So I just got admitted to Denison class of 2020 a week ago, It seems like one of my most affordable options so far (100% need met). Since it is a small liberal arts college is Denison successful at getting students into medical school or at least top PHD programs?? Last time I checked the pre med admit rate was 45% which was lower than the national average. I’m a dual U.S. U.K. student if that helps? Also Maryland resident.
The stats don’t seem very good. From the school web site:
It seems Denison performs just under the national average for med school admission.
@Erin’sDad is there a particular reason why Denison underperforms? Most LAC’s with a similar study body and high rank tend to have at least +70% admit rates at least? Also, it looks like most applicants underperform in terms of GPA and MCAT score. I guess I’ll have to contact one of the pre-health advisors, I’m going to visit in April anyway so I’ll have a number of opportunities to enquire about this at the college.
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@Ali1302 Yeah I’m not sure why the admit rate is so low. I’d definitely contact the school to try to get some more recent info/trends over time. The few people I knew who were premed got into med school but I knew more people who wanted to enroll in PhD programs in the sciences. Good students got into good programs. I know people who got into places like Michigan, Duke, UCLA, University of Pennsylvania, etc. I don’t really know where the pre med students went.
It might be that Denison allows any and all students who want to, to apply to med school rather than using weed-out classes and/or only awarding a committee letter to top students. I’ve read that some schools inflate their med admissions rate that way - by the time a kid makes it through all the hoops the college puts in his/her path, the admit rate is 100%. But a ton of kids were pushed off the pre-med track along the way.
@OHMomof2 doesn’t really excuse the extremely low acceptance rate. I’ve visited Denison in April it’s a nice school, the low admit rates is largely due to low GPA and MCAT score from applicants. It is more of an artsy school I believe their admit rate to law school is pretty decent.
I’ve decided not to enroll there, I’ve decided to enroll at a college with a higher pre med admit rate and better reputation in the natural sciences.
I’m not sure it’s a matter of excuse or not, colleges handle potential med school applicants differently. GPA is of course partly due to the college but MCAT isn’t.
I actually have a family member who did Denison as a pre-med (not sure what her major was) and is now a professor at a well regarded med school in CA.
Most who have been through the process will say it doesn’t matter very much where you go to college for pre-med as long as your GPA is high, you take all the required courses, you study for and do well on the MCAT, do a lot of shadowing and volunteering, and get good recs.