Chance Me Dartmouth ED and other T20s (Class of 2026)

What is your budget for a full EIGHT YEARS of university? Can you afford to be full pay for four years at Dartmouth College plus another four years of medical school without taking on any debt at all? Medical school is expensive.

You are from New Jersey. Rutgers is in-state. I have studied with (in graduate school) and worked with quite a few Rutgers graduates, and all of them made Rutgers look very good. What does UNC or UVA or U.Michigan have that Rutgers does not have, other than a higher price (and more snow in the case of Michigan)?

The big name schools such as Dartmouth College and WUSTL will have a higher percentage of their students attend medical school compared to Rutgers or UVA or UNC, however, most of this (maybe all of this?) will be because of the strong high school graduates who start off at Dartmouth College or WUSTL. Basically the same students who are top students in their high school will continue to be top students in university in many (not all) cases.

The schools that you are considering for ED are all reaches. However, your stats are excellent and your ECs are also very good – particularly since COVID messed things up for everyone over the past two years. The schools that you are considering for EA are IMHO matches and NOT SAFETIES since you are out of state for all of them. You need at least one and preferably two safeties.

I do not have any premed students in my family. One daughter is currently in veterinary school (a DVM program) and the process is very similar. Also, both daughters took quite a few premed classes due to having majors that overlapped with premed, and therefore both have many friends who were premed. You do not need to spend the big bucks to attend a highly ranked university to get into a strong medical school. You do need to do very well in classes that are very tough and you do need to get quite a bit of experience in medical situations to get into medical schools.

I also am not sure that I understand what the commonality is among the various schools that you will be applying to. I think that you should definitely add Rutgers to your list. I am not completely convinced that you should apply anywhere ED unless you are very sure that you can afford a full eight years of university with very little debt and unless you are also very sure which school is your first choice.

Finally, most students who start off premed never make it to medical school. You do need to consider having an alternate plan in case things do not work out.

Also, congratulations on your really excellent work so far.

Given that you are first generation college, I will add one more thing: The top medical schools accept the very strongest students from a very wide range of universities. Again taking an example from my kids: My oldest daughter attended a university that is not quite in the top 100 in the US overall. She did really well there and now is at a DVM program that is ranked in the top 5 in the world. She has a couple of friends who were also very top students at the same university who are in highly ranked medical schools. The ranking of your undergraduate university will be far less important than (i) How you do as an undergrad student in classes that are much tougher than what you are used to; (ii) Your experience volunteering in medical situations (which I see you have already started – good job); and (iii) your references.

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