I was blessed to be accepted into Dartmouth, Johns Hopkins, and Cornell. For Cornell, I was accepted into Biometry and Statistics in CALS (since Cornell CALS allegedly accepts by major). I want to do pre med, but I want to major (or double major) in either Economics or Computer Science. Can anyone shed light on any of these schools for this type of track. Grade Inflation/Deflation? Research/Internship Opportunities? Social Life? Prestige? Pre Med to Med School success rates?
btw…which of the colleges is the most prestigious (ik its a stupid question, but my parents seem to think this is important)
Generally Hopkins > Cornell = Dartmouth for prestige. Hopkins is amazing for premed and has amazing opportunities for research. Dartmouth is probably the most grade inflated of the three and has a great undergrad econ program. Since you were accepted to Cornell CALS, I don’t think you can double major in computer science or economics there since those programs are in CAS or COE. I would go to Hopkins if you want to focus on premed or Dartmouth if you are really interested in premed+econ.
imo for general prestige it’s Dartmouth > Cornell > Johns Hopkins, but you should pick the school that fits you the best at this point. The differences in prestige are small.
According to usnews, Hopkins > Dartmouth > Cornell, although the differences are small and they are very similar in terms of prestige. Doing econ+CS+premed will be tough anywhere, but I don’t think Dartmouth would be significantly harder than other similar schools (unlike MIT or Caltech, which are known for grade deflation).
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how tough would it be to major in Econ + CS and do pre med (while maintaining a high GPA)
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Why would you want to do this?
You’re already going to have to add all the premed prereqs to your primary major.
What will your primary major be?
Don’t trip yourself up by adding unnecessary classes if your goal is med school. Med schools don’t care about double majors, etc. They won’t give you a break if your GPA suffers due to extra classes.
US news rankings really don’t mean much at this level because 1) the rankings can be easily manipulated by the colleges 2) The rankings change every year. Prestige doesn’t really change that fast.
Economics + pre-med should not be difficult to fit into your schedule. CS + pre-med may or may not be difficult, depending on how many requirements the CS major has (engineering-based CS majors tend to have more non-CS science requirements, though some may overlap with pre-med courses). Economics + CS + pre-med would likely be difficult to fit without overloading your schedule, which can make it harder to keep a high GPA.
Pick one primary major that you like well enough that you are likely to do well (earn A/A+ grades in), add the pre-med courses (earn A/A+ grades in those courses as well), and use whatever remaining elective space for desired courses in other areas of interest (earn A/A+ grades in these as well).
For whatever it’s worth, I’ve heard recurring stories over the past 10 years about how cutthroat and competitive Hopkins premed is.
One of my Hopkins undergrad friends said that some student posted a sign on a door saying that a science final had been rescheduled or relocated (forget which), when it actually hadn’t been.
Some people thrive under competition though, so it’s personal preference.
No, there’s huge variation in campus culture. Anecdotally Hopkins has always been an outlier. At my undergrad university, I genuinely felt like there was a spirit of collaboration or we-were-all-in-this-together. Sure you had some individual people who were noxious, but not a general culture.
I think something to consider would be grading systems at different schools. With schools with grade deflation or who hew really closely to a bell curve in the sciences to “weed out” people, it’s going to encourage anxiousness and competitiveness.
@mom2collegekids
most likely im going to be a CS major, econ minor, with pre med (i want to do ibanking if not med school), What would be the school that i could do this and end up with the best opportunities/highest chance at getting a good GPA
@ezbreezy8022 Hopkins has severe grade deflation. Also Cornell is a bit grade-deflated too but nowhere near as bad as Hopkins. Grade inflation/deflation is a important consideration for pre-med student. GPA can literally make you or break you in med school admissions. Personally my first choice would be Dartmouth and second Cornell and I would then apply to Hopkins for med school.
All three schools are more or less similarly prestigious, probably Dartmouth and Cornell a bit more for undergrad because of the ivy league tag. For medical school Hopkins is more prestigious.
GPA can break you for med school…even at a name-brand school. A parent here on CC was shocked last year when her DD didn’t receive any interview invites with a 3.5 GPA and strong MCAT …she was at a top 5 school.
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Pre Med to Med School success rates?
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These mean nothing to you. Students with poor/borderline stats don’t get in. Students with strong stats, an appropriate app list, apply in June, and have good medically-related ECs will likely get in…no matter where they went to college.
I would go to the visitation days. There is a lot of false hearsay on this thread alone. Case in point @Penn95
Where on earth are you getting the deflation stats? JHU’s average GPA across the campus is a 3.35. Is that major grade deflation? Is Cornell’s “nowhere near that bad”? Where do you pull this stuff.
As for prestige, I would argue JHU over both (I chose Hopkins over Cornell but did not apply to Dartmouth). But that is subjective as well.
I can also attest students are pretty collaborative at Hopkins. The “Hopkins is rampant with competitive premeds” is all spammed BS from the 80s and 90s that is still spread by ill-informed people today