Thanks! Any comments on 1 and 3? Also, is it true that liberal art colleges provide more financial aid?
If you have shown yourself to be one of the top students in your HS class, look into Bowdoin, Bates, Hamilton, Middlebury.
Are these schools better than Williams/Amherst?
With respect to pre-med guidance, I would expect those six colleges to be equivalent in their levels of support. In terms of special opportunities, for example, you will note that colleges of this type tend to be linked through early assurance programs, such as through the University of Rochester Medical School:
More than what? Many small liberal arts colleges offer excellent need based aid. So do many mid-sized privates. A few offer merit aid, though generally speaking these are seldom located in the northeast.
To get an idea of the amount of need based aid you may be eligible to receive run a few net price calculators.
This might interest you:
http://www.middlebury.edu/newsroom/archive/2018-news/node/601686
My D and SIL both went to the same med school. For UG, one went to Amherst, the other Williams. You could take the student bodies and switch them and you wouldn’t know the difference. The only thing is the location. You can’t go wrong with either.
What are some good safety schools (20%-40% acceptance rates – this is a rough estimate) with good premed EC opportunities?
A safety must have a 100% (not 20-40%) admission rate for you and assured affordability (and preferably under budget so that you can save money for medical school).
That’s true to some extent, but as the OP demonstrates, not many people have heard of NESCAC or can name all of the colleges within it. IMHO, the reason they attract so many applicants is because they offer the most financial aid. Similarly, if you go down the list of T20 universities you will find pretty much the same thing; they are ordered more or less according to their tuition discount rate, i.e., the ratio of actual tuition collected versus what they would have collected if every student unit were full-pay. You will find spreads ranging from about 50% to about 35% at even the least wealthy.
Offer a good product at a decent discount and people will flock to it.
“Cornell is VERY tough for premeds and I do not want to get weeded out.”
At the risk of generalizing, every pre-med program weeds out, they pretty much have to given the numbers that enter pre-med undergrad and the number of med school acceptances. Some make their weed out more public, some hide it. Say a college has a 100 kids going to med school, you have to figure at least 500 or so entered as freshman thinking they’re going into medicine. The college probably picked the top 150 or 200 kids and supported them through the pre-med application. The other 300 or so changed majors or transferred. Given that, your best bet imo, is to definitely consider the collaborative colleges, LACs suggested here, and the not the competitive ones (Hopkins, public flagships).
CUNY - Brooklyn College
Chelsea Batista:
Brooklyn College student accepted to 11 medical schools
http://www.brooklyn.cuny.edu/web/news/bcnews/bcnews_170518.php
Eugene Shenderov, MD, D.Phil - Rhode Scholar:
http://www.brooklyn.cuny.edu/bc/spotlite/news/112004.htm
https://connection.asco.org/magazine/features/cancer-calling
Zujaja Tauqeer, M.D., D.Phil. '11 - Rhode Scholar, Premed/History Major at Brooklyn College; Harvard Medical School (MD)
https://www.brooklyn.cuny.edu/web/news/bcnews/bcnews_110527b.php
Sofia Ahsanuddin '16 Rhodes Scholarship finalist
MD Candidate at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai
https://macaulay.cuny.edu/after-macaulay/alumni-profiles/sofia-ahsanuddin-16-brooklyn/
https://www.brooklyn.cuny.edu/web/academics/honors-academy/programs/ba-md.php
I realize this is anecdotal, but it illustrates the point that it matters less where you go than how you do there.
I know of three very bright, high-achieving women (current seniors) who went to college with the intention of becoming doctors. They are all currently seniors. The one at Colgate got an early acceptance to U of Rochester med school her junior year based on how well she did in undergrad (https://www.swarthmore.edu/sites/default/files/assets/documents/health-sciences-office/Rochester%20Early%20Assurance%20Program.doc). The one at SUNY Geneseo got an early acceptance to Upstate Medical (https://www.upstate.edu/com/admissions/options/soph.php) with the caveat that she reach a certain score on her MCAT (she did). And the one at Williams is going to have to work for a few years before she can apply because she doesn’t have the GPA.
I’m sure there are many examples of the opposite happening at each school. Again, it’s what you make of your experience at your college.
And remember that med school costs LOTS of money, so unless you are super wealthy, keep that in mind as you consider undergrad costs.
Colgate or Hamilton, @Springbird?
http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/discussion/comment/22329040#Comment_22329040
(Noting your reply (# 101) on this earlier thread.)
“…every pre-med program weeds out, they pretty much have to given the numbers that enter pre-med undergrad and the number of med school acceptances.”
This is a very good point.
There are a large number of students who start at university thinking that they want to become doctors. Most of them are very strong. They are not all equally strong. We want the best of them to end up being the doctors who end up diagnosing and treating our future life threatening diseases. The only way to figure out which of them are strong and which ones are very strong and which ones are exceptional is to give them homework and exams that only the exceptional few can handle.
There is one program I REALLY want to apply to – Brooklyn College BA MD – however, I can’t find recent information on how competitive it is.
You should look at CCNY Sophie Davis School of Biomedical Education and Brooklyn College Coordinated B.A.-M.D. Program as possible safeties.
https://www.ccny.cuny.edu/csom/admissions
https://www.brooklyn.cuny.edu/web/academics/honors-academy/programs/ba-md.php
How is the BC BA MD a safety?
Regarding a key aspect of the NESCACs that have been recommended, they would be most suitable if your academic interests are wide ranging. If the thought of studying in diverse fields such as classics, philosophy, religious studies, government, literature, history, geosciences, astronomy and visual arts — or across another similarly diverse array of fields — appeals to you, then these schools’ opportunities would enhance the scope of your education. If you would rather dispatch with these topics as quickly as possible as you fulfill your pre-med requirements, then the benefits of these colleges might be less pronounced.