RD Decisions Class of 2013!

unbelievablem
Mon, 30 Mar 2009 17:09:27 +0000

i graduated from a suny a quite a number of years ago (hint - i first came to cc as a parent of a prospective college student)

re medical school applications – even way back when i was in school, it was my understanding in general that med schools looked for a recommendation from the pre-med office of the student’s undergrad school – absence of such a letter was the kiss of death for an application. my understanding (based on second hand complaints from friends at various schools who were interested in med school) was that it was NOT AN UNCOMMON PRACTICE for colleges to limit who they would give such letters to as a way of keeping their med school acceptance rate higher – this was not limited to SUNY’s – it happened at private collegs as well.

i knew people who chose their college based on this – they looked into the pre-med practices at the colleges they were considering and chose to attend one that did not have such limitations.

my comments are all in the past tense because that is simply what i was familiar with – i’m less familiar with how things work today, but that is why i think anyone interested in premed would do well to ask the premed advising office at ANY college they are considering what their policy is – and push about when and how often they deny such letters.

back when i was in school it was also common for many pre-meds to get weeded out freshman year simply by the intensity of intro bio and intro chem – at some schools there almost seemed to be a deliberate effort to “convince” some pre-meds that this wasn’t the best career path for them – one year at my college, the finals for intro bio and intro chem were back to back starting 8:30 am – kids walked out of the second one shell shocked. by sophomore year, one of the most common answers to “what are you majoring in?” was “well i used to be pre-med, but…”

the difference between the number of kids who enter thinking they want to go to medical school and the number who end up applying senior year is probably pretty large at most schools. i think any pre-med would do well to ask a lot of questions at any college to get a handle on what determines the difference in those numbers so they can try to assess their chances of making it.

i know nothing first hand about any SUNY’s policies with respect to this – i just don’t find the ascertion that SUNY’s might be doing this shocking since i had heard about this practice before. (just to clarify – i can’t say that i ever heard one why or the other as to whether it was being done at any suny specifically, i just know pre-med friends talked about schools doing this)