<p>I’m struggling with something most of you will think of as a no-brainer: Stanford vs Boston College.</p>
<p>I love both schools. I’ve visited both campuses. I know kids who go to each. BC is a beautiful campus with a student body and overall vibe I was immediately comfortable with. Stanford the same, although a little more intense - some of which may have been due to the hyper-intense parents on the tour. Going east to school (I’m from SoCal), especially a college town like Boston, is a really exciting prospect. But the chance to go somewhere world-class like Stanford is amazing. I actually didn’t expect it. I was all set on BC and Stanford sort of threw me a curveball.</p>
<p>Cost won’t make the difference - the net is about the same either way.</p>
<p>Here’s the main thing I’m wondering about. I currently am planning to go pre-med. I hear that med school admissions is almost entirely numbers - GPA and MCAT. I may be wrong, but my guess is that Stanford is going to be a notch more competitive and intense and difficult than BC - whether it’s for grades, internships or research opportunities. I don’t mean to disrespect the BC pre-med student body, I can see by their stats that they are among the brightest and most accomplished around. But would I be better off opting for a environment where I might find the competition a bit more manageable than one where I’m up against a hyper-qualified group like that I expect I’d find at Stanford?</p>
<p>Its possible that I’m thinking about this all wrong, but that’s what I’m struggling with. </p>
<p>Any thoughts, input or advice?</p>
<p>Thanks!</p>
<p>Hello rdg2012- Congratulations on your wonderful choices.</p>
<p>I have limited BC insight. I have a sibling doing a PhD there and that’s it.</p>
<p>I have 2 offspring, both chose to go to Stanford.</p>
<p>The one who will be attending med school has graduated.
Her experience at S has been all positive. Her assessment was that she didn’t feel a sense of competition with the other students; she felt the challenge of the quarter system and the resulting need to absorb and master the material in a short amount of time. I believe BC is on semesters and that seems an important issue to address- what type of system would best support your style of learning.
Medical school ramps up the quarter system setup of absorbing information in a compressed time frame. So Stanford would give you 4 years of practice in that exercise. My spouse is a physician and we were married through his med school years so I was witness to it firsthand.</p>
<p>Many of my daughter’s friends have already entered med school. I can’t think of a single one who was rejected. They were all good friends throughout, helped each other, studied together. Having viewed one kid go through the entire Stanford experience and the other in the midst of it, I offer that Stanford is not a culture of cutthroat competition.
It’s not perfect there, but it’s an excellent place to be.</p>
<p>At one time my S was considering premed and we were told by many, even our family doctor that it was a mistake to go the premed route in the tougher schools. From what I understand the Medical schools don’t give that much credit to the applicants who attended schools like Stanford or HYP etc. I agree with StanfordParentx2 that the kids in Stanford are extremely collaborative an cooperative. Its not cutthroat, but you are sitting in a classroom with students who are academically higher up the ladder. I certainly mean no disrespect to BC students, I know many kids that go to that school and its is fantastic but there is a difference in the caliber of student who is accepted at BC than Stanford. So thats what makes it more difficult to “compete”. You are no longer the big fish in the pond at Stanford, unlike BC. </p>
<p>Before you make a choice I would also consider how serious you are about Premed. It would be ashame to pick a school based on that major and then you change majors by the time you get to Junior year. From what I remember something like 80% of premed majors change and go a different route. Organic Chemistry and Physics are usually the weeder classes that lead to that huge percentage of kids dropping the major.</p>
<p>As far as opportunities at Stanford, they are numerous. I highly doubt you would ever have a problem getting research, even as a freshman. Many of my S’s friends are doing research. Its easy to secure. I can’t imagine BC having more opportunities. </p>
<p>So good luck with your choice and congrats on your acceptance!!!</p>
<p>Four years of college are so much more than a prelude to medical school. If the main reason you are considering BC is to potentially bolster your GPA, then I think you would be making a big mistake. Unless you really want to experience New England life as a break from CA, Stanford would seem to be the better choice. Don’t be afraid to surround yourself by academic peers. No doubt Stanford UGs do very well applying to med school.</p>
<p>Stanford has a med school, and a top-5 one at that. You’ll have access to many of the resources of the med school (professors, research, classes, programs, etc.), all of which are right on campus. These resources are the sort of thing that will help you get into the top med schools.</p>