Hey, I agree with just about everybody here-but if I missed it sorry-what is the COA of each school?
I ask b/c you want to limit UG debt if graduate/professional school is in the future.
Just want to make a general comment that people be careful with medical school acceptance rates. It may sound obvious, but it is very important to understand exactly what goes into the numerator and denominator of the ratio as not all schools calculate med school acceptance rate in the same manner. For example:
–Some schools have more “weed out” classes than others reducing the number of students who continue on the pre-med path for four years (lowering the denominator).
–Certain colleges have committees which pre-screen and recommend med school applicants. These committees generally only recommend students who have the stats, experiences etc. to make them very strong candidates for med schools. Students who are not recommended are left out of the equation. In contrast, other colleges support all of the students who want to apply to med school. So while the schools with the pre-screening will have a higher acceptance rate (because of the lower denominator), a schools that support all students may be preferable.
--It is important to know what constitutes a med school acceptance for the med school acceptance rate. Some colleges just count US allopathic med school acceptances and other schools also include acceptances to DO, overseas med schools, podiatry etc. programs in the numerator leading to a higher med school acceptance rate.
Now as to where to attend next year, if you are 100% set on transferring to Cornell I’d pick the cheapest college where you feel certain you can get the GPA required for the transfer option.
Even if a college has a pre-med committee that will support all pre-meds’ medical school application, the pre-med committee will advise the weaker pre-meds that applying will likely be futile, discouraging many of them from applying. However, being “weeded out” by the pre-med committee (whether a “hard” refusal to support the application or a “soft” advisory that applying will likely be futile) does mean that one can get a head start on pivoting to alternate plans instead of wasting time and money on medical school applications.
On the other hand, colleges without pre-med committees tend to be a free-for-all in terms of medical school applications, so weaker pre-meds are not advised of their (poor) chances, and therefore would be more likely to apply. But that means that many of them will be wasting their time and money, and delaying pivoting to their alternate plans.
FWIW, here’s an old CC thread on Cornell vs Berkely that has pre-med content; the pre-med parts are posts:
55,56,80,81,82,83,85,86,90, 91
http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-search-selection/260096-cornell-vs-berkeley-p5.html
Things on CC were colorful back then.
Does not specifically answer where OP should go for a year, or for the three years after that.
FWIW other old threads say that Cornell did not prevent students from applying and its reported numbers were for MD only, did not even include osteopathic med schools.
It was the wild west, but that thread’s also 14 years old.
As a practical matter, both UCB and Cornell are extremely tough schools at which to gain admission(i.e. very competitive), and they attract intelligent, motivated, goal-oriented students, and there will be a ton of competition at both schools.
OP: Go to the school at which you believe you have a better fit, as students tend to do better at a school they want to be at.
Really, there ought to be a thread
“Easy schools for Pre-Med” because that’s what everyone is really asking. It would get bumped repeatedly, with no other entries, because there are no easy pre-med schools.
“pick the one you like and make the best of it and don’t uproot in a year. really weird to go to a place like NYU, Michigan, Emory, or Berkeley with a plan to leave in a year”
I’m going to admit that I thought this thread was going to be on which community college or maybe SUNY to attend before transferring. That being said if you’re really set on Cornell, then I would agree with no uprooting and going across the country, especially in these times. Assuming both are affordable, I’d go with NYU or Rutgers for that reason, in addition to being good colleges of course.
Check this out. It is a great example of how a BME can impact so many with “engineering” solutions. See https://www.wpi.edu/news/wpi-researchers-developing-open-source-designs-speed-creation-low-cost-ventilators
Really, there ought to be a thread
“Easy schools for Pre-Med” because that’s what everyone is really asking. It would get bumped repeatedly, with no other entries, because there are no easy pre-med schools."
Oldlaw, you get the CC post of the week award, even though it’s only Monday. That post would have some competition with “I want to be an engineer but I’m terrible at math” (those posts are so sad) and “what’s the best direct-entry prelaw program in the US” (answer- there aren’t any) and “I have a 3.0 GPA but plan to ace all my courses next year, do I have a chance at U Penn?”
If you don’t transfer, which school do you prefer?
Personally, I’d pick Emory Oxford if you want a smaller, more personal setting; or Northeastern if you want a big city with a more practically-minded student body. Both would be very different from Cornell so that you might find you prefer them to Cornell or that you truly want Cornell, but no matter what both have excellent outcomes if you end up staying, and enough opportunities to discover other places (2 campuses for Emory + possible study abroad; co-ops for Northeastern).
I know this is a late response but I just wanted to add that if you are really set on Cornell, it may be helpful to know that there are a lot of transfers that come in sophomore year, and with university facilitated activities for transfer students along with how large the student body is at Cornell, there wouldn’t be any problem forming connections and making friends