What schools have the best undergraduate programs for students wanting to go to med school?

Chance Me / Match Me
21

@JamesKM : If you have followed all the links I put out earlier, you would have read from “Bluedevilmike’s Ten Step Guide to Picking a PreMed School” that step #1 is

You have said that you only took two APs junior year and got 4s on both of the finals. Most kids overestimate themselves for the premed competition. I am assuming that UNC’s premed success rate is close to UC Berkeley’s at around 50%. According to https://admissions.unc.edu/files/2015/11/Class-Profile_round-2_120517.pdf , #1 intended major at UNC is biology, that means premed (there are not many biology jobs). Last year UNC welcomed 4,355 first-year students. For the 2017-2018 application year for med school, UNC has 438 applicants. So basically about 220 got into medical school out of 4377 first-year students … that is less than 6%. Now you have to figure out your chance of being part of those 6% … assuming you can get into UNC. Don’t underestimate those students at top state flagships like UNC. Some of those kids are there because of financial reasons. I would estimate much more than 6% actually academically qualify for top 20 private schools. What I am suggesting is that those “common” folks at UNC who are not actually academically qualified for top private schools have a slim chance of getting into a medical school.

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Medical schools in the US are not safeties. In-state public medical schools are typically reaches, while all other medical schools are typically super-reaches. Most premeds will feel lucky if they can get into one US medical school out of numerous applications after two cycles (many get shut out, take a gap year after college, and try again). Of course, if you are lucky to get one admission to a medical school, you will not have much choice in terms of being able to choose a less expensive one.

23

A good undergraduate college for pre-meds is 1) affordable 2) collaborative 3)with lots of resources.
Examples run the gamut: honors college at your flagship, LACs strong in science (Amherst or Pomona but also St Olaf or Whitman)…
The key element is finding a college that doesn’t purposely weedout and where you’re among the top students yet offers sufficient resources and opportunities.

It is actually harder to get a 3.7 at UNC than at Harvard (chek the % of graduates magna cum laude and summa cum laude at both).

Engineering tends to have lower GPA’s than other majors and no leeway is given because you chose a harsher major.
Choose your major carefully: it should lead to a solid plan B (note that MOST majors aren’t vocational and require you to actually look at your skills rather than follow a path, ie’, art history makes don’t become historians, statistics majors don’t become statisticians… Both may well end up in the same marketing department.)

You will have to take the pre-med pre-requisites no matter what major you choose. And you’ll have to be top 10-20% in every single of these classes.

UNC is a great university and if you can get into Carolina honors you’d be in a great situation even if you don’t end up going to med school.

But at this point you should look into lots of universities.

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@nrtlax33

I’m not trying to overestimate my success. Yes, I might not have scored extremely high on my APs but I’m like 4th or 5th in my class at a very difficult college prep school. I was valedictorian at my old public high school. After looking into UNC, I do not think that I am considered “normal folk” there. My SAT scores are well above UNC’s average. obviously that is just one particular aspect, but I think it proves a valid one.

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@MYOS1634

Yes I definitely agree. I will most likely be majoring in something like biomedical engineering, which is considered, from what I’m understanding, more of an engineering related major than a biological science related one.

I think you are also correct about the GPAs at Harvard vs UNC because I think Harvard has GPA inflation.

I have an updated list of colleges I am thinking about:

Brown (smaller school = less competition for teacher recs, great education = preparation for MCAT, lots of resources and opportunities for ECs, GPA inflation = high avg. GPA, expensive)

Duke (basically the same as brown, a little bit bigger, renowned bio and engineering programs. expensive)

Rhodes College (small liberal arts = less competition for teacher recs, less rigorous = higher GPA, located in memphis so many EC opportunities at St. Judes Childrens hospital, maybe not as good for MCAT prep, less expensive but still costly)

Drexel University (small research school = less comp., lots of research available even during summer before freshman year, less rigorous = high GPA and possibly scholarships but very expensive)

UNC (large school = high competition for teacher recs and EC, GPA possibly low from hard competition, lots of EC opportunities, many people majoring in bio/chem trying to apply for med school.)

Vanderbilt (smaller research university = less comp., hard to maintain high GPA, huge medical center w/ many EC opportunities, expensive)

What do you guys think about these schools?

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@JamesKM : Check out https://admissions.unc.edu/apply/class-profile-2/

For now, your SAT math:760 and reading:720 is only a tad ahead of UNC 75% mark and since 78% of UNC admits are in top 10% of high-school class, you ranking of " top 10% in your class" is also pretty common at UNC. Your stats/ECs are weak for Brown/Duke and your stats are weak for Vanderbilt. Definitely give it a try but make sure you have several safety schools.

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@nrtlax33

I have a superscore of a 1540. I made a 780 on english on the previous SAT I took. What would you consider as strong stats/EC for Vandy, Duke, Brown?

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Go to a school that’s a good fit for you and that’s affordable. If you’re happy and well-supported, you’re more likely to do well and get good grades, thereby increasing your chance of medical school admission.
A good friend of mine graduated from the University of Iowa with a degree in biology. He ended up at Harvard Medical School and he believes part of the reason was due to geographic diversity as he was 1 of 2 medical students from Iowa that year.

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It may help to compare schools in a consistent statistical context: https://amp.businessinsider.com/the-610-smartest-colleges-in-america-2015-9. As of now, the most notable aspect of your tentative list appears to the large gap between your most and least selective schools.

(Note that the SAT averages shown were generated from the prior version of the exam. However, the relative positions indicated should help you organize your potential choices by statistical aspects of relevance to you.)

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@JamesKM : The best way to chance yourself is to look at the past admissions results of students from your HS. A lot of things are dependent on the context of your file, including your ECs. But you said

You don’t seem to have a story explaining your hardships. If all you did outside of your school is what you list above, it is a bit underwhelming. You don’t have a track record of commitment to your sports, or anything. Can you check the box that you have taken the most rigorous courses in your schools on your application?

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@nrtlax33

What do you mean by hardships? I spend several hours a week working on my wood working projects, posting them online, and shipping them/buying new materials. It may be underwhelming on paper, but it is a full fledge business. It is not easy to balance it with school work, and to be honest I don’t know any other students who have started their own business.

I completed over 200 service hour last summer + school year, but I’m not sure exactly what more I can do. It’s probably too late now, but can you give me some examples of things I should have done over my summer? I live near Davidson College and reached out to some bio professors there. Some of them responded, but I wasn’t able to actually do any research, just kind of tag along and view from the sideline, so I did it for a while before discontinuing.

For sports, it may have been confusing but I’ve played club tennis since 7th grade. I was number two on my school team freshman year (and won all conference + team captain), but then changed schools midway through sophomore year so I was unable to play school tennis that year (but still played club). I started a tennis team at my new school and was captain + 1st seed junior year and will be playing again senior year (but since our school is so small we are not in an actual conference). So all in all I have played club tennis for 5 years and school tennis for 3 (and excelled in it).

Yes, I can confirm that I have/will be taking all the most rigorous courses offered at my school. My school doesn’t offer many APs such as AP chem, Calc BC, Physics, etc. that I would have wanted to take, but it is a college prep school. My school only lets students take two APs junior and senior year and one sophomore year (since I switched schools midway through sophomore year I couldn’t take an AP that year). It’s not like I couldn’t handle more APs than 2 last year. Both APs I took had the second and third lowest % of 5s received out of all AP exams, and this year the AP lit exam received the lowest scores ever, so although my scores were only 4s I don’t think they were that bad. Multiple people have told me that AP scores don’t really matter that much when getting into schools, but more so actually taking hard classes.

I am also a student superintendent advisor and only about 10 people are chosen out of the entire Catholic schools system to be one, so I think that is something worth mentioning. My in school ECs are standard and thats because theres not many opportunities at such a small school as mine, and I took all the leadership positions I could.

A girl from my school was just admitted to Brown this year and she had way less ECs than I did and similar scores. She was a minority, however, so I know that factored into admissions though.

32

You might want to add Rice to your list.

It combines a collaborative atmosphere, a relatively small student body (considering that it is an elite research university), and strong pre-med programs (it is located literally across the street from the world’s largest medical complex–the Texas Medical Center, home of the renowned MD Anderson cancer center).

33

Hamilton states on their website that “More than 92% of students with a GPA of 3.5 were admitted [to medical school] the first time they applied” and that the “Health Professions Advisory Committee prepares a letter of recommendation for any student who wishes to apply.” They further state that “There is no GPA requirement to receive a letter of support.” It seems that if a student were to do well at Hamilton, they’d have a good chance of admission to medical school.

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@JamesKM :You have been given good advice from your other threads. You need financial aid. You aspire to be a doctor. You changed to another school during sophomore year. There are many factors which needed to be considered. Your school is on Brown’s radar screen, which is a good thing. You explain much clearly about your situation than your chance thread. Make sure you have a good essay to present you to the schools you decide to apply. BTW, a 10-second search failed to locate your business on Etsy. Remember, you only get a few minutes for your file. Make sure you still have your business running when you apply. Good luck.

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Club tennis counts as an EC.would you be recruitable at a D3 school?
Starting a business is actually pretty common but a woodworking business isn’t as common. Being good with your hands, artisan-artist skills are good.
Duke and Brown have nothing in common. Please get a Fine guide and read both description. Which vibe and environment do you like best?

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@MrSamford2014 @apple23

Thank you both for your recommendations. I will add both to my list of schools!

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@nrtlax33

You can search my business on etsy by simply typing ConcordianWoodworks into the search bar and it is the first thing that pops up. I have many more projects that will be posted soon; I just have to get photos first. I understand I need financial aid, but no matter how many times I say that, it’s not going to happen. My dad makes too much money to get a good financial aid package and the only way I’ll get any money is through either merit scholarships (which won’t happen at my reach schools) or private scholarships (which are far and few between). That’s just the burden of the middle class white kid.

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@MYOS1634

Yes I would be recruitable at a D3 school. Many of my fellow tennis club members played at D3 schools, and I was better than a lot of them, just didn’t take it as seriously.

I know Brown and Duke are nothing a like, but for prepping one for med school I believe they both are very good choices. They both have relatively small student body numbers (even more so when you don’t include those getting grad degrees) allowing for less competition when trying to get teacher recommendations, and also allowing for students to create personal relationships w/ professors. They both have amazing academics thus preparing students nicely for the MCAT. They both have GPA inflation, allowing students to maintain higher GPAs. They both put out lots of quality research that I hope to participate in, as well as many EC opportunities (not to mention prestige and notability).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HZJvYtXSL6k&t=746s

***Plus many other sources

Honestly the “vibe” of the school doesn’t really matter to me. I care less about how beautiful the campus is, or how nice the people are, and more so about the quality of the education and how well it is setting me up for success. Yes, I understand that the environment is an important factor because it will allow me to focus/fit in best, in turn allowing me to work more comfortably; however, it is not my first priority.

I don’t care how big the campus is. I don’t care if it’s urban, suburban, or rural. I don’t care if it’s private or state. I just want a school that gives me the best education for my buck, and allows me to pursue med school to the best of my abilities.

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Though limited to ten schools, and probably generated through casual methodology, this Forbes article at least hints at some colleges that may be worth their prices and includes larger and smaller schools together: https://www.forbes.com/sites/nataliesportelli/2017/04/26/10-expensive-colleges-worth-every-penny-2017/. In any case, the article might be helpful with respect to ideas for one or two colleges with which you hadn’t been particularly familiar.

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@JamesKM : You put a space between the words “Concordian” and “Woodworks” in your chance thread so search on Etsy failed. Make sure you double-check everything before submitting your application. I agree with @MYOS1634 that woodworking is an unique EC. You should put much more weight emphasizing that aspect in your application. Also, it might be a good idea to put the photos of your past projects somewhere AO can access.You started your own business the summer before junior year and have sold over 25 pieces of art. If those 25 pieces can impress AOs, you get a better chance for admissions. “Show, don’t tell.” Don’t count on merit aid. If your family can’t pay full price for those expensive schools, you should have a honest discussion now with your parents to see what your options are. I am among the people who believe undergrad debt and medical school are not compatible.