My son is accepted by CMU and he is interesting in Pre-Med. CMU is well known for its CS and Engineering, but seems not common for pre-med. Anyone can share the experience of pre med at CMU? Thank you!
Hopefully you get more informed responses, but just to get you started . . .
You are right that CMU tends to send fewer kids to med schools than many of its generic “ranking” peers. In fact, its neighbor across the gorge, Pitt, reportedly sends a higher percentage of kids to med schools generally, and in fact to “top” med schools as well. Fellow UAA conference schools like, say, Case Western or WashU, can then be WAY higher on both measures.
I don’t think that means CMU can’t support med school aspirants, but one observable fact about CMU is they kind like to teach STEM classes their own way, with their own specific focuses. Again not that med schools will not accept those classes, but it may not work as smoothly as it would at others universities very conscious of providing course sequences specifically tailored for pre-health students. And frankly, some students may find some of the classes “harder” in some ways, including from a GPA perspective.
Finally, CMU is not necessarily known for being the most generous with aid. And aspiring premeds definitely need to be cautious about overspending on undergrad.
This probably sounds pretty negative on choosing CMU for pre-med, but to be blunt, I would probably not leap to recommend it for someone who knows they want to try being pre-med. If you went there for a different reason and then that emerged as an interest, then fine. But since he knows about this interest in advance, I would be curious to know your son’s other options.
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Agree with niceunparticularman’s post in its entirety.
I encourage pre-med aspirants to go for a relatively more ‘kind and gentle’ undergrad experience. By kind and gentle I mean things like the make up of the student body, course curving policies, overall school vibe and fit for the student, affordability as applicable.
I would encourage your son to reach out to CMU’s health advisors and talk to them about their program to get insights on what it’s like to be a pre-med there. He will also get good info from reading this content: Health Professions Program - CMU - Health Professions Program - Carnegie Mellon University
Lastly, if your S hasn’t visited CMU that is a must before enrolling. It has a vibe that makes it a ‘fit’ school, and by that I mean one that might not be preferred by many students. Good luck.
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You can take the required courses for medical school applicants at just about every four year college in this country…including CMU.
You need to choose an undergrad school where you can see yourself being happy and doing well for four years. And I would suggest you also choose an undergrad that you really like with lots of options should you decide no to apply to medical school (the vast majority of freshman premed students don’t actually end up applying to medical school).
If your son loves CMU, then that’s a good choice. He should look at other places where he got accepted as well, and make a good choice. Put medical school aside for now.
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A few things that come to mind:
If your son is premed, then budget for a full 8 years of university where the last 4 are going to be expensive. It tends to be easier to save on the first 4 years (we are glad that we did, although we ended up with a DVM daughter rather than an MD son – the cost of eight years is very similar).
Premed classes are academically challenging at any good (let’s say top 150 or top 200) university. The required premed and pre-vet classes are the same, so we did see a daughter go through the full set of these required premed classes (and our other daughter also took most of the same classes).
At least our older daughter did know a few premed students who had not attended the most academically challenging and highly ranked university that they could have gotten into for undergrad (eg, straight A student at a university ranked in the 100-120 range) and who ended up doing very well and getting into very good MD programs. It is not necessary to attend the highest ranked school that you get into.