My list right now is…
Bowdoin
Bates
Colby
Boston College
Wesleyan
USC
Vanderbilt
Claremont McKenna
Pitzer
Vassar
Occidental
University of Wisconsin-Madison
Whitman
Tulane
Colorado College
Rice University
Please bump
Pretty much all of them will. Generally the easier the college, the better your chances for a decent GPA. But you have to balance that with good MCAT prep.
undergraduate education is not MCAT prep: http://www.thecrimson.com/article/2013/5/16/mcat-test-prep-premed/
Also keep in mind that the pre-med prereqs are probably not the first choice of underachieving students to fill out their GE requirements.
Being a premed is part a dream or hope, and part a set of premed reqs (amongst other parts). Colleges don’t tend to publish a list of the dreams or hopes of their students. So it’s hard to determine the starting number of premeds and consequently what school weeds the least/most.
Sorry, I just have an extremely strong passion to be a neurosurgeon but I have a lot of test anxiety which is something that is hard to fix. I work my tail off studying and it’s for nothing.
As med school involves an enormous amount of testing, you’ll need to get a handle on your test anxieties if you want to get a med school acceptance. GPAs and MCATs are extremely important to adcoms because they are first asking themselves if this can applicant cut it. Also it’s okay to dream about neurosurgery but putting aside your long term dream for a moment, out of 48K applicants to “just” med school last year, just over 20K started, meaning that approx. 58% of applicants did not get accepted anywhere. So put your dream on hold and focus first on a college where you believe you will fit in because if you’re happy, you’re more likely to do well and hopefully this translates into good grades which will be important if you want to start on pathway toward your dream. Good luck.
You’re asking the wrong question. Virtually all undergrads weed. However, depending on YOUR stats and strengths…and your efforts…your chances of being weeded will be greater where your stats are average or worse…and your chances of being weeded will be lessened at schools where your stats strong.
That said, even if you go where your stats are strong, if you goof-off or assume that you don’t have to try, there’s a good chance you’ll be weeded.
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Please use the following scale:
safety → low match → match → high match → low reach → reach → high reach
Breakdown of colleges:
CMC(ED1)
Vandy(ED2)
Tulane(EA)
Colorado College (EA)
Boston College (EA)
In addition: Please Chance for University of Wisconsin-Madison
GPA UW: 3.55 W: 4.11(There is context for low GPA)
ACT: 29 (Hoping to bring up to 31 or 32)
Class Rank: Top 20% in a class of 1,000 students
Freshman: Honors Algebra 2 B/B+ Honors English A-/A- Honors Biology A/B+, AP human Geography A/A, Spanish 2 A/A
Sophomore: Accel English B/B, Accel Chemistry A/B+, AP European History B-/A-, Accel Spanish 3-4 B+/A-, Honors Geometry A/B+
Junior courseload: Junior English Accl, AP Physics 1, Precalc Honors, APUSH, AP Spanish, Accel Anatomy and Physiology
Senior: World Masterpieces accl, AP Biology, AP Chemistry, AP Psychology, AP macro/gov, AP Calc BC
AP scores: human geo(4) euro (4))
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???
Are you a senior? If so, what do you mean by “hoping to bring up” ACT to 31 or 32? Isn’t it too late for most schools?
Anyway, if you’re a senior…You have an ACT 29 as a 2nd semester senior. You’re applying to a bunch of schools where your stats are low.
Why are you undermining your med school chances by trying to luckily get accepted to a school where you will be one of the weakest students?
Are you thinking that these schools have some magical ways or magical teaching skills that will boost you to the top? That is not likely. ( I hate seeing premeds with good-but-not-top-stats are hoping that they’ll get into some big reach school…and then what…by soph year they realize that their grades aren’t med-school worthy.)
@mom2collegekids Im still a first semester junior. I’m picking colleges based on med school acceptance rate and happiest students. The only reason my gpa is low because of my high school. I don’t do well in a stressful environment that is competitive and ranked the #2 public high school in the nation. I went to another high school freshman year and easily pulled off a 4.0 gpa unweighted and a 4.5 weighted. My gpa dropped to 3.67 unweighted after sophomore year and soon going to be a 3.5 after this year. My other high school was hyper collaborative too. My explore test score was 24/25 which isn’t a huge predictor but the pressure put on me by other students is stressful which is why I have 29/36 on the act now. As long as the school is collaborative, I will survive. I know I can at least bring my act up to a 31 too which is lower for Vanderbilt but in the middle 50 for all other schools.
Don’t use this as a criteria. This is an artificial and easily manipulated number.
You have no idea how each schools calculate its acceptance rates and no two schools calculate this the same way. You’re not making an apples-to-apples comparison.
Do a search on this forum and you find at least half dozen or more ways that colleges massage their acceptance to med school rates. (Including denying letters of recommendation to candidates who the health professions committee feel aren’t “strong enough” applicants to gain an acceptance.)
OP, I saw on another thread where you are looking for a college with good parties and a social life. As a pre-med, you won’t have to give up socializing entirely, but you won’t be indulging in it either.
College will be time consuming. Med school and residency even more. There is nothing wrong with wanting to have a social life, but also consider that medicine will not leave a whole lot of room for that.
As to college- pick the best fit for you academically, socially and financially- some place where you are likely to be happy and do well.
Just so you know how important testing is, the average neurosurgeon trainee (resident) scored in ~the top 15% of medical students on the USMLE. The average medical student scored in ~the top 15% of all MCAT test takers. Assuming perfect correlation between the two scores (obviously there isn’t), the average neurosurgery resident scored in the top 2.25% of MCAT test takers.
In other words, get your test anxiety solved pronto if you truly want to be a neurosurgeon (also don’t forget it’s a 7 year residency so remember that after finishing high school, it’s 15 years before you’re officially a board certified neurosurgeon)
P.S. HOW DID I MISS THE RELEASE OF CHARTING OUTCOMES IN THE MATCH 2014??? NEW DATA FOR THE MATCH FINALLY!!! http://www.nrmp.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/Charting-Outcomes-2014-Final.pdf
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@mom2collegekids Im still a first semester junior.
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Ok…thanks…the way you have some of your info listed, it appears that you’re a senior.
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I'm picking colleges based on med school acceptance rate and happiest students.
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Don’t use acceptance rate…that is meaningless. What do you think it tells you about your chances or situation???
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The only reason my gpa is low because of my high school. I don't do well in a stressful environment that is competitive and ranked the #2 public high school in the nation.
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If you think high school is stressful, how will you handle premed undergrad and med school???
@mom2collegekids Being completely honest, if I’m happy and I have a good support system at a school, I can handle being premed. I tried study groups at my old high school for a while and I got 2 As in AP Human Geo and a 4 on the exam. Students are less willing to form study groups at my new school which is tough. I picked a couple of lower tier LACs to balance out my list like St. Olaf, Lafayette, etc. But I think I would do better at CMC because even though it’s more rigorous, the support system is amazing and the students are among the happiest in the nation.
“Generally the easier the college, the better your chances for a decent GPA.”
- I have not heard of the “easy” pre-med path, not at all, I do not believe it exists. You will hear a lot of brutal stories, but you will not hear about easy time.
I would not be checking which one is easier, it will depend primarily on the person who you are talking to and their outlook / attitude, it will not indicate anything valuable to you. I would focus on investigating / researching which one the list fits you the best, your personality and very wide range of interests, including some future interests that you think you may be pursuing at college. Your personal success in UG will depends on how you feel at college, if you feel that you fit in your environment / student body or you feel like fish out of water. Your success at college WILL HAVE NOTHING TO DO with how well or poorly somebody else is done at the place, not at all. This type of research is total waste of time and may steer you into incorrect decision.
I have concerns about someone who caves under pressure taking a knife to a person’s brain one day. Pressure extends into the operating room. I am picturing malpractice and wrongful death lawsuits. Do you really just not know the material you are being tested on and would rather say you have test anxiety than difficulty mastering material? If you really are anxious under pressure and cannot resolve that, then consider pursuing some other neurological career rather than dreaming of being a surgeon. A surgeon must be cool-headed and confident in the face of pressure.
“I have concerns about someone who caves under pressure taking a knife to a person’s brain one day”
- Do not be concerned with this. This person has no chance, zero, zilch to get to the point when he will be operating or even in any kind of family pracitice. This person will not surviive on the brutal (thank goodness it is brutal, it has to be) path that leads to the MD title. But sorry, surgeions are NOT cool-headed, and surgeyr environment is NOT for everybody, I do not mean that in terms that you have to be better than everybody else. Nope, but you have to be of certain personality or you will hate it. Most specialties, including family practice require certain personality or it may be a clash that will not lead to a successful career. Byt the same token, not everybody could be in psych ward, and psychiatry is the least selective specialty.
I’m not going be pressured when I’m doing surgery…test anxiety and that have no correlation. I am cool headed and can think off my feet. I don’t really care what you have to say.
I ‘liked’ your post, but allow me to second this, just for emphasis.
I do have to allow, however, that maybe the OP didn’t fully understand the nature of what people call “weeding”.