<p>One other quick note - the biggest thing I would hope for is more transparency in this entire process. If at all possible, or if you have friends at these different schools, go look at the hard data of med school placement. Of course, take the data with a grain of salt, but if there is disparity in the data, you can draw some conclusions. </p>
<p>For example, Penn has the basic data for its law school-bound alums on its website:</p>
<p>[Career</a> Services, University of Pennsylvania](<a href=“http://www.vpul.upenn.edu/careerservices/gradprof/law/law_stats.html]Career”>http://www.vpul.upenn.edu/careerservices/gradprof/law/law_stats.html)</p>
<p>I remember looking at the numbers they had from years back (like 2001-02), and seeing a huge disparity between Chicago and Penn back then. Chicago sent maybe 3-4 students to Harvard Law, Penn was sending maybe 20. This suggested a lot - the top Chicago students probably preferred academia to professional school, about 3 times the number of Penn students were applying to law school in comparison to Chicago, and the like. Overall, though, it implied that Penn had a much stronger “pre-law” culture, filled with kids who were savvier about the process, and were probably more apt to know what classes grade-inflated, etc. If I was hell-bent on going to law school a decade ago above all else, Penn would then be the more sensible choice. </p>
<p>If you can see data like this for the schools you are considering, and you have a sense of how much you want to go to med school (in comparison to your love of Chicago), definitely do the research.</p>