I want to study bio or something related and apply to medical school after college. I need to commute for financial reasons and family responsibilities. So far, I am considering these schools:
Fordham (Bronx campus)
Manhattan college
Lehman College (CUNY)
Suny Purchase
Lehman and Purchase would be nearly free which would be great. But they are both low ranked. Purchase is mostly for arts but has all the pre-med requirements. I don’t know much about Lehman except that it is quite low ranked. I don’t really care about the rankings, but I worry that medical schools will look down on these degrees. There are tons of hospitals in the area and opportunities for me to do clinical volunteering.
Please let me know your thoughts and if I have missed any colleges I should be considering.
Thanks!
I don’t know much about these colleges, but the general wisdom is that it doesn’t matter much where you do your undergraduate work as long as you have stellar GPA, MCAT and ECs. Hopefully, someone more knowledgeable will chime in.
Lehman has always been known for its nursing program and it has a pre-health advising department. This is a link to a listing of which medical schools recent grads were accepted to, including Harvard and Dartmouth, as well as Einstein, Hofstra and Stony Brook, http://www.lehman.edu/academics/pre-health-advising/why-lehman.php.
I think Lehman is stronger than Purchase, which is known for its theater and arts programs.
My personal belief and others may disagree is that if you are interested in graduate school, you should take on the least amount of debt possible in UG and go to a school where you can rise to the top.
P.S. - In the interest of full disclosure, I commuted to Lehman for my UG degree for financial reasons.
Well, medical schools know better than anyone how overrated prestigious colleges are. They get applicants from all over the country coming from a vast variety of colleges. The only preference they give is to in-state applicants if the applicant is a resident. Everything else is up to grades and MCAT scores. If you have top grades and scores, then you can get into medical school regardless of prestige. If you have mediocre grades prestige won’t help you at all. Hope that helps
Thank you guys so much! If I attend Lehman, it will be nearly free and I will be able to get my education and still be able to help my family. I’m almost in tears.
