Pre med universities

[mikemac]

<p>

One can ask admissions offices to show you data on how many of their graduates were admitted to med school the last five years. Do this before ruling out these schools on someone’s say-so.

Getting prospective premeds to enroll in one unremarkable school instead of their competitors is one of the unsavory areas of college admissions. Touting high med-school admission rates plays a big role in such competition. Unfortunately the med school admission rate tells almost nothing about how good a job the college does in preparing its students to apply to med school. Some schools boast incredible rates, but it boils down to one of two things. Either they start with great students (think Stanford, Dartmouth, etc) or the school weeds out students.</p>

<p>Weeding out can be done with introductory math/science courses with a tough curve, ensuring only the best students still think of themselves in the running after a few semesters. But the biggest club is the “committee letter”. Find out what this is at <a href=“Pre-Professional Advising | Student Affairs”>Pre-Professional Advising | Student Affairs;

<p>If your college supplies such a letter then med schools either require you to submit it or will be suspicious if you don’t. As Swarthmore writes

Since most medical schools are aware that Swarthmore has such a Committee, they will wonder why they are receiving an independent application without a Committee letter of recommendation. Everyone cannot be recommended equally strongly, so some deficiency in the record is assumed to be the reason for applying outside the usual structure. (In most cases, medical schools assume that you have been disciplined for either academic dishonesty or irresponsible behavior.)
<a href=“http://www.swarthmore.edu/student-life/health-sciences-office/applying-to-med-school-guide.xml[/quote]You”>Guide for Applying to Medical School for Swarthmore Undergraduates and Alumni/ae :: Health Sciences Office :: Swarthmore College

You</a> can find apply/admit matrices on the web based on GPA and MCAT scores. The premed advisors at colleges are well aware of these odds. At the application stage you need to get them to write you a letter, and for many kids I’m sure it results into a chat with a sad-faced advisor who says the college is going to put them down as “recommended with reservations” or even worse as “not recommended”. With either of those, if you’re smart enough to be premed you’re smart enough to know that applying is futile. Is this fair? Not to me. If your chances of admission are 30% then the school will block you from applying since it will drag down their admit rate, yet out of 10 similar kids applying 3 will get right in to med school. </p>

<p>Does this really happen? You bet! Holy Cross is a LAC often recommended on this forum by one of its boosters. Surprised he hasn’t popped up on this thread yet since it has “premed” in the title. Here is what they say: “The Committee’s level of recommendation and the tone and content of the letter to be written is discussed with applicants as openly as possible.” And surprise! Of those that end up applying, 81% get in. Of course they don’t tell you how many people spent $200K for a Holy Cross degree only to have the advisor tell them their committee letter is not going to be favorable.</p>