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<p>I still don’t understand why this is a concern. We really have an excellent premed advising system. Do you care to point to any specifics about the premed program that you’re concerned about?</p>
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<p>I don’t think this is a problem either. Harvard kids aren’t automatically “better” than us, and I think they churn out more people working in law or business anyway. If you come to MIT, all of our research labs are open to you during the summer to work, and there’s no competition there. I’ve spent all of my summers interning at various places (UROP on campus frosh summer, California last summer, NYC this summer) and hasn’t had a problem finding an internship. I volunteer at Tufts Medical in Chinatown and I don’t see any Harvard kids there… Don’t worry, the pond’s plenty big for all the premeds in Boston.</p>
<p>(I’m not sure what you meant by interning in Boston, but plenty of our students work at MGH - that’s Mass General Hospital - labs, and hint* they prefer us over other college students in Boston : P)</p>
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<p>To be honest, I have never heard of any friend here that consistently failed at getting an UROP. Not to be derisive, but I know people here with 3.5/5.0 overall GPA (premed average is 4.7/5.0) that still have UROPs. You’ll be fine. When the UROP program says that >80% of all MIT students participated in a UROP before graduation, they really aren’t kidding. </p>
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<p>I looked up the Rabi Scholars program and it does seem like a very selective program. At the same time, however, you can easily accomplish the same things as a student at MIT without all the frills of the titled scholarship. I guess what matters here is how much that title means to you, I guess. Yes, you can get a research stipend very easily here during the summer (full summer is usually $3,000+) as well as UROP for pay during term (pays at $9.75+ i think per hour - not sure what the base rate is now but it’s around that)</p>
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<p>Sorry to sound so harsh, but this is the only strongly outstanding concern in your list of disadvantages about MIT. If coming to MIT means putting a dent in your family’s finances, then you may need to consider accordingly. The Financial Aid Office has been known to reassess your family’s need eligibility if you are persistent enough with them, so that may be worth a shot.</p>
<p>Please let me know if you have further concerns about biology major and the premed track at MIT, either here or through PM. There’s a lot of misinformation that gets propagated about premed @ MIT and I want to clear things up as much as possible candidly and honestly.</p>
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<p>Strangely enough, this is true. I fielded so many premed concerns during CPW (significantly more than the '12 and the '13 CPWs!)…lol.</p>