Which college/university to attend in light of medical school dreams?

Pre-Med & Medical School Pre-Med Topics
1

<p>I’m a high school senior and was recently admitted to Washington and Lee University, Wellesley College, and the University of Chicago (my top choices) among others.</p>

<p>My ultimate goal is to attend medical school and practice as either a family physician, pediatrician, or a pediatric neurologist. I love, love, love to work with people, especially children.</p>

<p>I am currently experiencing a perplexing dilemma - which undergraduate institution to attend. I was offered a full-ride to Washington and Lee University (valued at approximately 160,000 dollars) and was unfortunately given no financial aid at either Wellesley or Chicago. If financial situations were equal, I would pick Wellesley or Chicago in a heart-beat because they are more recognized schools nationally and internationally. In addition, Chicago has an excellent medical school that would open many career doors.</p>

<p>I understand that medical school is extremely expensive and usually does not offer scholarships because graduates make significant money after graduation. Thus, I am hesitant in depleting my family’s financial resources so quickly for my undergraduate education because I need money for medical school eventually. The location of one’s terminal degree is also more important than one’s undergraduate degree.</p>

<p>However, I am scared that I will hurt my chances at gaining admission into top-notch medical schools (i.e. Ivies, Johns Hopkins, Northwestern, San Diego, etc.) by attending Washington and Lee, which is a great liberal arts college but not as well-known as Wellesley and Chicago.</p>

<p>I would appreciate any advice on this topic, especially if you are knowledgable about medical school admission, medical school in general, these particular schools, financial aid, etc.</p>

<p>I have been struggling with this for a long time and would like some input from others. Please offer your advice if you see the situation a different way.</p>

<p>Thanks!</p>

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<p>Hi Coquettish,</p>

<p>1.)

</p>

<p>This is actually untrue at the schools I applied to - but most scholarships are financial-aid based. They do comprise a reasonable capacity in loans, of course, but a large capacity of financial aid is grant-based. Of course, if your family will not qualify for financial aid, that’s a different story.</p>

<p>Medical schools do offer merit scholarships. As is also true at the undergraduate level, these scholarships are quite rare.</p>

<p>2.) You state that your intention is to enter a top medical school I have no philosophical objections to such a goal, but you may be making your life more difficult than is necessary.</p>

<p>As I have decided to start reminding all these premeds, it does not matter what medical school you go to UNLESS you are interested in academic medicine - for private practice (anything other than a medical school professor), it simply doesn’t matter. There is no point in going to Harvard or Stanford if you are simply intending to enter private practice.</p>

<p>Now, if you’re interested in academic medicine (i.e. being a professor at a medical school someday), that’s something else entirely.</p>

3

<p>Thanks for your response! My family does not qualify for any need-based aid entirely. That’s what I meant by medical school scholarships. I do not intend to become a professor at a medical school but rather aim to have my own private practice or work in a hospital. I would like to aim for some of the top medical schools, however, just because I know it would open more (not necessarily many) career doors.</p>

4

<p>that is quite a dilemma…one that noone on this forum can solve for you. I think mainly what you need to do is assess your parents’ financial situation and the pros and cons of each university. It is hard to turn down $160,000 though. </p>

<p>As for the top med school thing, bluedevilmike, its not entirely true that it doesnt matter at all…alot of your patients will think exactly like Coquettish and other premeds on this board and will feel more confortable going to a doctor who graduated from harvard than one who graduated from a med school that isnt as recognizable. Of course this isnt really very significant to becoming a doctor but it is one aspect of practicing medicine that cannot be overlooked.</p>

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<p>bluedevil you constantly talk about how the med. school doesnt matter unless you want to go into academic medicine, but did you forget admissions into a good residency program. I am sure for that what medical school you go to matters.</p>

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<p>That’s a function of your grades and board scores. If you look at the residency match data, many of the top med schools have jut so-so results.</p>

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<p>but when you look at grades, institution will mater we’ve discussed this before when we talked about med. school admissions…</p>

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<p>Yes, but your residency again doesn’t matter all that much for private practice placement.</p>

<p>Think about it: when your average patient is going to a doctor, he’s doing this based on a referral, either from somebody else or from his doctors.</p>

<p>sakky has obviously accurately pointed out that there are exceptions to this (i.e. plastic surgery), but these exceptions are fairly rare and tend to be for extremely elective procedures.</p>

<p>I promise you, most patients don’t even know where their doctors went to medical school, much less which medical schools are good.</p>

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<p>but the type of residency I.E. surgery or psychiatry some may be more competitive than others and you need to come from a good medical institution to get into the more on-demand specialties</p>

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<p>First, those two are … well, not two of the more competitive residencies.</p>

<p>I suppose for things like plastics (again) or dermatology, yeah, it might require more competition early on. But these sorts of specialties are the exception, not the rule.</p>

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<p>Whatever the competitive specialties be, and I am sure there are many, the med. school will matter.</p>

12

<p>The medical school will matter a lot less than you think. </p>

<p>As far as grades go in med school, the grading is so different (my school has fail, marginal, pass, high pass, and honors grading all based on class average and standard deviation. Creighton, just down the street, had fail/pass/honors, where scores are based on 70% as a pass threshold) that it’s hard to compare. Yes, name recognition is important, but keep in mind that most of the best med schools, at least for putting out doctors (not researchers) are STATE schools. And in many cases, you’re biggest determining factor for state schools is state residency. And the residency programs know that, they know that most people don’t get accepted to more than one med school, and they also know that debt/cost is a huge reason why one would go one place and not another.</p>

<p>The only thing gradeswise that can make a huge difference is being top 10% and getting Alpha Omega Alpha induction…the rest of residency is board scores and interviews.</p>

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<p>Besides, confused, there aren’t that many super-competitive specialties.</p>

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<p>To clarify, because I realize I wasn’t very thorough with the last post:</p>

<p>Confused, there are many specialties where it is difficult to get a prestigious residency. This is very common. It also, for the vast majority of practicing physicians, does not matter.</p>

<p>What you and I are discussing are specialties that are so competitive that it is difficult to get a residency at all in that specialty.</p>

<p>These specialties are very rare. I would be willing to bet money that there are perhaps around five of them (derm, plastics… radiology? urology?).</p>

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<p>I think me and coquettish and many other premeds who are just entering undergrad schol or are freshmens and sophomores have goals of going to top med schools because that is what we are supposed to do for undergrad. Every body tries to go to a top undergrad school and it is important too, because it open more opportunities for grad school so we kinda have the same mindset. I think by the end of our undergrad career we would more easily be able to comprehend your point and see that it doesn’t really matter.</p>

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<p>or if you realize you’re not doing as hot as you thought in undergrad and instill in ur mindset that prestige really doesn’t matter either…hahaha</p>

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<p>Here’s an excercise for you guys who are so worried about prestige. </p>

<p>Think of all the doctors you’ve had in your life…okay got them, now think of the ones that you really admired or thought were really good doctors. Now, how many times did you ever ask them where they went to medical school?</p>

<p>Part two: next time you are at the doctor’s office, ask them how many times patients have EVER asked them where they attended medical school.</p>

<p>Finally, when you find a doctor that you like or think did a good job (say you’re at the university health center), ask them where they went.</p>

<p>The most likely answers for the first parts: only a handful. </p>

<p>The second one, I bet you’ll be surprised. One of the docs I had at the university health center went Johns Hopkins and he was horrible. One of the best was from SLU, which isn’t exactly horrible, but not great either.</p>

<p>Finally, like I said earlier, most of you won’t have more than one acceptance. Most med students are going to be going someplace by default…so give up this idea of prestige - it’s a waste of time. Worry about getting in first, then about “prestige” if you must.</p>

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<p>Hi bigred,</p>

<p>Don’t forget to extend your exercise to residencies.</p>

<p>Again, of course, it’s worth noting that there are exceptions if you’re interested in academic medicine or highly-elective (e.g. cosmetic) procedures.</p>

19

<p>Thanks for all of your responses. Does anybody know anything about the specific universities I mentioned (i.e. Pre-med advising, acceptance to medical school, prestige in eyes of medical school admissions) that would be helpful to me and possibly others? The actual delineating between W&L and the other more renown universities are giving me a lot of trouble.</p>

20

<p>Hi Coquettish,</p>

<p>I very seriously considered the University of Chicago as well. I’m in the middle of composing a PM to you regarding some of the specific details of my decision.</p>