Dartmouth or Cornell (premed)

Caillebotte
Sun, 15 Aug 2010 18:29:33 +0000

Both are excellent schools, you can’t go wrong with either. That said, Cornell will provide you a superior biological sciences education. The breadth and depth of Cornell’s biology offerings, both in research and teaching, eclipse Dartmouth’s. Dartmouth’s one quaint biology department pales in contrast to Cornell’s nine autonomous biology departments, which span the fields from Neurobiology to Animal Phyisiology to Molecular bio and Biochem. The biology major and pre-med advising are personal and excellent, and in terms of absolute numbers, Cornell undergrad produces more M.D.s than any other school in the nation, more than Harvard, Yale, Dartmouth, Berkeley, Northwestern, you name it.

Re: competition. Get used to it. If you’re interested in being a pre-med at any elite school, then it’s something you have to deal with, whether in undergrad, med school, or residency. It’s the nature of the business so I wouldn’t use “competitiveness” as a criterion for selecting a school.