My son applied to 13 schools and we are in the process of narrowing them down even though we haven’t heard from a few. Which school might be best for behavioral neuroscience major with pre med track between these three programs… Northeastern, Binghamton and U of Scranton?
My daughter did that major at Northeastern a few years ago. While she didn’t end up going to med school, a couple of her Neuroscience classmates did. My daughter ended up working as a researcher in microbiology before going to grad school in that field – all thanks to the extensive lab experience she got while on co-op.
If your son is serious about med school (remember MOST students change their mind) what matters most in med school admissions is not necessarily the quality of your major, rather than a very high overall GPA, high grades in science classes, and high MCAT scores. I’d make that decision based on which university he and you feel he’d most succeed. Many people think that for med school purposes, going to the lesser-cut throat school makes a lot of sense.
D2 was a neuroscience & math double major who went to medical school. (She’s finished her second year and is studying for her first national licensing exam right now.)
As katliamom says above, medical schools don’t especially care about a student’s major or, with few exceptions, the name of the undergrad school. GPA, science GPA, MCAT score, quality of a student’s LORs, ECs and personal statements are what are important.
I’d suggest you consider what each school offers to your student–availability of research opportunities (there’s more at research Us and bigger universities), availability of clinical volunteer opportunities (how close local clinics and hospitals are to campus and whether your student can get to them), interesting community service opportunities, opportunities to form strong relationships with professors (which has nothing to do with class size and a lot to do with how many faculty are adjuncts).
Then look at the presence or absence of health profession committee. These are double edged swords and can benefit–or hurt-- an applicant’s chances when they go to apply for med school. Some undergrad programs use committee letters to prevent weaker applicants from applying to med school and to maintain their good reputation for getting kids into med school. Check with current students and on stated policies about what it takes to earn a committee letter at each school.
Ask current students about the quality of health profession advising at each school. There are many truly uninformed, bad advisors out there.
Lastly after finding out above the above, choose the school that offers the best combination of opportunities, cost and fit.
Opportunities – see above. Also consider that 75% of freshmen pre-meds never even apply to med school. Pick a school that offer other majors/fields that your child may be interested in. Never pick a school just because it has a “great” pre-med program.
Cost because there is precious little FA for med school besides loans. Carrying a heavy undergrad loan burden will only make their life harder in the future.
Fit because there’s empirical evidence that happy student do better academically.
Northeastern is the strongest of the listed schools by far. Scranton is a regional school but it focuses on undergraduates. Both those seem like they are great options for different reasons.
I know a few people at Binghamton who did that track and were really happy with it.
I’d choose either northeastern or uscranton, depending on what environment the students looking for, and provided both are roughly the same cost.
What’s your budget ? What do the NPC’s say foe each school ? What other schools has your child applied to and Get do the npc’s say ?
Any UG will do. The best college for pre-med is the one that matches the student the best and preferably tuition free or very cheap. One of my pre-med D’s minor was. also a neuroscience, she was very interested in it academically while at college, but later in medical school she got discouraged and disappointed by both psychiatry and neurology. I would suggest to be open and flexible, later something else may become of greater interest. My D. attended at in-state public and looking back as a first year resident, would choose the same college for herself. It provided great opportunities for her during her college years and after graduation and enabled her to be in a driver seat in regard to choosing between great medical schools that she was accepted to.
For any interest medically, whether pre-med or not in the end, Boston combined with Northeastern’s co-op program is hard to beat in terms of opportunities and quality. NEU, as others have said will also offer plenty of good programs in alternative paths. This all coming from a current NEU student, to be fair of course.
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Which school might be best for behavioral neuroscience major with pre med track between these three programs… Northeastern, Binghamton and U of Scranton?
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It doesnt matter if the goal is med school. Med schools aren’t going to care which undergrad he went to…nor will they care that he majored in neuroscience. He could major in English or hHistory or Art History or Music Performance if he wanted.
Med school is very expensive, so avoid debt as an undergrad, and if possible, choose the school that won’t cost you a lot.
Thank you everyone! Very helpful 