Hey guys I’m a HS student from California and recently got into Colgate, Pitzer, OXY, and NEU.
Im super torn on where to go next year, and am pretty flexible with location, and tuition is the same everywhere. I want to go on the pre-med route and have heard great things for pre-meds from all schools, but I just want to go where will give me the best undergrad education and most opportunity for volunteering, shadowing, and research.
Edit: Deleting my comment! I noticed that you said tuition is the same everywhere. I’ll assume you mean COA is the same everywhere, too 
Well -
Look at NEU - as it stands out.
It’s large, it’s urban (even more than Oxy) and requires a co op. You might find out what pre med types (will depend on your actual major I suppose) - what they do in co op and is it at all related to a medical career?
If you want large and urban, that’s your only choice.
If you want an LAC - then you have Oxy is a neat area of LA.
You have Pitzer - not such a great area and a smog heaven - but part of the larger consortium. And Colgate in upstate, rural NY.
There is no bad answer here - but after visiting, which do you feel best?
You might ask each about volunteering and shadowing opportunities that their pre meds participate in but those can also be done when not in school. I’d assume NEU, Occidental and Pitzer would be better here - but I don’t know - and I’d contact their pre med advisors and find out.
All schools have research opportunities.
Good luck.
Hi there - you might give a little more about yourself and what you’re looking for from an experience perspective. Are you excited to try a new experience, are you looking for a specific learning environment, etc? My son is a CA kid who’s a freshman at Colgate. Of the 4 places you’ve mentioned I actually think Colgate will be the most different as it’s the only one that is a truly remote LAC. There are great things that come with that but it will also be different than your experience at suburban LACs (Pitzer and Oxy) and a very urban co-op environment like NEU in the middle of Boston. I will say that the education my son is getting at Colgate is really excellent - his Bio and Chemistry classes had 25 and 30 kids in them. He visits office hours and his professors know him by name. It’s pretty amazing to me - my first bio class had 500 kids in it. He’s not pre-med (a few of his friends are) but he was considering it and the advisory team at Colgate was really impressive and they have really great science programs. Don’t know as much about the others but all these are great schools.
You can’t go wrong with any of these schools, so ask yourself: urban or rural? Large or small? East coast or west coast? Is weather an issue? Is distance from home an issue – negative or positive? If you go to Colgate or Northeastern, will transportation home on breaks be difficult or prohibitively expensive (might be more logistically difficult from Colgate, but certainly doable – from Northeastern, you can probably find direct flights, but ticket prices out of Boston vary widely based on day and time)?
Northeastern is very different than the other three – does it have specific advantages that drew you to the school, and that the others lack?
Also – most students who start out pre-med end up choosing something else. So, leaving aside potential shadowing and medical-related internships, what drew you to these schools aside from the pre-med resources?
I think these questions should help you narrow it down at least.
thank you so much for the help! I definately have to consider location seeing as how they are all very different. I was just curious to see if anyone had any direct experience with the pre-med track at any of the schools, and seeing what would be best. I really appreciate your insight and Ill be seriously considering location in the future. Thanks!
You can take the required courses for medical school applicants at all of these colleges.
Congrats on all of your great choices! FWIW, I know several people who went to Occidental on the pre-med track and really loved it - all of whom are in top residency programs now. Super small classes and lots of access to professors, like most LACs, but Oxy’s proximity to LA is uniquely valuable. Highly recommend visiting each of them to see where you feel most comfortable.
Lots of good comments already on the thread. We are from CA also and just wanted to note that family friends at Oxy and Pitzer have said the student body is more alternative/artsy than the student body at a school like Colgate. Check out Niche for comments. We know a couple of kids who considered leaving Oxy and Pitzer because the fit wasn’t right. So compare to Colgate and see if student reviews/comments are different. For Northeastern, I believe it will have a more international feel, and of course urban, and sometimes housing is an issue and students have to stay in hotels. I would ask about that. These are all highly ranked schools though, so congrats and best of luck deciding!
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