<p>And if they have a pre-med major, is it great? Is the school good? does it have a great reputation in academics?</p>
<p>No. If you don’t go to Harvard, you’re a failure.</p>
<p>Serious response, yes, of course it’s respected. It’s a good school, though it’s obviously not quite the kind of elite college that CC obsesses over. If you like it, by all means apply.</p>
<p>Very few schools actually have a pre-med major. Med schools just care that you take the required courses.</p>
<p>Rutgers has a good honors program if you want to apply.</p>
<p>I wouldn’t say it’s a ‘very respected’ school. I doubt that most people have even heard of rutgers outside the NJ area. But it’s not as if you go there you’ll be completely screwed over. For medical school i here that the MCAT is pretty much one of the most important things. But academia is highly superficial, and in general it won’t be looked great if you go to rutgers. There are exceptions though, like philosophy, where rutgers (new brunswick i believe) is ranked #2 in the US</p>
<p>beyphy stated in another thread:</p>
<p>“wrt the OP, none of the schools you listed would be considered ‘top publics’ the top publics mirror the decent, but not amazing privates. In UCLA’s range are USC and CMU; in Cal’s range are USC and maybe Rice, for example. But neither of them is in the range of Caltech or Columbia for example.”</p>
<p>In this thread he states:</p>
<p>“But academia is highly superficial, and in general it won’t be looked great if you go to rutgers.”</p>
<p>So can I just assume beyphy is an academician? lol</p>
<p>Actually I wouldn’t say academia is highly superficial at all. The PA scores at USNWR indicate to me that academia is well aware of which schools are the tops in academics. Berkeley, Michigan, and other top publics fare very well there. It’s only those people who are completely obsessed with the rankings at USNWR who feel differently.</p>
<p>I would have to agree with beyphy, </p>
<p>I wouldn’t say Rutgers is very respected. It’s a good school, but not “very respected”. The only thing I would consider Rutgers to be “very respected” is Philosophy grad programs. </p>
<p>Personally, as a New Jersey student, I absolutely refused to go there.</p>
<p>I would say that except for Berkeley, UCLA, Michigan, Virginia, and perhaps one or two others, most of the top 20 flagship state universities are roughly equivalent. And I would include Rutgers in that group of 20.</p>
<p>And if you go to one of those schools, they are very suitable launchpads to get into a good graduate school.</p>
<p>I think the top grad schools, and top companies, know that not everyone can afford to go to an expensive private school, and that many of the top students at the public ivies are just as good as most of the top students at the private ivies.</p>
<p>I know people in Florida who have gotten into medical school after going to Nova Southeastern University and Florida International University.</p>
<p>When I was a kid, I knew someone who got into med school from SUNY Cortland.</p>
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<p>Yes, obviously i have to be an “academician” to know about academia, just like i need to be a mathematician to know about math, or a biologist to know about biology. It’s clearly obvious that i can’t get such information through testimony, you know, of people i know in academia like my brother and various professors who have told me that academia is highly superficial :rolleyes:</p>
<p>I like how, while addressing my comment about Rutgers, in your listing of top public schools, you DON’T include rutgers. Way to reaffirm my point.</p>
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<p>those one or two others would probably be Texas and UNC. I agree with you. Colorado like to think that it’s peers are “berkeley” and “michigan.” No one else does though lol.</p>
<p>"'I like how, while addressing my comment about Rutgers, in your listing of top public schools, you DON’T include rutgers. Way to reaffirm my point."</p>
<p>I never claimed to be superficial. I don’t see Rutgers as a top public. However I do see Berkeley as a top public. I also see it as an academic peer of Rice, Columbia, and even Caltech. :-)</p>
<p>OP, there really is no such thing as a pre-med major. You can major in any field (typically, an arts & sciences or engineering field) as long as you complete the pre-med requirements (2 semesters each f general biology, general chemistry, calculus, organic chemistry, and general physics). Some med schools require or recommend some additional courses, e.g., biochemistry or genetics. Most pre-med students major in biology or chemistry, but a significant number major in humanities or social science fields.</p>
<p>So, yes, you can complete your pre-med studies at Rutgers. It won’t make a huge difference where you complete the basic science courses that make up the pre-med requirements. Rutgers can provide you with these courses as well as many other schools. Your GPA and MCAT scores are major factors in med school admission. If Rutgers is your least expensive option (as an in-state public university), then go for it; you want as little debt as possible going into medical school, which is expensive.</p>
<p>The reputation of the school won’t count so much for med school admission. Your GPA, MCATs, letters of rec, and interviews will count much more. Now is Rutgers a good school? It’s great in some fields. It’s uneven across the board though and lags in some key disciplines where it should be stronger. This is especially the case since public universities in neighboring states and even in many states that lag behind NJ in overall educational attainments manage to make a better showing with their flagship public universities. IMO, A big part of the problem is the bias against public universities in the northeast generally, and especially in NJ. With its population base and resources (historical), there’s no good reason NJ shouldn’t have a top-notch public flagship, except for that reason. With the economy the way it is, I don’t except NJ will have the resources to catch up now. </p>
<p>I think a lot of people outside NJ in other parts of the country might recognize the name “Rutgers”, but really don’t know anything about it and have no opinion one way or the other.</p>
<p>Rutgers ranks very well in several fields: Philosophy (#2), Nutrition (#6), History (#9), Food Science (#12), Entomology (#11), Microbiology (#12), Math (#15), Physiology (#17). It’s respectable in several others: English (#24), Statistics (#23), Sociology (#28), Industrial Engineering (#22). It’s OK in others: Art History (#35), Biochemistry (#30), Earh Sciences (#34), Physics (#38), Linguistics (#32). But it really lags relative to other schools in several other key fields: Chemistry (#65), Computer Science (#60), most engineering fields (#50s-80s), Economics (#63), Evolution & Ecology (#50), Cell & Developmental Biology (#50), Anthropology (#46), Political Science (#50), Psychology (#52). </p>
<p>These are the NRC graduate rankings so they don’t tell you much about the quality of undergrad programs in those fields, but they do give some indication of areas of faculty strength.
You might check some of these links for additional information on doing pre-med studies at Rutgers:
[Rutgers</a> Premedical Society](<a href=“http://rupremedsociety.webs.com/]Rutgers”>http://rupremedsociety.webs.com/)
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<a href=“http://www.■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■/showthread.php?t=71812&page=3[/url]”>http://www.■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■/showthread.php?t=71812&page=3](<a href=“Error Page”>http://hpo.rutgers.edu/)</a></p>
<p>Overall, Rutgers is a very solid school. Like at all large public universities, you can get an outstanding education or a very mediocre one. It depends on you. If your intent is to go to medical school, then clearly Rutgers can get you where you want to go (as can many other schools). Keep in mind that many top graduate schools in all disciplines are continually looking to increase diversity (ethinic, gender, socio-ecnomic, etc.) so there are always good opportunities for those that didn’t go to Harvard, Yale, etc. People really do get too hung up on where they are going to undergrad. If your goal is a top grad school, then doing very well at a school like Rutgers is going to get you there. My wife and I went to Rutgers undergrad and went on to top grad schools in our field.</p>
<p>Rutgers has tons of opportunities to offer. It depends on you if you use those opportunities in the best possible manner. Rutgers never spoon-feeds opportunities but a proactive student should be able to find those (similar to what herezaquarter said above).</p>