Hello. I am a senior in highschool and was just accepted into Georgetown, Notre Dame, and UMichigan through early action. I am very interested in biology and I’m likely going pre-med at one of these three schools. I’ve researched these school’s programs and have learned about their research opportunities and stuff but I wanted to get a better sense of what being pre-med really means at these schools. Does anyone know anything about the relative difficulty, competitiveness, and available space for research at any of these schools? Or anything about their programs that isn’t really stated on the websites? Thank you.
Congrats!
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Academics GPA Weighted: 5.14 Junior year (All A+), 4.86 Sophomore year(All A+ and one A), 4.71 freshman year (4.0 unweighted) Class Rank: school does not rank, but I would think top 5 of 250 at a strong academic prep school SAT score: Taken once, 700 CR, 790 Math, 780 Writing (2270 Comp) SAT II: Bio: 780 Math Level II: 780 World History: 700 (will not submit if possible) World History: 5 English Lang : 5 APES : 5 BIO : 4 220 PSAT NJ, National Merit Commended High Honors List National Honors Society Currently Taking AP Calc, AP Stat, AP Eng, and AP Art History for senior year
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Academic Awards/ Achievements
2011- Won regional essay contest about favorite teacher and earned recognition at local libraries and book store
2010 – Won award from my towns Human Relations Commission for an essay honoring Dr. Martin Luther King Jrs. Birthday
2015- Published a collaborative biological paper on the HER-2 gene with other interns at a large genomics company
AP Scholar With Honor
Highest Honor Roll
National Merit Scholar
2014- Inducted into nearby school’s hall of fame for ongoing work with children with autism
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BTW…I see that you’ve also applied to UCLA OOS. Don’t bother going there. A big negative for an OOS premed.
As long as all are affordable, I think I would choose ND. I’ve heard some negative things about being premed at G’town. Are you instate for UMich? If not, not really worth $50k+ as an OOS premed there, either.
Are you NM Commended or a National Merit Scholar?
@mom2collegekids Thank you! I ended up not applying to any UC schools, my parents didn’t want me going so far. I’m from NJ and I was NM commended for score of 220. I believe the cutoff was 225 for my state. Prices not considered, have you heard good things about UMich pre-med? and are there any bad things in particular that you’ve heard about g’town premed?
Take your question to the Michigan board here at CC. You will get much better advice there pertaining to your inquiry.
Unless you prefer living in Washington DC verses a college town in the fields of Northern Indiana, I would second that.
Did you apply to ND and Georgetown because of the Catholic aspect? If so, you may be interested to know that 80% of ND students identify as Catholic compared to 50% at Georgetown.
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have you heard good things about UMich pre-med?
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I’m sure that Umich is fine for premed, but if you’re full pay as an OOS premed, I don’t see any real benefit of going there. Does UMich write Committee Letters?
286 med school applicants from ND
782 med school applicants from UMich
177 med school applicants from Gtown
I just think that you’d get better advising from a school that has fewer med school applicants. While Gtown has the fewest, I’m skeptical about student happiness there.
mom2collegekids, what have you heard that’s negative about being pre-med at Georgetown? I can’t speak to being pre-med at Georgetown, but DC is a great place for students. Amazing internship opportunities, esp. if you have an interest in healthcare policy, international health, healthcare for underserved communities, etc…(in addition to the usual research opportunities). The campus is pretty, DC has lots of free things for students to do (the country’s tax dollars at work), and the campus sits right alongside the C&O Canal National Historical Park, a paradise for kayakers, runners, hikers, bikers, rowers, etc…And the weather is pretty good year round.
That doesn’t mean Notre Dame and Michigan wouldn’t be good too - and if you want a ‘big sports scene’ then Georgetown doesn’t have that.
Michigan has a staff of just 4 people advising close 800 pre-med seniors. Can you imagine?
Having been to both ND and Georgetown on several occasions, Georgetown cannot compare in terms of campus facilities. It is not even a fair fight. ND’s endowment is 7 or 8 times larger. Georgetown isn’t as nice as Villanova or Boston College in that regard.
ND is one of premier schools for undergrads. The other two are not.
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Michigan has a staff of just 4 people advising close 800 pre-med seniors. Can you imagine?
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That would be horrific. Sounds like they don’t do CL’s, but maybe I’m wrong.
I know that schools tend to provide rather minimal premed advising to freshmen because so many get weeded out, but to only have 4 advisers would mean that even juniors and seniors would also get very minimal attention.
I’ve been on this forum for almost a dozen years and have heard nothing but good things about pre-med at Georgetown. There was a poster a while back who frequently waxed poetic about Georgetown pre-med, in fact.
According to the most recent JHU catalog, 11 Georgetown graduates and 8 Notre Dame graduates are MD students there – not a bad showing for either school.
Also note the early admissions program at Georgetown Med. Notre Dame obviously does not have such an agreement.
@warblersrule I really like that opportunity from georgetown. Seems great to avoid all that stress of the MCAT. Any idea how hard it is to complete four of the five pre-med course by end of sophomore year? versus having four years to space it out…
Before you get excited about one of these programs look at the GPA requirements and how many students actually get accepted this way. Not many students go this route.
It’s very doable and not that uncommon for biology majors. A lot depends on your background and IB/AP preparation. (I attended a university pretty similar to Georgetown and am speaking from personal experience. I took organic chem as a freshman, as did about 80 other freshmen, so you can speed along if you’re willing to work hard.)
Possible schedule:
– Freshman: Intro Bio, Intro Chem, 2-3 electives/gen ed courses each semester
– Sophomore: Organic Chem, Physics, 2-3 electives/gen ed courses each semester
If you have AP credit for math or physics, most medical schools will accept it, but each has its own rules. I don’t recommend skipping intro chem since organic chem can be a lot to handle coming from high school chem. If you place out of intro bio, take some more advanced biology courses with a lab component (e.g. ecology/evolution, genetics, molecular bio). The curve in intro bio courses can be brutal, so it’s often a good idea to place out if you can.
Many students like to take physics or orgo over the summer so they can focus on only one class.
@TurnerT will do
@warblersrule I should have AP Credit for calc and bio. Why did you pick those groupings?
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I really like that opportunity from georgetown. Seems great to avoid all that stress of the MCAT.
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Were you accepted into a BS/MD program?
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Any idea how hard it is to complete four of the five pre-med course by end of sophomore year? versus having four years to space it out...
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Shouldn’t be hard. Many do this. My son did.
@warblersrule has given the typical groupings and sequence for premeds.
@streetking18 What were you thinking?
Junior year now typically includes biochem.
Will your schools let you use AP Bio credits?
Are you picking bio as your major because you think it’s a typical premed major? Do you like memorizing?
@mom2collegekids I’m actually not so sure about my specific major so right now I’m just thinking general bio. I’ve heard of pre-med students majoring in all sorts of things like the humanities so I think I’m going to wait and see what I will major in
“ND is one of premier schools for undergrads. The other two are not.”
Not sure where you are getting this from, TurnerT. They are comparable in terms of selectivity. About 90% of the students at both schools were in the top 10% of their classes. Their SATs are comparable. Notre Dame has a much bigger endowment but Georgetown’s location is much better. Certainly by reputation in our area, Notre Dame is not regarded as any more prestigious than Georgetown - peer schools essentially.
I think it really comes down to how much you care about the sports scene and whether you’d rather be in Indiana or Washington DC. Both good schools with their own strengths.
Beware that some schools you mention has the highest inflation grade. So