Holy Cross is known for extreme screening and only supporting it’s highest prospective med school applicants.
Most med school acceptance numbers for UG schools are manipulated in one way or another. Take them all with a grain of salt.
AAMC.
Re: Holy Cross, as @CottonTales notes, it is a good idea to see how a college uses its Health Advisory Committee (different names at different colleges). HC doesn’t seem to prohibit students from applying to med school, but it does provide candidates with an assessment of the probable “tone and content” of their committee letter, and I’d guess being told they’d receive a low recommendation would discourage some from applying. Not necessarily a bad thing, but something to be aware of at any college. As far as what HC claims regarding their med school acceptance rate, I have not seen 10 years worth of AAMC stats, but from what I have seen they must have a lot of DO acceptances (their recent MD rates are definitely above average, but not close to 80%). But again, (repeat after us) it’s the student, not the college that gets them into med school.
It seems disingenuous to say numbers are manipulated by HC.
Supporting and proffering their strongest candidates is something other colleges do, such as BC etc.
And yet their published acceptance rate is indeed extremely high.
https://www.holycross.edu/custom_entity/hc_statistic/106
Rhodes College is next to St. Jude’s Research Hospital. Rhodes’ students have access to terrific research opportunities there.
Pre-med
If you want to go pre-med then think about:
- The cheapest reasonable college so you/your parents can use the money for med school
- The college needs to prepare you for MCATs but still allow you to get a good GPA
- Access to volunteering opportunities (e.g., near a hospital)
- Success in graduates getting into med school
- Options if you don’t go to med school. You think you are going to med school, but less than 20% of pre-med freshman actually do.
When people talk of “High Admit rates”, is it the %:
of freshman who say they are pre-med? no
the ones who get through Bio and Chem?
The ones who get through Organic Chem?
The ones who finish all the pre-med courses?
The ones who have a good GPA and good sGPA?
The ones who still want to go to medical school?
The ones who volunteer and shadow and do research?
The ones who take the MCAT?
The ones who get a good score on the MCAT?
Of the ones who get that far…
The ones then who got a recommendation letter from the Health committee (if that is a thing at your college)?
Then a “high percentage” of them get into medical school. But you have to get that far.
The flip side is discouraging weaker applicants from applying. This could be a good thing for the student, in that s/he can switch to other plans without wasting time and money on futile medical school applications. But some will want to try even with a below average chance, rather than be weeded out by their college.
@bopper can’t agree more. Can you share some colleges that best match 1-5? Thanks!
@MDHopefulDad
The criteria matching 1-5 would depend on your EFC and your stats (or your child’s).
@MDHopefulDad Generally I would start with your state schools. They will usually be half the price of private U’s and may still have scholarships.
@bopper @MYOS1634 we are from CA, the state schools are very good but unfortunately too competitive for pre-med. Cost is a lot less than private colleges but if one can’t get in med schools it doesn’t matter. Will definitely apply anyway but think private colleges, LACs may offer a better path to med schools. Not top of the list student, may be competent for t20-40 universities.
If the student wants to practice medicine in inland southern California, UCR and its early admission program to its medical school for UCR undergraduates may be of interest: https://somsa.ucr.edu/thomas-haider-early-assurance-program
@ucbalumnus thanks, yes UCR is on our list to apply. It’s ranked lower than many other UCs though, thus more of a “safety” school if it gets to that point. we would like a few reach and target schools good for pre-med too.
Lies, Damn Lies and Statistics
What’s in numerator? (off shore, foreign?)
What’s in the denominator? (only those who obtain Committee approval to even apply?)
And even when one has the complete numbers, one has to remember that every state has different selectivity. Med school for CA residents is brutal. NY and TX not so bad. Thus, a resident of say NY that attends HC can always go back to their home state public. Not necessarily true of CA residents as three of the publics are top 15 national med schools – with admission stats to match. So a CA resident with similar numbers and recs to a NY or TX resident will find an allopathic admission much more difficult.
No question that LAC’s encourage undergrads to get involved with their research. That being said, the “advantage” might be more of spin. The fact is that R1 Unis get boatloads more of research dollars, so they are doing more research. And yes, Grad students are involved, but that doesn’t mean that undergrads are precluded from labs. (As an aside, Johns Hopkins was founded specifically to be a research Uni, which means that the undergrads are expected to be involved in research.)
I’m sure that there are many of us whose kids attended a R1 could say something similar.
But LAC vs Uni comes down to the student. Either will provide a great education and cover the premed basics. So it really comes down to which type of college would they be most comfortable at for the next four years. And as Dos notes, many of the LACs have different vibes. Visit if you can.