Pre Med top 10-15 good schools or SLAC, college list

I definitely see your logic, but maybe this student would have been more academically successful in smaller, more supportive college, but will sink as a premed in large state school… In addition, if that same student is set on going into medicine, then combined program may be his golden ticket to Medical School…
Another words, if school is chosen with premed in mind, then student maybe more likely to achieve his/her goal.
Again, I do see logic in your words, but every coin has two sides…

Many of them do not go to medical school because they are weeded out in premed courses with B or lower grades, or apply to medical school and get shut out.

1 Like

Fit is about more than scores, so the combination to me is the right size college with the right peer vibe as well as a large % of peers who are academically similar (ie , as you said, a “target” academically), but you are still within that top25%. So for example: let’s say you have 1470-1490 SAt range, your Stem APs were almost all 4/5s. You personally have decided you fit best at a smaller school, ideally 2000-6000kids, intellectual vibe, you liked some ivies/Ivy-plus and one of them let you in, and you also got in to Davidson, William&Mary and school X with 4k undergrads and Sat 25-75th of 1150-1350. You’d pick W&M or Davidson bec the SAT75th %ile is right near your score so lots of similar kids , both have intellectual vibes and size similar to ivy-type super reaches cc loves, but also a great shot at being around the top quarter. You would not pick school X because you are not likely to have a large cohort that is an intellectual fit with a large group “pushing” you to be your best, fitting with study groups, etc. On the other end, you would not in this case pick the ivy because every single one has about 75% of the kids your “range” or higher, and at least 25% of them had piles of 5s and 1560+. That is a very hard group to compete with in premed classes, despite being a fit intellectually. Sure, some of these schools might get kids deep into the top half into med school—but you still would have to really fight to be in that top half given the scores etc. Scores are not everything—but they are likely more predictive for what premed &mcat success entails. This is just my two cents, but it parallels how it has played out both at Duke 25 yrs ago as well as current premeds in various colleges that I know.

2 Likes

Thank you for taking time to explain your point of view in details.

2 Likes

As an MD having practiced for > 20 years (Johns Hopkins University undergraduate, Johns Hopkins School of Public Health graduate school, University of California at Davis Medical School) I have hired plenty of physicians for my medical group over the past 20 years. Unless you are very interested in academic medicine, you don’t have to go to a top 20 undergraduate school. But you also have to realize that you can’t just go to any undergraduate school and expect good medical school application outcome. You will find that many SLACS have dedicated & excellent prehealth advising and a track record of their undergraduate students getting acceptances into highly ranked medical schools. My son is currently a HS senior and looking into various SLACs and universities that have such records. My medical center has hired doctors who went to medical schools from MD schools, DO schools, and Carribean MD schools. There is probably for another forum, but where you go to medical school may help you get into highly competitive residency programs. I tell my high school students who shadow me to look for a good university or college that has a high medical school acceptance track record that is also the most affordable for you. Medical school will be easily $300,000 - $400,000 dollars for 4 years. You don’t want to saddle that with another large amount for undergraduate school. Good luck everyone on your adventure!

5 Likes

I agree with the above poster but I would like to add…getting into a highly competitive residency program will also require a stellar medical school record, and great Step 2 scores following a passing step 1.

It’s not just the name of your medical school, but also how well you do at said school.

But yes…that is putting the cart before the horse for this thread. First off…get accepted to an undergrad school that you like and can afford.

1 Like

This topic was automatically closed 180 days after the last reply. If you’d like to reply, please flag the thread for moderator attention.