Santa Clara university for premed

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Hi,
My daughter is interested in becoming a doctor, but we don’t have anyone in the family with experience to help guide her through the undergraduate college selection process. She’s currently most drawn to Santa Clara University because she really liked the campus and prefers the feel of a smaller, private school—she’s always attended smaller private schools.

My main concern with SCU is that it doesn’t have an affiliated hospital or extensive research facilities. How might this impact her chances of getting into medical school?

Cost for all of them in same ballpark.

She’s also been accepted to the following schools:

  • UCLA (Biology)
  • UC San Diego (Biology)
  • UC Irvine (Biomedical with pre-med pathway)
  • UC Davis
  • SCU (Bioengineering with pre-med track)
  • University of Rochester
  • University of Washington
  • Oregon State
  • Arizona State
  • University of Arizona
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The vast majority of colleges in this country do not have affiliated hospitals. And they send plenty of kids to medical schools. What kind of “extensive research facility” are you looking for?

My DD is a 2010 Santa Clara graduate. I’d be happy to share her experiences with you via message.

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All of these colleges are fine ones. Your daughter can take the required courses for medical school applicants at any of them.

If she does get accepted to medical school, it likely will cost $100,000 a year or more. If you are hoping to help her with those costs, you might want to conserve your undergraduate funds for that.

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My Niece-I-L is a graduate of SCU. She went to our instate med school, which is very competitive to get into but has relatively very low tuition. My niece is hoping to follow in her footsteps and has just accepted admission at SCU with a nice merit award (less than her dad had hoped she’d get but more than many others received).

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Calling @WayOutWestMom for premed expertise…

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URochester is a standout on your list - but cold compared to others.

Wrt Santa Clara: if it’s affordable, it’s a fantastic option. :tada: To your daughter, it’s not an easy admit. She will definitely have more guidance than at very large universities.
Wrt being premed: most premeds don’t actually become doctors, they find much more interesting subjects and professional options when in college (in HS, students often know very few jobs.) a SCU degree will serve her well no matter what she chooses to do.

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I’ll just echo others–so many people successfully go from such a variety of colleges to med schools, including colleges in rural locations with no affiliated hospital, that an affiliated hospital can’t possibly be a necessity. Sometimes a convenience? Sure. But not a top level factor.

I’d suggest there are three basic top level factors.

First, as relevant for your family, cost. Med school is very expensive and many students and their families would benefit by saving as much as practicable on college costs so they can use those resources for med school instead. Or something else, in fact.

Speaking of which, second, anticipating you would be happy with your college even if you ended up deciding premed is not for you. Like you might identify some other health career you prefer, you might in fact discover an aptitude and interest for something completely unrelated, so it is a good idea to choose a college where all that would still work out well.

Finally, in a related point, anticipating you will thrive overall, including academically and non-academically. For med school, and really in general, actually thriving in college is more important than exactly where you go.

As for what contributes to thriving, that is a complex and often personal subject. But I would again suggest some basics include feeling like you are very well-prepared academically, feeling comfortable with the curriculum approach, feeling comfortable with the location (including distance from home as relevant, climate, and so on), feeling like the social scene will be suitable for you, feeling like the dorms and dining will work for you, feeling confident you will find student activities to balance your academics, feeling like the campus will be an energizing and comfortable space for you, and so on.

OK, so if Santa Clara would be comfortably affordable, would be a good place even if med school does not end up the plan, and would be a place your daughter anticipates thriving overall–great! That’s the big stuff, and the lack of an associated hospital should not in my view trump that. Of course if there was another equally suitable college and you used that as a potential tiebreaker, sure. But it observably is not critical, and so in my view should not be elevated to a top level concern.

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Sorry for the delayed reply.

  1. Any an all of the schools on his list are fine for pre-med.
  2. There doesn’t need to be an associated med school and/or hospital for a college to be a good pre-med school. (Pre med will do a lot of their shadowing and clinical volunteering during summers or after graduation. Most successful med school applicants do 1-3 gap years to improve their CV for applying to med school, often using the time to get full time clinical jobs and do additional non-clinical volunteering.)
  3. Research is the least important EC fr med school. Clinical experiences, community service, leaderships skills, physician shadowing are ll much more important.

Successful med school applicants come from all kinds of undergrads. Don’t think that attending any particular college will significantly improve her chances for getting a med school admission. Getting into med school is entirely up to the students and her achievements, experiences, test scores and GPA. Plus how well she can convey through her written personal statement and secondary essays why she wants to be a doctor.

MYOS1634 likes UR. My daughter is a UR alumna and I have a less enthusiastic take on the school. If you’re a resident of awestern or Rocky Mtn state (and from your school list it appear you might be), my d found the UR’s pre med advising less than useful, esp when it came to knowing abut med schools outside NYS, NJ, OH and New England.

Also UR now costs close to $90K/year COA. That’s a lot of money for what I don’t feel is a significantly improved experience. (Plus it is cold, dark and snowy in upstate NY.)

My one concern about SCU is that your D would be a bioengineering major there. Engineering majors are often more difficult for students to maintain the high GPA needed to be a successful med school applicant. Engineering/physics/math majors don’t get any kid of leniency in GPA/grades.

Pick the undergrad that offers your D the best combination of

Fit (because happier student do better. Plus it’s 4 years of their life they will never get back)
Opportunity (including the opportunity to explore new interests and careers. The opportunity to develop relationships with professors who will write their LORs for jobs, internship, and graduate and professional school. The opportunity to grow and explore as human beings by interacting with a wide range of people who are different from themselves–racially, ethnically, religiously, politically, socioeconomically, etc because as doctor her patients will come from a very wide range pf backgrounds and beliefs.)
Cost medical school is already over $100K/year in places and more school will cost that much when your daughter goes to apply 4 -6 years from now. Don’t break the bank for undergrad so maybe you can help pay for med school down the road. (Especially important if the anticipated changes in federal student loans programs happen and education loans become limit to $135K for a lifetime for those in professional schools.)

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I’ll defer to your experience wrt UR.
(For the record, I highlighted it because OP I think lives West so might not know as much about it, because it’s got a flexible curriculum, and because it is very strong in the sciences as well as overall, which could be good if OPs child changes her mind wrt going to med school. Also, yes, miserable weather.)
I do think SCU is a terrific choice :grinning_face_with_smiling_eyes:

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You have an embarrassment of riches in that list of acceptances!!

And I understand how a smaller university, with greater curriculum flexibility than the large publics, could be appealing to your daughter. URoch is the only other school on the list that fits that description, and as WOWMom said, there are several reasons why Rochester over Santa Clara could be a hard sell for a CA kid, and no reason why Santa Clara can’t be a great choice for her.

I agree with those who are curious about her choice of engineering at some schools and not others. What is her thinking about wanting the engineering major? Is it along the lines of having a good backup if she doesn’t go to med school, or is it background she wants to have even if she does become a doctor?

It’s notable that SCU has a specific pre-med track within Bioengineering; this does suggest that they’re specifically working to support premed students in the engineering major, rather than leaving it to the student to reconcile the competing demands of engineering and premed. That’s encouraging. It’s also worth noting that if she becomes ambivalent about her commitment to a full-blown engineering major, there are some good engineering-adjacent options in the physics department - both engineering physics and biophysics - that could be good premed majors while also laying a foundation that would leave the option of an engineering grad program open.

It should be noted as well that bioengineering at SCU is not ABET accredited, which is likely why the department has the flexibility to be as premed-friendly as they are. This means both that the major may strike a good balance that won’t tempt her to change majors, but also conversely that she wouldn’t be forfeiting much in terms of engineering “cred” by switching to one of the physics tracks if she felt so moved. (And of course all of the other major options - bio, biochem, chem, math, neuroscience, public health science, etc. - will still be there as well.)

Speaking as someone who lives within a few miles of SCU, there’s no shortage of health care settings nearby, and there’s no reason a college has to be formally affiliated for students to get volunteering/shadowing experiences.

Congrats, and best of luck to your kiddo!

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I am a Santa Clara grad from many years ago when the only option for students was to be either a biology or other science major/ no premed or other combinations with engineering. I loved my time there, loved the smaller class sizes and individual attention I was able to receive in my classes. I was a pharmacy tech starting my sophomore year and continuing to full time for a gap year before I started medical school, at San Jose Medical Center. The hospital may be called something else now, but was a large level I trauma center back in the 1980’s. My experience there was invaluable for med school, I did everything from floor work, to entering doctors orders, working in the outpatient pharmacy, and preparing cancer treatment drugs (which required me to take a pregnancy test every month as the drugs were so dangerous). I also developed mentor relationships with some pharmacists and physicians. I went to medical school after gap year, graduated in the top 10% of my class and have been an Emergency Medicine physician for over 25 years. I would not hesitate to recommend SCU to anyone hoping to go to medical school.

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Thanks — took screenshot of your encouraging post and sent it to my brother to share with niece whose hoping to brake an md after SCU.

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@amyor I did send you a private message which I hope you read.

My DD was a bioengineering and biology major at SCU. While she wasn’t “premed” while she was at SCU, she did decide that the engineering side of her two majors was not really her top interest. Still, she liked the courses, and especially the upper level math and science courses that were required.

But she also loved the SCU core curriculum, and the religion requirement because they took her to areas not on her beaten path. They were a nice break from all the math and science.

Of course, I hope your student chose SCU, and please do let us know. I have to say, my kid loved her four years there!

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