I am a junior in high school and a prospective premed student, one of my top schools is UR because its less competitive than many other schools with great premed programs (johns hopkins, harvard, etc.) however still has an amazing premedical and medical program and is a very well known name. What other schools are similar to UR in this perspective? thanks!
which UR?
And what do you consider something being a “great premed program”?
Schools don’t really have “premed programs”.
Do you mean UC-Riverside perhaps? If not, and if you are a California resident, then it should be on your list.
University of Rochester, and I understand schools don’t have premed programs, i guess what I meant by that was high MCAT scores and high medical school acceptance rate. @mom2collegekids
@otterma thanks! However, im from new england and planning to stay a little closer to home! I meant university of rochester (probably should have been more clear)
These LACs offer the opportunity to apply to Rochester’s medical school under an Early Assurance Program and would be worth a close look for this and other reasons:
Amherst
Bowdoin
Carleton
Colgate
Hamilton
Haverford
Middlebury
Morehouse
Spelman
Swarthmore
Williams
Xavier
This list, though not particularly precise in its selections, could be good for generating further ideas:
http://www.■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■/lists/list/the-experts-choice-colleges-with-great-pre-med-programs/199/
The University of Rochester itself could, of course, be an excellent choice.
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what I meant by that was high MCAT scores and high medical school acceptance rate. @mom@mom2collegekids
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Those schools are not the cause of high MCAT scores.
Student A who goes to JHU is not going to get a higher MCAT score than he would get if he went to, say, UMass or UConn or UDayton.
Acceptance rates don’t tell you much. Acceptance rates have nothing to do with any particular student or you.
@mom2collegekids interesting! then i guess i’m looking for a school with a lot of research opportunities and a great science department. Also, where i can establish good connections! any suggestions?
Well, what is your home state?
The national universities are research universities and would have those opportunities.
Not sure what you mean by “establishing good connections”. If your goal is med school, then networking won’t really matter.
Have you talked to your parents about how much they’ll spend each year on college?
Any good school is fine for a premed. The goal is a high GPA in both science/math courses, and the overall cum GPA.
What do you think you’ll major in? You can major in anything you want as a premed. What is your favorite subject?
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 admirable 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.
Premed weeding 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”. Why does the letter have such power? 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
All you really need to know is in this chart: https://www.aamc.org/download/321508/data/factstablea23.pdf Let me write the committee letters and I could get any college in the country a 80% rate.
Also based on outdated information. Perhaps 10-15 years ago med schools really favored research. Today its just another factor and will not replace experience in a health-care setting (volunteer or paid). This is an unofficial requirement and you will not be accepted without it. Spend some time reading thru the handbook at https://www.rhodes.edu/sites/default/files/PreMed_Essentials.pdf
@collegemom2kids i live in MA and am willing to travel around an 8 hr drive max, i am looking for a school with lots of opportunities to help build a med school resume/application (connections) and has many opportunities, i believe money isn’t a huge issue for my family as long as the school isn’t one of the most wildly expensive universities. i’m not quite sure of my major i love science and math but i also would like to further my studies of french.
@mikemac thank you! so helpful, i’ll definitely refer to the sources! do you believe then that attending a very cutthroat and competitive school may cause you to be “cut” from the program sooner? or as long as you are able to keep up with the curriculum you will be fine
Some colleges that write committee letters without defined restrictions nonetheless report excellent medical school acceptance rates (note that students with sub-3.5 GPAs were not deterred from applying):
*Q: What is Hamilton’s acceptance rate to medical school?
A: Hamilton’s acceptance rate to medical school over the past five years has varied from a low of 76% to a high of 93%. More than 92% of students with a GPA of 3.5 were admitted the first time they applied. The Hamilton College Health Professions Advisory Committee prepares a letter of recommendation for any student who wishes to apply. There is no GPA requirement to receive a letter of support.*
https://www.hamilton.edu/academics/healthprofessions/premedquestions.html
Agree with the above. Be very wary of “medical school acceptance rates” as it can be like comparing apples and oranges. You need to take care to understand what makes up the numerator and denominator of those med school acceptance rates.
Many colleges that boast high med school acceptance rates make student go through a committee for approval before they can apply to med school – in that way the lower/less likely to get into med school students are weeded out and not counted in the school’s statistics.
Some other schools will recommend any student who wants to apply to med school so while those schools may have lower “med school acceptance rates” they actually give more people the chance to apply and get in.
That said, UR is a great school.
Nobody is “cut”, they decide on their own not to pursue it anymore (probably recognizing it would be futile, or because they’ve lost/changed interest). I would tend to agree that attending a very competitive school full of really bright kids can make success harder. Malcolm Gladwell gives an example along those lines in his book “David and Goliath”. There is a brief summary at http://www.businessinsider.com/malcolm-gladwells-david-and-goliath-2013-10 As for cutthroat, sure, try and avoid that, although you’d not want to trust just one or two kids opinion about this.
Hats off to Hamilton for writing letters for all kids who want one. Some schools do this, they should be honored and those that protect their yield excorciated. That said, though, I think this is an example of starting with great kids as I mentioned previously. The Hamilton average SAT score was 2070, or 96th percentile. These are pretty smart kids.
@mom2collegekids i live in MA and am willing to travel around an 8 hr drive max, i am looking for a school with lots of opportunities to help build a med school resume/application (connections) and has many opportunities, i believe money isn’t a huge issue for my family as long as the school isn’t one of the most wildly expensive universities. i’m not quite sure of my major i love science and math but i also would like to further my studies of french.