Chapel Hill and Med School

eadad
Wed, 19 Apr 2006 13:00:43 +0000

There are UNC grads at all the top medical schools. Top students at all schools have a better chance of admissions to top med schools than others. Matriculation data can be deceiving because a school like UNC may have more people applying (bigger school) and from that group it stands to reason that more could/would be less qualified as well. Additionally for in state students, UNC’s highly rated med school is really a bargain so why would they apply to more expensive schools when they have that gem in their backyard?

The big difference (academically) between the two schools will come in the atmosphere at each. JHU is known as a sweatshop with intense to the point of cut-throat competition. There were posts on CC over the last few years that reported sabotaged lab experiments and other things that support this. UNC is 180 degrees opposite. Study groups in the sciences are the norm and students mentoring/tutoring others is quite common.

UNC does not have the grade inflation that many schools have and this fact is well known by the professional schools. UNC works on a +/- system. An A is 4.0 but an A- is 3.75 so a person taking four equally weighted classes with 2 As and 2 A- would have a 3.87. The hard sciences (Bio, Chem, Physics) at UNC are graded on a curve as they are in most other schools and it is difficult to achieve an “A” in many classes. There are honors sections for orgo and other classes where the classes are small, interaction with tenured professors is the norm and the competition while keen is still quite friendly.

As far as location, JHU is urban in a fairly bad area of Baltimore and Chapel Hill is Chapel Hill.

I’m not telling you to turn down JHU if you are accepted there by any means but just know what you are getting into before you go there. JHU is a very fine school with a large concentration of science majors who are pre med students. This always ratchets up the competition at any school that has that focus. In the case of JHU though, the competition is known to be fierce. Interestingly for non science majors it has a completely different and far more nurturing personality.

You said you visited last weekend. If you are a junior and thinking about applying next year, visit both schools again while school is in session (not over the summer) talk to students, attend classes and see how the fit is for you. There is an enormous price differential even for OOS students so another question to ask if $$ matters is how much debt do you want to have after undergrad knowing how expensive med school is.

You don’t have to pay big money to go to a private school to get into a top med school. Look at matriculation data from the med schools and you will see that top students from many schools make up their classes. A private undergrad education is not a guaranteed ticket to any med school.