<p>Okay, so here’s my plan. I want to major in English, but still take the classes to apply for Med school. So, I primarily want a great English program. Would U Penn be the best of my 4? If there’s some that are roughly tied, then please help me consider their premed classes as the tiebreaker.
Also, my parents are concerned about the safety of each campus/city. I’ve had the impression that all are relatively safe, save for U Penn, but I’ve only had word of mouth to tell me that. Anyone know?</p>
<p>bump…</p>
<p>Despite the sensationalist comments you may have heard or read, the Penn campus is actually relatively safe as urban campuses go. On an objective, statistical basis, the chances of a Penn undergrad being the victim of a violent crime on campus are no worse than those of an undergrad at any number of other prominent urban schools, including Johns Hopkins, Harvard, Columbia, Yale, U. of Chicago, etc. And, similar to other large cities, the bulk of the violent crime in Philadelphia is restricted to neighborhoods where the vast majority of Penn students never go.</p>
<p>In terms of English programs, Penn and Hopkins are generally ranked in the top 10 or so (as they were in the most recent US News graduate rankings released last week), whereas Wash U and Northwestern are generally a bit further down in rankings of English programs.</p>
<p>All 4 schools have excellent premed classes which are no doubt well respected by leading medical schools. If you really want to explore this in detail, you should get from each school the relevant data about their premed programs–e.g., do they have internal minimum academic requirements for the undergrads whose med school applications they’ll allow/support (I believe I’ve read that Hopkins has such requirements), how many undergrads apply to med school each year and how many are accepted, what are the stats (average GPA/MCAT scores) for those who are accepted, to which med schools are the largest number of undergrads accepted, etc. Much of this information is often available on the schools’ web sites (usually among their career counseling or placement office pages), or can be obtained directly from the schools’ premed advising offices.</p>
<p>Another important factor for you, however, is fit. And to guage that, you really should try to visit the campuses of the schools you are considering, to see how each one “feels” to you.</p>
<p>fyi, 2005 <em>graduate</em> ranking from USN:
JHU: 8th
Penn: 10th
Northwestern: 19th
WashU: 39th</p>
<p>again, this is graduate ranking. take it with a grain of salt.</p>
<p>I think JHU is an intriguing choice because they’re known both for creative writing AND for the pre-med thing. Good luck!</p>
<p>
That’s actually the 2009 ranking, which is probably what you meant to type. :)</p>
<p>no…it’s listed in “2009 ranking” but it’s ranked in 2005. that is, it hasn’t changed since 2005. usnews just repeats the same list while happily collecting money.</p>
<p>All four of these places are very difficult schools for pre-med. Wash U is probably the best option in terms of getting into medical school. Penn is the most prestigious school of the four. Johns Hopkins is not a great place to go for pre-med, especially for a non-science major. I say this because it is unnecessarily competitive and a harsh, cutthroat place for pre-meds. It’s one thing if you wanted to major in English at Hopkins and avoid the pre-med classes, but because you are not majoring in a science, your science GPA will be basically only pre-med prereqs not upper division science classes (which people use to raise their GPA). Wash U’s English department though is pretty weak. Northwestern doesn’t have a great record in terms of placing students at top medical schools for whatever reason (except for the HPME people). I would go to mdapplicants.com to check the records of med school applicants from all four schools if you are serious about medicine.</p>
<p>My choice would be Penn (FYI). In terms of campus safety, there is no significant difference between JHU and Penn. Wash U and Northwestern obviously are much safer, but this really shouldn’t be something you should be worrying about. You should think more about campus atmosphere. I would visit.</p>
<p>
Yep, you’re right (just noticed the fine print).</p>
<p>As long as we’re going back to 2005, we might as well go back even further to the 1995 NRC ranking of English Ph.D. programs (which, although dated, was highly respected when released):</p>
<p>Penn: 8th
JHU: 11th
Northwestern: 29th
WashU: 50th</p>
<p>[NRC</a> Rankings in Each of 41 Areas](<a href=“http://www.stat.tamu.edu/~jnewton/nrc_rankings/nrc41.html]NRC”>NRC Rankings in Each of 41 Areas)</p>
<p>Fortunately, the NRC rankings are supposed to be updated later this year.</p>
<p>i guess i like USN better. ;)</p>