<p>So I am just wondering if the following schools would fit me… I expect a ~2050 SAT in october, GPA 3,3, very interested in PRE MED, want a big urban campus…</p>
<p>George Washington University
American University
U. of Maryland @ College Park
Towson U.
Loyola U.</p>
<p>(NY RESIDENT)
please help me because I was planning on going on a trip to visit these schools for a couple days tomorrow but suddenly I realized some of them aren’t geared toward SCIENCE/PREMED?</p>
<p>thanks!</p>
<p>College Park sounds like a really good fit for you… its more suburbanish, but there is a DC metro stop on campus, so DC is really accesible, and College Park is a fun college town. Plus, UMD med center is top notch and the med school is great. Loyola is a great college (or university now, I guess)…its not downtown Baltimore, it and Hopkins are actually really close, and Towson is that way as well. Towson is nice…reasonable access to Baltimore plus enough to do in Towson itself. You might also want to look at UMBC…they’re good for science and medicine. </p>
<p>Don’t know anything about GWU or American for anything other than IR, sorry.</p>
<p>A 3.3 GPA might be a problem at UMd and GWU; possibly also at AU.</p>
<p>broscaretolax –
can’t say exactly without knowing financial situation, desire for scholarships, etc.
U of MD College Park and GWU have their own medical schools so you would get more opportunities to do volunteer / exposure to research there. Both of them are definitely more in the DC sphere of influence rather than Baltimore.
Loyola is a good school by reputation.
I don’t know any thing about American.
I know a Chem Dept. grad from Towson who went to U MD College Park for his MD. (Met his wife, now also an MD, in Med School). Towson when he went there was a commuter school but they have been improving things since then.
Best of luck to you.</p>
<p>I would think GW and UMCP are much better choices than AU for pre-med in the DC area. My son went to AU and I would not look at it for a science based major.</p>
<p>It’s worth noting, though, that the University of Maryland School of Medicine is nowhere near College Park. It’s not as far from UMDCP as Cornell’s medical school is from Ithaca, but you couldn’t just pop over to the University of Maryland Hospital, even if you had a car.</p>
<p>I’d second the suggestion to look at University of Maryland, Baltimore County. It’s strong in sciences, and it’s a school that’s generally on the rise. It’s not IN Baltimore, but I don’t think it’s any more not-in Baltimore than Towson is.</p>
<p>Are these UMBC, Towson,Loyola good schools though? Because I was looking at their SAT’s and most of them are in like the 1100-1250 CR/W while I am at 1350ish… Also, UMBC seems to be a bit more science orientated but I saw on CB that like 91% are in state?? (Im a NY Resident)</p>
<p>OP –</p>
<p>If I were you, I would check the hundreds of threads already on this Board about what it takes to get into med school. One of the very lower criteria for med school adcoms is the prestige of the school the applicant attended.</p>
<p>I HAVE read those threads, and this is my impression of the factors the adcoms consider:</p>
<p>1) Score on MCAT
2) GPA in the top 10% of the school, adjusted for difficulty of school somewhat (perhaps by class rank, perhaps b y some other normalizing procedure, or both), but not entirely, with an emphasis on the med school core courses of math, bio, chem and physics
3) Research
4) Recommendation from Professors with whom you did research
5) extra curricular activities </p>
<p>So, find the school where each of these five can line up strongly. Realistically, about 75% of the USNWR schools ranked in the top 200 should do the trick. ANY school will provide the OPPORTUNITIES for you to meet those five criteria… the rest is up to you. The adcoms know that there are high achieving students that for a variety of reasons would have gained acceptance to (or did gain acceptance to) highly ranked colleges but were not able to matriculate.</p>
<p>The question you’ve got to wrestle with is this: If your 3.3 gpa is not in the top 2-5% of your graduating high school class, why do you think you will be top 10% at a prestigious college, or top 1-2% at a much lower ranked college? If your SAT is projected to be top 5-10% out of high school, which would be equivalent to top 50% on the MCAT, why do you think you will have a top 20% MCAT?</p>
<p>i think that GWU and American arent typically schools science schools. i’m pretty sure they are more humanities, especially political science. what loyola are you talking about? theres like four of them and they are all in big cities. i only know about loyola chicago, and its supposed to be very good for pre-med</p>
<p>DunninLa: but wouldnt going to a good school, with perhaps a good science department instead of going to GWU or AU which is heavily political majors, lead to a higher MCAT score, more research opportunities and perhaps more pre med related EC’s? </p>
<p>also, so are you saying what I need to do is go to an easier school and just ace everything? because I feel like I would just be limiting myself and all this work I have done in HS was for nothing…</p>
<p>cross: im talking about loyola in maryland</p>
<p>also, so are you saying what I need to do is go to an easier school and just ace everything? because I feel like I would just be limiting myself and all this work I have done in HS was for nothing…</p>
<p>NO one is saying that you should go to an “easy school.” No pre-med program is easy. However, some schools are known to be harder to get a high GPA. Your HS GPA is a 3.3. That wouldn’t be good for med school. You need a much higher GPA in college. </p>
<p>My son is pre-med at our state flagship because he wanted a strong GPA (chemical engineering major and pre-med curriculum). He has a 4.0. The program is not easy. He has to study a lot. His high school stats were ACT 33, SAT 2280, GPA 4.7. </p>
<p>What is your financial situation? How much will your parents pay each year? Your list has a lot of expensive schools.</p>
<p>I don’t think money is that big of an issue but obviously my parents have been inching towards cheaper schools/state schools (NY) because I do have to pay for medical school…</p>
<p>What do you think about Union College and Syracuse University?</p>
<p>another question, when looking for colleges, should I try and find one where biology is one of the more popular majors??</p>
<p>also, I am really stressing out about narrowing down my college list right now because I originally was going to visit these Maryland/Baltimore schools but they don’t have tours/info sessions now so now I have to visit the other schools on my list but I feel like its a waste of time to visit all these schools only to then narrow the list down and boot some schools off???</p>
<p>Syracuse is fine, but may be unnecessarily expensive.</p>
<p>I don’t think money is that big of an issue but obviously my parents have been inching towards cheaper schools/state schools (NY) because I do have to pay for medical school…</p>
<p>It really is a good idea for you to get some firm info from your parents. Private colleges are costing about $50k per year. Ask them what they can pay for undergrad and med school. If they’re concerned that paying for an expensive undergrad will not allow them to pay or help pay for med school, it’s best that you know that now so you can apply to some schools that would give you some choices. </p>
<p>Is that your weighted GPA? </p>
<p>You should also take the ACT because some do better on that.</p>
<p>What else do you want in a school?</p>
<p>OP, you mentioned your parents are trying to steer you to public schools… I agree with the poster above, you had better clarify this… they may be reluctant to come right out and tell you they CANNOT afford private school unless you get big merit aid.</p>
<p>3 words to consider:</p>
<p>SUNY Stony Brook.</p>
<p>Definitely the SUNYs. Pitt is a big urban school with good premed, but it’s going to run $38k/year for OOS.</p>
<p>UMBC is definitely a school on the rise, and bio is one of its strongest majors. I’m from MD, and it and college park are the schools the “smart” kids from my high school who wanted to study science looked at in state, if that tells you anything. UMBC and MD also both have a lot of scholar programs, in terms of students specifically focusing on medicine or public policy or whatever. </p>
<p>I think of Towson as more arts oriented than science oriented.</p>
<p>I agree with the SUNYs…</p>
<p>If your parents are steering you to lower cost schools, they are either concerned about money for undergrad OR they’re concerned about money for med school. They may have a max amount that they intend to spend on all of your education.</p>
<p>Talk to your parents (both), and get some firm info.</p>
<p>With your stats, you might get merit at some schools. </p>
<p>What is your weighted GPA?</p>
<p>Of the schools listed in post #1, I would say UMD-CP is by far the best choice. The Med School is in downtown Baltimore about 1 hour away from UMDCP. My brother is a PhD student at the Med School and he has an intern this summer from UMDCP. </p>
<p>You might consider the Ag School at Cornell which gives NYS residents a big tuition discount.</p>