Hi! I’m a senior in high school, and I am looking at Emory, Northwestern, and Vanderbilt as my top choice schools. I am interested in pursuing some sort of biological sciences degree. Biology is my strong subject, chemistry is my weakest, and I am alright in physics. If you are a pre-med student at one of these schools, how difficult is it to maintain a high gpa at each of these schools? How harsh is the grading? Is it difficult to maintain a good social life and make mostly As? Also, How difficult it is to find research opportunities at each of these schools? I am a hardworking student, and I am willing to put in as much work as needed even if that means giving up other extracurriculars. If any current or previous students from any of these three schools could relate their experiences with the school in general as well…that would be great. I would greatly appreciate it if you spoke for each school specifically instead of generalizing top tier schools.
Thanks
If such info is easily available on a public forum, those expensive private college consulting firms would be out-of-business (they charge hundreds of dollars per hour rate)…LOL
My 2 cents - Emory maybe better than NW or Vandy (in terms of pre-med difficulty/grading)… Brown is even better.
If seeking easy grades & a low stress environment for pre-med, Then Brown University or Rhodes College should be considered.
Northwestern is a seriously competitive environment.
At the top tier Universities, you will meet fierce competition, Emory, Brown or otherwise. If you want a less stressful environment, you need down to the 2nd tier schools. The general rule is you need to be the top 10% of the enterising class, thus you have an edge over competitions.
For example, my D went to a top tier school, due to competition, she is in a DO school. OTOH, my friend’s S, who is the same age of D, went to UC Riverside, he ended up with 3.95+ GPA and is in USCSOM.
@hybridgal
When it comes to rigor it’s probably
NW> Emory> Vandy. Although they are all difficult. I do know that Chem at Emory is difficult. But people perform well on the MCAT from my anecdotal knowledge.
D is at Vandy CS premed. She survived Chem and physics last year with nice GPA, so far orgo chem and bio are testing her reserves. Four mid terms for each class. They are weed out for a reason. For example, she feels bio professor is purposely trying to trick the students. For 2nd mid term, she knew all the materials, and got B+/A_ instead. You don’t know your real grade as there will be another curve at the end.
A lot of research opportunities, she worked at a lab during the summer, and now the PI hired her during the year and pays her $12 per hour to continue her work (6~10 hours a week)
Another reference points…she had 800 and 5s on chem and bio. We know kids who were in bio and chem Olympiad who had to work very hard for As in bio and chem at Vandy.
She does have a nice social life. She is very good in time management, didn’t work more than 2 hours a day in the first semester. Currently with 17 credits, 5 classes and two labs, she studies a lot. But she still manages to work at the lab, found an summer internship and has multiple ECs. It is what you make of it!
I have 2 daughters who graduated vandy with neuroscience degrees. If your goal is med school, don’t go to a highly competitive school. My girls had 5’s on AP bio, calc, chem, and struggled to make A’s in the science weed-out classes. They did very well on MCAT, and one is in med school right now. The other is in grad school, with hopes to get into med school after being on several waitlists this year. Their advice? Go to a good state flagship, or a mid-tier Uni such as Rhodes, Wake Forrest, etc, and get A’s. Especially if you want to do lots of extra curriculars. Now, that being said, my oldest is in the top of her class in medical school, and felt much more prepared than her peers for the rigor of medical school. So that may play into your decision factor. All 3 schools you listed are going to do that!