Amherst or Penn for pre-med?

<p>I know I posted this on another thread but this was before I realized that this was the more appropriate thread XD..</p>

<p>After perousing through the threads and the studentdoctor.net forums for awhile, I've come to the conclusion that getting a pre-med education at a smaller, well-known college like Amherst is a good, viable option? The website says that 98% of their "well-qualified" applicants (<a href="http://www.amherst.edu/%7Esageorge/outcomes.html%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.amherst.edu/~sageorge/outcomes.html&lt;/a&gt;) get into med school. Not to mention they don't "weed-out" their pre-meds like JHU. Plus, is Amherst known for grade inflation? What about Penn for inflation? Also, does going Penn pre-med give you an advantage when applying to Penn's grad school for Medicine?</p>

<p>I know this is a rather poor answer but I really don't think it matters.</p>

<p>Either way, you're going to have to work hard, have at least a 3.5 GPA, and do well on the MCATs.</p>

<p>While going to Amherst might give you a higher GPA, it may or may not prepare you as well for the MCAT.</p>

<p>Ultimately, I would choose a college based on how comfortable I feel during campus interviews/visits rather than on how well it prepares me for the next level. Both ways are going to require lots of hard work! Good luck!</p>

<p>For info about grade inflation, <a href="http://www.gradeinflation.com%5B/url%5D"&gt;www.gradeinflation.com&lt;/a> is a good place to start. From that data, it seems Penn and Amherst have similar grade inflation. Either one will prepare you well for med school. </p>

<p>If you want to go to Penn for med school, then yes, going to Penn undergrad will help. Most med schools have a very large number of students coming from the same school. Look at U Chicago and Duke's data, for example. However, a lot of Penn undergrads would apply to Penn's medical school, so I'd guess it balances out somewhat. </p>

<p><a href="http://pritzker.bsd.uchicago.edu/students/table1.html%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://pritzker.bsd.uchicago.edu/students/table1.html&lt;/a>
<a href="http://dukemed.duke.edu/AdmissionsFinancialAid/index.cfm?method=ProfileOfTheLastClass%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://dukemed.duke.edu/AdmissionsFinancialAid/index.cfm?method=ProfileOfTheLastClass&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>