I am a senior currently applying to colleges for pre-med/7 or 8 year BS/MD programs. I have a list of possible colleges I want to go to but I need to narrow it down to about 10 colleges. I live in Texas and prefer in state colleges but I am keeping my options open and will apply to some out of state.
Here’s the list of colleges I have so far:
UT Austin
UT Dallas (PACT- 7 yrs)
UT San Antonio (FAME - 7 yrs)
Texas A&M
Baylor
Rice
Texas Tech (USMI - 8 yrs)
Austin College
Southwestern
University of Houston
Washington University at St. Louis
UCLA
UC Berkeley
UCSD (8 yr program)
George Washington University (7 yr program)
Emory
Johns Hopkins
University of Missouri at Kansas City (6 yr program)
Which of these colleges have the best pre-med programs?
Since you are pursuing a Medical school career, you want to keep your undergrad costs as low as possible, so I would remove UCSD/UCLA and UCB since you will get little to no financial aid and will probably be paying $55K/year to attend. You do not want that much debt if you plan to go to Medical school.
Keep those:
UT Austin
UT Dallas (PACT- 7 yrs)
UT San Antonio (FAME - 7 yrs)
Texas A&M
Baylor
Rice
Texas Tech (USMI - 8 yrs)
Austin College
Southwestern
Emory
For OOS, look at different colleges - colleges that will give you a lot of merit aid and provide you with advantages.
I would suggest: Northeastern, UAlabama Honors, Rhodes
Academics for premeds are very basic and all colleges ranked in the top 100-125 (or in Fiske or in Colleges that Pay you Back, etc) will do. You’ll need to take the following classes: 2 semesters each of English, Biology, Chemistry, Physics plus 1 semester each of Calculus, Statistics, Organic Chemistry, Biochemistry, Sociology, Psychology, potentially neuroscience, and a good level in a foreign language spoken by immigrants (such as Creole French, Ukrainian, Arabic, Korean, Hindi, etc…) You can add any major to that.
What matters is the level of support provided at your college and how cut throat it is (you DO NOT want cut throat. Med Schools do NOT care that you attended a cut throat program. In fact, because doctors work in teams, they appreciate colleges that have a cooperative culture.)
Some colleges may be more successful than others in furthering the goals of their premed students. Colleges that offer a bit of an edge may be more likely to appear on this list (available online): “The Experts’ Choice: Colleges With Great Pre-med Programs.” The URochester offers an early medical school acceptance program, though it is very competitive.