<p>What in your opinion is the best college for medicine?
In particular, neurology. But even a general answer of medicine would help. Thanks.</p>
<p>Schools like Johns Hopkins and Emory are known for pre-medicine. In my biased opinion, though, I would say Rice. </p>
<p>Rice premeds have high acceptance rates to med school. Plus the Texas Medical Center, one of the biggest in the world, is right accross the street. <em>Many</em> opportunities are available there. Plus Rice has an 8 yr program with Baylor College of Medicine (a highly ranked medical school in Houston) that you apply for when applying to Rice that guarantees you acceptance to Baylor 4 years later. You can't beat that.</p>
<p>I second misterme's "biased opinion," but I'm biased too... I'm interested in medical research and Rice is my top choice by far. The Texas Medical Center is not only huge, but it's really nice and everything, and it's in a good part of town. Baylor College of Medicine is a good financial deal too...</p>
<p>Hope. Earlham. Kalamazoo. Virtually 100% entrance to med. school - more importantly, no "weed-out" as you'll find at the pre-med factories.</p>
<p>The college that sent the largest percentage of its class to med school (by far) was Xavier University in New Orleans. Unfortunately, they were very heavily damaged by the hurricane.</p>
<p>If you are simply shooting for acceptance into medical school, there is no purpose in looking for "the best". The way medical admissions are set up, only your stats matter: GPA, MCAT, involvement, leadership, meaningful research (hopefully something other than cleaning glassware), volunteering, shadowing.</p>
<p>The "best" school is the one that provides the best opportunities for you, is some place where you "fit" academically and socially (gotta have that social life), and where you will ultimately be happy even if you change your major 4 times. So things like size, social scene, pre-med advising, and so on are important.</p>
<p>Finally, beware of small schools with 100% placement rates. Many (not all) have pre-med committees that screen pre-meds before they begin applying and only allow the most competitive of students "permission" to apply. Since they write "committee letters" any student who doesn't meet their requirements is left without this typically glowing account of how wonderful of a human being they are. I've read of cases in which the committees go so far as to prevent profs from writing letters of rec without committee approval, thereby really screwing anyone that hopes to apply but doesn't pass inspection. </p>
<p>Finally "weed out" courses are not necessarily a bad thing, as they make some people realize that they really don't like medicine and it's not how they want to spend the entirety of their twenties. If your heart is really in medicine then you'll manage.</p>
<p>Hope. Earlham. Kalamazoo. Virtually 100% entrance to med. school - more importantly, no "weed-out" as you'll find at the pre-med factories.</p>
<p>What where did these stats come from. I have never heard of these colleges and I doubt that they have a higher acceptance rate than the ivies and top public schools. This just doesn't make sense....???</p>
<p>They have a higher rate of med school admission than all of the above, (usually at or close to 100%), and more importantly, virtually no "weed-out" that keeps students away from applying. Unlike JHU (where fewer than 30% of students who enter thinking they are premed actually ever get there), they don't have "committee" letters. Unlike Yale, the percentage of students actually going to medical school hasn't dropped by 65% in the past 25 years. (This isn't to say that Yalies "couldn't", only that they "don't".)</p>
<p>Hope College has a higher rate of undergraduates publishing in professionally reviewed journals in biology than JHU, Harvard, Yale, or any of the Ivies. Earlham had a 100% med school admission rate last year. Until last year, Kalamazoo had one three years in a row. Some 22% of Xavier students went on to med school (before the hurricane hit.)</p>
<p>The reality is that, if you are top student, you're best bet for med school is probably a decent state school. You'll get more research opportunities than if you were an "average" student at a med school factory; you'll get better mentoring, and, most important of all, you'll have some money left over to pay for it.</p>
<p>where are you getting this information from???? I find what you are telling me really hard to believe.</p>
<p>Go to the college websites yourself. Go to Princeton Review. Go to on-line citations of peer-reviewed journals. None of this is particularly hard to find.</p>
<p>(46% of Xavier students go to graduate school upon graduation, and 17% to med school; the comparable numbers for Harvard are 25% and 20% - you can look it up yourself.)</p>
<p>ok well i just searcxhed the medical association of medical colleges which is the site that all colleges use for medical school acceptances and all of the schools you have listed are not even on the site. So I think waht you are claiming is totally wrong.</p>
<p>Looking at Earlham--you have the benefit of dealing with very small numbers--7 to med school total over a five year (2001-2005) period?? Big Whoop. During a similar period a school like Wisconsin (not known as a doctor factory) would be sending 600 or more on to med schools.</p>
<p>hahaha mini those were nice stats you put up. I think barrons really put your stats into context.</p>
<p>Not at all. I'd rather go to a school with a record of 7/7 than 600 out of what-800? 1000? </p>
<p>Haverford is another of the colleges that boasts a near 100% acceptance rate to medical school- it's a shame it can't compete with "the ivies and top public schools." :rolleyes: Here's one alum's view on why this is...</p>
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1) I am a big fan of our pre-med advisor, Dr. Jenette Wheeler. She went to Emory for med school, she's on faculty at Penn. Also, her father use to be the Chair of the Johns Hopkins Department of Medicine... if you know anything about the medical profession, you will realize how BIG that is... she is very, very well connected. When my friends and I interviewed around, many of the admissions directors (Penn, columbia, Pittsburgh, Mount Sinai, NYU, JH, Harvard... come to mind) would ask during our meetings how "Dr. Wheeler" was ... which would sometimes throw us off because at HC, we call her Jenette. Only after the interviewing process did I finally appreciate how respected and connected she is with med school admissions.</p>
<p>She knows the ins and outs of medical admissions innately. She'll give you the usual advice you would expect from a top LAC advisor but will go above and beyond... the "finishing touches" if you will. I remember that she recommended once to "dress appropriately but still stand out"... so several of my friends and I chose to not wear black or blue suits/dresses for our interviews and it was positively noticed by other applicants and interviewers. It's the details that make you memorable to admissions personnel. My HC friend and lab partner wore a pastel green skirt/blouse thing and when she went to interview at HMS ("hahvad"), her interviewer said "Wow. Thank you for not wearing a black or blue suit!"... I got a sharp looking brown suit and everywhere I went, other applicants said how they thought that was such a good idea. Also, she recommended that we read the NYtimes each week to keep up on current events... which sometimes science oriented people can neglect when we have heavy academic course loads and extra-curriculars... I normally keep up with current events but I know this advice helped out several of my friends. Thanks Jenette.</p>
<p>One reason why Hc has 99% admissions is because Jenette does take the time to counsel you...and sometimes recommend that you take some time off to buff your resume... especially if you have some issues on your application. Some people think this is "gaming the numbers and artificially raising the acceptance rates" but that is not Jenette's intention and it is in the benefit of the pre-med student. Being on my med school's admissions' committee, I realized that once you apply and are deferred or are rejected, that is a QUESTION MARK on your application that is hard to overcome. If that is the case, you have to show what amazing thing you did from the prior year to warrant reconsideration... which is difficult. So Jenette, with her many years of experience, will recommend some students for this reason to take some time off and do some research or something. I can think of some people from my class who did this... they didn't graduate with honors or anything like... but still wound up in med school and are currently very sucessful (2 to ivies if that's important to you)...</p>
<p>Jenette is a huge advocate of HC and its students. When I was applying, I was accepted into a few "good" med schools in October/November but didn't hear from the top 2 schools on my list which Jenette recommended I apply to. When I told her, she called up the admissions offices at those 2 uber prestigious places to inquire (without me even asking her)... didn't change anything... but I certainly appreciated her kindness with this and her consolation as well. Even after her work was done and responsibility for me was over, when I applied for the Luce Fellowship (semi-finalist) my 3rd year in med school, she took the time to write me a very thoughtful LOR.</p>
<p>2) New direction with admissions committees. With the many issues we face in healthcare today, admissions committees are looking for more than grades, MCATS and lab research experience. Med schools are attracted to great students/scientists who are analytical, active outside of the classroom, can communicate with people and are not awkward, and can balance their lives with work. LACS and HC in particular, because of the small size, can assist with these skill sets because it's easy to organize and lead groups at LACs and build strong relationships with faculty... all of this helps when applying to professional school.
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<p>Going to a premed factory is NOT, NOT, NOT a smart move- trust me. They are in the same classes, after the same professors, want the same internships, want the same summer fellowships...you get the picture. </p>
<p>Anyway, the BEST premed colleges are obviously those that offer a BA/MD program- Brown and its neurobiology program might fit your interests quite nicely.</p>
<p>A high GPA and test scores are more important than the school you go to.</p>
<p>7/7 is not near big enough of a sample to get any idea of how successful a school is. I'd want to know why there were so few to begin with.</p>
<p>Comparing state schools to a tiny private school is not fair to either. There are a lot of people at state schools who have no business even applying to medical school, but because they have no other idea of what to do with their life, they apply any way. This is where the lack of selectivity really brings down the stats of state schools through no fault of their own, just by the nature of the student population.</p>
<p>Some of the comments here are... oh boy...</p>
<p>First, if you're still in high school, how do you know that you are interested in neurology? Most med students don't know what field they want to go into until during their 3rd year clerkships. For med school admissions committees, an essay that starts off with, "I've always wanted to become a physician..." is a huge warning flag- and does not suggest determination or resolution but rather someone who has not really thought hard about their career choice...</p>
<p>If you want to get into any medical school, it doesn't matter really where you go for college... just have the requisite gpa, mcats, extracurriculars, research experience and a decent personality and you'll get in somewhere. Choose a place where you will have a good college experience... first. Opportunities are had anywhere, but some places, it's more of a matter of looking.</p>
<p>I don't have any experience with colleges that "weed out" applicants, but that really isn't a bad thing... med school is tough and expensive and more importantly, residency/fellowship and career are hard as well. Burn out and drop out is unfortunate but is not a rare occurence. So if a pre-med committee thinks you're not cut out for it, be sad for a day and move on as there are other rewarding careers out there that may fit you better and you will likely save a lot of time and money and future grief.</p>
<p>Where you wind up for residency matters more on how well you did in med school than where you did it at... really.</p>
<p>If, however, you want to shoot for the top 20 medical schools in the US, then it does matter where you go to college because there are too many applicants with top GPAs,MCATs and research... and admissions committees are fickle. For best chances, you should go to an ivy, a top 10 LAC or a top 10 university for the best chances. In this range, all the schools are considered on par and the saying "what you did rather than where you did it at" only applies.</p>
<p>Finally, I'm glad that my prior posting was not lost to history. One correction is that "pre-med factory" applies to any ivy or top lac because students choose to go to these schools for the professional opportunities available and successful grad school placement... so they do churn out MDs like a factory. However, especially among the top LACs, they don't have the feel of a traditional pre-med mill.</p>