They attended Texas Tech. We were concerned about sending my 3rd to Tech as he had higher stats than Tech’s guaranteed BS/MD program. He had a 35 ACT, was top 3% in high school, 40 AP credits, and limited activities due to the pandemic. He went to Tech with a few buddies from high school, has 6 Tech scholarships covering tuition+ and is an RA so has free room and board. He’s thriving there (activities and academically) and I imagine he’s one of the top premeds in his class as he has a 4.0 including an A+ in honors organic. I’m fairly sure he’ll score in the top 5% on the MCAT and has an extremely high chance at getting into Tech med. I couldn’t say the same if he attended, let’s say Harvard college, as his competition for grades would be a lot tougher.
Tech provides grade distributions of all courses by instructors and like most colleges, premed course grades are terrible with few As and lots of Cs, Ds, and Fs in some of them. Here’s a ballpark of the attrition by my counting course enrollment:
1st semester Chem: 2,000 (includes non-premeds such as chem engineering majors
Start:
2nd semester Chem: 1,400
1st semester Organic: 600 - 800
2nd semester Organic: 450
3rd yr Biochem: 300 (1st test grade with better grading curve teacher was scary…only 12 As)
Those who actually apply: 200
Admitted 60 or so to MD programs
Admit percentage: 35%, national average to SOME medical school (many schools include D.O. programs in their stats)
This totally misleading last equation is the percentages schools quote. I want to know the percentage chances from the start as that’s my kids will be, not the percentage at the end. We secured UT-Austin’s placement stats. About 300 got into med school. (9,000 freshman class of which a large chunk is premed). 9 attended of the 300 a top 20 med school, so it wasn’t worth the risk over attending Tech which has less competition than UT-Austin (900 make it to application stage of the few/several thousand who start). UF also has 900 apply (AAMC stats…made it through GPA / MCAT gauntlet, as there are only so many freshman med school slots…you can see where the math is going and why both colleges were a clear no-go for my kids. Few, if anyone from my kids’ high school who attended UT-Austin become doctors. Likely the same at Tech, but my kids faced lower competition. At Tech, couple/few get into the best med schools in the state but none into a top 20. I believe this is because Tech doesn’t get nosebleed ACT scorers…35s, 36s who have potential for a nosebleed MCAT score. Top 20 med school MCAT scores are 96+ percentile, some have 99th percentile averages for entering class…plus the 3.9+ college gpa + research + leadership + community service + shadowing…you get the picture. My 2 oldest…one attending a 96th MCAT percentile med school, the other a 95th percentile med school. They can score high. One had a 4.0 in college with BA in hard science, other a 3.9 securing 2 BA degrees (psych & general studies). Both did honors program but I don’t think that’s essential and I don’t think you really need a B.S. They’re nice pluses but you must have at least a 3.8 and 80th percentile MCAT today for a U.S. med school. I think Tulane used to have an MCAT average of 70th percentile. Caribbean med schools are at 50th percentile on MCAT. Medical school names ending in Medical Colleges are typically the lower ranked med schools.
NOTE: Due to extremely heavy state funding, even at private medical schools, many have out-of-state resident caps. (15% at Baylor med). The average out-of-state acceptance rate is 1% (AAMC stats). Another reason is that there are always 49 other states for applicants to come from. So, my kids know they’re pretty much limited to the med schools in our state.
ALSO NOTE: The top ranked med schools are almost all private, as are bottom ranked ones. Top 20 private meds schools are small, e.g. Stanford class size 90. To put this in perspective, that averages to about 2 per state. Johns Hopkins med is 110. So, my kids discounted targeting such med schools up front. Full-size public med schools can have class sizes up to 240.
Yes, the acceptance percentages are higher at more competitive colleges but there’s no break on the college GPA or MCAT score. (I have detailed stats, by year, applied accepted number by med school applied from one of the ivy’s). I expected at last a 1/2 or 1/4 GPA break but there wasn’t one. Reason: they admit many students with nosebleed ACT/SAT scores, thus these students have potential for nosebleed MCATs but unfortunately a majority are weeded out on college grades.
I have the following criteria:
- Tier 1 Research Institution (as research exp. is a category on med school apps), reflects college is rigorous enough
- Affiliated Med School (some like Tech and Miami take 40 - 50+ of their own). UF took a similar number of their own when I was in college, but UF has FYI - Baylor & Baylor Med are not affiliated. In 2017, Baylor med only enrolled 7 Baylor undergrads in it’s med school class of over 200 (have detailed stats)
- More students accepted to med school than National Merit Finalists in class (It’s about even at Rice, 400 start premed, about 125 attend med school, some univ. have more national merits and some have less)
- My kids are in the top 25% (prefer top 10%) of the entering college class - I use colleges’ ACT scores (only academic reference available). How can they secure the necessary 3.9 GPA (all As and one B per year) if they barely gain admission to college? (If your child isn’t near the top, then look at easier schools where they will be) There are Tier 2 Research schools. I’d recommend against non-Tier 1 or 2 Research colleges. My preference is my kid attend a college where the mean ACT is 5+ points below theirs. Strategy worked for my friends in college and for my kids. Note, this is only one reference point, not the only criteria which should be used.
- Live on-campus all 4 yrs, even if they have to become an RA to do so (time is scarce, food is taken care of, and student is right there location-wise which is priceless)
- Pre-health committee which doesn’t prescreen applicants applying to med school. (e.g. makes recommendation via grid). Unfortunately, Miami does this as do too many other schools. Tech does not. I know of some schools which won’t let students join pre-health services if their grades are too low. Makes one wonder which way the tuition payment is going.
- College offers algebra based physics, not calculus-only based 1st yr physics. Physics is the 2nd hurdle after organic chem. 2nd semester 1st yr Bio is the 3rd hurdle.
- Avoid Genetics and Cell Bio. These are really tough classes with low grade distributions.
- College allows course sequence (make 4 yr course schedule of every college your child is seriously considering…private colleges typically have fewer major course and distribution requirement vs. public colleges) so MCAT study is viable junior college year. My kids didn’t have gap years.
Regarding work:
- I don’t allow them to work or do work study during school year (time is scarce and a semester’s earnings will pay for what, a few course books?, but encouraged to join a research lab, and work during non-academic periods, and participate in career related shadowing and internships.
My 12th grader is also premed. She’s brilliant to where I imagine will get into some ivy leagues. She’s up for merit scholarships at places such as WashU. My oldest (at top 25 med school) keeps telling her, don’t do it. Go to Tech, or maybe Miami. My oldest is haunted by her friend, a Duke Robertson (full ride) scholar (Duke awards 10/yr). His scholarship included a summer at Oxford. He’s at an unranked D.O. program. My second oldest knew if she attended Berkeley, she wouldn’t have become a doctor. It was tough not sending her there but she definitely wouldn’t be where she is now(she wanted to be a doctor since elementary school) if she’d gone to Berkeley. (has 1,000 at application stage per AAMC but similar small number enroll in med school).
When I visited Yale 18 years ago (well before it became REALLY hard to get into med school), students told me whatever you do, don’t be premed here. This was unprompted as I only asked what they thought of Yale.
A majority of accepted premed students at top colleges do gap years. AAMC stats also revealed a majority of lower ranked med schools had gap year students, while high ranked med schools had a majority of non-gap year students.
It’s so tough that I’d tell my child to just be happy to get into a top 90 of 130 or so US MD med schools today. They’re both at top 40 med schools which I didn’t realize, along with STEP test scores, is the dividing line for better residency placement (per residency clearinghouse website guide). The college’s name doesn’t matter, only where one attends med school and residency.