Pre-med schools in VA, NC, SC, TN or GA

College Search & Lists
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Looking for recommendations on schools that have a good reputation for pre-med. Will most likely study biology because they actually like the subject. Prefers a warmer client, not in a city, would like a mid-sized school with a good community feel. Thanks!

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To help others help give realistic possibilities, you may want to include the following:

Cost constraints? State of residency?

Student college admission credentials like unweighted GPA, courses taken, any SAT/ACT scores, and extracurriculars?

Or create a “match me” thread in that section using the posting template there.

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In Atlanta, but Ga Tech has a great pre med track. Although the acceptance rate to med school is overall around 50%, those working with the pre health / pre med advisory on campus have around 85% acceptance rates.
All of my friends who were pre med in the late ‘80’s were accepted to med school.

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You had a couple of other threads with a bunch of school suggestions. Can you go over any of those schools and which you / your student liked / disliked? It might help prevent repeats.

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Late 80s and now is completely, completely different wrt med school admissions.
Very few people would typically recommend GTech for premed, unless the plans B&C are tech/stem related. It’s a superb school but completing a degree there while completing premed pre-reqs and maintaining a med school worthy GPA is harder than at most colleges - and life as a premed is already hard enough.

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“Good reputation for premed” means, first, collaborative and supportive environment - most premeds change tracks, either because they are weeded out or because they find more interesting professions or health professions that don’t require 12 years of schooling; they need all the support they can get.
Add: good access to volunteering activities and a career center that can help with health related summer internships or other opportunities during the year.

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Here is one of your other threads
with a number of good suggestions.

You can take the required courses for medical school applicants at just about every four year college in this country, arts conservatories excluded.

  1. Consider cost. Try to not have undergrad loans because IF your student gets accepted to medical school, it will be funded by loans, loans and more loans
and the bank of mom and dad.
  2. Find an undergrad school where the student can see themselves being a happy college student for four years. Happy students do better than unhappy ones.
  3. Remember that the very vast majority of premed freshmen never actually apply to medical school. So keep options open, and definitely have a Plan B in case medical school doesn’t become an option.
  4. I would suggest that you view the acceptance rates for medical school posted by the colleges with caution. There are a number of ways these can be less than accurate.

At this point, about 40% of med school applicants get accepted to medical school, and of those, most get only one acceptance.

  1. At this point, your student really has no idea if they would actually be a competitive applicant for medical school. Their college GPA, sGPA, MCAT scores, LOR, experiences volunteering with underprivileged people, shadowing, patient facing medical experience, and (should the get this far) interviewing skills will all matter
not the name of their undergrad school.

I would suggest your student put medical school aside for the time being. Right now, they need to find an undergrad school where they will be happy, feel they can see themselves for four years, and is affordable.

@WayOutWestMom what did I miss!

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Furman, Wofford, App State or ECU. Easier admission and probably affordable.

Furman has a good academic reputation and beautiful campus.

ECU has a med school on campus if I remember correctly.

Obviously Wake or Duke or similar if you have the stats.

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I agree with other posters that this is kind of a pointless exercise without knowing your daughter’s academic profile and your budget. You probably should also define what you consider “mid sized”. So far people have suggested schools ranging from under 2000 undergraduate students to well over 20,000. I would consider mid-sized to be between 5000 and 10000. Some schools in that size range that you might want to look into are:
Emory ( in a suburban area of Atlanta)
Duke
Wake Forest
William and Mary
Elon
College of Charleston (maybe too urban)
Mercer

If your daughter is ok with smaller schools
University of Richmond (3000 undergrads)
Furman (about 2500 undergrads)
Rhodes (2000 undergrads. Maybe too urban?)
Washington and Lee (about 2200 undergrads)
Davidson (about 1700 students)

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Does any other school have 85% success rate with med school? That 85% is the current rate at Ga Tech when in the pre med track / supervision.

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One must be careful when considering posted med school admissions % as different schools use different criteria for the statistics so it is comparing apples and oranges. For instance, some schools use a pre-health committee to determine which students will get LORs for med school applications (and applying to med school without the committee LOR is a big red flag). I would expect the admitted % to be higher at these schools since they are limiting recommendations to their strongest students and those are the ones used in the stats. Schools that do not use that process may have a lower % of med school admissions, but that does not mean the academic rigor and preparation are not available.

My D21 applied to small and mid schools in those states (GaTech in-state was a serious consideration for financial reasons, but she preferred LACs.) During her application cycle she spent time meeting with the pre-health advising teams at the schools she was considering. She asked about the resources for shadowing, volunteering, research and other relevant ECs as well as the support provided for med school applications. Your student may want to consider doing the same rather than spend too much time comparing med admissions stats.

@WayOutWestMom will surely explain that better than me and have more food for thought as your student researches schools.

Best wishes!

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Where is this claim made?

I have seen second/third hand claims of this, usually conditional on medical school applicants who work with the GT pre-health advising office (with much lower percentages for overall medical school applicants). Perhaps the GT pre-health advising office lets unlikely pre-meds know early that applying to medical school is a waste of time and money for them, so that only more likely pre-meds actually apply.

Of course, remember that many of those intending pre-med as frosh never get to the stage of applying (or even completing the pre-med course work), due to changing directions due to non-A grades, not-high-enough MCAT score, or loss of interest in medicine for various reasons.

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Might be a bit dated, but a relative was president of a medical school in Georgia and, even though a practicing surgeon, taught at another med school in the South (wrote the top textbook in his specialty); he insisted that one’s undergraduate school was of no concern to the admissions committee at either medical school.

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Yes, I have posted a couple of threads previously. We visited Rhodes, loved the campus and is ok with the size but not the surrounding location. Preference is a warmer climate but not hot (we are PA). First ACT is a 33, planning to retake it. GPA is 3.9 with the highest rigor allowed by (private) HS. EC’s are good, a lot of volunteer hours, varsity sport, etc. Originally the focus was on D3 schools but we don’t want to focus just on that as it’s not a must have. I’ve suggested another major other than Bio but they actually love Bio and the sciences so maybe Bio or Neuro, not sure. I’ve read some schools are super competitive, not collaborative so want a place where you can be a name and not a number. Possible merit is also important. We know where you go isn’t as important but want to go where there will be support. Thanks!

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College of Charleston Honors College awards lots of merit scholarships. Has health professions advising and is just under 10,000 students (about 9,200 full-time undergraduates).

Moreover, your daughter’s private school college counselors may have knowledge regarding med school advising at specific colleges & universities.

P.S. The College of Charleston women’s softball team plays in Division 1. Although you stated that she would prefer to play D-3, athletic scholarship money may be available at C of C since it is a D-1 team.

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Your student is going to find very bright (and possibly competitive) students as a premed no matter where they go to college. Those required courses for premed students are not all easy peasy (let us know when you hear of the college with an easy OChem course).

Your student can become a “name” even at the largest colleges
attend study groups, go to professor office hours, etc.

It sounds like he would prefer a midsize school.

I’m not clear on your price point. It sounds like your family isn’t eligible for need based aid and would like merit aid
somewhere.

Your son doesn’t have to choose his major before he enrolls.

Since he attends a private high school, what does the college counselor there say?

I’d look at University of Delaware (merit possible). It doesn’t feel big.

Check the Colleges that Change Lives list of colleges. Those might work.

How about Miami (Ohio).

What about University of Dayton?

If affordable
Hamilton? Muhlenberg? Union?

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@momtothreeplusone This list includes most of the schools I would have suggested to start based on the limited information in your OP. A few others to consider (apologies if they’ve been suggested and I missed it) with the goal of receiving merit aid:

UNC - Asheville
Appalachian State
Mary Washington
Sewanee Univ of the South

As your student researches schools, please give us feedback so we can target our suggestions. I note your comment about your visit to Rhodes and that is helpful information. Once you are ready, it would be to your benefit to create a Chance Me/Match Me post and complete the template to receive the most valuable feedback.

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Lehigh?

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Your previous threads indicated a preference for small to medium-sized schools, so I generally went for schools of 10k or less. I looked at the number of students who earned a bachelor’s degree in a biological science in SY23-24 per College Navigator (the feds’ website) and the number of alumni who earned a doctorate in biological/informatics between 2010-2023 per this website. I then created a ratio of doctorates by bachelors’ degrees and sorted the list from high to low.

Inclusion on this list means that the school’s ratio is higher than average/normal. There is no requirement or expectation that students earning bio degrees should go on for a doctorate, but I am making the assumption that when a larger proportion of students successfully earn a doctorate, it is an indication/confirmation that the students were well-prepared at the undergrad level. As a frame of reference, the average ratio among the 50 flagships is 0.0928 and the median is 0.0849 (for doctorates earned in any field between 2000-2018 of students with any major).

College Name State Approx. # of Undergrads # of alums who earned a Biology/Informatics Doctorates between 2010-2023 # of Bachelor’s in biological sciences earned in SY2023-2024 Ratio of doctorates earned by alumni between 2010-2023 divided by # of bio bachelors earned in SY23-24
Salem (women’s college) NC 400 18 5 3.600
Wesleyan (women’s college) GA 600 17 6 2.833
Furman SC 2300 71 45 1.578
Duke NC 6500 417 271 1.539
Vanderbilt TN 7200 221 144 1.535
Spelman (women’s HBCU) GA 3600 67 45 1.489
U. of Richmond VA 3100 99 67 1.478
Guilford NC 1200 25 17 1.471
Davidson NC 1900 102 78 1.308
William & Mary VA 7000 255 205 1.244
Agnes Scott (women’s college) GA 900 43 35 1.229
UNC-Asheville NC 2900 47 42 1.119
Clark Atlanta (HBCU) GA 3500 22 23 0.957
Wake Forest NC 5500 119 133 0.895
Washington & Lee VA 1900 42 52 0.808
Emory GA 7400 246 350 0.703
Elon NC 6400 36 54 0.667
U. of the South TN 1600 35 61 0.574
U. of Mary Washington VA 3600 46 84 0.548
Hampton (HBCU) VA 3300 36 69 0.522
Campbell NC 2,800 17 34 0.500
Roanoke VA 1800 24 48 0.500
Randolph-Macon VA 1500 23 47 0.489
Winthrop SC 3800 29 63 0.460
College of Charleston SC 11,000 99 222 0.446
Presbyterian SC 900 17 39 0.436
Rhodes TN 1900 43 99 0.434
Fayetteville State (HBCU) NC 5,800 19 44 0.432
Norfolk State (HBCU) VA 5500 23 56 0.411
Berry GA 2200 41 102 0.402
Tennessee Tech TN 8800 30 78 0.385
Georgia College & State GA 5700 17 49 0.347
Western Carolina NC 10,000 24 78 0.308
NC Central (HBCU) NC 6,000 19 63 0.302
Wofford SC 1900 28 94 0.298
U. of Tennessee-Chattanooga TN 10,000 31 112 0.277
Mercer GA 4800 31 113 0.274
High Point NC 5000 20 74 0.270
Christopher Newport VA 4400 21 156 0.135
Coastal Carolina SC 10,000 24 229 0.105

If you can provide more information about what kind of college experience your D wants (such as importance of Greek life or enthusiasm for intercollegiate sports), whether schools like Emory/Duke/Vanderbilt come back with an affordable price on their Net Price Calculators (as these are arguably the most generous schools on this list in defining need), and if not, what the target budget is (so we know the likelihood of sufficient merit aid being available to meet the budget), posters can be more helpful.

And though Florida was not included in the desired geographic range, I did research some of the data points, so will share it here in case it becomes of interest:

College Name State Approx. # of Undergrads # of alums who earned a Biology/Informatics Doctorates between 2010-2023 # of Bachelor’s in biological sciences earned in SY2023-2024 Ratio of doctorates earned by alumni between 2010-2023 divided by # of bio bachelors earned in SY23-24
Florida Institute of Technology FL 3500 75 38 1.974
Rollins FL 2600 18 34 0.529
Stetson FL 2300 22 47 0.468
Florida A&M FL 7800 33 107 0.308
Eckerd FL 2000 49 168 0.292
U. of West Florida FL 9700 29 152 0.191
U. of Tampa FL 10,000 40 215 0.186
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This analysis may help you find colleges in your preferred geographical region that tend to over-perform with respect to medical school admission:

Wofford, for example, placed 28th nationally by the percent of undergraduates who attend(ed) any medical school.

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