<p>I’ve been on CC for a few years but have never had one of my children interested in med school. My neighbor knows the college process is one of my interests and has asked me to help her with her teenagers’ journey.</p>
<p>My neighbors are very conservative evangelical christians who homeschool their children. They do not believe in evolution, etc., and the science curriculum taken by their children reflects their beliefs.</p>
<p>Right now I am helping my neighbors identify appropriate colleges for their 17 year old daughter to apply to next fall. They are seeking a school with a completely faith-based science curriculum.</p>
<p>My question: the daughter definitely wants to go to medical school and become a doctor…will going to a small christian college with a faith based science curriculum have any impact on her medical school applications? Will the science courses/ preparation be considered adequate ?</p>
<p>There’s no need for this to be an uncomfortable question.</p>
<p>Yes, medical schools accept students from faith based science schools. I did a quick google search of one such school I’ve heard of via other Christians (Le Tourneau) and came across this page:</p>
<p>Other schools I’ve heard of that fit this category are Cedarville and Liberty (not a small school though). Both regularly place graduates into med school.</p>
<p>Belief in evolution is not a pre-requisite nor a need on the job. Knowledge about evolution is certainly helpful, but that can be gained rather quickly later on.</p>
<p>Whichever school she attends, check out their (specific) success with pre-med students. I would venture to think not all Christian schools are equal just as all secular schools are not.</p>
<p>Both have a rigorous curriculum and good track record for post grad placement, as well as a commitment to faith. I’ve known home-schooled and evangelical Christian schooled kids who have attended both and they and their parents were quite pleased with their education.</p>
<p>RE: evolution. There may be some evolution questions on the MCAT, but on the whole a deep knowledge of that topic isn’t required. </p>
<p>One caveat: in 2015, the MCAT will undergo a format change. The science, math and humanities requirements for med school admissions will likewise be changing to better match the new MCAT. </p>
<p>The new MCAT will include: statistics, biochemistry, cellular and molecular biology, genetics, and possibly calculus-based physics as well as the current general bio, general and organic chemistry and general algebra-based physics. Beside that a new section which covers social sciences (psych, sociology and ethics, plus possibly some anthropology and philosophy) will be added.</p>
<p>The upshot of this–your neighbor’s child needs to find a school where there is good pre-health advising that keeps current with these changes. Also because of the new deeper science requirements, she’ll need a school where the curriculum offers those additional classes.</p>
<p>While both of these are excellent suggestions for students in general (Christian students), neither are exclusively faith based science schools from a teaching perspective. I suspect there are students at each who don’t believe in evolution, but if the parents in question require a faith based science from the college, they won’t fit.</p>
<p>Baylor I still need to find out more about. My middle son was accepted there recently, but he only applied on a whim. If they turn out to be financially competitive with his other choices we’ll need to visit and see what he thinks.</p>
<p>Not to totally hijack the thread, but one quick question - are they associated with Baylor School of Medicine or do they just “share” the name and nothing else?</p>
<p>Baylor College of Medicine used to be associated with Baylor University; however in 1969 it legally separated itself from Baylor University and is now largely funded by Texas state and federal funding. To apply to Baylor, one needs to use the TMDSAS.</p>
<p>Off topic: To make it more confusing, Baylor College of Dentistry is a part of the Texas A&M University, one of the two public university systems in Texas.</p>
<p>It is also interesting to learn from the above post that, around the WWI time, this professional school did affiliate with Baylor University because otherwise its students might be drafted. This was because the students from a professional school not affiliated with a university back then might be drafted at that time. I do not know the status of a professional school could be that low at that time. A few centuries ago, I think almost all private colleges (and LACs) in this country were affiliated with churches.</p>
<p>^^^ Interesting. Thanks for sharing. Up until very recently I thought Baylor was Baptist to a similar extent that Duke was Methodist. However, with a little bit of research after his acceptance it appears Baylor is more of a Christian school than Duke. This doesn’t turn us off (since we’re Christian). It just came as a surprise. We’re in the northeast and Baylor has mainly been a “name” for us - one associated with potentially nice merit aid (hence the application in the pursuit of a low cost decent undergrad education with an eye on med school in the future).</p>
<p>My neighbors are really, really conservative…they liked Pensacola, until they learned that it is not accredited and that their daughter would have no chance of med school with a degree from there.</p>
<p>They really want a school where bible based beliefs are the entire curriculum and where questions or other theories are not taught or explained…and they prefer a small school.</p>
<p>I’m not sure the daughter entirely buys in to all of this…her worry is whether her home based science curriculum will have been strong enough to give her a sound basis for college level science ( and I really can’t help here there) and whether a bible based science curriculum in college will be 1) sufficient for the MCATs , and 2) how it will be looked at by medical school admissions committees. The worry is whether the bible-based schools and their curriculum are recognized and respected by the medical schools.</p>
<p>The parents are very opposed to her going to any school that would have any teachings contrary to their beliefs. However they don’t belong to any particular denomination (they have a home church) and so I don’t even have that as a starting point.</p>
<p>My suggestion would be to have them check out Cedarville and LeTourneau. Those are the two smaller Christian colleges with faith based teaching throughout their curricula that conservative Christians usually give high marks to.</p>
<p>Personally, I only know each by name, so can’t be of much help otherwise, but I do know people have gotten into med schools from them and their stats aren’t as low academically as other small schools are. Cedarville is a little higher on entrance stats than LeTourneau. Cedarville even offers a young earth perspective Geology major, so I think it would fit what they are looking for (even if not the Geology major). Looking at their websites might help the parents.</p>
<p>I think I’ve heard Biola come up too, but you’d need to check it out.</p>
<p>Otherwise, Bob Jones? They might be a little better than Pensacola, but again, I don’t have any knowledge about them other than we passed their campus while visiting Furman.</p>
<p>I do know Pensacola isn’t worth it for undergrad. A lady around here went there, then tried to transfer into a local Christian college. The Christian college didn’t accept her credits. I can’t imagine med schools would look too highly upon them.</p>
<p>It seems like a good choice for them IMO. Be certain she has the stats to get in (SAT/ACT, etc). If she doesn’t, LeTourneau has somewhat lower stats.</p>
<p>Thanks for all the help! I will give this info to them as a point for them to start. I’ve heard of Cedarville but didn’t realize it was a 4 year school…an administrator in my H’s office had a 2 year degree from there. I had never heard of LeTourneau.</p>
<p>boyx3–not to knock LeTourneau specifically, but after I looked at their accepted student numbers, I got suspicious. </p>
<p>The school claims a 88% acceptance rate–which is unusually high. Yet the average MCAT score of their applicants is a MCAT 29.2. This is a full 2 points BELOW the national average of allopathic med school matriculants for 2009-2010.</p>
<p>This makes me think the school may be massaging its data. (Not that this school is any different than any other school. Many schools claim high med school acceptance rates, but their processes aren’t transparent.)</p>
<p>The take-away----take the acceptance rates that ANY college posts with a huge grain of salt.</p>
<p>1) What kind of demands are they going to make on med schools? I doubt any med schools follow the same “science demands” that they’re expecting for undergrad.</p>
<p>2) Are they prepared to pay for one of these bible christian undergrads? Many of those schools don’t have much aid to give and expect families to pay for most costs.</p>
<p>Thanks for the warning on med school acceptance rates…</p>
<p>and mom2, I’m right there with you.</p>
<p>I’m actually surprised they have asked for my input…we are Jewish, not christian…
but I always like to help students find their way because other people helped me find the way for my sons.</p>
<p>This may not be an issue. The couple of rather conservative parents I know IRL tend to not worry about anything past undergrad. Either the 4 years in between start to break the bonds or they feel junior has grown up enough by then. I don’t know of anyone personally at Cedarville or LeTourneau though. The more conservative parents I know IRL + through our local high school tend to send their offspring to Liberty if they care about the evolution issue and Grove City if they aren’t as concerned about it. Liberty isn’t a small school, but maybe they’d like it anyway? I do know some students who go there with pre-med in mind. Students who have returned from there (on break or whatever) tell me they like it. Ditto that with Grove City. Parents have been pleased.</p>
<p>And this is still all hearsay as I’ve never personally looked into any of these schools beyond a cursory glance. My oldest is at a small Christian school in GA (Covenant College). He loves it there, but he’s not Pre-Med. They [Covenant] don’t take a stand on the “beginnings” issue and teach all ideas in their Bible class, so that one won’t do for your neighbors. My middle son is mainly looking at secular schools for Pre-med (Baylor being the exception) as he wants more research options than smaller schools generally have.</p>
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<p>Most parents who want this option consider it money well invested. Liberty is one that offers nice aid to high stat kids if your neighbor has the stats for it. I know of one girl who got a free ride, but she’s a NMF. I’m not sure of the aid available at Cedarville or LeTourneau. One internet contact has a student going to LeTourneau on a free ride, but I don’t really know if it’s merit or need-based or a combo of both. That student is in their Engineering - not Pre-med.</p>
<p>One big thing about med school acceptance rates:</p>
<p>Colleges can “massage” their data in many ways. For example, if you have a set of 10 identical people at 2 different colleges, it may play out like this:</p>
<p>College 1:
7 qualified applicants, 3 iffy candidates. College convinces 3 iffy candidates not to apply, 6 of 7 qualified applicants get accepted, ~86% acceptance rate – but only 6 of 10 who wanted to apply got in.</p>
<p>College 2: 7 Q, 3 iffy – college lets all apply, 6 of 7 qualified applicants are accepted and 1 of 3 iffy are accepted. That gives them a 70% acceptance rate, which looks worse, but 7 of 10 got in.</p>
<p>LeTourneau apparently counts acceptance into foreign medical programs (mostly in the Caribbean) as “successful” applicants despite the fact that most foreign and Caribbean med schools have terrible graduation rates and terrible pass rates for the USMLE.</p>