<p>Sorry about all that HogwartsHopeful–back to what you were saying. I think it’s really far off to say that you would be at a disadvantage in med-school admissions if you went to Stanford.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Definitely not! Stanford, as well as the others, would not admit you if they didn’t believe you could survive. It’s not in your best interest, and it isn’t in theirs, either. The majority of Stanford students who apply to med school get in. Those who don’t most likely didn’t choose wisely enough with the colleges they applied to–in other words, they didn’t apply to enough ‘safe’ schools (though there isn’t much of a concept of a ‘safety’ in med school admissions). That’s why looking at % admitted to at least one med school doesn’t make sense; I’m confident that, for example, the 10% of Harvard students that don’t get into any med school probably would have gotten in somewhere, if they picked the right ones. I’m equally confident that that’s true of all the schools you’re looking at.</p>
<p>The point to be made here, though, is that there are rigorous requirements for getting into med school, and you’re more likely to be successful if you’re offered more opportunities. That’s why the very top schools tend to do well in grad/professional school admissions. They offer their undergrads tons of research opportunities; attractive majors like Human Biology for pre-meds (not to mention, “weaker” schools, as you say, are probably going to be more strict about changing your major, whereas at the schools in the thread title, that isn’t a problem–you can switch as much as you want); excellent lab facilities; extensive library holdings; funding for doing your own research (Stanford spends more than any university just on undergraduate research each year); connections to off-campus opportunities (e.g. Stanford has internship program connections in Asia, for many different kinds of subjects); and so on. This isn’t to say that not going to a very top school will doom you for med school admissions (undergrads elsewhere do well too), but that being furnished with more ‘stuff’ that’s relevant to med school admission committees increases your likelihood of getting in.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>That definitely is the case. Most important for you–which, I think, is common advice given to students worrying about med school before even getting into undergrad–is to choose the school that’s best for you, because that’s where you’re going to flourish. Forcing yourself to go to a school that you don’t think works for but will be better for med school could set you up for failure.</p>
<p>Also, try to keep in mind–no matter how strong your convictions are about med school, a lot of intended pre-meds take different routes than they expected, and are extremely happy with their choices. The idea now is to not worry about med school (unless you go for something like HPME)–think most about the schools where you feel (here it comes) the “fit.”</p>