volunteering opportunities for the undeserved in Baltimore, and unique shadowing at the JHU hospital - things that could make you less of a "cookie cutter" applicant. Bottom line though, its not the brand name that will help you, but whether you are willing to take advantage of what is offered at these schools.
Last edited:
- Joined
- Apr 6, 2014
- Messages
- 14,146
- Reaction score
- 22,779
I actually had some mediocre advising at WashU - specifically that they told me research was not very important. Turns out it's very important if you're aiming for certain med schools. I did watch a few friends try hard, do mediocre, and give up on premed though and I do think they would have been successful if they'd gone elsewhere.
- Joined
- Mar 22, 2016
- Messages
- 412
- Reaction score
- 175
Chicago is the only one listed that still practices deflation
- Joined
- Jan 27, 2017
- Messages
- 1,712
- Reaction score
- 1,830
A school where you'll be one of the top students enrolled where you won't get weeded out and you'll be a star! And where you won't take on debt.
I recently met a premed at a top 20 school. He's in the med school app process right now. MCAT fine (515), but both GPAs are 3.6. Excellent medically-related research for over 2 years. He is white/no hooks.
So far, no interviews invites and he has 2 rejections. I'm starting to suspect that his Committee Letter may not have been outstanding because his "rank" at the school may not have been stellar due to the 3.6.
This is something that we don't often talk about here on SDN. We've often heard that Committees rank their applicants so it would stand to reason that if you're at a top school and your GPA puts you in the middle of the pack of their applicants, then maybe your Committee Letter would be affected. If true, then that's another reason why there wouldn't be a "bump" that people expect when going to a top school but having a lesser GPA.
I recently met a premed at a top 20 school. He's in the med school app process right now. MCAT fine (515), but both GPAs are 3.6. Excellent medically-related research for over 2 years. He is white/no hooks.
So far, no interviews invites and he has 2 rejections. I'm starting to suspect that his Committee Letter may not have been outstanding because his "rank" at the school may not have been stellar due to the 3.6.
This is something that we don't often talk about here on SDN. We've often heard that Committees rank their applicants so it would stand to reason that if you're at a top school and your GPA puts you in the middle of the pack of their applicants, then maybe your Committee Letter would be affected. If true, then that's another reason why there wouldn't be a "bump" that people expect when going to a top school but having a lesser GPA.
D
DJ Khaled's Pet Tiger
Many schools (like mine) rank purely off GPA for cognitive score, then provide ranks from 1-10 for "personal" factors. They opt to not rank students who would score below 5. So, you're right in that being mediocre probably won't help you at a good school
- Joined
- Jan 27, 2017
- Messages
- 1,712
- Reaction score
- 1,830
Since some schools do Committee Interviews in the spring, a number of students don't have MCAT or latest MCAT scores, I'm assuming that MCAT scores aren't used in rankings either.
When you say that they opt not to rank those under their personal score of 5, are you saying that those students are denied a Letter?
D
DJ Khaled's Pet Tiger
That is correct. They offer a letter packet instead. It has been shown (via internal studies) that opting not to rank those in the bottom half gives them a better chance for acceptance. A 3.3 GPA is a 5 Cognitive Score here.
What's the point of committee letters anyway? I just feel like gpa/transcript and the rest of the app gives more than enough information. Hell the letter has the potential to hurt you if you're otherwise fine
- Joined
- Jul 25, 2017
- Messages
- 492
- Reaction score
- 656
Last I saw, Princeton assigned the lowest cGPA. By a lot, median was in the 2.7 region. What's your source for more grade inflation there?
Princeton ended its official grade-deflating policy a few years ago. I don't think the above poster was saying that it is now known for grade inflation.
Similar threads
