<p>pros and cons for each from purely academic reputation and med school placement rate. I don’t know which is better. Help me decide.</p>
<p>Little known tidbit you won’t find anywhere else: BC won’t write you a recomendation for medical school unless your GPA reaches or surpasses a certain benchmark, i believe its a very high B or a low A. So if your GPA isn’t higher than that, BC will refuse to write you a recommendation and without one your chances or going to med school are slim to none.</p>
<p>I know this because my brother is a premed student at BC and can’t get a recommendation because his GPA is a B or a high B. BC will vehemently deny it, or put some BS spin on it, but its true. The reason for this is that they can then put in their pamphlets that their acceptance rate for med-school is like 95% and entice premed students like yourself, but of course the people who couldn’t get recommendations usually don’t apply, so it’s really like 95% of people with GPA’s of an A- or higher at BC get accepted to med school.</p>
<p>No idea how Holy Cross’s policy is, but I know that’s how BC does it. So if you feel you can get an A or A- GPA, then by all means go to BC. It has a very good science program, surely better than Holy Cross’s, and the alumni connection will help you a lot (my brother got an internship at Harvard Medical lab through a BC connection). I don’t imagine there’s many places in Worcster you could intern at, as i think there are few real labs there, but there are a ton of premire labs and opportunities in Boston. As I said, that GPA thing is a real catch, my brother is taking post-grad classes at another college to raise his GPA and then apply to med school, so there are options if you can’t get the A- or higher. However, you may want to ask Holy Cross and BC premed students(especially seniors) about how their school prepared them and how the transition from undergrad to med school works at that particular college. I’m sure every school has a cut off spot for reccomendations but an A- at BC is pretty hard to get. </p>
<p>In summation BC will provide a better education and real-life experience(internships lab work etc) for pre-med, but you won’t get the reccomendation without an A-. Sort of a catch-22. Good luck in your choice.</p>
<p>Worcester has The University of Massachusetts Medical School, one of the fastest growing academic health centers in the country, and has built a reputation as a world-class research institution, consistently producing noteworthy advances in clinical and basic research. The Medical School attracts more than $179 million in research funding annually, 80 percent of which comes from federal funding sources.</p>
<p>Ok so Worcster has one hospital where you could intern. So you and every other premed at HC would be fighting for a spot to intern there. Bc has Children’s Hospital, Dana Farber Center, Tufts med center, spaulding hospital, not to mention all these hospitals have labs(harvard med. alone operates at least 3) all within a 20 minute commute. It is much easier to find internship/volunteer experience for premed at bc than at holy cross. That much is for certain. The rest of it is up to you.</p>
<p>Worcester also has a newly built major Hospital downtown called St Vincent’s which is the nicest hospital I have ever seen in my life. And I have seen many over the years. It is fabulous. Worcester has fewer hospitals but it also has fewer overall premed college students than Boston. I don’t think there is any difference in opportunity per student. Take a gander at St Vincents: [Saint</a> Vincent Hospital - Home Page](<a href=“http://www.stvincenthospital.com/default]Saint”>http://www.stvincenthospital.com/default)</p>
<p>I would have to argue that WPI students would be preferred over HC</p>
<p>The fact of the matter is Boston has some of the best hospitals in the world and it is one of the cities with the most medical establishments in the U.S. I’ve generally found if you want an internship or lab job(with the economy i dn how easy these are anymore) you can pretty much get one. You may want to check out how hard they are to get at HC, but at BC i know it’s pretty much as easy as it can get.</p>
<p>Ten percent of Holy Cross alumni are currently practicing physicians. However, both school are really excellent. I would choose based on fit. Both BC and Holy Cross have great pre-med programs, however each offers different types of college experiences.</p>