<p>…if the college you loved had an overwhelming rigorous academic courseload and incredibly competitive environment and the college you hated had a much less cutthroat academic atmosphere?</p>
<p>I want to go to Med School. That’s my goal, so having a high GPA in college is a must. But I come from a school that was really easy to get good grades in. We weren’t taught anything, and you didn’t have to work really hard to get good grades, so I never really developed that work ethic to handle intense competition and rigor.</p>
<p>But the colleges I want to go to because of the campus, location (climate), student body, ECs all have really hardcore atmospheres where I’m afraid of not being able to maintain a competitive GPA. Since I want to go to Med School when I graduate, a subpar GPA is pretty much unacceptable… soo what would you do? A college you loved with an overwhelmingly intense academic atmosphere or a college you hated with a less cutthroat environment, considering you wanted to go to Med School in the future.</p>
<p>“overwhelmingly intense atmosphere/cutthroat environment” are not prerequisites for medical school. What is required are good grades, high MCATs and some medical-related experience. And that can be attained at many different types of schools, including those in the vast majority of schools in the middle of the two extremes you describe.</p>
<p>I know an “overwhelmingly intense atmosphere/cutthroat environment” is not a prereq for Med School. I never said that. What I’m worried about is doing BADLY in a cutthroat environment because I’ve never been exposed to that sort of atmosphere, so I’ve never truly been challenged by competitive students or anything. Thus, if I do badly at a school that has a cutthroat academic atmosphere even though I love it, then I won’t get into Med School because my GPA will be too low. But the fact is, I’m in love with the other factors of these really cutthroat schools.</p>
<p>Also, I’ve lowered down the schools I really want to go to, and they, unfortunately, all have intense academic atmospheres… however, there’s a college that does not have MAJOR grade deflation/competitiveness, but I don’t really like the campus/culture/location, but it fits my academic needs the most.</p>
<p>katliamom is right. You are presenting this as an artificially narrow choice. There are many schools that will meet your needs, and you need to keep researching if you are not convinced of that at this point.</p>
<p>I forgot to mention: My parents have told me that I may only apply to Top 20 schools (USNEWS rankings) and my state university as a safety school. They’re Asian parents who only look at USNEWs rankings, but I can’t argue because THEY are the ones paying for my college education. </p>
<p>So, my choices are limited. However, I’ve lowered my college search down to two colleges that my scores fall within the middle 50% ish. However, one of them, which I love, has an intense cutthroat academic environment while the other, which I dislike, has a less cutthroat atmosphere. This is important to me because I come from a school where I was never really challenged with competition, and I don’t know if I can handle too much competition in college to succeed and graduate with a decent GPA to go on to Med School…</p>
<p>so I’m just asking what you would do in this situation…</p>
<p>There are multiple USNWR lists: top 20 national universities, top 20 liberal arts colleges, top 20 public universities and then the top schools by region. There are still plenty of choices, even with that guideline.</p>