Hey everyone! I just finished getting all of my decisions back and was really struggling to choose between my colleges. I got into JHU, Emory, UWash, Berkeley, and George Washington, and I am interested in going premed. I know that premed in general takes up a lot of time, but I’ve also heard that its important to have a somewhat positive undergraduate experience to really be satisfied! Overall for college, I really value academics and research/ec opportunities, but I also want to somewhat prioritize some version of a fun social life (kind of going with the whole “work hard play hard”). Its not a huge priority but I really want a school that can give me that and a fun experience overall. Any suggestions for which college that would be? This includes parties (i.e. maybe not dry campuses if you all know what I mean…).Also I got into oxford campus for emory, so id love some thoughts on how I would fit in there!
Great schools. But what’s the cost? Any of the schools stand out? And when you say UWash, you mean UW as in Seattle? Or WashU in St. Louis?
If you want fun, and a good education, I think all the schools will provide it if you look for it. If it’s UW/UDub that you got into, that’s probably the most party school along with Berkeley. The reason being they are large schools with D1 programs and I know have parties. I’m not sure about GW. JHU seems pretty intense. Emory is in Atlanta so may have night life but Oxford’s very tiny and I would think is pretty quiet being 30 minutes from the city.
seattle! All of them, except for UW are around the same price, but we are working on getting tuition down for the others as well, so for now I wanted to try to take the other factors into position.
For premed, do you think JHU and Emory would be a huge sacrifice in terms of a social life? And what do you think about berkeley as a premed program
To me JHU is presure cooker and grade deflation place. GW does not have campus. I personally would choose between Emory and UW
I hear that Berkeley is a very good school for premed, but the OOS cost is high. Also, it does not have a medical school. It’s tough to get classes your first year, dorms are below mediocre and the cafeteria food is meh. But it’s a fun city and outside food is good. San Francisco is nearby. Games are fun. Only thing is there is some grade deflation and you compete against 1000 other premed students.
I don’t know if JHU or Emory would detract from a social life but all your schools will be challenging to do well. I know 80% of JHU grads get accepted into med school. About 50-55% of Emory students are accepting to med school. Berkeley is at 50% and UW around 45% apparently.
If you want to get into med school, and the prices are all the same, I’d say go to JHU and then Emory. Both UW and Cal are so big and you compete against so many people. However if you want fun, UW seems fun and the football games sound incredible. Cal has some of that, but not quite like UW.
What other schools did you get into? Remember the keys to med school are grades, scores, and whatever makes you stand out from everyone else.
As a retired doctor, I’d say price should be a very high priority. I routinely mused with my physician patients about whether or not they’d do it again. The younger ones were often so crushed with debt, that the answer was no. One made his last student loan payment at age 45. The top students in our class, myself included (Summa Cum Laude 
) all went to midwestern land grant universities. Be careful about debt, unless there’s enough money in the coffers for undergrad and medical school.
Washington sounds pretty on point giving what you described, and I am gathering it might be a lot less expensive because it is in-state for you?
I note a lot of savvy premed families I know choose in-state flagships like Washington because they know they are perfectly fine for supporting premed, also good if you decide to do something else, and even wealthier families see the benefit of saving for med school.
Congratulations on your acceptances.
What major would you be at Washington? Don’t underestimate the pressure cooker it is academically…pre-med will be a grind anywhere, and you will be in class with students who do prioritize their academics and spend a great deal of time studying.
Emory Oxford could be a good choice, I am a big fan of a liberal arts type education for pre-meds.
The idea is to choose a school where you can be at or near the top of the class…have you visited these schools? What’s your sense of the vibe, the student quality of life, and where you would be at the top of the class?
The rub is we have absolutely no idea what is in the numerator and denominator of those percentages, so we can’t compare them. Do they include…MD and DO? All students who applied that year regardless of what year they graduated? Those who did a post-bacc or SMP? Does the school gatekeep by using a committee letter? Etc.
Emory Oxford is a great choice for a pre-med student. All of my son’s friends that were premed are now in medical school. That said, it is not a “work hard, play hard” kind of place. It is small, and quiet, and located in a very small quiet area – there is virtually nothing to walk to (maybe one coffee shop, I can’t remember). So no college town. Some kids join fraternities, mine didn’t, so I don’t know what that experience is like.
Normally I would say Emory but your comments about having the college experience would give me pause. Oxford is small and excluded. Would you be transferring to Main campus after freshman year?
It’s a great school but I didn’t get the sense it would offer the “total experience” like football on Saturday’s.
They cannot transfer to the main campus after one year. All Oxford students move to the main campus after their sophomore year.
Student got accepted to University of Washington…not WashU.
We know a number of very very happy students attending or have graduated from University of Washington. If this is your instate and best cost option, I’d choose that in a heartbeat.
You won’t be getting your aid adjusted at Berkeley. They don’t really give financial aid to OOS students.
Read this thread also. If you are thinking about medical school, these possible changes in Direct Loans and Grad Plus Loans, and Parent Plus Loans needs to be monitored.
What makes you say this. One of the least considered things in medical school applications is the place where the kid went to undergrad.
All these options are great for pre-med.
Given the uncertainty surrounding the future of Grad Plus and direct student loans (which is how people pay for med school), I’d lean toward the least expensive option and banking any leftover college funds to pay for med school.
Medical school adcomms really don’t put much weight the name of the undergrad when making decisions about who to interview and admit.
(See p 15 of Using MCAT® Data in 2024 Medical Student Selection This is a survey of actual adcomm officers and how they weigh various factors. Undergrad selectivity is of the “lowest importance”.)
BTW, UWash is a fun place. One of my D’s did a summer research institute at Uwash’s med school. She lived in the dorms and ate in the cafeteria. She had blast there. Lots of activities, lots of parties. Plus getting off campus and around Seattle is fairly easy with the bus system.
Based upon the statistics that JHU grads apparently have an 80% acceptance rate into med school and Emory about 55% when the national avg is anywhere between 35-41%. UW and UC Berkeley are slightly less than Emory or JHU and Cal does not have a hospital or medical school. Moreover, there’s likely more hands on attention at the smaller privates than the two mega universities.
It’s not saying that UW or Cal are not good or even great schools to attend to get into med school. My own D24 goes to Cal and have many family and friends who went to UW. It’s just that if I needed to make a choice and I really desired to attend med school, that would be my decision based upon the relatively little and likely biased information that we have.
Here’s my 2 cents. Of all of the “premed hopefuls” coming out of high school, very few of them actually go to medical school. This is because college is a maturation process where students find their real passions. NEVER choose a college based on “premed prestige.” That’s a fast track to 4 years of complete misery, especially if there’s piles of debt involved. Instead, I recommend an affordable in-state school. If you decide medical school, you will have low debt. If you decide against medical, you have low debt. Your best chance for medical school is your home state because they give preference to WA residents.
@WayOutWestMom how accurate are these statistics from JHU and Emory about med school admissions, and do either do committee letters.
Most colleges don’t have a hospital or medical school. This isn’t a “must have” for medical school applicants.
In fact a lot of LACs do really well in per capita med school placement studies and such. To be fair, as do some universities (beyond the usual suspects) that have associated hospitals and medical schools. And none of this is really controlled for self-selection. But both of these paths are obviously viable.
So while I do think an associated hospital and medical school system can potentially be a convenience for some purposes, it is definitely not a necessity. I would see it at most as a secondary or tertiary factor once you have narrowed down to some finalists on the basis of the really important stuff (cost, what you would do if you decide to opt out of premed, general excitement about the four-year college experience, and so on).
Not sure where you’re getting your data…
Nationally the acceptance is currently around 45%. (MD only, doesn’t include DO acceptances)
JHU and Emory both use health profession committee letter to restrict which students the school will endorse for med school.
No HP letter = no med school application
Not having a HP letter if the college offers one is huge red flag that must be explained. In fact, many secondary application specifically ask an applicants to explain why they don’t have a HP letter.
An undergrad does not need an associated hospital to be viable pre-med college. It just needs to offer the require med school pre0reqs.
Research is often overvalued by naive pre-meds and their parents. And clinical volunteering and shadowing can be done over the summer away from campus.
Also given that 75% of premeds take 1-3 gap years between undergrad and med school, there’s plenty of time to get those clinical hours idone after graduation.
The common pathway today is for a pre-med to work full or part-time at a clinical job post graduation in order to gather the several hundred clinical hours that are expected in med school applicants