Hey! I’m trying to make a college list, and I’m currently looking at schools in the Northeast. I like the vibe of a liberal arts college (smaller, interdisciplinary), but I want to be near a city for its resources. I’m open to liberal arts, other public & private, etc. as long as it fits the criteria. Examples would be Brown, Tufts, and Swarthmore. For reference, I’m looking to do premed, and tuition isn’t a problem for me. Thank you so much!
What are your stats and are Jesuit Universities acceptable? If so, check out Holy Cross. Worcester is “grittier” than Boston, but there are plenty of medical centers nearby. uMass’s med school is actually located in Worcester
U of Rochester…not a huge city but it does have art museums and Eastman means music, and has an airport so easily accessible and such. (Also has RIT there so fair number of college kids around)…
If applicable - Wellesley (very easy commuter train to Boston)…
Clark in Worcester… small, researchy, also has a (longer) commuter rail to Boston (as well as being in a city).
American, in DC.
A list will depend on what you bring statistically - but there are many schools in cities - and don’t forget, most/all colleges have a liberal arts college in it - so maybe it’s a smaller large school - like an Albany. There’s colleges near NYC, Philly, Boston, etc so you need to offer up more.
Four years at any of the three schools that you mentioned in your original post, plus another four years of medical school, could easily come to $800,000, and might possibly get closer to $900,000. You need to either make sure that your parents can afford this, or pay attention to your budget.
Your high school stats will be important in terms of which schools make sense to consider. How large of a city you want will also be important. As one example, Bowdoin College is in Brunswick Maine. This is an attractive but rather small city. Is Brunswick large enough for you? Are your stats strong enough to at least be competitive for Bowdoin?
Whether you are male or female might matter for single gender schools. Simmons College in Boston for example could be an option. I agree with another answer that suggests Wellesley College, which in addition to the commuter train to Boston also runs buses to MIT. While these busses are intended for students who are cross registered (students from either of these two schools can take classes at the other), you can board with a student ID from either school even if you are not taking a class at the other school.
Emerson College in Boston is another option. There are lots of hospitals and medical facilities in Boston (Tufts Medical School for example is relatively nearby).
But none of the schools that I mentioned are going to cost much less than the three schools that you mentioned.
The biggest problem might be that it would be far too easy to list 100 schools. We would need to know more about you to focus in on schools that are likely to be a good fit.
I was looking at URochester too! I go to a top competitive public school. I have a 1560 SAT, ~99 unweighted GPA, and 13 APs by graduation (all 5s so far). I’m very lucky that my parents said they would financially support any school I go to, including grad/med school. I’m female, but I’d prefer a coed school. I also want a larger city, something like Rochester or bigger. I come from NYC for reference ![]()
Vassar College, located in Poughkeepsie, NY. If that isn’t close enough to NYC, there’s Sarah Lawrence College in Bronxville/Yonkers, NY, another option. Bryn Mawr College, Haverford College, and Lafayette College are liberal arts colleges located in PA, varying distances from Philadelphia.
This Newsweek article may serve as a source of further ideas:
Wesleyan/Middletown CT - pop. 50,000; county hospital within walking distance of campus.
Macalester/Minneapolis-St. Paul MN
Trinity College/Hartford CT
Hamilton College - Hamilton is about 30 miles from Utica NY (pop. 50,000)
Do you mean medical resources specifically, or simply general resources?
From Princeton to Syracuse to Pitt to BU to NU to Brandeis, etc - really lots of schools out there.
So many schools to mention. Why not apply to the three you mentioned, and add a safety? Ps are you avoiding NYC since you live there?
Trinity in Hartford.
Could you please do a chance me/match me thread and answer all of the questions on that template. This will help folks here give you better suggestions.
My only advice right now is…you can take the required courses for medical school applicants at just about every four year college in this country, arts conservatories excluded. So…you need to start looking for colleges that you can picture yourself being happy at for all four years, where you will do well, where you have a decent chance of acceptance and which are affordable.
So…for us to help you more…do that chance me/match me thread.
Hamilton is 9.6 miles from Utica. With respect to hospitals, Utica has a Level III Trauma Center. The population of Utica is 62,978.
I agree a full Chance Me/Match Me is a good idea. Also getting some guidance on what you think of as being in the Northeast.
But I will just note that Brandeis and Rochester are two immediate suggestions for research universities that come to mind. I also agree about Jesuit universities often fitting this description, so Fordham, for example.
Then others have already identified a lot of the Northeast LACs that are near a city. But again, “near a city” is subject to interpretation. So, to me, an LAC like Lafayette in the Lehigh Valley actually has a great location, because there are some cool post-industrial smaller cities in that area, and then it is also a pretty quick drive to either NYC or Philly.
Of course you could still prefer, say, a Haverford that is a quick short train hop into Philly. But if you are trying to fill out a list with more options, I think some flexibility on this sort of subject can be helpful.
If Catholic schools are OK then agree with suggestion of looking at some Jesuit schools (ex. BC, Gtown, Fordham, St Joes, etc.) as well as Villanova & Providence.
ETA: @DadTwoGirls I don’t think Emerson has much of a pre-med track and the school offers no majors in the hard sciences.
You do not need to major in hard sciences to apply to medical school. You just need to take the courses required for medical school applicants. There are music, art, philosophy, English, foreign language, business…just about every major…who apply to medical schools.
Some students take some of these required courses for medical school applicants during glide year(s) after undergrad, and that’s OK too.
Agreed…but I don’t think Emerson offers traditional science classes (ex. traditional chemistry, organic chem). The schools is focused on arts/communication. The OP can research course offerings further.
My two cents is reasonably good STEM departments is not a hard requirement to satisfy if you are looking at colleges knowing you might be interested in a health profession. If you don’t know that in advance and end up at a college without such departments, you don’t need to panic, there are ways around that. But if you haven’t enrolled anywhere yet, I would usually recommend making it one of your criteria.
But I can’t stress enough how many colleges would fit that requirement. Orgo is Orgo, and plenty of colleges are perfectly capable of teaching it to the satisfaction of med schools.