Amherst vs dartmouth for pre med

[moutainrunner]

I’m currently a junior, I’m looking at colleges and am really torn.
I like the liberal arts in the northeast
I’m looking at Amherst versus Dartmouth, and I know I want to go into medicine. Which one would be a better school for pre med?
I’m good enough to run at Amherst, Williams, and a lot of other d3 schools in the northeast. I would love to run in college. Dartmouth is d1, so I probably could not run on their team.
My sat score is 1530, 4.8 weighted gpa, 3.95 unweighted gpa. I’m also a legacy at Dartmouth
My question: do I have a reasonable shot at Dartmouth? Which school would be better for pre med? How much is that “ivy brand” worth for med school acceptance?

[ucbalumnus]

Cost difference, if any? Medical school is expensive.

Amherst’s open curriculum may make it easier to avoid general education requirements in (non science) areas that you may not be able to earn A grades in.

[anon145]

word of mouth of someone rejected from Dmouth who was “double” legacy. If you are unhooked and your parents aren’t donors don’t think that matters as much as you think. med school is about GPA and MCATs first. the way the ‘school’ figures in is some schools have hard deflation (U. Chicago applicants accepted to med school GPA is 3.4) national average 3.5. I believe Brown is 3.6 or 3.7. Basically you want to go where your grades will be best and overall happiness. they are both super competitive for unhooked kids. (Amherst has open curriculum no Gen. ed. requirements; don’t know about darmouth)

I can never tell what advantage (if any) for ED but if you were confident you could figure out if that was amazingly different from the two (and you don’t need financial aid) that could be another factor.

[merc81]

These schools maintain associations with specific medical schools: Amherst with the University of Rochester and Albany Medical, and Dartmouth with Geisel. This might not pertain directly to your future, but the associations nonetheless tend to indicate the presence of strong premed advising and support, and suggest good outcomes for motivated students.

https://www.studentdoctor.net/2014/08/04/skip-the-mcat/

[warblersrule]

Amherst’s pre-med guide has a great answer to this frequently asked question.

Amherst College has no magic touch that automatically elevates a student’s chances of entering medical school simply by virtue of the student’s coming to Amherst; no college or university has that kind of magic touch. What does elevate a student’s chances is to go to an institution (1) that energizes and challenges that particular student academically, while providing good teaching and academic support so the student can meet the challenge satisfactorily; and (2) that provides opportunities for accomplishment and leadership in extracurricular areas. Of course the student must take advantage of these educational and extracurricular opportunities - in the end it’s the student’s accomplishments that count, not the name of the institution.