<p>First and foremost, I am one of those kids that worries a TON about my grades and college, and have been for quite a few years now. Ever since I was younger, I always wanted to attend a very prestigious school. However, it actually wasn’t until about a week-and-a-half ago that I realized I was looking at the entire college situation the wrong way. Since then, I have found out a butt-load of information about the application process. I still have quite a few questions, and am hoping that they can be answered here.</p>
<p>My future goal is to attend medical school, and become a doctor like I have always dreamed. As previosuly said, I thought that if I went to a prestigious school, I would go to an awesome medical school, and then become one of the best doctors out there. Now that I have realized I don’t need to attend a top tier college to get into an excellent medical school, I need help in finding colleges. I don’t want to demand that you give me ALL colleges that meet my requirements, but a few that come off the top of your head would help. It would also help if you can give me advice on how to go about finding these colleges myself. Now on to what I’m looking for.</p>
<p>I would like to attend a small to medium sized college; I’ll cap the population size to around 12,000 students. I also want this college to be strong in the sciences, so that it can prepare me not only for the MCATs, but also for medical school itself. I plan on majoring in the biology field, not necessarily in general biology. I don’t care where the college is at all. One of the other things that I am looking for in a college is little to no Greek life. I would prefer that the college doesn’t have any Greek influence, but it seems that all the colleges that I found that I liked had Greek life. I guess that if there is Greek life on campus, I don’t want it to be controlling the social scene.</p>
<p>I know that you’ll need price limits and statistics to find a suitable college, but I want EVERYTHING listed. Just imagine that I have no price limit and that I got the highest scores possible in every area. Imagine all “reaches” are safeties for me. I’m not trying to be pretentious or sound conceded and perfect, I just want all possibilities listed; I can then sift through what fits and what doesn’t myself.</p>
<p>Thanks!</p>
<p>take a look at UAB in birmingham al. Tier 1 research university, very very strong for sciences. home of a top med school. 7 hospitals surround the campus so lots of opportunities for shadowing, volunteering. I am going to assume your stat are high or you wouldnt be looking at top schools…UAB has automatic merit aid. Total cost of oos is 20-25K (although that is based on 12 credits…you would probably take more so add 600 per credit hour above that amount) with high stats, you would qualify for 15K per year merit. if nmf, full ride (scholarships for 2013 will be announced soon so there could be changes)</p>
<p>11k undergrads, urban campus, only 6% greek. ranked in top ten for student happiness and race interactions (26% AA)</p>
<p>incredible sci/tech honors college with emphasis on research (son has been doing research since 1st semester). also has a biology scholars program that pays you a stipend. both sci/tech and bio scholars do require an interview.</p>
<p>[University</a> of Alabama at Birmingham - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia](<a href=“http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_of_Alabama_at_Birmingham]University”>University of Alabama at Birmingham - Wikipedia)</p>
<p>[UAB</a> - The University of Alabama at Birmingham](<a href=“http://www.uab.edu%5DUAB”>http://www.uab.edu)</p>
<p>Click to no greek life, limit the location/population, etc. etc.</p>
<p><a href=“https://bigfuture.collegeboard.org/[/url]”>https://bigfuture.collegeboard.org/</a></p>
<p>Then “EVERYTHING” will be listed. If you want people on here to give you random suggestions, you probably should post your ACT/SAT and GPA, so we aren’t recommending schools that are far below you or above you.</p>
<p>Swarthmore
Bryn Mawr
Haverford
Pomona
Amherst
Carleton </p>
<p>Okay basically LACs known for sending grads to med school can be great options.</p>
<p>another things to consider… very often medical school admit more students from instate than oos…so look closely at your in state options for undergrad</p>
<p>consider merit options for undergrad as medical school is extremely expensive…keep you undergrad costs low.</p>
<p>Without stats it’s difficult to make suggestions, but my guy who has wanted to be a doctor since he was 8 has chosen to go to U of Rochester this fall. His top “needs” and/or “wants” were a reputable school with oodles of research options and neuroscience. He did not want Greek. They have it there, but the level didn’t bug him with visits. He did not need top sports and rather enjoyed it when students there told him there’s more of an emphasis on intermurals and going to games, etc, to watch friends rather than to be on any sort of national platform. And they have research plus a research “culture.” Something like 76% of undergrads are involved with research. Based on whether these things fit you or not, you might want to consider the school.</p>
<p>Okay, in your post you /basically/ described my college to a T.</p>
<p>Earlham College. Small (1200 students), Quaker liberal arts college with no fraternities or sororities. We have a >90% med school acceptance rate, and 80% of those who are accepted get into one of their three preferred med schools. Two out of the last three years we’ve sent students to Harvard Medical on full academic ride - grad programs know us very well. </p>
<p>I think that the reason for our success lies in our community and the opportunities that we have. Professors are on a first-name basis with students, and you really get to know them! I’ve had dinner at several of their houses, and they care about you as an individual, not just as a student. There are study groups for the MCAT every year - partly because of this collaboration, one student last year got a 39S and is now attending the University of Michigan’s medical school. People here are more concerned with learning from each other than competing against each other. Additionally, studying abroad is common (80% of bio majors, including yours truly) and encouraged. Financial aid follows you for a full semester, so you won’t pay more to study in Tanzania or New Zealand than you do at Earlham. There are plenty of opportunities to do research outside of the classroom and many courses focus on research methods and experiment design. </p>
<p>Other colleges like ours include Oberlin, Haverford, St. Olaf, and Denison, though I believe that out of this group we have the best pre-med program.</p>
<p>If you’re curious for more information, just ask! I’m a bio major and pretty familiar with the pre-med track.</p>