Another "which LAC for Premed"

NiceUnparticularMan
Thu, 26 Mar 2026 17:40:19 +0000

I don’t think she can go wrong for pre-med purposes. As a general observation, I’d agree that assuming all are comfortably affordable in the context of also potentially having to pay for med school, I would prioritize questions like, “Where will I thrive overall?,” and, “Hypothetically, if I didn’t end up wanting to go to med school, where would I still be happy to be?”

Anyway, my S24 who was potentially interested in a Bio major (and is probably now premed, although he wasn’t thinking that at the time) had Carleton and Vassar on his short list when deciding (along with WashU, where he went). Obviously he couldn’t have considered Wellesley, and of your other three he visited Richmond but decided not to apply there.

One observation is in addition to being a very academicky school overall, the trimester system at Carleton allows you to take more classes of interest. For premeds, that can mean you have to be comfortable with a fairly quick pace, but you are then less restricted in your overall curriculum choices by the required premed classes. Again my S24 wasn’t really thinking premed, but he was coming from a trimester HS, and saw that as a plus for Carleton.

Vassar has a very popular, very robust Life Sciences program. I’m then actually a little confused about the premed comments about Vassar above. College Transitions did a study where they calculated the per capita rate for med schools in general, and what they classified as “top” med schools. I don’t think this is definitive, but it looks like:

Carleton 0.99%/0.43%

Richmond 0.52%/0.05%

Wellesley 2.00%/0.62%

Vassar 1.32%/0.35%

Bates 0.94%/0.24%

Holy Cross 1.08%/0.16%

Obviously factors like self-selection–how many kids who might want to go to med school choose a college in the first place–are playing a role here. But if I was going to single out any schools on this list for having a relatively thinner “pipeline” to medical schoos, it would not be Vassar.

On the other hand, while I again don’t think this is definitive on its own, this evidence certainly supports Wellesley being a strong choice. Obviously she has to be comfortable with a women’s college, but I think it is quite true that in terms of supporting students with further education goals, Wellesley is at least among the best.

If you wanted to get a little nuanced about it, College Transitions also did a per capita PhD study, and overall Wellesley was #21 (this includes research universities too, so that is extremely good), but Vassar was #16, and Carleton #6. None of the others on your list made the top 50, although for all we know they were close.

Then specifically in Bio, Carleton was #8, Vassar was #30, and Wellesley #41. Bates was #38, and then the others weren’t on this list.

I don’t actually think this means Carleton is the best choice for PhD aspirants. At this level, I think it is again mostly self-selection–Carleton is likely getting a disproportionate share of matriculations with PhD aspirations. But that same logic probably applies in reverse to the med school numbers. Indeed, in some sense doing particularly well in one of these per capita areas likely means “robbing” others. Like there are only so many people graduating with top grades, and if more are going to med school or law school or so on, possibly less are going to PhD programs. And vice-versa.

And I still wouldn’t rule out the other schools on your list either, if say for other reasons they stood out as places she would thrive the most.

But in my mind, it is easiest to make a purely academic case for any of Wellesley, Carleton, or Vassar, for someone who is interested in Bio and possibly premed.