PreludeInE

Does anyone know how well premeds at U of R do in terms of acceptance to medical schools?

By the way, I was going to post this in the Redlands school specific forum, but I noticed that it isn't active. I hope it's ok that I just put this here.

WayOutWestMom

It's not the school that makes a successful pre-med; it's the student him/herself.

Any accredited school with a decent academic reputation will adequately prepare you to take the MCAT. The rest is on you.

Looking at med school acceptances posted by any undergrad are essentally meanigless since there's so many ways this can be calculated. (And schools do manipulate their data to present themselves in the most favorable light possible.)

mjscal

The U of Redlands is what I would consider an above average liberal arts college. If you find that it "fits you" and is affordable for you it would be a reasonable choice for College. You should understand however that medical school admissions are very competitive and this is especially true if you are a California resident. You should also understand that most students
drop out of pre med before their senior year and most who apply are not successful. Plan on needing something like a 3.7 GPA and a 32 on the MCAT for a successful medical school application.

mmmcdowe

My concerns for LACs is that you should make sure that they have a robust offering of research, medical related volunteering, and extra-curricular activites nearby. If so and if it is a fit for you, by all means go.

mjscal

I do not understand the concern about LAC's. The admission rate to medical schools from LAC's is actually a bit higher than from National research Universities. There are doctors and hospitals almost everywhere so exposure to medicine is not particularly location dependent. What extra-curricular activities are important for medical school applications that can be mostly found at large Universities? Medical research is mostly confined to medical schools and there might be a small advantage to you if you did some research in such a setting for applications to research medical schools. However, doing research at your own non medical school University can be just as helpful. Quite frankly most research products seen in medical school applications are not particularly impressive. I dare say that most medical students at even the top research medical schools do not have a lot of science research in their background.

mmmcdowe

Admissions rates are a lie. Having nothing but small clinics and private practice offices can make it difficult to get anything beyond shadowing exposure, though I agree not impossible. It also decreases the diversity of what you have to choose from. Not all LACs are created equal, places like Amherst and Williams obviously have a huge array of ECs to choose from, but not all LACs do, which is why I suggested that an applicant should make sure. It is in my opinion not true to say that medical research is mostly confined to medical schools. Many non-medical school affiliated universities have robust biomedical and medical research scenes, and another large chunk of biomedical research can be had at non-university affiliated institutions and corporations.

Most medical students at top research medical schools have a background in science research, look it up in the MSAR. I would characterize it as "a lot" (often 1-2 years minimum) but that is dependent on subjective assessment. Regardless, I never said it had to be science or medical research, only that the ideal LAC will have a robust research environment to pick from.

mjscal

I agree that the stats from individual college/universities for medical school admissions are sketchy at best. The statistics on type of college comes from the AAMC and are quite simple.
There is no advantage attending a Research University vs a Liberal arts College when it comes to Medical School Admissions. The situation is similar to choosing any liberal arts major for medical school. The fact that most medical students come from large research Universities is based on the difference in size, not quality of education.
While the MSAR statistics show a very high percentage of undergraduate research, the reality is that most said research is limited at best. The number of medical students who have published in a peer reviewed journal as an undergraduate is small. The real percentage is probably less than 20% even if you include those who have presented a poster at a National meeting. It is the quality of your education, the quality of your research experience and the quality of your interests that count most. It is the hope of Medical schools that excellence at whatever your passions will translate into excellence in medicine.