100% agree OP will have a good experience and education anywhere they go out of the three. It should just be a comparison on factors other than the academics because they are very equal in academics/pre-med. Maybe factors like cost, extracurriculars available, the campus, location, or even social scene may be key differentiating factors.
Based of med programs and cost(which I know said doesn’t matter), I think i’m leaning washu. Washu posted their pre-med statistics online and it’s pretty tough to choose cornell above it unless I love their campus.
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Yes, you like WUSTL. You don’t NU.
You haven’t been to Cornell (highly rated food btw so eat in the dining hall).
You don’t know how you’ll feel about Cornell til you visit. So have an open mind since you are investing to go there.
The choice will be clear.
Forget the stats - those are marketing and hype.
Open mind - you’ll like Cornell more or you won’t.
Best of luck.
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Don’t make the decision based on med school acceptance stats because you don’t know what’s included in a given school’s med school numbers, so you can’t compare them:
- includes MD applicants? DO too?
- includes first time applicants only, or those applying more than once?
- US only? or include Caribbean med schools?
- Includes only recent grads or anyone who did their undergrad at the school?
- includes students who have completed a post-Bacc or SMP? (they generally have higher acceptance rates)
- is there a committee letter required? If so, this is one way schools protect their med school admissions rates because they gatekeep who can apply (if you don’t get a committee letter from your school (if they offer one), your med school app is basically DOA.) Of your schools WashU and Cornell use committee letters, NU does not
- Etc.
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This is probably the statistics Plurple is referring too. Quite inconclusive cause it says the acceptance rate is around 85% but at the same time most are taking gap years. It’s also strange that a 2.96 GPA got into Med School.
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I have a premed that had Cornell on short list last year. The research scholar portion is great, but after talking to students at admit days getting clinical hours is tricky due to location and size of school. They said most are stuck fulfilling over breaks and summers. Engineering and pre-med will be extremely challenging. The pre-med courses alone are difficult.
Mine also liked Northwestern, but had some concern over quarter system for courses like orgo. Plentiful opportunities it seemed for research and clinical volunteering.
They didn’t apply to WUSTL, but knowing what we know now they should have. I think it seems like a great pre-med experience.
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Which one would you reccommend out of the three speaking about academics alone? I haven’t ruled out Northwestern yet, since my brother goes there and loves it, but would like to know what’s the best academically for pre-med.
Here’s the mcat/gpa grid for 2021/22 thru 2023/24 combined:
That’s impossible to answer, we don’t have objective criteria to compare. You can achieve your goals from all of these schools, pick the one where you feel you fit the best, both academically and socially. All of these school have tons of students who are extremely focused on academics, and pre-med required classes will be tough.
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All 3 are fine for pre-med courses.
Might help to focus on anticipated stress level for the particular student. While I can make a guess at which school has the lowest stress level among pre-med students, student comments on Niche, reddit,and Unigo might be helpful.
Additionally, with respect to stress, environment matters. In which environment does your student think he/she will be most relaxed. Often this involves weather, dorms, and access to desired activities.
I don’t think you have a bad option, all amazing. Wherever you’ll be happiest is where you’ll thrive. You can get where you want to be from any of them.
I really can’t answer as they didn’t end up at any of them, so can’t speak with any direct knowledge on academics. Just wanted to share some of our observations in case helpful. Good luck!
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I spoke with students at all 3. I can tell, students at cornell and northwestern have more stress since its harsher grading scale, and typically study more on average. However, if I end up liking cornell like the campus + other social factors, i’m torn on which I should choose. The easier grading/access to clinical opportunities or the one I’d have a better time at.
However, I also fear Cornell might have too many students, since I prefer having less students overall.
Are you still planning to visit Cornell? I personally think it’s a “fit” campus, and usually people feel strongly whether they like it or not.
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They all are relatively smaller sized schools to be honest the size difference is miniscule.
If it’s my favorite, i’ll probably choose there. If it’s not, likely washu. If i’m not sure, i’ll probably just choose washu since its cheaper.
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cornell is like double
Do you mean Cornell is almost double the cost of WashU?! If this is true, I am not even sure I would make the visit to Cornell. Even if you can easily afford both, don’t underestimate the cost of medical school as well as the additional cost of getting to cornell as no direct flights etc.
Knowing pre-med students currently at both schools (including one set of siblings), Cornell is much more high stress. It does not make shadowing easy given the rural location (WashU has the med-prep program that helps facilitate this and has the huge medical center just on the other side of the park so very easy).
Actually I think you are talking about size not cost. Sorry
For me, cornell is 75k and washu is like 55k, but cost isn’t really too much a factor in my decision. Your right i was talking more like double the undergrads, so idk if i like that or not