Help finding a college I will definitely get into..

M_s_Mom
Mon, 12 Nov 2012 09:05:48 +0000

“I applied to University of Maryland because that is my home state and I know I will get in.”

Have you considered St. Mary’s College of Maryland - the public LAC in the Chesapeake? (No, it’s not Catholic - that’s just the name of the town it’s in.) For a pre-med, the opportunity to have smaller, non-competitive pre-req classes, close faculty relationships, and less competition for research and medical-related volunteering is worth a great deal. The school is slightly more expensive than UMD, but significantly cheaper than most LACs because it’s public and you are in-state. The campus itself is very pretty and right on the water. The local town isn’t exciting - but it’s not the boonies either.

Attending UMD or any other large public school means you will be sitting in massive lecture halls with hundreds of other potential pre-meds in tough ‘weeder’ classes graded on a curve where the prof doesn’t know you. You can still complete the necessary pre-reqs there, and it’s cheap, but your public LAC is a much better option if you are serious about being pre-med.

To determine your chances, take a look at the latest Common Data Set for St. Mary’s (and any other school you are interested in). Go to Section C, where the have the stats for the admitted students and compare them to yours. http://www.smcm.edu/institutionalresearch/_assets/data/CDS/PDF/cds11_12.pdf