I will give my opinion. The required courses for medical school admissions are not a walk in the park anywhere. I’d like to know which college offers an easy OChem course, for example.
Regardless of where you go for undergrad, be prepared to work very hard for your grades.
ok, any specifics on Toledo undergrad on why the odds are not so in favor?
It public school with their own med school.
In addition to this accurate post- LISTEN TO YOUR ADVISOR. If your kid takes a placement exam and scores on the bubble- and the advisor says “don’t use your AP credit- take the class” then listen to the advisor. If the advisor says “Your course load is too heavy next semester, you need to drop something”, then listen to your advisor. If your advisor says “15 hours a week working in the genetics lab is too many hours-- you need to cut back to 10” then the smart kid tells their supervisor “I need my evenings to study but I can cover the weekend shifts”.
Kids don’t even realize they’ve bitten off more than they can chew until it’s past the drop date.
Sorry, nothing recent about Juniata. Except it’s in central PA, a long way away from everything else.
Huntington, Pa is a pretty small town, fairly isolated, 2+ hours to Pittsburgh and 3+ to Philadelphia. Getting transportation to and from campus to an airport in order to get home to California will be an issue. Huntington and the area surrounding the college is pretty conservative politically and overwhelmingly white (95%), if that might be an issue for your daughter.
I went to a smaller university in central PA for a year. Transportation to and from campus was an issue, esp when my dad had a heart attack and I needed to get to home quickly. You never know.
That was DD’s initial choice for LECOM (we are from MD.) She liked Juniata and tours there. We visited twice. She was excited. However, after she tried to engage with accepted kids she literally broke in panic. She even organised Instagram for incoming freshman. She said that she can’t go to school in the middle of nowhere with students only interested in sport or art. (She is not into either.) She is social butterfly. So she checked Rhodes, the only other LECOM school that she applied. She found her crowd in no time online before school started. She was very upset to go to school so far from home (she wanted to stay close.) However, she has amazing group of close friends at Rhodes. We know that at any moment she has a great support team there.
I think @thumper1 pretty much nailed it.
Ochem isn’t going to be easy anywhere. Nor biochemistry.
I’ll even argue that you don’t want an undergrad that doesn’t challenge your daughter academically. Med school is tough and it moves fast. (An entire semester of an upper level bio class like immunology will be covered in 3-4 lectures–or about a week–in med school.) Your daughter needs to be ready to meet this challenge head-on and step up her game. Otherwise she’s going to fall behind from the beginning. She does NOT want to be playing catch up in med school.
Sorry, I do not agree again… For example, DD school did not take Chem AP or DE from any place. It was absolute waste of time. DD took it literally 3rd time (first AP during Covid, then DE..) She was sleeping through the class and didn’t learn anything new. At the end of the class she was writing exactly the same exam as in her DE class. Identical one from Chemistry society…
So my advice is know yourself. Advisors are not always understand your strong and weak sides. One size does not fit all…
I also know some advisors that literally broke premed students (friends’ kids…) When I asked a parent who came up with such crazy load, the answer was: “An advisor”. I was speachless…
Definitely Juniata with LECOM. No MCAT, GPA 3.6 with 3.4 for science 
Well known for a supportive culture that nurtures typical hard working, B+ HS students who aren’t superstar overachievers to success in pre Health fields.
That’s old but it explains the opportunities at Juniata:
UToledo is mostly commuter (fewer than 25% freshmen live on campus, most drive in and out) and the top 25% students have a ~1250 SAT - most students are in the 1000-1100 range and the 4-year graduation rate is 35%. Although this wouldn’t affect your daughter directly (she would definitively be part of the 35%), it would affect the number of peers she’d find, the academic challenge in her non premed classes, the depth of preparation, and her general student experience. If it’s your child’s only affordable acceptance, then she can “make do”, but if Creighton and SLU are affordable, they should have first consideration.
Indeed, some colleges don’t give students a personal adviser, it’s more like a processing chain of young people whom they don’t know and they just check items on a list. Some colleges won’t let freshmen/sophomores talk with the pre Health adviser because most will give up, find something more interesting, or be weeded out.
(IMHO, for instance, a student who has NOT taken AP Chem or DE GenChem in HS should not take GenChem+Lab AND GenBio+Lab together 1st semester freshman year, but rather take GenChem1+lab in the Fall (+other pre-reqs&Gen Eds) then GenBio1+lab, GenChem2+lab, and other gen eds/pre-reqs in the Spring, to buffer the shock.)
We visited Juniata when my student was looking. This college is highly recommended here for premeds. We liked the college but not the location. Ultimately, my student picked a similar school that gave more generous offer, had a better location (including being closer to home) and a few other perks.
I think Juniata is worth visiting and considering. Good luck in your search!
Thanks, lets see if she likes the campus at Juniata or vibe. I know its small in size. Other choice CBU shes not very excited about which is an hour away from home.
thanks…she took AP - Chem, Biology, Calc BC, Physics 1, Psych and LANG, Gov in HS. Most colleges I heard they insist on not giving credits as premed for Chm & Biology and want you to repeat, is that correct?
lets see how she likes it during the visit the campus and the vibe for DO program as an option
LECOM can take credit only for Psych and English. Calc is not required (but you may need it for major). Same with Gov. For LECOM if your DD will take credits at Juniata for Bio, Chem and Physics, she will need to take extra upper level Bio, Chem and Physics 2 with labs.
DD used all credits but they were DE, not AP, so check with LECOM coordinator. Booklet says they do not take them. But your DD for sure can use Psych, Calc and Gov. Possibly Lang.
Also check if LECOM has slots for Juniata at this point. If all slots are taken there is no point to go. You need to speak with LECOM coordinator to find out. Juniata would not know.