<p>Hi, I’m going to be an undergrad at Michigan State University this Fall and I have some questions that I would be happy if someone could please answer.</p>
<p>1) I had originally wanted to go to schools such as Amherst, Bowdoin, Cornell, Colby, and Northwestern, but due to some health problems that dropped my g.p.a from a 3.7 to a 3.1; I didn’t even bother applying. So I am just going to my state school, Michigan State. </p>
<p>Thus, I was planning on transferring after my freshman year. Though from what I have read on all the previous pages some of these schools, such as Cornell don’t seem to be such a good idea to transfer to. </p>
<p>What about the other schools such as Amherst and Northwestern would they be good to transfer to. OR, would it be a good idea to just stay at Michigan State, because here I could have a lot easier time pulling off a 3.7+ than at some of these other schools.</p>
<p>AND,</p>
<p>2) Should I even major in neuroscience. This seems like a very interesting major that I would love to learn about, and I love every aspect of it. BUT, is it too hard of a major. My number 1 priority though is making it into med school, and as such If learning what I want to learn might drop my g.p.a, I would rather learn basketweaving if it got me into med school.</p>
<p>What do you guys think about this. Any advice on what I should do would be of a great help.</p>
<p>I have a simple comment - that the effect of race * might itself * also be endogenous to the model. While I don’t want to get into racial stereotyping, let’s face it, Asian students tend to study hard, and also be extremely grade conscience, and that fact means that any school with a high percentage of Asians will, frankly, tend to be more competitive/cutthroat when it comes to grades. </p>
<p>Furthermore, let’s be honest, a lot of Asians are not exactly the most social people in the world. And as we know, much of the college experience is sociological in nature. When you’re surrounded by antisocial people who prefer to do nothing but study, then you will tend to also become antisocial and do nothing else but study. Sociologically speaking, people tend to copy what they see around them. Yet that sort of attitude will hurt you if you later apply to med-school.</p>
<p>Hence, I would argue that ceteris paribus, perhaps you should prefer a school of the same level of prestige that has fewer Asians. Many people say that MIT secretly stands for “Made in Taiwan” because of all the Asians there. Yet if the presence of Asians are a contributing factor, I would say that that factor is largely an endogenous part of the model. </p>
<p>However, I can also offer you evidence that perhaps Asians aren’t the problem. Race-based affirmative action has been illegal in all California public universities ever since the passage of Prop 209 11 years ago. So, by law, the UC medical schools are not allowed to practice race-based affirmative action. Yet the evidence shows that Princeton premeds get into UC med-schools with * lower * grades and equivalent MCAT scores than Berkeley premeds, despite the fact that a far higher percentage of Berkeley premeds are Asians, compared to Princeton premeds. </p>
<p>For example, in 2006, of the 544 applicants to AMCAS med-schools who did their undergrad at Berkeley (whether they are now graduating seniors or Berkeley alumni), a whopping 344, or 63% of them are Asian. The percentage of Asian Princeton premeds is not listed, but I’m quite sure that it’s not 63%. Yet even when you look at the UC med-schools, who by law are not supposed to use race as an admissions factor, you see that Princeton premeds seem to have a significantly easier time getting admitted. </p>
<p>Hence, it seems to me that even in this case, the effect of race is not a strong exogenous factor (although the endogeneities above are probably still at play).</p>
<p>Generally speaking we’ve seen that many schools have 40-50% of their class applying as seniors. By that logic – let’s be generous and give UCB 40% – then that’s about 200 students applying later and 230 students not reporting.</p>
<p>In any case, this number is a silly number to use because it doesn’t tell you how many students would want to be in medical school but don’t bother applying because they don’t stand a chance.</p>
<p>First, most of us don’t know an awful lot about those particular schools. I went to Duke; PSAS is somewhere in Philly; NCG is at Cornell. It doesn’t help that the UC’s are so secretive about their application rates.</p>
<p>Second, it will make more sense if you wait until your picture is clearer. Hypothetically, I would hate to tell you that you should go to Rice over UCB (not that I know anything about either school) only to see you get rejected by Rice.</p>
<p>Third, we’d need to know a lot about you. Do you want a larger (UC) or smaller (Pomona) school or one in between (Rice)? Is your main academic virtue that you’re just a very good studier (UC)? Do you want to stay near home (UCLA) or leave (Rice)? Can your family afford private school tuition (Rice, Pomona, USC) or not (UCB, UCLA)?</p>
<p>my family can afford the colleges-regardless private or public; i dont really want to leave really far; i do prefer the smaller schools, but then im not the typical good studier</p>
<p>In the case of UCB, I highly doubt that it’s even 40% that we’re talking about here. </p>
<p>For example, the link below demonstrates that just the one-year-outs, all by themselves, exceed the number of graduating seniors who apply. And that’s not even talking about the number of two-year-outs, 3-year-outs, etc.</p>
<p>Hence, if even the 1-year-outs alone exceed the number of graduating seniors, I suspect that the number of total alumni is probably going to outnumber the number of graduating seniors by at least 2:1, maybe more.</p>
<p>Now, regarding the issue of those not reporting their data. I would surmise that, if anything, alumni are far more likely to not report their data than would graduating seniors. After all, if you’re already out of Berkeley, you’re far more likely to report yourself to Berkeley than is somebody who is still there. And yet the number of 1-year-outs reporting * still * exceeds the number of graduating seniors who report. You would expect the exact opposite to be true.</p>
<p>Rumors say that AMCAS has indicated that 45,000 students applied to medical school this year. If numbers from past years hold up, about 18,000 of them will gain at least one admission.</p>
<p>while on the subject of Berkeley, I have basically two choices to make for premed: UCLA or UCB. Just this week, I attended the Honors Day for UCLA where the head of the biochemistry department stated that 90% of the honors students get into medical school. My mom was pretty impressed with the fact in addition to the hospital being on campus and abundance of research. I would go there except after visiting Cal, I fell in love with the campus and the atmosphere while for LA I don’t really care that much. So right now I am torn between these to schools but would really perfer Cal. However after reading some of the posts and comments about horror stories about Cal, I really don’t know. Can you guys who attend Cal fully write down your experience there as a premed student, whether horrible and full of regrets or perfectly fine. Also is the UC’s 90% comment actually saying that these students get accepted to pretty respectable schools or no name medical schools? I really want to follow my heart but am also concerned for my future in med…</p>
<p>ummm…yea 90% is probably not true. If you really like the atmosphere at Cal then I would HIGHLY suggest you go to Cal. Don’t just come to UCLA because of the academic opportunities, because you will find many of the same opportunities at Berkeley. you should really follow your gut instinct about where you’ll be HAPPIEST because in the end, you will succeed where you are most satisfied.</p>
<p>Boston U
Colgate U
Connecticut C
Cornell U
George Washington U
Johns Hopkins U
Northwestern U IL
Rice U
Tufts U
Vassar C
Washington & Lee U
Whitman C</p>
<p>I have a really urgent question regarding medical school requirements.</p>
<p>Does anyone know the general policy of Medical schools regarding AP policy? I’m currently a senior deciding between several colleges to attend in the fall. Most institutions have informed me that its fine to just take the classes and not use the AP credits but UCSD has told me that I must use those credits and that I cannot take general bio because that would be repeating a course. Does anyone have any insight into this issue? Are many medical schools stringent on this? Thanks so much!</p>
<p>in the 3.0s with above a 30 MCAT at Cornell you’ve got to have a shot at some medical school, maybe not JHU, but maybe a less prestigious one, not that it matters if you want to do primary care, not research. I’m going into Cornell next year, and I think I’ll do well on the ap chem exam. if i study my ass off, i think i can get a science gpa in the mid 3.0s and an overall gpa in the same range, and with a 30 + MCAT or so I think i’ll have some shot at med school right?</p>
<p>I am currently a Junior and want to go to med school. The problem is… I have a horrible GPA and there is really no way to fix that. I messed up my frashman year getting C’s in my science classes. I also took the practice MCAT a week ago (I went into it blind didn’t study or anything, just wanted to see where I was at) and I did awufl (as did my classmates). I feel like I have no chance of getting in now. I am driven to get in, but the money only goes so far. If anyone has any advice or words of encouragement, I could really use the advice.</p>
if it got me into med school.</p>