Confused which school to select

Jugulator20
Thu, 17 Mar 2016 19:14:38 +0000

Why did she apply to these schools? She should lean to the one where she believes she will be happy and fit in because if she’s happy she’s more likely to do well GPA wise which is something that will be important to med schools. I know “fit” is nebulous.

As most med students tend to borrow their way through med school which is typically expensive, trying to graduate with as little UG debt as possible should be an important consideration in college choice.

As to which prepares a student for med school: premed reqs give med schools a way to see if applicants can handle a moderately difficult set of science courses (GPA wise), not so much to actually prepare a student for med school. Premed reqs (eg bio, chem) are not titled Bio for Premeds, Chem for premeds. These courses are just garden variety science courses offered to students who want to take them and have satisfied whatever prereqs are needed to enroll in them.

As to MCAT prep: again premed reqs are not titled Bio for MCAT prep, etc. Although the material taught in these courses tends to provide the background material for the MCAT, most kids will either take a formal MCAT review (eg Kaplan, Princeton Review), or buy MCAT study materials and prep on their own.

And as suggested above, a plan B is always a good idea for any premed. Many, many students who show up on day one as premeds will change their minds and never see the inside of a med school. And of those who run the gauntlet and get to point of applying, approx. 60% will not get accepted anywhere.

Good luck.